Stereotypes about “the old person” perhaps misrepresent reality most enormously with respect to personality. Attitudinal studies such as those cited earlier have found that elderly people as a class are regarded as rigid, past-oriented, judgmental, asexual, and so forth. These stereotypes are not supported by direct studies of personality in …

It is easier to describe an individual’s functional status, than to ascribe this status confidently to “aging.” Gerontologists have learned to be cautious in offering such interpretations because an observed deficit or impairment can arise from a variety of sources. The tremor in an old person’s voice, for example, could …

Hardships, deprivations, and unequal access to social resources show race-linked patterns from infancy onward. Differential risk factors can both reduce the chances of surviving into old age (Gee, 1989) and contribute to unfavorable economic and health status in old age. An elderly AfricanAmerican, for example, may experience anxiety as the …

Many sources of anxiety in the later adult years are mediated by genderrelated experiences. Survival is itself correlated with sex/gender: the differential survival gap favoring females increases with advancing adult age (Gee, 1989). This means that elderly females are more likely to face anxieties related to (a) caring for a …

Anxiety disorders in the UK The best estimates suggest that: one in four people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year; one in six will experience a common mental health problem such as anxiety or depression; and that these figures have steadily increased over the past …

What are phobias? Here are the key symptoms a mental health professional will look for to decide whether a fear is severe enough to be termed a phobia:• Marked and persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable, cued by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation.• Exposure …

Psychoanalytic theories of anxiety The deeper we penetrate into the study of mental processes the more we recognize their abundance and complexity. A number of simple formulas which to begin with seemed to meet our needs havelater turned out to be inadequate…. Here, where we are dealing with anxiety, you …

Definitions of anxiety Bearing in mind that there is still no single definition of anxiety, let’s now look at a couple of helpful attempts. The first comes from the DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), a standard resource for mental health professionals compiled by the American Psychiatric …

History of anxiety The English word ‘anxiety’ has venerable roots. Like its European cognates angoisse (French), Angst (German), angoscia (Italian), and angustia (Spanish), anxiety originates from the ancient Greek angh, which can be found in the ancient Greek words meaning ‘to press tight’, ‘to strangle’, ‘to be weighed down with …

What is anxiety? You know those days when you’ve got the mean reds … the blues are because you’re getting fat or maybe it’s been raining too long. You’re sad, that’s all. But the mean reds are horrible. You’re afraid and you sweat like hell, but you don’t know what …