Ch 6

ANXIETY AND COPING STRATEGIES

Anxiety has been agreed upon as an unpleasant emotional experience

• A feeling of worry, panic, fear, and dread

FREUDS TYPES OF ANXIETY:

Reality anxiety/objective anxiety: a response to a perceived threat in the real world

• You are aware of the source of your anxiety

Neurotic anxiety: experienced when unacceptable id impulses are dangerously close to breaking into consciousness

• The type of anxiety that leads the ego to deploy defence mechanisms

Moral anxiety: brought by the Super ego in response to id impulses that violate the superegos strict moral code

• Typically experienced as guilt

Defence mechanisms are unconscious processes

Coping strategies are conscious efforts

COPING WITH ANXIETY

• We respond to stress provoking situations with calculated efforts to reduce row anxiety

• Coping strategies are conscious efforts to cope with anxiety in the face of a perceived threat

• Researchers identified relatively stable patterns in the way people cope with anxiety

  • Our reliance on our favorite coping strategies tends to be consistent overtime and across different anxiety provoking situations

Coping style: a person's general approach to dealing with stress

TYPES OF COPING STRATEGIES

REPRESSION-SENSITIZATION

Repressors

• Respond to threatening situations by avoiding them

• Try to not think about this situation, avoiding the anxiety as much or as long as possible

Sensitizers

• Deal with a stressful situation by finding out as much as possible, as soon as possible, putting themselves in a position to take the most effective action

PROBLEM-FOCUSED STRATEGIES

• Intended to take care of the problem to overcome the anxiety

• Often find that simply making plans to deal with the problem makes him feel better than sitting back and doing nothing

EMOTION-FOCUSED STRATEGIES

• Designed to reduce the emotional distress that accompanies a problem

• E.g., a student not accepted to law school may consider how this apparent setback could be for the best

AVOIDANCE STRATEGIES

• Deal with their emotions by pushing the anxiety provoking situation out of awareness

  • E.g., Distracting yourself with your worries or rationalizing

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE COPING STRATEGIES

• Using some kind of coping strategy is almost always better than using no strategy

• Active strategies are more effective in helping people cope with stressors then avoidance strategies

• Avoidance strategies rarely are successful in reducing anxiety or helping people overcome tragedy

  • They're ineffective when dealing with serious problems and even less severe sources of stress

• On occasion, avoidance strategies may help in the short run

COPING FLLEXIBILITTY AND RESILIENCE

Coping flexibility: the ability to effectively utilize different coping strategies

• People who readily adjust their coping strategies to fit the realities of a given situation

• Some personalities have better coping flexibility than others

• People who score higher in coping flexibility have a higher sense well-being and experience fewer emotional problems

Resilience is when you are still able to function well at work and in personal relationships despite experiencing emotional issues and stress

• People who are resilient have a number of protective psychological factors

  • These are personal characteristics that help them buffer the effects of major stressors

  • E.g., optimistic, high self esteem, maintain positive emotions

• Resilient individuals tend to be flexible in their use of coping strategies and rely on a strong network of friends and family members for support

PSYCHOANALYTIC CONCEPTS AND AGGRESSION

• Freud initially proposed that aggression is the result of frustrated libido

  • When the our pleasure seeking impulse is blocked, we experience a "primordial reaction" to attack the obstacle

  • We often displace our regression

• He later introduced the death instinct (Thanatos)

  • Instinctual desire for self destruction that is turned outward towards others

FRUSTRATION-AGGRESSION HYPOTHESIS

• Aggression is always a consequence of frustration

• The existence of frustration always leads to some form of aggression

• Aggression seizes when we experience catharsis (a release of tension

Weaknesses:

• Why don't we spend more of our time acting aggressively

  • Frustration sometimes leads to indirect expressions of aggression

  • E.g., displacing aggression to a new target or attacking the source in an indirect manner, sublimation

FRUSTRATION AND AGGRESSION

• Frustrating social conditions have a corresponding increase in violent behavior

• Frustrated people act more aggressively than non frustrated people

• It is one of many negative emotions that increase aggression

  • Specifically unpleasantness

• Question is not whether a particular event is frustrating but rather how unpleasant the accompanying emotion is

DISPLACED AGGRESSION

• We don't always attack the source of our frustration directly

• We sometimes displace aggression from a frustrating source to an innocent target

• But not all victims of displaced aggression are completely innocent

  • The issue is at the responses with proportion to a relatively small fence

  • This is referred to as triggered displaced aggression

CATHARSIS AND AGGRESSION

• Our need to aggress is reduced after a cathartic release of tension

• However this method appears to be wrong

• Cathartic reactions do not reduce aggression, it often increases the tendency to aggress

• This may be due to

  • Disinhibition

  • Aggression breeds aggression

  • Cathartic releases feel good, therefore aggressive acts may be reinforced

ATTACHMENT STYLE AND ADULT RELATIONSHIPS

• Relationships are our biggest source of happiness but also our biggest source of distress

OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY AND ATTACHMENT THEORY

OBJECT RELATIONS

1. Please great emphasis on early childhood experiences

• The child's relationship with the parents, specifically the mother

1. The child develops an unconscious representation of significant objects in their environment

• The primary caregiver is a very important object

1. The way the child internalizes the parents image serves as a basis for how the child thinks of others when they enter future relationships

ATTACHMENT THEORY

Attachment relationships meet our human need to form attachments with a supportive and protective other

1. Secure

• Mothers are attentive and responsive to their child

• Infants understand that their mother is responsive and accessible even if she is not physically present

• Tend to be happy and self confident

1. Anxious-ambivalent

• Mothers are not particularly attentive or responsive

• So the child is anxious when the mother leaves

• Not easily calmed by other adults and may be afraid in unfamiliar situations

1. Avoidant

• Mothers are not very responsive to the child

• The child reacts by developing a type of aloofness or emotional detachment from the mother

• These children do not become anxious when the mother leaves and are not particularly interested in her attention when she returns

ALTERNATE MODELS AND MEASUREMENT

Secure adults are comfortable with closeness and don't overly concern themselves about being abandoned

• Seek out and are comfortable with intimate relationships

Avoidant individuals don't fear abandonment but still have a deep seated mistrust of others

• Sometimes called dismissive

• Shy away from close relationships

• Reluctant to trust others or to become emotionally dependent for fear of being hurt

Anxious-ambivalent: preoccupied or comfortable with closeness but lack internal feelings of self worth

• They seek self acceptance by becoming close and intimate with others

Disoriented/fearful see themselves as unworthy of love and doubt that romantic involvement will provide much needed intimacy

• Avoid getting close to others because they fear the pain of rejection

ATTACHMENT STYLE AND ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS

• Adults with secure attachment styles tend to have partners with similar attachment styles

• Relationships with secure adults are better

  • Intimate, warm, share personal information when appropriate

• Avoidant adults are Burdened by a fear of intimacy and problems with jealousy

• Anxious ambivalent attachment styles fall in love many times but have difficulty finding long term happiness

• The effects of attachment style are likely to surface when couples face stress in their relationships