anxiety

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Fearfulness is the personality trait of feeling fear more often and more intensely than other people .

Forms of fear

According to the distinction between fear as a (relatively manifest) character trait ("trait") and fear as a (situation-related) description of a state ("state"), which has been customary since the work of Charles Spielberger, anxiety can be assigned to the former. Due to an unstable psychological state, the anxious tends to quickly feel insecure and easily develop feelings of fear.

The personality psychologist Raymond Cattell also differentiates between state anxiety and trait anxiety. Over a period of ten years, he collected state anxiety -related data on around 4,000 people and, using the method of factor analysis, found a second-order factor which, in his opinion, represents property anxiety, i.e. anxiety.

For the psychologist Hans Jürgen Eysenck, there is anxiety in the case of strong manifestations of the properties introversion , i.e. an easily excitable ARAS and neuroticism , i.e. an easily excitable autonomic nervous system .

In the “Field of Feelings of Fear”, which he systematizes, the experimental psychologist Siegbert A. Warwitz assigns fearfulness to the group of “insecurities”, to which he also has manifestations such as “shy”, “shyness”, “anxiety”, “timidness” and “trepidation “Added. The so-called alienation of the roughly half to two-year-old children, a special temporary type of anxiety, is also to be found here.

Since overly anxious people are prone to panic attacks and anxiety disorders , research is focused on this fear sector.

Development of anxiety

Studies by the psychologist Jerome Kagan from Harvard University on the phenomena of anxiety and shyness have shown that many infants already have an over-excitable amygdala at birth and therefore react to minimal triggers with outbursts of fear like screams. As adults, these people tend to be shy.

Since even identical twins can be born with different levels of anxiety, the genetic predisposition to anxiety is controversial, at least to be put into perspective. According to Warwitz's findings from his work on venture research, socialization is more important, i. H. the toddler's fear control in the first weeks, months and years by his environment. Anxiety is essentially learned afterwards, less innate. This happens through the transfer of parental over-anxiety to the child and the negative influence of corresponding behaviors such as overprotection.

Even Kagan relativized his statements insofar as he also considers the state of mind of the child to be highly malleable and to be influenced in the first years of life through emotional learning, ie through a stabilizing or unstabilizing educational influence of the parents. Accordingly, he recommends trying out the effects of frightening situations with the child again and again through a certain parental strictness .

Measuring anxiety

The state of mind as it is reflected in the appearance of fear is measurable. The first personality test for anxiety that has been used for many years is the “Manifest Anxiety Scale” by the neo-behaviorist JA Taylor (1953).

The most common test used today to measure anxiety is Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory ( STAI , 1970).

Dealing with anxiety

Anxiety is neither a disease nor a weakness of character, but an over-sensitivity that can be reduced with suitable methods.

The feeling of fear and the constant awareness of being someone who is easily and quickly frightened is perceived by many people as unpleasant, and the external appearance as embarrassing. Those affected often try to hide it from others if possible. Highly sensitive people tend to be overly anxious. However, according to the statements of the psychologist Siegbert A. Warwitz, freedom from fear is not a desirable goal because it misunderstands the meaning of fear and does not use it. This also applies to dealing with dangerous situations that require courage. According to Warwitz, fear is not a contradiction to courage and moral courage , but rather a corrective to find the right measure in wagons . The educational goal is to learn how to reflect and control fear. In order to be able to deal with his anxiety appropriately, he recommends gradually approaching a "normality":

1. Awareness training that fear is a natural and - moderately perceived - also a meaningful, even necessary emotion.

2. Transformation of diffuse “fears” into tangible “fear” forms. As an example, he cites the transformation of “exam fear” into “exam fear”, which can be approached more specifically because of its clear allocation to the fear-inducing factors.

3. Systematic confrontation with fearful situations in manageable small steps (method of “gradual approach”).

Since fearfulness (e.g. due to the influence of over-anxious parents, overprotection and a lack of willingness to allow independence) can also be learned, the fear education must start in early childhood, e.g. B. as part of a consistent risk education .

The philosopher Peter Wust sees the dosed fear as a function of self-sustaining reassurance when turning to risk, which, however, must not become a brake block and must allow steps into the unknown.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerda Lazarus-Mainka, Stefanie Siebeneick: Anxiety and Anxiety. Hogrefe 1999
  2. ^ Heinz W. Krohne, Boris Egloff, Stefan Schmukle: Anxiety. In: Hannelore Weber, Thomas Rammsayer (eds.): Handbook of Personality Psychology and Differential Psychology. Hogrefe 2005, pp. 385-393
  3. ^ Charles Spielberger: Anxiety and Behavior New York 1966
  4. ^ Raymond Cattell: The Scientific Analysis of Personality (1965)
  5. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Forms of fear behavior . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings . Baltmannsweiler 2001. Pages 34-39
  6. ↑ Chris Hayward et al: Pubertal Stage and Panic Attack History in Sixth- and Seventh-grade Girls, American Journal of Psychiatry, Volume 149, Issue 9, September 1992; Jerrold F. Rosenbaum et al .: Behavioral Inhibition in Childhood: A Risk Factor for Anxiety
  7. ↑ Jerome Kagan: Galen's Prophecy: Temperament in Human Nature, Westview Press, 1997
  8. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Avoiding Fear - Searching for Fear - Learning to Fear . In: Case-Word-Number 112 (2010) 10-15
  9. ↑ Jerome Kagan: Galen's Prophecy: Temperament in Human Nature, Westview Press, 1997
  10. ^ Daniel Goleman: Emotional Intelligence. Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. 1 edition. Bantam, New York 1995
  11. ↑ JA Taylor: A personality scale of manifest anxiety. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 48, pp. 285-290
  12. ↑ Heinz W. Krohne: Anxiety and coping with fear. Kohlhammer 1996
  13. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: The function of fear and fear . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings . Baltmannsweiler 2001. Pages 32-35
  14. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Avoiding Fear - Searching for Fear - Learning to Fear . In: Case-Word-Number 112 (2010) 10-15
  15. ↑ Peter Wust: Uncertainty and Risk. Man in philosophy . Revised 9th edition (LIT-Verlag) Münster 2002

literature

  • Daniel Goleman: Emotional Intelligence. Why It Can Matter More Than IQ . Bantam, New York 1995, pp. 221-223. ISBN 0-553-09503-X
  • Jerome Kagan: Galen's Prophecy: Temperament in Human Nature , Westview Press, 1997, ISBN 0813333555
  • Heinz W. Krohne: Fear and coping with fear . Kohlhammer 1996, ISBN 3-17-013039-0
  • Heinz W. Krohne, Boris Egloff, Stefan Schmukle: Anxiety . In: Hannelore Weber, Thomas Rammsayer (eds.): Handbook of Personality Psychology and Differential Psychology . Hogrefe 2005, ISBN 3-8017-1855-7 , pages 385-393
  • Gerda Lazarus-Mainka, Stefanie Siebeneick: fear and anxiety . Hogrefe 1999, ISBN 3-8017-0969-8
  • Charles Spielberger: Anxiety and Behavior New York 1966
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings . Baltmannsweiler 2001. ISBN 3-89676-358-X
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: The field of fearful feelings . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings . Baltmannsweiler 2001. Pages 36-37. ISBN 3-89676-358-X
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: Avoid fear - seek fear - learn to fear . In: Case-Word-Number 112 (2010) pages 10-15
  • Peter Wust: Uncertainty and risk. Man in philosophy . Revised 9th edition (LIT-Verlag) Münster 2002. ISBN 3-8258-6066-3