Writing anxiety

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Writing anxiety is a term for the tension, worry, nervousness, and a wide variety of other negative feelings [1] that may occur when given a writing task. [2] The degree to which a writer experiences these negative feelings may vary depending on the context of the writing. Some may feel anxious about writing an essay for school, but writing an email on the same topic doesn't trigger the anxiety. Others may feel fine writing a lab report, but writing a letter to loved one triggers the anxiety. [3] Writing anxiety is therefore a situational experience that depends on a number of factors, including the writing task itself, the environment, personal and audience expectations, and one's previous experiences with writing. [4] While writing anxiety is often used interchangeably with writer's block, writing anxiety refers to the various feelings of apprehension one associates with a writing task, while writer's block is the effect that it has on one's writing process. [5]

Contents

Causes

Writing anxiety can occur when

Managing Writing Anxiety

There are many ways to manage writing anxiety.

Related Research Articles

Emotion Conscious subjective experience of humans

Emotions are psychological states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioural responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. Emotions are often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, or creativity.

Procrastination Avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished by a certain deadline

Procrastination is the action of unnecessarily and voluntarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so. The word has originated from the Latin word procrastinatus, which itself evolved from the prefix pro-, meaning "forward," and crastinus, meaning "of tomorrow." Oftentimes, it is a habitual human behaviour. It is a common human experience involving delay in everyday chores or even putting off salient tasks such as attending an appointment, submitting a job report or academic assignment, or broaching a stressful issue with a partner. Although typically perceived as a negative trait due to its hindering effect on one's productivity often associated with depression, low self-esteem, guilt and inadequacy, it can also be considered a wise response to certain demands that could present risky or negative outcomes or require waiting for new information to arrive.

Writers block Condition in which an author loses the ability to produce or experiences creative slowdown

Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. This creative stall is not a result of commitment problems or the lack of writing skills. The condition ranges from difficulty in coming up with original ideas to being unable to produce a work for years. Writer's block is not solely measured by time passing without writing. It is measured by time passing without productivity in the task at hand.

Solitude State of seclusion or isolation

Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation, i.e., lack of contact with people. It can have both positive and negative effects, depending on the situation. Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one may work, think or rest without being disturbed. It may be desired for the sake of privacy. Undesirable long-term solitude may stem from soured relationships, loss of loved ones, deliberate choice, infectious disease, mental disorders, neurological disorders, or circumstances of employment or situation.

Emotional reasoning

Emotional reasoning is a cognitive process by which an individual concludes that their emotional reaction proves something is true, despite contrary empirical evidence. Emotional reasoning creates an 'emotional truth', which may be in direct conflict with the inverse 'perceptional truth'. It can create feelings of anxiety, fear, and apprehension in existing stressful situations, and as such, is often associated with or triggered by panic disorder or anxiety disorder. For example, even though a spouse has shown only devotion, a person using emotional reasoning might conclude, "I know my spouse is being unfaithful because I feel jealous."

Impostor syndrome Psychological pattern of doubting ones accomplishments and fearing being exposed as a "fraud"

Impostor syndrome is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills, talents, or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud". Despite external evidence of their competence, those experiencing this phenomenon remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve all they have achieved. Individuals with impostorism incorrectly attribute their success or luck to the Matthew effect, for example, or they incorrectly interpret it as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent than they perceive themselves to be. Impostor syndrome also occurs in normal human-to-human relationships. Based on this syndrome, continuing doubts about people and individual defense mechanisms are considered difficult to achieve healthy relationships. While early research focused on the prevalence among high-achieving women, impostor syndrome has been recognized to affect both men and women equally.

Self-efficacy, a concept originally proposed by the psychologist Albert Bandura, refers to an individual's belief in their capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments.

Affect, in psychology, refers to the underlying experience of feeling, emotion or mood.

In psychology, the theory of attachment can be applied to adult relationships including friendships, emotional affairs, adult romantic relationships or platonic relationships and in some cases relationships with inanimate objects. Attachment theory, initially studied in the 1960s and 1970s primarily in the context of children and parents, was extended to adult relationships in the late 1980s.

Writing therapy

Writing therapy is a form of expressive therapy that uses the act of writing and processing the written word as therapy. Writing therapy posits that writing one's feelings gradually eases feelings of emotional trauma. Writing therapeutically can take place individually or in a group and it can be administered in person with a therapist or remotely through mailing or the Internet.

