Related Concept Videos
01:18Anxiety: Overview
Anxiety is a common mental disorder featuring excessive worry, fear, and apprehension, significantly affecting daily life. People with anxiety disorders experience persistent and intense anxiety, interrupting their everyday functioning.
Individuals with anxiety often experience a range of physical and emotional symptoms, including sweating, trembling, tachycardia, and disturbances in sleep patterns. These symptoms vary in intensity and frequency but are generally disruptive and distressing.
Individuals with anxiety often experience a range of physical and emotional symptoms, including sweating, trembling, tachycardia, and disturbances in sleep patterns. These symptoms vary in intensity and frequency but are generally disruptive and distressing.
01:29Personality Theory by Eysenck and Eysenck
Hans and Sybil Eysenck developed a widely recognized theory of personality, which emphasizes the role of temperament and genetically based differences in shaping individual traits. Their theory posits that biological factors primarily determine personality and can be understood through two main dimensions: extroversion/introversion and neuroticism/stability.
In the extroversion/introversion dimension, highly extroverted people are sociable, outgoing, and easily connect with others. In contrast,...
In the extroversion/introversion dimension, highly extroverted people are sociable, outgoing, and easily connect with others. In contrast,...
01:29Self-Discrepancy and Its Effects
Self-discrepancy theory explains how people compare their actual self to their ideal and ought selves and how mismatches between these self-guides can lead to emotional distress. Developed by E. Tory Higgins, the theory distinguishes among three components of self-concept: the actual self, the ideal self, and the ought self. These refer respectively to how individuals perceive themselves, how they aspire to be, and how they believe they are obligated to be. Emotional well-being, self-esteem,...
01:28Social Anxiety Disorder
Social anxiety disorder, also known as social phobia, is characterized by an intense fear of social situations where one might face humiliation, rejection, embarrassment, or negative evaluation. This disorder leads individuals to avoid activities like casual conversations, public speaking, or seemingly simple tasks such as eating, signing documents, or swimming, in public settings. Its impact extends beyond discomfort, often significantly interfering with daily functioning and quality of life.
02:45Self-Discrepancy Theory
One influential perspective on what motivates people's behavior is detailed in Tory Higgin's self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987). He proposed that people hold disagreeing internal representations of themselves that lead to different emotional states.
03:34Theory of Romantic Attachment in Adulthood
Attachment is a long-standing connection or bond with others. While Attachment Theory was conceived in developmental psychology to describe infant-caregiver bonding, it's been extended into adulthood to include romantic relationships.
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Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 24, 2026
08:17
Reducing State Anxiety Using Working Memory Maintenance
Published on: July 19, 2017
Individual differences in anxiety and executive functioning: a multidimensional view.
Laura Visu-Petra1, Mircea Miclea, George Visu-Petra
1Department of Psychology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Summary
Anxiety impacts executive functions like shifting and inhibition, but may enhance memory updating in social situations. This research explores the complex interplay between anxiety, personality, and cognitive performance in young adults.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Anxiety is common in young adults and can affect cognitive processes.
- Executive functions are crucial for goal-directed behavior and are thought to be influenced by anxiety levels.
- Understanding the specific links between different facets of anxiety and executive functions is important for psychological theory and intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between individual differences in anxiety and executive functioning in young adults.
- To examine how state and trait anxiety relate to specific executive functions, including updating, inhibition, and shifting.
- To test predictions derived from the attentional control theory regarding anxiety and cognition.
Main Methods:
- Assessed executive functioning using measures of verbal and spatial working memory, resistance to interference, negative priming, and task-switching.
- Measured state anxiety (cognitive-worry, autonomic-emotional) and trait anxiety (social evaluation, physical danger, ambiguous situations, daily routines).
- Included a measure of basic psychomotor speed.
Main Results:
- Shifting and inhibition (negative priming) efficiency were negatively correlated with state (cognitive-worry) and trait (social evaluation) anxiety.
- Individuals with higher social evaluation anxiety showed a relative advantage in memory updating performance.
- Results align with the attentional control theory's predictions.
Conclusions:
- Anxiety has a differential impact on various executive functions.
- Worry and social evaluation anxiety impair cognitive control processes like shifting and inhibition.
- Heightened social evaluation anxiety may paradoxically benefit memory updating, suggesting complex interactions between anxiety and cognition.