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Anxiety
Anxiety is variously defined as a basic human emotion, as a stable or enduring personality trait, or as a form of psychopathology when it impairs behavior and reduces quality of life. This entry covers all three approaches to human anxiety and in the process reviews theories of how anxiety develops and its impact on human well-being at various stages of life.
Anxiety as Emotion and as a Trait
Anxiety as an emotion or feeling state is characterized by worry or an internal sense of turmoil about anticipated events perceived to be threatening. Feelings of anxiety are produced by brain mechanisms involved in arousal and fear responses as well as neurophysiological systems involved in negative affect and behavioral avoidance.
Feelings of anxiety are not the same as fear, which ...
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- Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Pensions
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- Cross-Pollination in Cognitive Development
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- Educational Attainment
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- Facial Expressions, Perception of
- Fantasy–Reality Distinction
- Flow
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- Gender Identity Development
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- Information Processing
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- Reasoning
- Scaffolding
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- Scientific Reasoning
- Scripts
- Social Cognition
- Social Information Processing
- Specificity Principle
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- Taste
- Teachers
- Technology Use
- Theory of Mind
- Thinking
- Touch
- Universal Education
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- Community and Culture
- Acculturation
- Advertising
- Age-Irrelevant Society
- Animism
- Art
- Beliefs
- Capacity Building
- Civic Engagement
- Civic Socialization
- Classrooms
- Climate and Environment
- Cliques and Social Groups
- Community
- Community Violence
- Computer Science
- Computers and the Internet
- Conflict-Affected Countries, Children and Adolescents in
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- Conservatism
- Consumption
- Cooperation
- Corporal Punishment
- Cosleeping
- Crime
- Crisis
- Cults
- Cultural Socialization
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- Death Rates, Leading Causes by Developmental Period
- Demographic Transition
- Demography
- Differential Treatment
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- Ecology
- Entrepreneurship
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- Finances
- Foster Care
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- Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Issues
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- Global Developmental Science
- God
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- History
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- Incarceration, Parental
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- Inheritance
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- International Child Welfare
- Justice
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- Liberalism
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- Low- and Middle-Income Countries
- Magic
- Mattering
- Migration
- Military Families
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- Political Violence
- Poverty
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- Developmental Issues
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- Age Periods or Stages
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- Birth Order
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- Continuity–Discontinuity Issue
- Cross-Pollination in Cognitive Development
- Cumulative Advantage and Risk
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- Developmental Niche
- Developmental Origins
- Developmental Plasticity
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- Developmental Tasks
- Developmental Theory
- Developmental Timetables
- Developmental Trajectories
- Early Childhood Development
- Early Deprivation
- Early Intervention
- Embodiment
- Emerging Adulthood
- Equifinality Versus Multifinality
- Experience-Dependent, Experience-Expectant Processes
- Fetal Origins Hypothesis
- Gender Development
- Gender Identity Development
- Gender Socialization
- Gene-Environment Interplay
- Guided Participation
- Identity Development
- Infancy
- Initiative Versus Guilt
- Integrity Versus Despair
- Intellectual Disabilities
- Interventions
- Intraindividual Variability Across the Life Span
- Late Versus Early Parenthood
- Life Span
- Maturation
- Maturity
- Microgenetic Analysis
- Middle Age/Midlife
- Nature–Nurture
- Newborn Assessment
- Norms
- Observational Data
- Plasticity
- Positive Adaptations in Development
- Positive Youth Development
- Poverty and Brain Development
- Prenatal Development
- Risk and Protective Factors
- Rites of Passage
- Sensitive Period
- Set Point
- Shared and Nonshared Environment
- Socialization
- Specificity Principle
- Transition to Adulthood
- Transition to Parenthood
- Genetics and Biology
- Appetite
- Autonomic Nervous System
