Definition
Anxiety is the experience of physiology, cognitive, and behavior related to the anticipation of and preparation to cope with future threat, whether the threat is actual or perceived (American Psychiatric Association 2013).
Introduction
Anxiety is a future-oriented mood state in which an individual is or becomes ready to cope with actual or perceived impending negative events (American Psychiatric Association 2013) and is contrasted with fear (and the related construct of panic) which is a more present-oriented emotion designed to cope with immediate actual or perceived threat (Blanchard and Blanchard 1990). Anxiety is typically conceptualized as either a trait or a state. Trait anxiety represents an individual difference in the penchant to experience this emotional state (Eysenck 1997). Trait anxiety is an individual’s propensity to experience anxiety, and it tends to be stable over time (Eysenck 1997). State anxiety represents the person’s...
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References
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Acknowledgment and Disclaimer
Writing of this manuscript was supported by the Office of Academic Affiliations, Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment, and Department of Veterans Affairs. The contents do not represent the views of the US Department of Veterans Affairs or the US Government.
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Talkovsky, A.M., Norton, P.J. (2020). Anxiety. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_492
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