Psych Level of Anxiety

• Anxiety - is an initial response to a psychic threat.
• Four levels of anxiety

  1. Mild Anxiety
  2. Moderate Anxiety
  3. Severe Anxiety
  4. Panic Anxiety
• Mild anxiety - is a positive state of heightened awareness and sharpened senses, allowing the person to learn new behaviors and solve problems.
• Moderate anxiety - involves a decreased perceptual field ( focus on immediate task only)
• Severe anxiety - involves a feelings of dread or terror. The person cannot be redirected to a task, he or she focuses only on scattered details and has physiologic symptoms just like a heart attack.
• Panic anxiety - can involve loss of rational thought, delusions, hallucinations, and complete physical mobility and muteness.
• Mild anxiety - Sharpened senses, increased motivation, alert, enlarged.
• Moderate anxiety - selectively attentive, perceptual field limited to the immediate task, can be redirected.
• Severe anxiety - Perceptual field reduced to one detail or scattered details, cannot complete task, cannot solve problems or learn effectively.
• Panic anxiety - perceptual field reduced to focus on self, cannot process environmental stimuli, distorted perceptions.
• Abraham Maslow - an american psychologist who studied the needs or motivations of the individual.
• Hierarchy of need

  1. The most basic needs
  2. The second level
  3. The third level
  4. The highest level
• Behaviorism - a school of psychology grew out of a reaction to introspection models that focused on the contents and operations of the mind.
• Behaviorism - is a school of psychology that focuses on observable behaviors and what one can do externally to bring about behavior changes. It does not attemp how the mind works.
• Behaviorists - believed that behavior can be changed through a system of rewards and punishments.
• Ivan Pavlov - laboratory experiments with dogs provided the basis for the development of theory Classical Conditioning.
• Classical Conditioning - behavior can be changed through conditioning with external or environmental conditioning or stimuli.
• B. F. Skinner - one of the most influential behaviorist, an american psychologist that developed the thoery of Operant Conditioning.
• Operant Conditioning - people learn their behavior from their history or past experiences, particularly those experiences that were repeatedly reinforced.
• Behavior Modification - is a method of attempting to strengthen a desired behavior or response by reinforcement, either positive or negative.
• Negative Reinforcement - involves removing a stimulus immediately after the behavior occurs so that the behavior is more likely to occur again.
• Existential Theory - behavioral deviations result when a person is out of touch with himself or herself or the environment. The person who is self-alienated is lonely and sad and feels helpless.
• Goal of existential theory - HELPING THE PERSON DISCOVER AN AUNTHENTIC SENSE OF SELF.
• Cognitive Therapy - focuses on immediate thought processing— how a person perceives or interprets his or her experience and determines how he or she feels and behaves.
• Aaron Beck - is credited with pioneering cognitive theory in persons with depression.
• Crisis - is a turning point in an individual’s life that produces an overwhelming emotional response.
• Other Existential Therapies

  A)

  B)

  C)

  D)

  
• Three categories of crisis

  1. Maturational Crisis
  2. Situational Crisis
  3. Adventitious Crisis
• Maturational Crisis - Sometimes called developmental crisis, are predictable events in the normal course of life such as leaving a home for the first time, getting married, and beginning a career.
• Situational Crisis - are unanticipated or sudden events that threatened the individuals integrity such as death of the love ones, losing a job.
• Adventitious Crisis - sometimes called social crisis, include natural disasters like flood, earthquakes.
• Agulera 1998 three factors that influence whether or not a experience a crisis.

  1. the individual’s perception of the event;
  2. the availability of emotional supports;
  3. and the availability of adequate coping mechanisms.
• Crisis - is described as self-limiting; that is, does not last indefinitely but usually exists for 4 to 6 weeks.
• Treatments Modalities

  1. Individual Psychotherapy
  2. Group Therapy
  3. Psychotherapy Groups
  4. Family Therapy
  5. Support Groups
  6. Self-help Groups
• Individual Psychotherapy - is a method of bringing about change in a person by exploring his or her feelings, attitudes, thinking, and behavior.
• Individual Psychotherapy - It involves a one-to-one relationship between the therapist and the client.
• Individual Psychotherapy - People generally seek this kind of therapy based on their desire to understand themselves and their behavior, to make personal changes, to improve interpersonal relationships, or to get relief from emotional pain or unhappiness.
• Individual Psychotherapy - The therapist–client relationship is key to the success of this type of therapy. The client and the therapist must be compatible for therapy to be effective.
• Group Therapy - The members share a common purpose and are expected to contribute to the group to benefit others and receive benefit from others in return.
• Psychotherapy Groups - is for members to learn about their behaviour and to make positive changes in their behaviour by interacting and communicating with others as a member of a group.