- Behavior Genetics
- Brain
- Brain Development
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular System
- Central Nervous System
- Circadian Rhythms
- Connectome
- Cortisol
- Down Syndrome
- Epigenetics
- Evolution
- Fertility
- Fragile X Syndrome
- Gene–Environment Correlations
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- Genetic Anomalies
- Genetics
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- Hearing
- Hemispheric Lateralization
- Heredity
- Hormones
- Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal (HPA) Axis
- Menopause
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- Molecular Genetics
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- Neuroimaging
- Olfaction
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- Prenatal Development
- Pubertal Timing
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- Secondary Sex Characteristics
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- Sexual Reproduction
- Sleep
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- Twins
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- Health and Illness
- Adaptive Functioning
- Addiction
- Advance Directive
- Alcohol Use
- Alcohol Use Disorders
- Allergy
- Allostatic Load
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome
- Anemia
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Assisted Reproductive Technologies
- Asthma
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Autoimmune Disease
- Binge Drinking
- Blindness
- Body Image
- Body Mass Index
- Bulimia
- Caloric Restriction
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Caregiver Stress
- Chronic Illnesses
- Chronic Stressors
- Cognitive Health
- Comorbidity/Multiple Diseases
- Compression of Morbidity
- Deafness
- Death and Dying, Children’s Understanding of
- Death With Dignity Acts
- Depression
- Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
- Developmental Psychopathology
- Diabetes
- Diet
- Disability
- Disease
- Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order
- Down Syndrome
- Dyslexia
- Eating Disorders
- Epidemiology
- Erectile Dysfunction
- Exercise
- Fertility
- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
- Fragile X Syndrome
- Global Child and Maternal Health
- Health
- Health and Development in the Context of Family Relationships/Family Stress
- Health Care
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- HIV/AIDS
- Hormones
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- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
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- Injury
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- Learning Disabilities
- Longevity
- Maltreatment
- Maturing Out
- Medical Settings
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- Mental Health
- Mental Illness
- Mood Disorders
- Mortality
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- Nutrition
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- Physical Development and Growth
- Physical Disability
- Physical Environment
- Physical Health
- Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST)
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Poverty and Brain Development
- Prenatal Development
- Presbyopia and Diseases of the Eye in Late Life
- Preterm Birth
- Schizophrenia
- Self-Care
- Sexual Development
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- Telehealth
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- Assessment and Testing
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- Correlational Study
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- Dyadic Data
- Dynamic Systems Theory
- Ecological Validity
- Empirical Evidence
- Ethics in Research
- Ethnographic Study
- Ethology
- Field Experiments
- Focus Groups
- Goodness of Fit
- Growth Curve Modeling and Longitudinal Factor Analysis
- Hypothesis Testing
- Individual Differences in Life-Span Development
- Informed Consent
- Intensive Measurement Designs
- Interviewing Children
- Life-Span Research Projects
- Longitudinal Versus Cross-Sectional Design, Analysis
- Measurement
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- Observational Data
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- Self-Report Assessments
- Sleeper Effect
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- Structured Observation
- Survey Research
- Survival Analysis
- Telehealth
- Time Sampling
- Twin Studies
- Validity
- Personal Characteristics
- Ability
- Achievement
- Aptitude
- Attractiveness
- Behavioral Inhibition (Shyness)
- Big Five Personality Traits
- Career Choice
- Character Strengths and Virtues
- Competence Versus Performance
- Creativity
- Dismissive-Avoidant Individuals
- Ego Development
- Egocentrism
- Ethnicity
- Expertise
- Fearful-Avoidant Individuals
- Giftedness
- Grit
- Handedness
- Identity
- Insight
- Intelligence
- Jealousy and Envy
- Joviality
- Kindness
- Motivation (Intrinsic, Extrinsic)
- Narcissism
- Optimism
- Organization
- Perfectionism
- Personality
- Physical Appearance
- Planning Skills
- Playfulness
- Pride
- Purpose
- Resilience
- Security
- Self-Esteem
- Self-Worth
- Sensation Seeking
- Sexual Identity
- Sexuality
- Skill
- Social Identity
- Temperament
- Temperament and Personality
- Tolerance
- Trustworthiness
