{"id":2000122963,"date":"2026-08-18T18:01:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/?p=2000122963"},"modified":"2026-08-18T18:01:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:01:54","slug":"revisiting-childhood-criticism-can-reduce-fear-of-failure-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/revisiting-childhood-criticism-can-reduce-fear-of-failure-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting childhood criticism can reduce fear of failure – Study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Researchers from SWPS University and the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology studied 180 young adults aged 18 to 35 who experienced fear of failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The participants took part in four therapy sessions over two weeks, focusing on difficult childhood experiences involving criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers tested different imagery based techniques. One group recalled situations that had caused fear or anxiety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another used a technique called Imagery Rescripting, in which participants recalled a painful childhood experience and imagined a supportive defender entering the situation, confronting the person who was criticizing them and protecting the child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A third group received a similar treatment but included a 10 minute delay designed to strengthen the intervention’s effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers found that all the imagery based approaches led to significant and lasting reductions in fear of failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants also experienced lower levels of sadness and guilt. Their physical stress responses when recalling childhood criticism also decreased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Importantly, the improvements were still visible three and six months after the therapy sessions, suggesting that the effects were not temporary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers also discovered that imagery rescripting appeared to work particularly well when participants experienced a moment of surprise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They explained that this may happen when what a person expects differs from what actually happens in the new imagined experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This mismatch, known as prediction error, may help the brain loosen established emotional patterns and create new responses to painful memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers say the findings suggest that difficult childhood memories do not necessarily have to remain emotionally painful forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By creating safer and more supportive endings to distressing experiences, therapy may help people respond differently to challenges in their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rewriting painful childhood memories may help people overcome fear of failure<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study suggests that changing how people mentally experience painful childhood memories may help reduce fear of failure and the emotional stress linked to past criticism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":2000122964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"byline":[201],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000122963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","byline-rania-umutoni"],"bylines":[{"id":201,"name":"Rania Umutoni","slug":"rania-umutoni","description":"","image":{"id":2000122457,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-14-at-12.00.00-PM.jpeg","title":"WhatsApp Image 2026-08-14 at 12.00.00 PM","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"},"user_id":139}],"contributors":[{"id":201,"name":"Rania Umutoni","slug":"rania-umutoni","description":"","image":{"id":2000122457,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-14-at-12.00.00-PM.jpeg","title":"WhatsApp Image 2026-08-14 at 12.00.00 PM","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"},"user_id":139}],"featured_image":{"id":2000122964,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/child-fearful-eyes-looking-through-wood-fence.webp","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/webp","width":1920,"height":1080,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/child-fearful-eyes-looking-through-wood-fence.webp","width":1920,"height":1080},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/child-fearful-eyes-looking-through-wood-fence.webp","width":1920,"height":1080},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/child-fearful-eyes-looking-through-wood-fence.webp","width":1920,"height":1080},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/child-fearful-eyes-looking-through-wood-fence.webp","width":1920,"height":1080},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/child-fearful-eyes-looking-through-wood-fence.webp","width":1920,"height":1080}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000122963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000122963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000122963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000123011,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000122963\/revisions\/2000123011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000122964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000122963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000122963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000122963"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000122963"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000122963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}