Behavior Patterns Of Behavior Essay

Background

Behavior patterns. In certain social situations I have symptoms of anxiety. For example, during lectures, I will sometimes become extremely self-conscious of my own behavior. My hands begin to sweat, and I worry that others notice this. I sometimes have trouble maintaining eye-contact, and I become paranoid that other people are evaluating me negatively. My heart-rate may increase as well. This also happens in other contexts, such as with my family, or on public transportation.

Behavior history. As a child, my parents testified that I had a strong dislike of crowded places. In addition, I often preferred to play alone and didn’t have many friends. In grade-school, other children made a boycott on me, and in high-school I had more than one incident where I was humiliated by other children. These are possible causes for my social anxiety. I recall that my anxiety was context-dependent (consider changing/adding).

Psychoanalytic/dynamic Conceptualization

Avoidance. Avoidance is widely referenced in behavioral literature as a maintaining factor of anxiety (citation). By avoiding the anxiety-provoking social situations I fail to learn that these situations are in fact safe, thereby disproving my fears (i.e. violation of expectation). In addition, avoiding those social situations (i.e. leaving in the middle) reduces my anxiety, which positively reinforces the avoidance behavior. Safety behaviors. Safety behaviors have been suggested as a reason why exposure to social situations doesn’t relieve social anxiety in those with social phobia (citation). In my case, possible safety behaviors include 1) pretending that I’m not really interested in interacting with others, as well as 2) not answer questions/voicing my opinion in many situations for fear that I will be ridiculed. Safety behaviors maintain the anxiety via a rule-based mechanism, e.g. “if I speak others will think I’m stupidity”. The safety behaviors prevent the disproving of such