Psychology 139 Final Chapter 6

• 1.Reality Anxiety-a response to a perceived
• threat in the real world, if you were ever followed by a stranger or if you narrowly escaped a serious automobile accident. You are aware of the source of your emotional reaction.
• 2.Neurotic Anxiety-(No obvious source)- experienced when unacceptable id impulses are dangerously close to breaking
• into consciousness. It is this type of anxiety that leads the ego to use defense mechanisms.
• 3.Moral anxiety- brought about by the superego
• in response to id impulses that violate the superego’s strict moral code.Generally, this is experiences as guilt.

• Types of coping strategies-SIDS- some parents
• don’t want to have a kid so they don’t deal with it and others want to know everything about it so they are prepared, just in case. Researchers put these two groups of parents on a personality dimension called repression-sensitization, which divides the groups. At one end of this dimension are people who typically respond to threatening situations by avoiding them. These repressors try not to think about the situation and thereby succeed in avoiding the anxiety as much or as long as possible.
• ‘worrying about it will do no good”, “try to think of something else to take your mind off of it.” If you have ever put off seeing a doctor or talking to a professor because you expected the encounter to be stressed, you have used the repression strategy.
• -At the other end are the sensitizers- these people typically deal with stressful situations by finding out everything and thereby put themselves in a position to take the most effective action. 1st
• we can divide the groups, then we can find the source of stress on the emotional reaction to experience.
• -Problem-focused strategies- directed at taking care of the problem and thereby overcoming the anxiety. These people
• find that simply making plans to deal with the problem makes them feel better than doing nothing. Finacial problem, looks for ways to make money.
• -Emotion-focused strategies- designs to
• reduce the emotional distress that accompanies the problem. Not accepted to law school? Consider ways that turn the event to be seen in a positive event.
• -Avoidance Coping Stategy- -deal with their emotions by pushing the anxiety-provoking situation out of
• awareness.

• -How effective are the strategies? Note issues of short and long term effectiveness.- Some kind of strategy is better than none
• at all. Not all are equally effective. In most cases, active strategies are more effective than avoidance strategies. People who avoid have more difficult time coping with a loved one’s illness, physical assault, or being diagnosed with cancer. Extensive use of avoidance strategies can cause more problems, because escape from anxiety sometimes includes drinking and other substances etc. One study found that parents who reacted to their infant’s death with problem-focused strategies had more difficulty coping than other coping strategies.

• Frustration leads to indirect ecpressions of aggression. Indirect aggression can be expressed by displacing the aggression on a new target.(Wife)
• -Sublimation(ex. A frustrated person might runs a few miles or play a hard game of hockey to work out the tension.
• -Several direct tests of frustration-aggression hypothesis find that frustrated people act more aggressively that nonfrustrated people.
• -Displacing aggression = taking it out on wife. Displacied aggression is most likely to occur when we encounter
• a minor annoyance that we would otherwise ignore.

• -Catharsis and aggression- Our need to aggress is reduced after
• cathartic release of tension. The best way to deal with frustration, many people believe is to express our feelings against some harmless target (pop machine)
• -They said that aggression stops when we experience catharsis, release of tension. Freud says catharsis is the release of psychic energy.-A cathartic reaction only reduces tension
• not aggression.

• When we are blocked from seeking pleasure, we have a “primordial reaction” to attack the obstacles. Our egos keep us from assaulting anyone and everyone who spoils
• our fun. Therefore, Freuds argued that we displace our aggression. Since we can’t attack someone, we express the aggressive impulse by yelling at people.
• Thantos-we all have an instinct desire to destroy ourselves, since we are not allowed to do this we turn it towards other people.
• ”—the death instinct.

The frustration-aggression hypothesis states that “aggression is always a consequence of frustration… that aggression is always from frustration and, vice versa. Frustration always leads to aggression.