What is anxiety in psychology. Anxiety as a state and as a property

The manifestations of anxiety in different situations are not the same. In some cases, people tend to behave anxiously always and everywhere, in others they reveal their anxiety only from time to time, depending on the circumstances.

There are such types of feelings as moral, intellectual and aesthetic. According to the classification proposed by K. Izard, emotions are distinguished between fundamental and derivative. The fundamental ones include: 1) interest-excitement, 2) joy, 3) surprise, 4) grief-suffering, 5) anger, 6) disgust, 7) contempt, 8) fear, 9) shame, 10) guilt.

Download:

Preview:

Popova Roza Viktorovna, educational psychologist

Topic: “The concept of anxiety, types and causes of anxiety”

Recently, the number of anxious children characterized by increased anxiety, uncertainty, and emotional instability has increased. The emergence and consolidation of anxiety is associated with the dissatisfaction of the child’s age-related needs.

It is anxiety, as noted by researchers (A.M. Prikhozhan, I.A. Musina, etc.) and practical psychologists, that underlies a number of psychological difficulties in childhood. Wenger A.L. believes that when working with anxious children, one should take into account their specific attitude to success, failure, evaluation and results. As is known, such children are extremely sensitive to the results of their own activities, are painfully afraid and avoid failure. At the same time, it is difficult for them to evaluate the results of their activities themselves and expect this assessment from an adult.

Emotions and feelings are a reflection of reality in the form of experiences. Various forms of experiencing feelings (emotions, affects, moods, stress, passions, etc.) collectively form the emotional sphere of a person.

There are such types of feelings as moral, intellectual and aesthetic. According to the classification proposed by K. Izard, emotions are distinguished between fundamental and derivative. The fundamental ones include: 1) interest-excitement, 2) joy, 3) surprise, 4) grief-suffering, 5) anger, 6) disgust, 7) contempt, 8) fear, 9) shame, 10) guilt.

The rest are derivatives. From the combination of fundamental emotions arises such a complex emotional state as anxiety, which can combine fear, anger, guilt, and interest-excitement.

In the psychological literature, one can find different definitions of the concept of anxiety, although most researchers agree on the need to consider it differentially - as a situational phenomenon and as a personal characteristic, taking into account the transition state and its dynamics.

So, A.M. Parishioner points out that anxiety is “the experience of emotional discomfort associated with the expectation of trouble, with a premonition of impending danger.”

Anxiety is distinguished as an emotional state and as a stable property, personality trait or temperament.

According to the definition of R.S. Nemova: “Anxiety is a constantly or situationally manifested property of a person to come in a state of heightened anxiety, to experience fear and anxiety in specific social situations.”

L.A. Kitaev-Smyk, in turn, notes that “in recent years, the use of a differentiated definition of two types of anxiety in psychological research: “character anxiety” and situational anxiety, proposed by Spielberg, has become widespread in recent years.”

According to the definition of A.V. Petrovsky: “Anxiety is an individual’s tendency to experience anxiety, characterized by a low threshold for the occurrence of an anxiety reaction; one of the main parameters of individual differences. Anxiety is usually increased in neuropsychic and severe somatic diseases, as well as in healthy people experiencing the consequences of psychotrauma, in many groups of people with deviant subjective manifestations of personal distress.”

G.G. Arakelov, N.E. Lysenko, E.E. Schott, in turn, note that anxiety is a polysemantic psychological term that describes both a certain state of individuals at a limited point in time, and a stable property of any person. An analysis of the literature of recent years allows us to consider anxiety from different points of view, allowing the assertion that increased anxiety arises and is realized as a result of a complex interaction of cognitive, affective and behavioral reactions provoked when a person is exposed to various stresses.

A certain level of anxiety is a natural and obligatory feature of an individual’s active activity. Each person has their own optimal or desired level of anxiety - this is the so-called useful anxiety. A person’s assessment of his condition in this regard is for him an essential component of self-control and self-education. However, an increased level of anxiety is a subjective manifestation of personal distress.

The manifestations of anxiety in different situations are not the same. In some cases, people tend to behave anxiously always and everywhere, in others they reveal their anxiety only from time to time, depending on the circumstances.

Situationally stable manifestations of anxiety are usually called personal and are associated with the presence of a corresponding personality trait in a person (the so-called “personal anxiety”). This is a stable individual characteristic that reflects the subject’s predisposition to anxiety and presupposes his tendency to perceive a fairly wide “fan” of situations as threatening, responding to each of them with a specific reaction. As a predisposition, personal anxiety is activated when certain stimuli are perceived by a person as dangerous, associated with specific situations, threats to his prestige, self-esteem, self-esteem.

Situationally variable manifestations of anxiety are called situational, and the personality trait exhibiting this kind of anxiety is referred to as “situational anxiety.” This state is characterized by subjectively experienced emotions: tension, anxiety, concern, nervousness. This condition occurs as an emotional reaction to a stressful situation and can vary in intensity and dynamic over time.

Individuals classified as highly anxious tend to perceive a threat to their self-esteem and functioning in a wide range of situations and react very intensely, with a pronounced state of anxiety.

The behavior of highly anxious people in activities aimed at achieving success has the following features:

– high-anxiety individuals react emotionally more acutely than low-anxiety individuals to messages about failure;

– people with high anxiety work worse than people with low anxiety in stressful situations or when there is a shortage of time allotted to solve a problem;

– Fear of failure is a characteristic feature of highly anxious people. This fear dominates their desire to achieve success;

– motivation to achieve success prevails among low-anxiety people. It usually outweighs the fear of possible failure;

– for highly anxious people, messages about success have greater stimulating power than messages about failure;

– low-anxiety people are more stimulated by messages about failure.

Personal anxiety predisposes an individual to perceive and evaluate many objectively safe situations as those that pose a threat.

