Limado y cepillado

Confusion with the term ‘anxiety’ is caused by its frequent interchangeable use with other phenomena such as fear, worry, panic, tension, stress, and phobia. The term anxiety can have different meanings and be used to refer to several different experiences and

59

behaviours (Vanin and Helsley, 2008). Steimer (2002) argues that fear and anxiety, for some authors, are not distinguishable while others do believe that they are different phenomena. Rowan and Eayrs (1987), for instance, assume that it is necessary to distinguish between fear and anxiety because both emotions are widespread and used interchangeably. Moreover, both emotions share common arousal triggers and characteristics. For example, both anxiety and fear can cause tension, discomfort, uncomfortable feelings, and unpleasant expectations of certain situations. However, the two terms can be distinct in cause, period of time, and maintenance. Anxiety, according to Bishop (2007), is diffuse, shapeless, objectless, and unsettling, often being a response to a blurred or unknown threat.

By contrast, fear is used to describe an emotional reaction to a specific, perceived danger, to a threat that is identifiable, such as a poisonous snake or an important examination. Most fear reactions are intense and have the quality of an emergency. Rachman (2004) defines fear as ‘a reaction to an external stimulus. It is episodic, and appears to be associated with autonomic hyper-arousal when the individual is exposed to the stimulus’ (p.3). Pavuluri et al. (2002) also define fear as ‘a common adaptive response to an immediate, threatening situation’ (p.274). Kaplan and Sadock (1998) present two examples of both anxiety and fear to clarify the difference between the two. To be anxious is to feel nervous and to feel a few butterflies in your stomach while walking alone down a dark street, possibly thinking that someone may walk closely behind you or come towards you to threaten you. This feeling of anxiety is created by our imagination: our minds create visions and thoughts which are not actually about real threats but that make us believe that we are in danger. Fear, on the other hand, is an emotional response to a specific, known or perceived threat, as when a stranger points a gun at you and tries to shoot you. The feeling of fear in this case is not the result of your imagination; rather it is a real, clear, immediate danger or something that threatens you. To summarise the differences between anxiety and fear see Table 1 below from Rachman (2004, p.5).

60

Fear Anxiety

Present danger Anticipated danger Specific focus of threat Source of threat is elusive Understandable connection between fear and threat

Uncertain connection between anxiety and threat Usually episodic Prolonged

Circumscribed tension Pervasive uneasiness Identifiable threat Can be objectless Provoked by threat cues Uncertain onset Declines with removal of threat Persistent Offset is detectable Uncertain offset Circumscribed area of threat Without clear borders Imminent threat Threat seldom imminent Quality of an emergency Heightened vigilance Bodily sensations of an

emergency

Bodily sensations of vigilance

Rational quality Puzzling quality

Table 1. Differences Between Fear and Anxiety, from Rachman (2004, p.5)

The importance of this table is in its descriptions of the symptoms of both anxiety and fear and these help us to understand the effect of anxiety, not only on the language learner’s cognition but also on other systems as Rapee and Heimberg (1997) suggest. These researchers clarify that anxiety manifests itself through three independent systems that connect tightly to function together. These systems are, firstly, the mental or cognitive system, which refers to the thoughts that come into the mind telling us there is something unusual or wrong. The second, physiological system refers to the changes or symptoms that may occur in the body when feeling anxious (stomach ache, fast heart beats, shortness of breath, and changes in the facial muscles) but some people do not always, or even often, have such symptoms. Anxiety is sometimes hidden because it does not show in the face or body and this will depend on the person’s ability to control and to hide any physiological symptoms. It also most likely depends on the intensity of the emotional arousal, and the degree of our senses’ perceived disposition, expectation, experience, attitude,

environmental circumstance, consequences, and so on (Ekman, 1993). The third system, the behavioural system, involves the common urge to flee or avoid, what is often called ‘flight or fight’. Pappamihiel (2002) explains that anxiety overall is closely correlated to ‘threats to self-efficacy and appraisals of situations as threatening’ (p.331). Psychologists such as Kaplan et al. (1979) and Morris et al. (1981) have attempted to analyze anxiety into

61

two main distinctive components to facilitate an understanding of the anxiety construct. These constructs are worry and emotionality. According to Kaplan et al. (1979), ‘worry’ refers to cognition. It is associated with one’s thinking about concerns about approaching or expected events. ‘Emotionality’, in contrast, refers to the affective area of anxiety which is the anxious individual’s awareness of bodily arousal or tension (Toth, 2010). Sarason (1984) has extended the construct of anxiety suggested by Liebert and Morris (1967) to include constituents of behaviour and physical activities such as hair pulling, wringing hands, playing with pens or clothes, fidgeting and so forth. There are also bodily reactions such as physiological changes including sweating, trembling, rapid heartbeat or blushing; psychosomatic symptoms which include tense muscles, headaches, insomnia, stomach ache, dry mouth and swallowing difficulties, and speech difficulties, for example,

stuttering or having a quivering voice. These physical activities, psychological changes and psychosomatic symptoms can be shaped differently to construct different types of anxieties as shown in Figure 4 below.

Figure 4. Emotions’ Constituents

Before we move to the next section, I would like here to clarify that there are two classifications of anxiety: normal/regular anxiety and pathological anxiety with

pathological anxiety commonly referred to as an anxiety disorder and classified as a mental illness. These classifications, according to Rachman (2004), are based on the intensity, symptoms, and the characteristics of the emotion. Here, in this research, the focus is on the normal or regular type, others are beyond the scope of this research but it seems worth

62

describing the levels of anxiety and showing each one’s features in order to distinguish between them as I will explain now.