Concepts of anxiety and fear

Comparing Personal Anxiety Levels and Psychological Defenses in First- and Third-Year Psychology Students

Faculty of Psychology

a third-year student

Alla Kravchenko

Scientific Advisor

Sergey Makhin, Candidate of Biology, Associate Professor, Department of General Psychology and Psychophysiology

Language Advisor

Margarita Mikolaychik, Candidate of Philology, Department of Foreign Languages for Social and Economic Sciences

Simferopol 2015

Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………...…...2

Part 1. Theoretical bases of anxiety and psychological defenses..…….…...........…3

1.1. Concepts of anxiety and fear..…………………………………............3

1.2. Understanding psychological defenses ……………….……..……..…4

1.3. Specificity of disturbing experiences in young adults ….…………..…...5

Part 2. A pilot study of anxiety levels in psychology students.

Diagnostics of psychological defenses………………………………..……...5

Bibliography………………………………………………………………..……....6

Introduction

Relevance of the research. This research will allow us to estimate some aspects of efficiency of the education process at the Faculty of Psychology concerning the formation of personal characteristics professionally important for future psychologists.

The object of the research is personal anxiety and psychological defenses.

The subject of the research is comparing personal anxiety levels and psychological defenses in first- and third-year psychology students.

The goal of the research is to study manifestations of personal anxiety and psychological defenses in first- and third-year psychology students.

Our hypothesis is that third-year psychology students have lower levels of personal anxiety and psychological defenses than first-year students.

Part 1. Theoretical bases of anxiety and psychological defenses

Concepts of anxiety and fear

In modern science anxiety has been studied by many psychologists. A number of studies have already been conducted to look into the issue.

First of all, it is important to emphasize the differences between fear and anxiety. As V. M. Astapov [1] put it, fear is a reaction to a specific existing threat. In contrast, anxiety is a condition in which a person has disquieting apprehensions without any reason.

On the basis of this, it is possible to make a conclusion that anxiety is generalized whereas fear is related to a specific object or phenomenon.

What is more, we should distinguish between normal anxiety and neurotic one.

Normal anxiety. No one can avoid anxiety. Normal anxiety experienced as a reaction to unpredictable changes is inherent in every human being.

Neurotic anxiety. Neurotic anxiety is connected with a fear of personal responsibility and a willingness to escape it.

Anxiety state can be manifested at different levels [9]:

• at the physiological level – increased heartbeat, hurried breathing, high blood pressure, dry mouth, leg weakness etc;

• at the emotional and cognitive level – feelings of helplessness and powerlessness generating difficulties in decision-making;

• at the behavioral level – running around, biting nails, swinging on a chair, tapping fingers on a table, fumbling objects etc.

In modern psychology, anxiety is considered as a specific psychological trait which shows itself in individuals who tend to experience anxiety as a state [9].

Personal anxiety is a stable feature which is characterized by chronic somatic and mental tension, irritability, worries about insignificant things as well as feelings of internal constraint and impatience [2].

According to P. Tillich [8], existential anxiety is understanding one’s non-existence. In other words, it means understanding the fact that death is inevitable. It is very personal. Everyone has to accept his or her mortality.

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