A person’s activity in a specific situation depends not only on the situation itself, on the presence or absence of personal anxiety in the individual, but also on the situational anxiety that arises in a given person in a given situation under the influence of developing circumstances.

The impact of the current situation, a person’s own needs, thoughts and feelings, the characteristics of his anxiety as personal anxiety determine his cognitive assessment of the situation that has arisen. This assessment, in turn, causes certain emotions (activation of the autonomic nervous system and increased state of situational anxiety along with expectations of possible failure). Information about all this is transmitted through neural feedback mechanisms to the human cerebral cortex, influencing his thoughts, needs and feelings.

The same cognitive assessment of the situation simultaneously and automatically causes the body to react to threatening stimuli, which leads to the emergence of countermeasures and corresponding responses aimed at reducing the resulting situational anxiety. The result of all this directly affects the activities performed. This activity is directly dependent on the state of anxiety, which could not be overcome with the help of the responses and countermeasures taken, as well as an adequate cognitive assessment of the situation.

Thus, a person’s activity in an anxiety-generating situation directly depends on the strength of situational anxiety, the effectiveness of countermeasures taken to reduce it, and the accuracy of the cognitive assessment of the situation.

By a form of anxiety we understand a special combination of the nature of experience, awareness, verbal and nonverbal expression in the characteristics of behavior, communication and activity. The form of anxiety manifests itself in the spontaneously developing ways of overcoming and compensating it, as well as in the attitude of the child and adolescent to this experience.

The study of forms of anxiety is carried out in the process of individual and group practical psychological work with children and adolescents. It is known that there are two categories of anxiety: 1) open - consciously experienced and manifested in behavior and activity in the form of a state of anxiety; 2) hidden - unconscious to varying degrees, manifested either by excessive calmness, insensitivity to real disadvantage and even denial of it, or indirectly through specific modes of behavior.

1. Acute, unregulated or poorly regulated anxiety - strong, conscious, manifested externally through symptoms of anxiety, the individual cannot cope with it on his own.

2. Regulated and compensated anxiety, in which children independently develop fairly effective ways to cope with their anxiety. According to the characteristics of the methods used for these purposes, two subforms were distinguished within this form:

a) reducing anxiety levels and

b) using it to stimulate one’s own activity, increase activity. This form of anxiety occurs mainly in primary school and early adolescence, i.e. in periods characterized as stable.

An important characteristic of both forms is that anxiety is assessed by children as an unpleasant, difficult experience that they would like to get rid of.

3. Cultivated anxiety - in this case, unlike those stated above, anxiety is recognized and experienced as a valuable quality for the individual that allows one to achieve what they want. Cultivated anxiety comes in several forms. Firstly, it can be recognized by the individual as the main regulator of his activity, ensuring his organization and responsibility. In this it coincides with form 2.b; the differences concern, as noted, only the assessment of this experience. Secondly, it can act as a certain ideological and value setting. Thirdly, it often manifests itself in the search for a certain “conditional benefit from the presence of anxiety and is expressed through an increase in symptoms. In some cases, one subject had two or even all three options simultaneously.

The form that we conventionally called “magical” can be considered as a type of cultivated anxiety. In this case, the child or teenager, as it were, “conjures evil forces” by constantly replaying in his mind the most disturbing events, constant conversations about them, without, however, freeing himself from the fear of them, but further strengthening it through the mechanism of the “vicious psychological circle.” "

Speaking about forms of anxiety, one cannot help but touch upon the problem of so-called “masked” anxiety. “Masks” of anxiety are those forms of behavior that have the form of pronounced manifestations of personal characteristics generated by anxiety, allowing a person to experience it in a softened form and not express it outwardly. Aggression, dependence, apathy, excessive daydreaming, etc. are most often described as such “masks.”

There are aggressive-anxious and dependent-anxious types (with varying degrees of awareness of anxiety). The aggressive-anxious type is most often found in preschool and adolescence with both open and hidden forms of anxiety, both as a direct expression of aggressive forms of behavior. The anxiety-dependent type is most often found in open forms of anxiety, especially in acute, unregulated and cultivated forms.

So, anxiety is the experience of emotional discomfort associated with the expectation of trouble, with a premonition of impending danger.

There are two main types of anxiety. The first of them is the so-called situational anxiety, i.e. generated by some specific situation that objectively causes concern. Another type is personal anxiety. It can be considered as a personal trait, manifested in a constant tendency to experience anxiety in a wide variety of life situations, including those that objectively do not lead to this.

A special type of anxiety is school anxiety. This is a common way to describe children’s negative experiences associated with school. School anxiety manifests itself in the following way: the child throws tantrums in the morning and flatly refuses to go to school; parents cannot force their child to do homework; the child is terrified of getting a bad grade, despite the fact that he is mastering the school curriculum well, and is afraid of the teacher; he has nightmares related to school, etc.

Let us turn to the issue of anxiety in children of primary school age.

Disorders of emotional development in primary school age are caused by two groups of reasons:

Constitutional reasons (type of the child’s nervous system, biotonus, somatic features, that is, disruption of the functioning of any organs).

Genetic factors play an important role in the development of psychophysiological characteristics of the nervous system. Being a genetically fixed “specialization” of the style of behavior in extreme situations, temperament can determine the nature of the child’s experiences and internal conflict in response to psychological stress factors, but its action alone is not enough to cause certain emotional disorders to occur.

Features of a child's interaction with the social environment.

