Universiteit Amsterdam: UVA: Checklists, Projects, Summaries & Vacancies

Fear refers to the emotional response to real or perceived immediate threat. Anxiety refers to the anticipation of future threat. Phobia refers to being fearful or anxious about or avoidant of a certain object or situation. There is no specific cognitive ideation.

There are four symptoms of anxiety:

1. Emotional symptoms
   This includes an anxious feeling.
2. Cognitive symptoms
   This includes negative thoughts and a tunnel vision.
3. Physiological symptoms
   This includes trembling, palpitations, sweaty hands, tension, headache and abdominal pain.
4. Behavioural symptoms
   This includes avoidance.

The purpose of anxiety is to alarm one of danger (1), prepare the body to act quickly (2) and keep distance from the danger (3). There is no strict boundary between typical and deviant anxiety. Therefore, the four d’s need to be evaluated when assessing anxiety.

The self-concept is something unique to a person. It consists of self-compassion (1), mindset (2), self-efficacy (3) and self-esteem (4). Children first view the self as something that is distinct from the body and children have some intuitive theories about the self. Eventually, the self-concept becomes stable with some fluctuations. It is influenced by culture and the developmental stage of a person.

There are age-related changes in the self-concept. The early self-concept depends on the feedback one receives (e.g. “the teacher tells me you are great!”). Later, the self-concept also depends on social comparison. This comparison is influenced by cognitive ability and self-evaluative tasks (e.g. how good one is at reading and the opportunities one has to compare oneself with others on tasks such as exams). This demonstrates that social relationships are central to the development of the self-concept (i.e. Vygotsky). The interactions and feedback in those

The interaction between nature and nurture produces intelligent behaviour. The transactions are essential (i.e. parents change behaviour children and vice versa). The development of intelligence is continuous and there is a reciprocal interaction between the child with a biological disposition and the changing environment. This means that genes drive experience (i.e. genotype -> environment theory).

The individual multiplier effect states that there may be a small difference in nature (e.g. height) and the effect of this initial difference becomes bigger and bigger because it is multiplied by nurture (e.g. basketball analogy). This multiplier effect due to nurture can occur because of selecting environments that encourage innate differences and through additional practice.

The social multiplier effect states that a small difference between groups in nature can become greater due to the interaction between the initial difference and the environment of the group (e.g. people at a

There are three definitions of emotion:

• Emotion refers to a motivational construct characterized by changes in feelings, physiology, cognition and behaviour.
• Emotion refers to an intense mental state, positive or negative, internally or externally induced, expressed in physiological responses, behaviour, and/or conscious experience.
• Emotion refers to a psychological state characterized by physiological responses, subjective feelings and cognitions related to these feelings.

Cognition and motivation are two central components of emotions. Emotions can change the environment which alters the probability of experiencing a certain emotion. Emotions consist of three key features:

1. Emotions arise when an individual attends to a situation and understands it as being relevant to one’s current goals.
2. Emotions are multifaceted and involve changes in subjective experience (1), behaviour (2) and peripheral physiology (3) (e.g. it gives rise to subjective experience).
3. Emotions are malleable (i.e. it gives