- Well-Being
- Wisdom
- Relationships and the Social World
- Adolescent–Parent Relationships
- Adoption
- Adult Attachment
- Aggression
- Attachment
- Attraction, Interpersonal
- Autonomy-Supportive Parenting
- Beanpole Family
- Blended Family
- Caregiver Stress
- Close Relationships
- Coaching
- Cohabitation
- Convoy Model
- Coparenting
- Dating
- Diverse Families/Stepfamilies
- Divorce
- Domestic Violence/Partner Violence
- Dyadic Regulation
- Ethnic-Racial Socialization
- Familism
- Family Chaos
- Family Contexts
- Family Life Cycle
- Family Rituals
- Family Synchrony
- Family Systems
- Fathering
- Filial Anxiety
- Filial Piety
- Friendships
- Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Issues
- Gender Socialization
- Glass Ceiling
- Grandchildren
- Grandparents
- Homophily
- Household Chaos
- Household Economics
- Indirect Aggression
- Indiscriminate Social Responsiveness
- Interactions, Interpersonal
- Intergenerational Programs
- Intergenerational Relationships
- Intergenerational Transmission
- Internal Working Model
- Interpersonal Relationships
- Intersubjectivity
- Kinship
- Marital Conflict
- Marital Relationships
- Marriage
- Mattering
- Mentoring
- Multigenerational Family
- Neurobiology of Affiliation
- Neurobiology of Mothering
- Nuclear Family
- Online Communication
- Organization of Relationships: Messiness and Reparation
- Ostracism
- Parent–Child Conflict
- Parent–Child Interactions
- Parent–Child Synchrony
- Parental Authority
- Parental Conditional Regard
- Parenting
- Parenting by Lesbians and Gay Men; Outcomes for Children and Youth
- Parenting Style
- Peer Rejection
- Peer Victimization
- Peers
- Pets
- Popularity
- Public Engagement
- Remarriage
- Romantic Relationships
- School–Family Links
- Siblings, Sibling Relationships
- Single Parenthood
- Social Capital
- Social Competence
- Social Exclusion
- Social Groups
- Social Information Processing
- Social Isolation
- Social Networks
- Social Relationships
- Social Support
- Stepfamilies
- Stepfamilies and Blended Families
- Street Life
- Teen Parenthood
- Transactions
- Victimization
- Work/Family Conflict
- Services
- Adult Day Services
- Assisted Living
- Child Care
- Continuing Care Retirement Communities
- Early Child Care
- End-of-Life Care
- Government
- Hospice Care
- Medicaid
- Medicare
- Nurse Home Visiting
- Nursing Homes and Skilled Nursing Facilities
- Palliative Care
- Prevention Programs
- Public Policy
- Public Programs for Children and Families
- Social Safety Net Programs
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- Sociocultural Constructs
- Accidents
- Adaptation
- Adversity
- Aesthetics
- Altruism
- Art
- Asceticism
- Athletics
- Attitudes
- Authority
- Awe
- Beauty
- Causality
- Census
- Conformity
- Conscience
- Dance
- Deception
- Discipline
- Dissent
- Empathy
- Ethics
- Familism
- Forgiveness
- Free Will
- Gender
- Generosity
- Glass Ceiling
- Human Rights
- Identity Development
- Ideology
- Inequality
- Insurance
- Justice
- Law
- Leadership
- Leisure
- Liberalism
- Materialism
- Mattering
- Media
- Morality
- Negotiation
- Norms
- Organizations
- Ownership
- Paradox
- Philanthropy
- Politics
- Property
- Public Engagement
- Reciprocity
- Rejection Versus Acceptance
- Sin
- Social Capital
- Social Categorization
- Social Inequality
- Social Status
- Socioeconomic Status
- Specificity Principle
- Status Hierarchy
- Stereotype (Stereotyping)
- Symbolic Representation
- Time
- Universal Education
- Values
- War
- Work
- Socioemotional Development
- Affective Forecasting
- Aggression
- Anger
- Anxiety
- Bullying
- Character Strengths and Virtues
- Child Abuse and Neglect
- Child Maltreatment
- Closure and Grief
- Compassion
- Coping
- Crying
- Cyberbullying
- Difficult Children
- Discriminating Sociability
- Discrimination/Prejudice
- Disgust
- Doubt
- Emotion Regulation
- Emotion Socialization
- Emotional Expression
- Emotional Intelligence
- Emotion-Focused Coping
- Emotions
- Empathy
- Fear
- Gender Development
- Gender Identity Development
- Gratitude
- Grief
- Guilt
- Happiness
- Hope
- Jealousy and Envy
- Life Goals
- Life Satisfaction
- Loneliness
- Love
- Parent–Child Interaction
- Persuasion
- Phobias
- Prosociality
- Psychological Needs
- Psychosexual Stages of Development
- Psychosocial Development
- Psychosocial Moratorium
- Regret
- Sadness
- Self
- Self-Actualization
- Self-Deception
- Self-Esteem
- Self-Perceptions
- Self-Regulation
- Self-Worth
- Sensation Seeking
- Sex Differences
- Sex Education
- Sexual Assault
- Sexual Attitudes
- Sexual Identity
- Sexual Risk Behaviors
- Shame
- Smile
- Social and Emotional Behavior
- Social Anxiety
- Social Development
- Social Understanding
- Sympathy
- Theory of Mind
- Trust
- Theory
- Activity Theory
- Developmental Theory
- Diathesis–Stress Model
- Dynamic Systems Theory
- Eriksonian Theory
- Ethnotheories
- Evolutionary Theories of Aging
- Information Processing
- Life History Theory
- Piaget’s Theory
- Programmed Theories of Aging
- Psychoanalytic Theory
- Relational Developmental Systems
- Social Cognitive Theory
- Social Equity Theory
- Socioemotional Selectivity Theory
- Solidarity Theory
- Specificity Principle
- Universals
- Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
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