A junior schoolchild has his own experience of communicating with adults, peers and a group that is especially important to him - his family, and this experience can be unfavorable:

– if a child is systematically subjected to negative evaluations by an adult, he is forced to repress into the unconscious a large amount of information coming from the environment. New experiences that do not coincide with the structure of his “I-concept” are perceived negatively by him, as a result of which the child finds himself in a stressful situation;

– with dysfunctional relationships with peers, emotional experiences arise that are characterized by severity and duration: disappointment, resentment, anger;

- family conflicts, different demands on the child, lack of understanding of his interests - can also cause negative experiences in him. The following types of parental attitudes are unfavorable for the emotional and personal development of a primary school student: rejection, overprotection, treating the child according to the principle of a double bond, over-demandingness, avoidance of communication, etc. Among the emotional traits that develop under the influence of such parental relationships are aggression, self-aggressiveness, lack of ability for emotional decentration, feelings of anxiety, suspiciousness, emotional instability in communicating with people. Whereas close, intense emotional contacts, in which the child is “the object of a friendly, but demanding, evaluative attitude, ... form confidently optimistic personal expectations in him.”

Relationships in the family are at the epicenter of theoretical and experimental research, focusing on the influence of the environment as a risk factor for the occurrence of emotional distress in children. Any emotional disturbance in a child is considered a product and indicator of a family abnormality and is considered a disturbance for the entire family. Most psychological concepts do not dispute this; the difference lies in which aspect of this relationship is considered to be decisive. Violations are recorded mainly at the personal level (neurotic disorders, adaptation disorders, etc.).

According to the pathogenetic concept of V.N. Myasishchev, “... affective-volitional disorders represent a secondary product of the child’s relationships with others, a product of internal tension arising in connection with this, a product of incorrect attitudes and relationships.”

V. N. Myasishchev’s position on the pathogenic role of family conflicts and the inconsistency of the parents’ relationship with the child is confirmed and concretized by a number of domestic clinical and psychological studies aimed at identifying unfavorable factors in upbringing, the intra-family atmosphere that accompany the child’s emotional distress.

Thus, V.I. Garbuzov, A.I. Zakharov, D.N. Isaev identify three main types of improper upbringing, which is the decisive factor that shapes the personality traits of children predisposing to the occurrence of neurotic reactions:

Rejecting (non-acceptance). Conditioned by a number of conscious and more often unconscious factors, it implies excessive demands, strict regulation and control, or a lack of control due to connivance.

Hypersocializing. It manifests itself in excessive concern for the future of the child and his family, arising from the parents’ anxious suspicion regarding the health of the child and other family members, and the child’s social status.

Egocentric. The idea of ​​“I am big” is imposed on the child as a self-pressing value for others.

The work of A. Ya. Varg describes three pathogenic types of parental relationships that are unfavorable for the child: symbiotic, authoritarian and emotionally rejecting, characterized by attributing pain and personal failure to the child.

Among the causes of school anxiety are the following.

The child is not emotionally ready for school. In this case, even the most benevolent teacher and the most successful children's team can be perceived by the child as something hostile and alien to him. Studying will be perceived as a duty, which will lead to protest reactions, possibly conflicts with parents and teachers, and the mere mention of school will not cause anything in the child except anxiety and hostility. Of course, this outcome does not always occur, and there are quite frequent cases when a child, having found himself in a good class with an understanding teacher, “matures” as his studies progress.

The child is not prepared for school intellectually, and this often means that no matter how much the child strives to be a student, gain knowledge, and go to school, his intellectual base is not yet sufficient to comprehend the material that is given in class. As a result, the child quickly gets tired, does not keep up with the class, worries about his failure and, as a defense, becomes disillusioned with school values. And in this case, the school does not cause anything but acute anxiety.

The child was always very vulnerable, impressionable and shy by nature. For such children, entering school/changing schools, etc. is obviously a stress factor. This may be aggravated by a not very successful school staff, an emotional/hard teacher, as well as the presence of additional factors.

The child often moves from school to school, from class to class, teachers often change, etc. This often leads to the child not mastering the skills necessary for successful adaptation to a new environment and not having time to feel like “he belongs.” And the further you go, the more difficult it is to join an already established team.

Any stress, even not related to school (divorce of parents, loss of a loved one, injury, etc.), can greatly affect learning and perception of school, because a child has the same psyche and it is difficult, having received a blow in one area of ​​life, not get a response in another.

Everything that is characteristic of anxious adults can also be attributed to anxious children. Usually these are very unconfident children with unstable self-esteem. Their constant feeling of fear of the unknown leads to the fact that they rarely take the initiative. Being obedient, they prefer not to attract the attention of others, they behave in an exemplary manner both at home and at school, they try to strictly fulfill the requirements of parents and teachers - they do not violate discipline, they clean up their toys. Such children are called modest, shy. However, their exemplary behavior, accuracy, and discipline are of a protective nature - the child does everything to avoid failure.

Anxious children are characterized by frequent manifestations of restlessness and anxiety, as well as a large number of fears, and fears and anxiety arise in situations in which the child would seem to be in no danger. They are particularly sensitive.

A. Prikhozhan identifies the following characteristics of anxious children at school:

Relatively high level of learning ability. In this case, the teacher may consider such a child incapable or insufficiently capable of learning.

These students cannot identify the main task in their work and concentrate on it. They try to control all elements of the task simultaneously.

If it is not possible to immediately cope with the task, the anxious child refuses further attempts. He explains his failure not by his inability to solve a specific problem, but by his lack of any abilities.

During the lesson, the behavior of such children may seem strange: sometimes they answer questions correctly, sometimes they are silent or answer at random, including giving ridiculous answers. Sometimes they speak confusedly, excitedly, blushing and gesticulating, sometimes barely audible. And this has nothing to do with how well the child knows the lesson.

When an anxious student is pointed out about his mistake, the oddities of behavior intensify; he seems to lose all orientation in the situation, and does not understand how he can and should behave.

A. Prikhozhan believes that this behavior is observed specifically among anxious junior schoolchildren. And yet, school anxiety is characteristic of children of other school ages. It can manifest itself in their attitude towards grades, fear of tests and exams, etc.

However, it should be noted that in children of primary school age, anxiety is not yet a stable character trait and is relatively reversible with appropriate psychological and pedagogical measures; it can be significantly reduced if teachers and parents raising him follow the necessary recommendations.