A habit is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

Social anxiety is the anxiety and fear specifically linked to being in social settings. Some categories of disorders associated with social anxiety include anxiety disorders, mood disorders, autistic spectrum disorders, eating disorders, and substance use disorders. Individuals with higher levels of social anxiety often avert their gazes, show fewer facial expressions, and show difficulty with initiating and maintaining a conversation. Social anxiety commonly manifests itself in the teenage years and can be persistent throughout life, however, people who experience problems in their daily functioning for an extended period of time can develop social anxiety disorder. Trait social anxiety, the stable tendency to experience this anxiety, can be distinguished from state anxiety, the momentary response to a particular social stimulus. Half of the individuals with any social fears meet the criteria for social anxiety disorder. Age, culture, and gender impact the severity of this disorder. The function of social anxiety is to increase arousal and attention to social interactions, inhibit unwanted social behavior, and motivate preparation for future social situations.

Emotions in the workplace play a large role in how an entire organization communicates within itself and to the outside world. "Events at work have real emotional impact on participants. The consequences of emotional states in the workplace, both behaviors and attitudes, have substantial significance for individuals, groups, and society". "Positive emotions in the workplace help employees obtain favorable outcomes including achievement, job enrichment and higher quality social context". "Negative emotions, such as fear, anger, stress, hostility, sadness, and guilt, however increase the predictability of workplace deviance,", and how the outside world views the organization.

The self-discrepancy theory states that individuals compare their "actual" self to internalized standards or the "ideal/ought self". Inconsistencies between "actual", "ideal" and "ought" are associated with emotional discomforts. Self-discrepancy is the gap between two of these self-representations that leads to negative emotions.

An anxiety threshold is the level of anxiety that, when reached, can affect a person's performance. Anxiety is an emotion, similar to fear, that can be created by insecurities in one’s abilities, concerns for the future, such as financial or situational circumstances, or past memories of frightening experiences. Anxiety can affect all age groups and if fears are irrational, it may cause mental disorders. An individual's anxiety threshold can be measured by the amount of anxiety consistently manifested from situation to situation.

Social comparison bias is the tendency to have feelings of dislike and competitiveness with someone seen as physically or mentally better than oneself.

Cognitive processing therapy (CPT) is a manualized therapy used by clinicians to help people recover from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related conditions. It includes elements of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) treatments, one of the most widely used evidence-based therapies. A typical 12-session run of CPT has proven effective in treating PTSD across a variety of populations, including combat veterans, sexual assault victims, and refugees. CPT can be provided in individual and group treatment formats.

The fading affect bias, more commonly known as FAB, is a psychological phenomenon in which memories associated with negative emotions tend to be forgotten more quickly than those associated with positive emotions. It is important to note that FAB only refers to the feelings one has associated with the memories and not the content of the memories themselves. Early research studied FAB retrospectively, or through personal reflection, which brought about some criticism because retrospective analysis can be affected by subjective retrospective biases. However, new research using non-retrospective recall studies have found evidence for FAB., and the phenomenon has become largely accepted.

Interpersonal emotion regulation is the process of changing the emotional experience of one's self or another person through social interaction. It encompasses both intrinsic emotion regulation, in which one attempts to alter their own feelings by recruiting social resources, as well as extrinsic emotion regulation, in which one deliberately attempts to alter the trajectory of other people's feelings.

In psychology, adjustment is that condition of a person who is able to adapt to changes in their physical, occupational, and social environment. In other words, adjustment refers to the behavioural process of balancing conflicting needs, or needs challenged by obstacles in the environment. Humans and animals regularly adjust to their environment. For example, when they are stimulated by their physiological state to seek food, they eat to reduce their hunger and thus adjust to the hunger stimulus. Adjustment disorder occurs when there is an inability to make a normal adjustment to some need or stress in the environment.

References

  1. "Writing Anxiety - The Writing Center". The Writing Center. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  2. "Writer's Anxiety". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  3. "How to Deal with Writer's Anxiety and Writer's Block". criticalthinkeracademy.com. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  4. Hjortshoj, Keith (2001). Understanding writing blocks. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   0-19-514136-9. OCLC   44594064.
  5. Burnell, Carol; Wood, Jaime; Babin, Monique; Pesznecker, Susan; Rosevear, Nicole. "Overcoming Writing Anxiety and Writer's Block".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. "Writer's Web: Confronting Writing Anxiety". writing2.richmond.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  7. 1 2 3 Center, University Writing. "Writing Anxiety". academics.utep.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  8. "Writing Anxiety - The Writing Center". The Writing Center. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  9. "Writer's Anxiety". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  10. "Breaking Through Writing Anxiety: How To". Emotive Brand. 2016-05-23. Retrieved 2018-04-16.