How do our childhood experiences and memories, influence our perception and process of our current reality?

With Cognitive psychology, which interests me the most, I believe our memories of our early childhood experiences affect our perception of our current reality as an adult. The critical aspect of our significant childhood event is the emotional state and mental resourcefulness available to us at that moment. We are more resourceful in a calm and relaxed state than in fight-flight mode.  At the same time and in the exact location, two people can have two opposite experiences based on their memories and their assigned meaning. Their memory meaning has been concluded based on their emotional state and is now related to the current event and how it is perceived. I believe in Cognitive Psychology; we can explore this more profoundly and adapt with new and positive awareness.

As children, just trying to figure out this world and society into which we were born, I think it is a way of surviving, to try to fit in. It gives us a sense of belonging, acceptance, and, hopefully, protection. Gender roles and the structure of society, once observed and understood, initially provide a sense of safety, which is our number one primal instinct. We are also very much motivated by fear, which is implied to us by our parents, peers, society, religion, government, and media. Later in our lives, as maturing pre-adolescents and adults, I believe we might notice the disharmony and outcomes of rigid societal structures and abuse of power.  I believe it is also in our instincts the need to evolve, challenge these obstructions, breakthrough, and grow.