So, disturbances in emotional development in primary school age are caused by two groups of reasons: constitutional reasons (type of the child’s nervous system, biotone, somatic features, that is, disruption of the functioning of any organs) and features of the child’s interaction with the social environment.

Among the reasons for school anxiety are the following: the child is not ready for school education emotionally or intellectually, his character has always been very vulnerable, impressionable and shy, he often moves from school to school, from class to class, teachers often change, etc.

Bibliography

1. Arakelov N.E., Lysenko E.E. Psychophysiological method for assessing anxiety // Psychological Journal - 1997. - No. 2. – pp. 34-38.
2. Varga A. Ya. Systemic family psychotherapy: A short lecture course. – St. Petersburg: Rech, 2001. – 325 p.
3. Introduction to practical social psychology. Textbook for higher education. institutions / Ed. Yu.M. Zhukova, A.A. Petrovskaya, O.V. Solovyova. – 2nd – ed. – M.: Smysl, 1996. – 373 p.
4. Wenger A.L. Psychological counseling and diagnostics: A practical guide. – M.: Genesis, 2007. – 190 p.
5. Garbuzov V.I. Practical psychotherapy, or how to restore self-confidence, true dignity and health to a child and adolescent. – St. Petersburg: Sfera, 1994. – 159 p.
6. Zakharov A.I. How to prevent deviations in a child’s behavior. – M.: Education, 1986. – 129 p.
7. Izard K. Human Emotions: Trans. from English / Ed. L.Ya. Gozmana, M.S. Egorova; Introductory article by A.E. Olshannikova. – M.: Moscow State University Publishing House, 1980. – 315 p.
8. Isaev D.N. Psychopathology of childhood. – Spetslit, 2007. – 464 p.
9. Brief psychological dictionary / Ed. A.V. Petrovsky, M.G. Yaroshevsky. – Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 1998. – 512 p.
10. Musina I.A. Diagnosis of the level of anxiety based on the nature of time perception: dis. ...cand. Psychol. Sci. – M.: Moscow State University named after. M.V. Lomonosova, 1993. – 213 p.
11. Nemov R.S. Psychology. Textbook for higher education students. Ped. textbook establishments. In 3 books. Book 1 General fundamentals of psychology. – 2nd ed. – M.: Education: VLADOS, 1995. – 576 p.
12. Prikhozhan A. M. Causes, prevention and overcoming anxiety // Psychological science and education. – 2001. – No. 2. – P. 12 -18.
13. Prikhozhan A.M. Anxiety and fear in primary schoolchildren / Mental health of children and adolescents. – M., Voronezh. – 2000. – 304 p.

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Posted on http:// www. allbest. ru/

MOSCOW DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

State budgetary educational institution

higher professional education in Moscow

MOSCOW CITY PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Consultative and Clinical Psychology

in the discipline "Practice"

on the topic: "Anxiety"

Completed by: student of group PKK 2.1

Panteleeva M.G.

Teacher: Moskacheva M.A.

Moscow, 2016

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Anxiety concept
• Forms of anxiety
• Stages of anxiety development
• Bibliography

Introduction

Emotions and feelings are a reflection of reality in the form of experiences. Various forms of experiencing feelings (emotions, affects, moods, stress, passions, etc.) collectively form the emotional sphere of a person.

There are such types of feelings as moral, intellectual and aesthetic. According to the classification proposed by K. Izard, emotions are distinguished between fundamental and derivative.

From the combination of fundamental emotions, such a complex emotional state as anxiety arises, which can combine fear, anger, guilt, and interest-excitement.

Anxiety concept

In the psychological literature one can find different definitions of this concept, although most studies agree on the need to consider it differentially - as a situational phenomenon and as a personal characteristic.

A.M. Parishioner points out that anxiety is the experience of emotional discomfort associated with the expectation of trouble, with a premonition of impending danger. Anxiety is distinguished as an emotional state and as a stable property, personality trait or temperament.

V.V. Suvorova defines anxiety as a mental state of internal restlessness, imbalance and, unlike fear, it can be pointless and depend on purely subjective factors that gain significance in the context of individual experience. She attributes anxiety to a negative set of emotions in which the physiological aspect dominates.

According to the definition of R.S. Nemova, “anxiety - constantly - or a situationally manifested property of a person to come into a state of increased anxiety, to experience fear and anxiety in specific social situations.”

Karen Horney Anxiety is an integral component of the psyche. She believed that anxiety is formed in the earliest relationships with parents. If the parents are not attentive enough to the child, do not show enough love and care for him, the child develops a hostile attitude towards them. The child is forced to repress this relationship, since he is dependent on them. Later, these repressed feelings of resentment and hostility spread to relationships with other people.

Horney also identified in her concept “basic anxiety” - this intense and pervasive feeling of insecurity.

The consideration of anxiety as a subject of psychological research originates in the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. Initially, he suggested that anxiety was a consequence of inadequate discharge of libidinal energy. Freud later revised this assumption and came to the conclusion that anxiety is a function of the ego and its purpose is to warn the individual of an impending threat that must be met or avoided.

In his works, Wilhelm Reich expanded Freud's psychodynamic theory to include, in addition to libido, all basic biological and psychological processes. Reich viewed pleasure as the free movement of energy from the core of the body to the periphery and to the outside world. He understood anxiety as an obstacle to the contact of this energy with the outside world, its return inside, which causes “muscle tension”, distorts and destroys natural feeling, in particular sexual. Reich introduced an important aspect into the description of the phenomenology of anxiety - rigidity and muscle tension, refusal from performing an action by blocking bodily organs.

The central category of Adler's theory - the inferiority complex - also includes anxiety. Anxiety arises due to the need to restore a lost social feeling (a sense of unity with society), when the social environment poses challenges to the individual. Even if the task is very simple, it is perceived by him as a test of usefulness, which leads to an excessive emotional reaction to it and unnecessary stress when solving it.

