Anxiety. Whether you recognize it or not, everyone experiences some level of anxiety. It is commonly known in psychology that moderate levels of cortisol (stress hormone) are beneficial and helps one to focus on daily tasks. This relationship between stress levels and performance of tasks is represented in the Yerkes-Dodson curve. At low and high levels of stress, we perform poorly on tasks. This high point is what is broadly referred to as anxiety.
Anxiety manifests itself in many different forms and has been categorized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders (DSM V) into 6 major categories. While the DSM V can be useful to psychiatrists when trying to diagnose and treat anxiety disorders, it doesn’t tell us much about why people may have anxiety disorders. This blog will go over a few theories of why people experience anxiety.
Proponents of the cognitive-behavioral psychology school of thought suggest that anxiety stems from the cognitive triangle. The cognitive triangle is a model that shows the relationship between our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. As it relates to anxiety, people have faulty beliefs about the world which causes them to have irrational feelings and behave irrationally. When the circumstances are proper, this combination of irrational thoughts and feelings will induce feelings of anxiety.
On the other hand, members of the psychoanalytic school of thought suggest that anxiety is inextricably tied to the unconscious. Sigmund Freud’s first theory divided anxiety into two distinct categories, realistic anxiety, and neurotic anxiety. Realistic anxiety describes anxiety in response to actual danger, whereas neurotic anxiety is anxiety in response to internal psychic conflict. Freud emphasized trying to understand and combat the second type of anxiety.
As with most of psychoanalysis, the internal psychic causes of the anxiety had to be identified in order to address them. Frequently, these psychological conflicts stemmed from childhood trauma.
I propose that anxiety stems from the internal contradictions that occur from an incongruency between your imagined self and actual self.
In order to understand my conception of anxiety, we must define the terms “imagined self” and “actual self”. Imagined self is a term to describe the internalized construction you’ve created for yourself. For example, an element of your imagined self could be that you are popular or that you are intelligent, or that you are physically attractive. Actual self is a term to describe the conception of yourself that is constructed through the actions you take. For example, your imagined self may include viewing yourself as intelligent, but your actual self would not be intelligent if you got Ds and Fs in school.
This view of anxiety has its limitations and struggles to account for certain types of anxieties like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In these cases, Freud’s theory of anxiety serves more explanatory utility. Regardless, my “imagined/actual self” view of anxiety has explanatory utility.
For example, suppose that you value being intelligent, this is an element of your imagined self. Now, let’s say that you have a big exam coming up. From what I have observed and experienced, people who value being intelligent/viewed as intelligent get anxious about doing poorly on exams. This anxiety stems from the incongruency between your imagined self and actual self.
I have also identified three ways by which to alleviate this sense of anxiety. The first form is when people push this incongruency out of their consciousness. With the last example, this usually takes the form of procrastination; to study for a test is to tacitly accept the idea that you will not perform as well as you wish, and by procrastinating you don’t need to think about this incongruency.
The second and third forms are similar in nature. The second form is to modify your actual self in order to resolve the incongruency. For our last example, this would involve studying until you convinced yourself that you would not perform poorly on the exam, this would entail the realignment of your imagined and actual self. The third form is by far the least used form. The third form entails modifying your imagined self and realigning your value system and how you view yourself. People rarely take this path, because as we discussed in the Roles blog, people hold desperately onto their roles and imagined self. For our last example, this method would require one de-emphasize the importance of being viewed as intelligent. The unfortunate thing about this third technique being the least used is the fact that it is the most effective.
I really enjoyed this post, I think that the concept of anxiety is especially applicable to us as we start our college experiences. I really appreciate how you always provide different theories that are part of the psychological community, but I’m always most impressed when you then take those theories and form your own. I think that your prediction about our anxiety stemming from the difference between our imagined selves and real selves speaks to a lot of the anxiety that we experience at our age.
Anxiety is an interesting topic. I have to say that I never knew such a curve of cortisol level existed. Neurotic anxiety is the one, in my opinion, that needs to be tackled as it can further develop into something worse. Stress is important for all of us but at certain levels.
I like your theory behind anxiety and the ways to help alleviate it. I am especially interested in the third technique to help alleviate anxiety. When I think about it, I was in some situations where I was stressed out badly and one of the reasons was because I was worried about what people would think of me. But it got to a point where I was so tired of being stressed out about the situation I forced myself to not care, I don’t have to be perfect or care what anybody thought about me and eventually my situation got better. Just like you said I had to change my imagined self and it was hard to do. The study behind anxiety is interesting and you put a great theory out there that could possibly explain it.
Awesome post, Tommy! I took AP Psychology in high school and absolutely loved it, so I was super intrigued by your post. Many psychologists have attempted to explain the root of anxiety, but I agree with your personal theory the most because it makes logical sense. When there is a disconnection between your “imagined self” and “actual self,” you feel an imbalance or instability, which then causes you to experience stress, anxiety, and worry. I agree that a realignment between “imagined self” and “actual self” is the most effective way to relieve anxiety. Personally, I worry over good grades in college because I fear disappointing my friends and family, but when I myself that I am not perfect, or when I readjust my “imagined self,” the anxiety subsides. All in all, I greatly enjoyed this post and I will have to read more of your content in the future!
I like your theory, and for your post in general it is great that you’re bringing awareness to such topics. Anxiety is an issue that is becoming more relevant as it is starting to be talked about more in everyday conversation. I think that social anxiety should be talked more. I feel like it’s one of the more common types of anxiety yet it doesn’t get discussed as much.