AN ANALYTICAL-BEHAVIORAL OVERVIEW ON THE DISCUSSIONS OF ANXIETY IN NATIONAL JOURNALS

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization, in 2017, Brazil was considered the most anxious country in the world, with 9.3% of the population diagnosed with the disorder. Thus, explaining and treating anxiety have become a challenge for different psychological theories, including Behavior Analysis. The aim of this paper is to systematize how the national analytical-behavioral literature has discussed anxious behavior. For this, a bibliographic-exploratory research has been conducted, whose sources are articles published in national journals specialized in Behavior Analysis, and which presented some of the anxiety subtypes used by the DSM-V. Fifteen articles have been selected and documented, whose information has been grouped into analysis categories compiling the main themes associated with the discussion of anxiety. The analytical-behavioral literature criticizes teleological and internalist conceptions of anxiety, and understands it as a complex behavioral phenomenon, since its explanation involves phylogenetic, ontogenetic and cultural aspects. Despite its complexity, analytical-behavioral discussions have focused on the ontogenetic level. In this domain, anxious behavior exhibits interactions of reflex and operant responses, with overt and covert topographies, which occur in order to avoid contact with conditioned aversive stimuli. Although it can also be understood as “ordinary”, different models and analytical-behavioral psychotherapeutic techniques (FAP, SiMCCIT) have been cited to deal with anxious behavior as a clinical complaint. It highlights the importance of Behavior Analysis to expand the studies on anxiety at the cultural level, seeking strategies for prevention and coping with the phenomenon with wider potentiality.