All authors consider anxiety differently, but we can come to the general conclusion that anxiety is a state of fear, anxiety experienced by a person in anticipation of trouble. Typically, anxiety leads to defensive reactions.

Classification of types of anxiety

Ch. Spielberger distinguishes two types of anxiety:

The first of them is the so-called situational anxiety, i.e. generated by some specific situation that objectively causes concern. This condition can occur in any person in anticipation of possible troubles and life complications. This condition is not only completely normal, but also plays a positive role. It acts as a kind of mobilizing mechanism that allows a person to approach emerging problems seriously and responsibly.

What is more abnormal is a decrease in situational anxiety, when a person, in the face of serious circumstances, demonstrates carelessness and irresponsibility, which most often indicates an infantile life position, insufficiently formulated self-awareness.

the second type is the so-called personal anxiety. It can be considered as a personal trait, manifested in a constant tendency to experience anxiety in a wide variety of life situations, including those that objectively do not lead to this. It is characterized by a state of unaccountable fear, an uncertain sense of threat, and a readiness to perceive any event as unfavorable and dangerous. A child susceptible to this condition is constantly in a wary and depressed mood; it is difficult for him to contact the outside world, which he perceives as frightening and hostile. Consolidated in the process of character formation to the formation of low self-esteem and gloomy pessimism.

A.M. Parishioners distinguishes types of anxiety based on situations related to:

with the learning process - educational anxiety;

with self-image - self-esteem anxiety;

with communication - interpersonal anxiety.

Sigmund Freud spoke about the presence of two types of anxiety: primary and signal. Each of these types is the ego's response to increasing instinctual or emotional tension.

At the same time, the alarm is a watchdog mechanism that warns the EGO about an impending threat to its balance. Primary anxiety - prevents the emotion that accompanies the disintegration of the Ego. The function of the signal alarm is to prevent primary anxiety by enabling the ego to take precautionary measures (protection), so it can be considered an inwardly directed form of vigilance.

Freud identified the following types of anxiety.

1. Realistic - is a response to an objective external threat; when expressed excessively, such anxiety weakens the individual’s ability to effectively cope with the source of danger. Moving to the internal plane in the process of personality formation, it serves as the basis for two types of anxiety, which differ in the nature of awareness.

2. Neurotic anxiety is caused by the fear of being unable to control one’s internal impulses, and is a modified form of realistic anxiety, when the fear of external punishment is not caused by an objective situation. In psychoanalytic terms, this is an emotional response to the threat that unacceptable impulses from the ID will become conscious.

3. Moral anxiety occurs when immoral impulses are blocked by the social and cultural norms perceived by the individual. The fact that such impulses arise causes self-blame (feelings of shame and guilt, even self-hatred).

Other types of anxiety described in psychoanalysis include:

a) castration anxiety caused by real or imagined threats to sexual function;

b) separation anxiety, caused by the threat of separation from objects perceived as necessary for survival;

c) depressive anxiety, provoked by fear of one’s own hostility to “good objects”;

d) paranoid anxiety (persecution), which is based on fear of attack from “bad objects”;

e) objective anxiety, in which fear is caused by a real external threat;

f) neurotic anxiety - a term that covers all of the above types of anxiety, with the exception of objective, i.e. a) and b) in contrast to c) and d), which are covered by case g);

g) psychotic anxiety, which sometimes refers to threats to one's own identity.

Forms of anxiety

A form of anxiety is understood as a special combination of the nature of experience, awareness, verbal and nonverbal expression in the characteristics of behavior, communication and activity. The form of anxiety manifests itself in spontaneously developing ways of overcoming and compensating it, as well as in a person’s attitude towards this experience.

A.M. Parishioners identify the following forms of anxiety:

1. Open anxiety - consciously experienced and manifested in activity in the form of a state of anxiety. It can exist in various forms, for example:

as acute, unregulated or poorly regulated anxiety, most often disorganizing human activity;

regulated and compensated anxiety, which can be used as an incentive to perform appropriate activities, which, however, is possible mainly in stable, familiar situations;

cultivated anxiety associated with the search for “secondary benefits” from one’s own anxiety, which requires a certain personal maturity (accordingly, this form of anxiety appears only in adolescence).

2. Hidden anxiety - unconscious to varying degrees, manifested either in excessive calm, insensitivity to real trouble and even denial of it, or indirectly through specific forms of behavior (pulling hair, pacing from side to side, tapping on the table, etc.):

inadequate calm (reactions based on the principle “I’m fine!”, associated with a compensatory-defensive attempt to maintain self-esteem; low self-esteem is not allowed into consciousness);

leaving the situation.

“Disguised anxiety” can also be identified. “Masks” of anxiety are those forms of behavior that look like pronounced manifestations of personal characteristics generated by anxiety, but at the same time allow a person to experience it in a softened form and not express it outwardly. Such “masks” are most often described as aggressiveness, dependence, apathy, excessive daydreaming, etc. There are aggressive-anxious and dependent-anxious types (with varying degrees of awareness of anxiety).

Stages of anxiety development

There are 6 stages (levels) of anxiety development as its intensity increases.

At the first stage, the lowest intensity of anxiety is expressed by a feeling of internal tension, expressed in experiences of tension, wariness, and discomfort. It does not yet carry a sign of a threat, but serves only as a signal of the approach of more pronounced alarming phenomena.

At the second stage, hyperaesthetic reactions appear, which either join the feeling of internal tension or replace it. Previously neutral stimuli acquire significance, and when intensified, they acquire a negative emotional connotation. This is an undifferentiated reaction, characterized as irritability.

At the third stage - anxiety itself - a person begins to experience an uncertain threat, a feeling of unclear danger.

