ANXIETY

What is anxiety? Anxiety is state of tension Anxiety is generally defined as a psychological emotional state or reaction An anxiety state consists of unpleasant feelings of tension, apprehension, nervousness and worry and activation of the autonomic nervous system

3 types of anxiety (Freud) Reality anxiety Neurotic anxiety Moral anxiety

Two types of anxiety according to (Spielberg, 1956, 1988) State anxiety Trait Anxiety

Types of Anxiety (related to psychotic behavior) Panic Disorder Agoraphobia Specific Phobias Social Phobias Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Theories on Anxiety

Theories on Anxiety Reformulated learned-helplessness theory -Martin Seligman (1975) Seligman human beings subjected to uncontrollabe negative events in life will eventually learn to be helpless and will become chronically depressed and heighten the anxiety level.

Anxiety from Big Five Anxiety – comes under the Neuroticism domain Anxiety, depression, nervousness, vulnerability, self-consciousness Negative affectivity (Watson & Tellegen, 1985)

Studies on Neuroticism People high in Neuroticism are lonelier (Stokes, 1985) Less satisfied with interpersonal relationships in their lives (Atkinson & Volato, 1994) People with depression and generalized (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985) College students high in N report more stress symptoms and higher levels of homesickness (Matthews & Deary, 1998)

Instruments to measure anxiety Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scales (MAS-Taylor, 1953), Cattell’s Trait and State Anxiety Measures (Cattell and Scheier, 1963), Affect Adjective Check List (AACL – Zuckerman and Lubin, 1965) SCL-90 Symptom Check List (SCL-90 – Derogatis et al., 1973), Profile of Mood States (POMS-McNair et al, 1971)

Dimensions of Anxiety Physiological Cognitive The sympathetic nervous system and other neurological and hormonal processes designed to help prepare your body to cope with threatening situations are activated. Cognitive When confronted with an anxiety-provoking situation, your ability to organize and recall information becomes impaired.

Dimensions of Anxiety Behavioral Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) The presence of anxiety produces behavioral patterns characterized by awkwardness, defensiveness, and withdrawal. Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) The scale provides a measure of anxiety based on items assessing the three basic dimensions of anxiety.

Theoretical Viewpoints of Anxiety Psychodynamic Viewpoint Anxiety serves as a warning signal that unacceptable unconscious awareness. Learning Viewpoint Anxiety is a conditioned emotional response to a stimulus that signals the possibility of a danger to the individual. Drive Viewpoint Anxiety is a driving force that serves to increase the likelihood of a well-learned response being performed.

Theoretical Viewpoints of Anxiety Evolutionary Viewpoint Anxiety creates a state of emotional distress that serves to prompt a pattern of adaptation to a threat in order to maximize survival. Integrating the Viewpoints Anxiety is a signal of impending danger acquired by the process of conditioning that triggers action by the individual.

State and Trait Anxiety State Anxiety. The type of transitory anxiety you normally experience when exposed to a threatening situation. A temporary increase in the level of anxiety occurs in response to situations perceived as potentially dangerous. Trait anxiety. A heightened level of anxiety characteristic of normal individuals who might be described as “anxious”. The “anxious individual” perceives many situations as threatening and responds to them with increased anxiety.

State and Trait Anxiety State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). An objective self-report measure assessing both state anxiety and trait anxiety. Individuals can receive a score for both their current level of anxiety and their persistent level of anxiety.

The Assessment, Dynamics, and Overcoming of Test Anxiety Assessment of Test Anxiety. Anxious reactions associated with stimuli and situations specifically related to taking tests, as a result of tests being perceived as a threat to the individual’s ego, are measured. Dynamics of High and Low Test-Anxiety Individuals. Individuals high and low in test anxiety differ in their behavioral, evaluative, and cognitive responses to the testing situation. Overcoming Test Anxiety. Overcoming test anxiety involves replacing self-defeating thoughts with more rational thinking during the testing situation, overlearning the test material, learning to relax and associating the testing situation with rewards.

The Classification and Explanation of Anxiety Disiorders Classification of Anxiety Disorders Panic disorder An acute, intense feeling of anxiety that can appear unexpectedly and serve to immobilize the individual. Generalized Anxiety Disorder. A chronic and pervasive sense of uneasiness that can make everyday functioning difficult, but not impossible.

The Classification and Explanation of Anxiety Disorders Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder An obsession is the sense of anxiety that is created by the persistent occurrence of rather unacceptable thought that the individual fears may actually be executed. A compulsion is the sense of anxiety created by an uncontrollable urge to carry out repeatedly by a particular course of action. Phobic Disorder The sense of anxiety created by the unrealistic and excessive fear of being isolated in a public place, possible humiliation or a specific object.

The Classification and Explanation of Anxiety Disorders Psychodynamic Explanation result of unconscious conflicts that appear in the form of pathological behavior, such as the avoidance of certain objects or a constant sense of apprehension. Learning Explanation result of faulty learning involving inappropriate associations, such as pairing the sight of a snake with feelings of extreme uneasiness, or erroneous assumptions about the consequences of behavior, such as bad luck being avoided by walking around a ladder.

The Classification and Explanation of Anxiety Disorders Cognitive Explanation result of individuals maintaining a set of thoughts and beliefs that serve to foster a sense of intense fear, such as overestimating the amount of fear associated with an object or situation, endorsing self-defeating or irrational beliefs, being overly sensitive to situational cues, misinterpreting bodily sensations, and espousing low self-efficacy expectations. Neurological Explanation result of an imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain that creates increased levels of arousal. They can be treated by drugs that serve to reestablish the balance of neurotransmitters to regulate the level of emotional arousal.

The Application of Personality Psychology Anxiety in Advertising A fear appeal is a form of advertising that utilizes anxiety as a means of motivating the consumer into action. Positive appeals emphasize how the use of the product will reduce the consumer’s anxiety, while negative appeals emphasize how failure to use the product will increase the consumer’s anxiety. The successful use of fear appeals involves an ad that creates a moderate level of anxiety, which is followed by a specific recommendation designed to reduce the consumer’s anxiety and reinforce acting upon the recommendation.

The Application of Personality Psychology Anxiety in Social Situation Shyness consists of an affective, cognitive, and behavioral component. Three types of shyness are public, private and socially anxious shyness. While the self-selected strategies employed by shy individuals to deal with their shyness seem to have limited utility, successfully overcoming shyness involves incorporating different strategies corresponding the three different dimensions of shyness.