Are we born with our fears or do we learn them? Why do our fears persist? What purpose does anxiety serve? In this Very Short Introduction we discover what anxiety is, what causes it, and how it can be treated. Looking at six major anxiety disorders, the authors introduce us to this most ubiquitous and essential of emotions.

The book focuses on stress in the context of education and health. The first part is concerned with stress in educational settings including stress, anxiety, and coping of preschoolers, primary school children, college students adolescents and teachers. The second part deals with stress and its effects on health, e.g. while coping with a distaster, with chronic pain or myocardial infarction.

The interactive computer-generated world of virtual reality has been successful in treating phobias and other anxiety-related conditions, in part because of its distinct advantages over traditional in vivo exposure. Yet many clinicians still think of VR technology as it was in the 1990s–bulky, costly, technically difficult–with little knowledge of its evolution toward more modern, evidence-based, practice-friendly treatment. These updates, and their clinical usefulness, are the subject of Advances in Virtual Reality and Anxiety Disorders, a timely guidebook geared toward integrating up-to-date VR methods into everyday practice. Introductory material covers key virtual reality concepts, provides a brief history of VR as used in therapy for anxiety disorders, addresses the concept of presence, and explains the side effects, known as cybersickness, that affect a small percentage of clients. Chapters in the book's main section detail current techniques and review study findings for using VR in the treatment of: · Claustrophobia. · Panic disorder, agoraphobia, and driving phobia. · Acrophobia and aviophobia. · Arachnophobia. · Social phobia. · Generalized anxiety disorder and OCD. · PTSD. · Plus clinical guidelines for establishing a VR clinic. An in-depth framework for effective (and cost-effective) therapeutic innovations for entrenched problems, Advances in Virtual Reality and Anxiety Disorders will find an engaged audience among psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and mental health counselors.eractive

The selection of peer-reviewed chapters in this edition of Stress and Anxiety addresses three major areas of topical interest. In the first part, we present theoretical advances across a range of domains. For example, the evidence for social support in the old and very old, a contemporary model of decision-making and the relevance of a psychological contract for reducing workplace stress and anxiety. Part two has an educational focus, e.g. on the importance of collective efficacy and autonomy among teachers as well as the role of achievement emotions in promoting online learning. The third section refers to medical settings with respect to coworker stress in dental practices and the impact of medical clowns to reduce distress. In the final section on coping, adolescents' coping strategies are discussed, mothers' concerns for their children and coping strategies in response to terrorist attacks, and the coping strategies employed by families living with a child with Autism. The diversity of papers presented in this volume moves us through theoretical to empirical studies representing a range of human experiences.

Clinical musings on the nature of reality and “known experience.” Therapists must rely on their clients’ reporting of experience in order to assess, treat, and offer help. Yet we all experience the world through various filters of one sort or another, and our experiences are transformed through several nonconscious processes before reaching our conscious awareness. Science, philosophy, and wisdom traditions share the belief that our awareness is very restricted. How, then, can anyone accurately report their experience, let alone get help with it? Neuropsychologist Aldrich Chan examines how our experience of reality is assembled and shaped by biological, psychological, sociocultural, and existential processes. Each chapter explores processes within these domains that may act as “veils.” Topics in the book include: the default mode network, cognitive distortions, decision-making heuristics, the interconnected mind, memory, and cultural concepts of distress. By understanding the ways in which reality can be distorted, clinicians can more effectively help their clients reach their personal psychotherapeutic goals.

Evaluated are stress causes and its effects, both physical and emotional. Also studied are coping and stress management techniques.

Hope has long been a topic of interest for psychologists, philosophers, educators, and physicians. In the past few decades, researchers from various disciplines and from around the world have studied how hope relates to superior academic performance, improved outcomes in the workplace, and improved psychological and physical health in individuals of all ages. Edited by Matthew W. Gallagher and the late Shane J. Lopez, The Oxford Handbook of Hope provides readers with a thorough and comprehensive update on the past 25 years of hope research while simultaneously providing an outline of what leading hope researchers believe the future of this line of research to be. In this extraordinary volume, Gallagher, Lopez, and their expert team of contributors discuss such topics as how best to define hope, how hope is distinguished from related philosophical and psychological constructs, what the current best practices are for measuring and quantifying hope, interventions and strategies for promoting hope across a variety of settings, the impact it has on physical and mental health, and the ways in which hope promotes positive functioning. Throughout its pages, these experts review what is currently known about hope and identify the topics and questions that will help guide the next decade of research ahead.

The current volume of the Stress and Anxiety series presents 27 peer-reviewed chapters that thematically span four general areas of stressful life events, anxiety, and coping research. The first collection of papers concerns coping with economic burdens, natural disasters, and human-induced catastrophes and considers psychological resources which may serve as protective factors. Next are review and empirical investigations that examine a variety of manifestations of emotional and psychological well-being, evaluations of treatment programs, as well as scale validation studies. Part three features manuscripts addressing both psychological benefits and liabilities of occupational demands with a focus on exploration of positive work context for both the individual and the workplace. Chapters in the final part of the volume focus on developmental markers and coping efforts of children and adolescents with foci on environmental influences and cross-cultural comparisons.