At the fourth stage, as anxiety increases, fear appears when a person specifies a previously unknown danger. Moreover, objects associated with fear do not necessarily pose a real threat.

At the fifth stage, a person has a feeling of the inevitability of an impending catastrophe. The person is experiencing horror. Moreover, this experience is not associated with the content of fear, but only with an increase in anxiety, since such an experience can also be caused by vague, meaningless, but very strong anxiety.

Finally, at the sixth stage, anxious-fearful arousal appears, expressed in a panicked search for help, in the need for motor release. Disorganization of behavior and activity at this stage reaches its maximum.

Causes of anxiety

The reasons that cause anxiety and influence changes in its level are diverse and can lie in all areas of human life. Conventionally, they are divided into subjective and objective reasons. Subjective reasons include informational reasons associated with a misconception about the outcome of an upcoming event, and psychological reasons that lead to an overestimation of the subjective significance of the outcome of an upcoming event.

Among the objective reasons that cause anxiety are extreme conditions that place increased demands on the human psyche and are associated with the uncertainty of the outcome of the situation; fatigue; health concerns; mental disorders; the influence of pharmacological agents and other drugs that may affect the mental state.

Unmotivated anxiety can also be identified. It is characterized by unreasonable or poorly explained expectations of troubles, premonitions of trouble, and possible losses. The psyche of such people is constantly in a state of tension. Anxiety also has an impact on effectiveness in communication, on socio-psychological indicators of the effectiveness of a leader, on relationships with a leader, on relationships with comrades, giving rise to conflicts.

Karen Horney saw the source of anxiety in the lack of a sense of security in interpersonal relationships.

Harry Stack Sullivan believed that the source of the development of anxiety was the social environment, namely parents as the first people with whom the child interacts. Empathy as a mechanism of emotional contagion conveys a feeling of anxiety to the child if parents often experience anxiety. The same empathy, according to Sullivan, helps the child understand the emotional states of parents related to satisfaction and security, approval and blame.

A.I. Zakharov believes that anxiety begins in early childhood and reflects “anxiety based on the threat of losing belonging to a group (first the mother, then other adults and peers).”

The cause of anxiety at the psychological level may be the subject’s inadequate perception of himself. V.A. Pinchuk argues that anxiety is caused by the conflict structure of self-esteem, when two opposing tendencies are simultaneously actualized - the need to evaluate oneself highly, on the one hand, and a feeling of insecurity, on the other. The fact that the effect of inadequacy, being an expression of the conflict structure of self-esteem, provokes the development of inadequate anxiety.

The cause of anxiety can be an internal conflict, the inconsistency of a person’s aspirations, when one of his desires contradicts another, one need interferes with another.

At the psychophysiological level, the causes of anxiety are associated with the structure and functioning of the central nervous system (CNS). There is a point of view on the determination of anxiety by congenital psychodynamic characteristics, constitutional features, mismatch in the activity of parts of the central nervous system, weakness or imbalance of nervous processes, various diseases, such as hypertension, and the presence of a focus of pathology in the cerebral cortex. Anxiety is often accompanied by physiological symptoms such as palpitations, rapid breathing, etc. A number of works reveal the connection with the energy of the body, the activity of biologically active points of the skin, and the development of psycho-vegetative diseases.

Karen Horney identified four main ways to avoid anxiety:

Rationalization is the best way to justify your avoidance of responsibility. It consists of turning anxiety into rational fear. Instead of changing himself, the person will continue to shift responsibility to the outside world and thus escape awareness of his own motives for anxiety.

The second way to avoid anxiety is to deny its existence, that is, to eliminate it from consciousness.

Horney associates the third way to get rid of anxiety with drug addiction. It can be resorted to consciously, literally, by taking alcohol or drugs. However, there are many ways that are not so obvious. One of them is immersion in social activities under the influence of fear of loneliness. Excessive absorption in work, exaggerated need for sleep, etc.

The fourth way to get away from anxiety is the most radical: it is to avoid all situations, thoughts and feelings that can awaken it. This may be a conscious process.

anxiety psychoanalysis experience emotion

Bibliography

1. Nemov R.S. Psychology: Textbook. A manual for higher education students. ped. textbook Establishments/ - M.: Humanit. VLADOS Center, 1998.

2. Prikhozhan A.M. Causes, prevention and overcoming anxiety. // Journal "Psychological Science and Education" 1998, No. 2.

3. Astapov V.M. Functional approach to the study of anxiety // Psychological Journal. - 1992. - No. 5. Astapov V.M. Functional approach to the study of anxiety // Psychological Journal. - 1992. - No. 5.

4. Izard K. Human emotions. - St. Petersburg, 1999.

5. Levitov N.D. Psychological state of anxiety, anxiety // Questions of psychology. - 1969.

6. Prikhozhan A.M. Forms and masks of anxiety. The influence of anxiety on activity and personality development // Anxiety and anxiety / Edited by V.M. Astapova. - St. Petersburg, 2001.

7. Kjell L., Ziegler D. Theories of personality. - 3rd ed. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2009.

Posted on Allbest.ru

Similar documents

Classification of types of anxiety, analysis of the problem in foreign and domestic psychology. The main causes of anxiety as a personality trait. The influence of anxiety on the competitive success of athletes. Features of anxiety relief.

thesis, added 03/10/2012


Definition of the concept of anxiety from the point of view of various authors. Anxiety as a subject of psychological research, classification of its main types and forms. Stages of development of anxiety, possible causes of its occurrence. Features of anxious individuals.

abstract, added 01/28/2011


Theoretical aspects of the topic. Characteristics of the introverted type. The concept of anxiety. Distinguishing between situational and trait anxiety. An empirical study of the relationship between active and reactive anxiety in introverts.

abstract, added 07/31/2007


Psychological characteristics of anxiety in adolescent school-age children. Problems, factors, features of manifestation and methods of measuring anxiety. Psychoprophylactic and psychocorrectional work to overcome school anxiety.

