There are various types of anxiety.
Existential anxiety can occur when a person faces
angst, an
existential crisis, or
nihilistic feelings. People can also face
mathematical anxiety,
somatic anxiety,
stage fright, or
test anxiety.
Social anxiety refers to a fear of rejection and negative evaluation (being judged) by other people. The
theologian Paul Tillich characterized existential anxiety as "the state in which a
being is aware of its possible nonbeing", and he listed three categories for the nonbeing and resulting anxiety:
ontic (fate and death),
moral (
guilt and condemnation), and
spiritual (emptiness and
meaninglessness). According to Tillich, the last of these three types of existential anxiety is predominant in modern times, while the others were predominant earlier. Tillich argues that spiritual anxiety can either be
accepted as part of the
human condition or resisted with negative consequences. In its pathological form, it may "drive the person toward the creation of certitude in systems of meaning which are supported by
tradition and
authority" even though such "undoubted certitude is not built on the rock of
reality". According to
Viktor Frankl, the author of ''
Man's Search for Meaning'', when a person is faced with extreme mortal dangers, the most basic of all human wishes is to find a
meaning of life to combat the "trauma of nonbeing" as death is near. Depending on the source of the threat,
psychoanalytic theory distinguishes three types of anxiety: realistic,
neurotic and moral.
Test, performance, and competitive Test According to the
Yerkes-Dodson law, an optimal level of arousal is necessary to best complete a task such as an exam, performance, or competitive event. However, when the anxiety or level of arousal exceeds that optimum, the result is a decline in performance. Test anxiety is the uneasiness, apprehension, or nervousness felt by students who have a fear of failing an
exam. Students who have test anxiety may experience any of the following: the association of
grades with
personal worth; fear of embarrassment by a teacher; fear of
alienation from parents or friends; time pressures; or feeling a loss of control. Sweating, dizziness, headaches, racing heartbeats, nausea, fidgeting, uncontrollable crying or laughing and drumming on a desk are all common. Because test anxiety hinges on
fear of negative evaluation, debate exists as to whether test anxiety is itself a unique anxiety disorder or whether it is a specific type of social
phobia. The DSM-IV classifies test anxiety as a type of social phobia. Research indicates that test anxiety among U.S. high-school and college students has been rising since the late 1950s. Test anxiety remains a challenge for students, regardless of age, and has considerable physiological and psychological impacts. Management of test anxiety focuses on achieving relaxation and developing mechanisms to manage anxiety. The routine practice of slow, Device-Guided Breathing (DGB) is a major component of behavioral treatments for anxiety conditions.
Performance and competitive Performance anxiety and competitive anxiety (
competitive trait anxiety, competitive state anxiety) happen when an individual's performance is measured against others. An important distinction between competitive and non-competitive anxiety is that competitive anxiety makes people view their performance as a threat. As a result, they experience a drop in their ordinary ability, whether physical or mental, due to that perceived stress. Competitive anxiety is caused by a range of internal factors, including high expectations, outside pressure, It commonly occurs in those participating in high-pressure activities like sports and debates. Some common symptoms of competitive anxiety include muscle tension, fatigue, weakness, a sense of panic, apprehensiveness, and panic attacks. There are
4 major theories of how anxiety affects performance:
Drive theory, Inverted U theory, Reversal theory, and The Zone of Optimal Functioning theory.
Drive theory believes that anxiety is positive and performance improves proportionally to the level of anxiety. This theory is not well accepted. The
Inverted U theory is based on the idea that performance peaks at a moderate stress level. It is called Inverted U theory because the graph that plots performance against anxiety looks like an inverted "U".
Stranger, social, and intergroup anxiety Humans generally require social acceptance and thus sometimes dread the disapproval of others. Apprehension of being judged by others may cause anxiety in social environments. Anxiety during social interactions, particularly between strangers, is common among young people. It may persist into adulthood and become social anxiety or social phobia. "
Stranger anxiety" in small children is not considered a phobia. In adults, an excessive fear of other people is not a developmentally common stage; it is called
social anxiety. According to Cutting, social phobic do not fear the crowd but the fact that they may be judged negatively. Social anxiety varies in degree and severity. For some people, it is characterized by experiencing discomfort or awkwardness during physical social contact (e.g. embracing, shaking hands, etc.), while in other cases it can lead to a fear of interacting with unfamiliar people altogether. Those with this condition may restrict their lifestyles to accommodate the anxiety, minimizing social interaction whenever possible. Social anxiety also forms a core aspect of certain personality disorders, including
avoidant personality disorder. To the extent that a person is fearful of social encounters with unfamiliar others, some people may experience anxiety particularly during interactions with outgroup members, or people who share different group memberships (i.e., by race, ethnicity, class, gender, etc.). Depending on the nature of the antecedent relations, cognitions, and situational factors, intergroup contact may be stressful and lead to feelings of anxiety. This apprehension or fear of contact with outgroup members is often called interracial or intergroup anxiety. As is the case with the more generalized forms of
social anxiety, intergroup anxiety has behavioral, cognitive, and affective effects. For instance, increases in schematic processing and simplified information processing can occur when anxiety is high. Indeed, such is consistent with related work on attentional bias in
implicit memory. Additionally recent research has found that
implicit racial evaluations (i.e. automatic prejudiced attitudes) can be amplified during intergroup interaction. Negative experiences have been illustrated in producing not only negative expectations, but also avoidant, or antagonistic, behavior such as hostility. Furthermore, when compared to anxiety levels and cognitive effort (e.g., impression management and self-presentation) in intragroup contexts, levels and depletion of resources may be exacerbated in the intergroup situation.
Trait Anxiety can be either a short-term "state" or a long-term "
personality trait". Trait anxiety reflects a stable tendency across the lifespan of responding with acute, state anxiety in the anticipation of threatening situations (whether they are actually deemed threatening or not). A meta-analysis showed that a high level of
neuroticism is a risk factor for development of anxiety symptoms and disorders. Such anxiety may be conscious or unconscious. Personality can also be a trait leading to anxiety and depression and their persistence.
Choice or decision Anxiety induced by the need to choose between similar options is recognized as a problem for some individuals and for organizations. In 2004,
Capgemini wrote: "Today we're all faced with greater choice, more competition and less time to consider our options or seek out the right advice." Overthinking a choice is called
analysis paralysis. In a decision context, unpredictability or uncertainty may trigger emotional responses in anxious individuals that systematically alter decision-making. There are primarily two forms of this anxiety type. The first form refers to a choice in which there are multiple potential outcomes with known or calculable probabilities. The second form refers to the uncertainty and ambiguity related to a decision context in which there are multiple possible outcomes with unknown probabilities. Someone with panic disorder will eventually develop constant fear of another attack and as this progresses it will begin to affect daily functioning and an individual's general quality of life. It is reported by the Cleveland Clinic that panic disorder affects 2 to 3 percent of adult Americans and can begin around the time of the teenage and early adult years. Some symptoms include: difficulty breathing, chest pain, dizziness, trembling or shaking, feeling faint, nausea, fear that you are losing control or are about to die. Even though they have these symptoms during an attack, the main symptom is the persistent fear of having future panic attacks. == Anxiety disorders ==