I will focus on the emotions here. Higher fear than a situation calls for, low confidence the common perception of the coward. Excessively low fear when fear is appropriate, excessively high confidence the common perception of the rash person. Excessively high fear yet confidence level is also excessively high. One possibility for how this could occur is someone who has extensive anxiety from traumatic experiences in childhood that permeates much of his or her life.
Fears are often inappropriate.
Yet the individual responds with high or excessive confidence which may also be inappropriate, leading at times to rash behavior. The two excessive feelings could co-exist in an individual and lead to contradictory actions in a person s life, perhaps involving the same situation at one time cowardice from excessive fear, at another time rashness based on unrealistic confidence. Excessively low fear and low confidence. This is the example of the person on the sinking ship with low confidence and possibly low self-regard who suddenly loses all fear. A more interesting question is whether this could be a life-long or generalized condition.