course work, added 08/08/2014


Anxiety in primary school age. The main types of anxiety, its differences from fear. Mechanisms and psychological causes of anxiety. Features of aggressive behavior of parents, its influence on the level of anxiety of younger schoolchildren.

course work, added 03/13/2014


The essence of the concept of "anxiety". Consideration of the main signs of anxiety in younger schoolchildren: increased anxiety, uncertainty. Features of identifying the causes of school maladjustment. Analysis of the program for psychological and pedagogical correction of anxiety.

thesis, added 10/23/2012


Problems of formation of school maladjustment in children at risk, types of its manifestations. Studying the level and nature of anxiety in students. Methodology for identifying the area of ​​reality, objects that are the main sources of anxiety in adolescents.

practical work, added 09.09.2011


Concept and characteristics of situationally stable manifestations of anxiety. Causes of anxiety, its reflection at the psychological and physiological levels. Study of the characteristics of psychosomatic manifestations and stress resistance in anxious students.

course work, added 10/26/2011


Anxiety as one of the common phenomena of mental development. Research on anxiety in domestic and foreign psychology. Features and factors of anxiety in children of primary school age. Overcoming anxiety and uncertainty.

course work, added 08/22/2013


Causes and features of the manifestation of anxiety in adolescence. Types and forms of anxiety, “masks of anxiety.” Organization and conduct of empirical research on the characteristics of anxiety in adolescents, interpretation and analysis of the results obtained.

​​​​​​​​​​​​Anxiety in practical psychology is usually understood as an emotional experience, behind which there is an expectation of something dangerous. However, this understanding is one-sided and reflects more of a woman’s view, since for men “anxiety and anxiety” does not mean emotions, but a certain vision of a situation in which troubles can happen.

Beyond all emotions and experiences, smart people are able to notice alarming situations - situations that, without our intervention, could end in trouble.

“There is a worrying situation with the supply of new equipment...” is the same as “I am worried about the situation with the supply of new equipment” or “I am worried that there will be problems with the supply of new equipment.”

The ability to recognize alarming situations in a timely manner is characteristic of attentive and responsible people. The habit of worrying is different, it is a tendency to focus attention on possible troubles, this quality is controversial and is more often observed in people with negative thinking and worldview.

It is necessary to distinguish between situational anxiety, which characterizes the subject’s state at a certain moment, and as a relatively stable personal formation (R. Cattell, Ch. Spielberger, Yu. L. Khanin).

As an experience, it is the same fear, but the fear is generalized, diffuse and pointless. Fear of who knows what, because you can be afraid of everything.

People call the experience of anxiety such different things that it shows more about who is anxious than about what the anxiety itself is about. Just the beginning of the list: Excitement. It's a mess. Bustle. Confusion to anger. Commotion. Care. Anxiety, strong mental agitation, fear spread throughout the body - and all this is called in one word: “I have anxiety.”

At the psychological level, anxiety is felt as tension, concern, nervousness, a feeling of uncertainty, impending failure, inability to make a decision, and other signs of the Victim’s position. As a rule, this is an alternation of worries and hopes, but in general the world is hostile. It is difficult to say in general terms what happens to the body during anxiety. As with any fear, breathing can either quicken or be held, the heart can either almost stop or start beating like crazy, and so on.

In such a situation, in the absence of clear observable signs, any state that one does not like can be called anxiety; one can talk about anxiety whenever one wants, or even more so when it is beneficial to talk about it. Which is what those who are used to playing the unfortunate Victim do with pleasure.

The experience of anxiety is more typical for those who do not know how to properly use their reason. A certain level of anxiety is useful for effective adaptation to reality (adaptive anxiety). Sometimes a person’s consciousness does not notice signs of danger, but subconsciously the body catches the danger signals and triggers physiological changes. If a person notices this and draws the necessary conclusions, the experience of anxiety turns out to be appropriate and useful. In another situation, a high level of anxiety may be excessive and interfere with reasonable and generally organized, productive activity.

Anyone who does not know how to stop his unnecessary anxiety, does not know how to gather himself internally, use his head and control himself - in a truly dangerous situation he dies or, at a minimum, turns out to be a heavy burden for other, more organized people. When some people worry, others solve problems. Adults, responsible people in a dangerous situation do not worry, but are busy and take all necessary measures.

Anxiety goes away, calm comes: psychopharmacology helps

Anxiety and worry are an unfavorable background in life. Can medications help here? Yes, to a certain extent. Vitamins, tincture of valerian, motherwort, a few drops of valoserdin, valocordin help. During the day - afobazole and glycine. Cm.

Sometimes we have conflicting feelings that we cannot explain. At home, at work and in my personal life, everything seems to be fine, but something still haunts me. Many people are familiar with the condition of anxiety. This is a vague feeling when you are expecting something bad. Let's take a closer look at what this feeling is, what its causes, symptoms are, and whether it is normal to experience it.

What do you mean by anxiety?

If you look at various dictionaries, you can find more than one definition for this condition. But they all give the same explanation, just in different formulations. Here, for example, is one of them: “Anxiety is a negatively colored state, a painful internal feeling of discomfort from uncertainty.”

This emotion is often called the expectation of danger or trouble. But it may not always be real. For some people, anxiety arises unreasonably, as a figment of a wild fantasy, although the worries are quite real. Unrest is more likely associated not with a specific threat, but with the possibility of its manifestation.

Anxiety causes you to feel terror, which is accompanied by rapid breathing, palpitations, increased blood pressure, nausea, dizziness and sweating. At such moments, a person becomes tense, restless, helpless and preoccupied. Constant worry can even destroy you emotionally from the inside.

People in this state perceive circumstances as a threat and consider them potentially dangerous. In this respect, fear and anxiety are similar, but they still have differences.

How is anxiety different from fear?

Fear is an emotional reaction to a real threat. That is, there is a subject of danger. But the causes of anxiety are vague and uncertain. This means that anxiety arises from the possibility of a danger that may not exist at all. It is also associated with difficulties in avoiding and overcoming this threat.

Let's give an example. The student did not prepare for the exam and is afraid of failure. and it is quite justified. But with a responsible excellent student, the situation is different. He knows the subject well and is confident that he will pass the exam, but he still feels anxious and cannot explain why. From such people you can often hear: “What if I forget something”, “The examiner will ask something, but I won’t answer”, “I don’t know anything at all” - and other similar phrases about anxiety. Anxiety of this kind is simply groundless and not adequate to the current situation.

That is, when experiencing fear, a person can clearly say what he is afraid of. But in the case of anxiety, it is impossible to accurately determine the cause of the fear.

Symptoms of anxiety

What signs may indicate unreasonable anxiety in the soul?

• cardiopalmus;
• lack of air;
• feeling of jitters;
• stiffness, muscle tension;
• chills, severe sweating;
• pain in the head and other parts of the body;
• depressed mood;
• loss of appetite;
• interrupted sleep;
• lack of interest in activities.

The natural outcome of this condition is deterioration in appearance, depression or a psychosomatic illness. Of course, with constant worry, the quality of life itself will deteriorate.

Causes of anxiety

Although the anxiety state does not have a subject of experience, we will still try to understand its possible causes. So, a person may feel unreasonably worried on several occasions.

1. Experience of the past. A person is afraid of a repetition of negative events that have already happened to him. For example, a woman was once cheated on, and she expects the same action from other men.

2. Projecting someone else's experience. It is human nature to be afraid of troubles that happened not to him, but to other people. For example, a man crashed his car, and his colleague begins to drive the car more carefully. In the case of a plane crash, people generally begin to return tickets for other flights. That is, a person is worried that the same thing might happen to him as to others.

3. Return of the boomerang. A person worries that they will do to him the same way as he did to others. For example, a thief experiences anxiety and worry that he might be robbed, and an unfaithful husband constantly tries to catch his wife cheating.

4. Excessive suspiciousness. People who constantly ask themselves the question: “What if?” - simply overly anxious and suspicious. They love to invent problems for themselves out of nothing. They think that everyone is deceiving them, betraying them, they are always in danger of something, and they are generally afraid to let one child out of the house.

5. Excessive impressionability. People tend to fear imaginary events that happened to others. We are talking about the feelings that arise after watching thrillers, horror films and detective stories. A person understands that the movie is a fiction from beginning to end, and the heroes and terrible incidents never happened in reality. Despite this, many people cannot fall asleep for a long time after such films; they are afraid of the dark and any extraneous sounds.

Is anxiety normal?

From time to time we experience severe anxiety. It can act as an adaptive feeling or a natural reaction to external changes. Such experiences are associated with a real life situation or an upcoming event. For example, one of your relatives is in the hospital, in a few days you need to take an exam, a first date with the person you like, and so on. Adaptive anxiety goes away when these situations are resolved successfully.

In other words, we can say that such a feeling is quite normal and natural for any healthy person. It is not permanent, passes over time and is episodic. Moreover, adaptive anxiety is simply necessary to mobilize a person’s mental and physical capabilities.

We are all living beings, and it is quite natural for us to worry when there is not enough information, there are some doubts, a reason for tension and negative anticipation. Anxiety in the soul of this nature warns of danger without disrupting the process of life.

Pathological anxiety

If negative experiences last long enough or situations are over, but bad feelings remain or new ones appear out of nowhere, then this is a reason to think that something is wrong in life. This kind of worry is called pathological anxiety. It is not associated with real danger, but can significantly spoil the usual course of a person’s life.

Severe causeless anxiety can be the result of a mental disorder or illness. A person invents danger, he is overcome by a feeling of horror in front of uncertainty. Constant anxiety takes control of emotions and paralyzes the will, so you need to fight it.

Who is more likely to experience anxiety?

According to statistics, women between the ages of 20 and 30 most often suffer from causeless anxiety. There is also information about the inheritance of such a condition, that is, about transmission from one generation to another. Anxious parents usually have anxious children. Adults make it clear that the world is extremely dangerous and aggressive, and literally infect their child with psychasthenia. Also high is observed in dysfunctional (dysfunctional) families.

How does anxiety interfere with your life?

Constant and severe tension prevents a person from concentrating on what is truly important. He constantly thinks about the same thing, replays threatening situations in his head again and again, reliving them many times. Persistent and severe anxiety can lead to depression and exhaustion of mental strength. It is often against such an emotional background that suicide attempts occur.

Too restless people are usually vulnerable, suspicious, indecisive, touchy and insecure. They also place high demands on themselves, are incredibly afraid of failure, and are sensitive to criticism. Such people simply limit their potential and, out of fear, do not do much of what they could do.

Constant worry has a devastating effect on our health. Everything that sits in the head begins to gradually move into the body. This is how psychosomatic diseases appear.

As you know, therefore, anxious people, constantly thinking about the negative, simply attract misfortune to themselves. Moreover, they reluctantly program for the troubles of their family and friends. Unconsciously, parents give negative attitudes using statements such as “Be careful, you will fall”, “Don’t touch, you will cut yourself”, “No one will marry you” and so on.

In this context, anxiety is a destructive emotion, and it is urgent to get rid of it.

How to deal with anxiety?

The most important thing is to turn anxiety into fear. That is, you need to try to determine what exactly you are afraid of, so that later, as they say, you can meet it face to face. To do this, you need to do a lot of serious work. As a rule, you cannot do without a specialist who can offer competent assistance. For one case, drug treatment is suitable, for another - psychotherapy.

If you want to take a fresh look at your behavior and positively perceive the causes of anxiety, then immediately begin to change. Like all emotions, anxiety is subject to our consciousness.