ABSTRACT
A former study with scenarios conducted in Hawaii has suggested that humans share with non-human mammals the same basic defensive strategies - risk assessment, freezing, defensive threat, defensive attack, and flight. The selection of the most adaptive strategy is strongly influenced by features of the threat stimulus - magnitude, escapability, distance, ambiguity, and availability of a hiding place. Aiming at verifying if these strategies would be consistent in a different culture, 12 defensive scenarios were translated into Portuguese and adapted to the Brazilian culture. The sample consisted of male and female undergraduate students divided into two groups: 76 students, who evaluated the five dimensions of each scenario and 248 medical students, who chose the most likely response for each scenario. In agreement with the findings from studies of non-human mammal species, the scenarios were able to elicit different defensive behavioral responses, depending on features of the threat. "Flight" was chosen as the most likely response in scenarios evaluated as an unambiguous and intense threat, but with an available route of escape, whereas "attack" was chosen in an unambiguous, intense and close dangerous situation without an escape route. Less urgent behaviors, such as "check out", were chosen in scenarios evaluated as less intense, more distant and more ambiguous. Moreover, the results from the Brazilian sample were similar to the results obtained in the original study with Hawaiian students. These data suggest that a basic repertoire of defensive strategies is conserved along the mammalian evolution because they share similar functional benefits in maintaining fitness.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Anxiety/psychology , Biological Evolution , Defense Mechanisms , Fear/psychology , Students/psychology , Aggression , Analysis of Variance , Brazil , Escape Reaction/physiology , Hawaii , Immobility Response, Tonic/physiology , Risk Assessment , Surveys and Questionnaires , Translating , Urban PopulationABSTRACT
Este trabalho tem como objetivo caracterizar o nível de stress e a percepção de controle sobre os eventos do meio em pacientes com transtorno do pânico em comparação a sujeitos sem distúrbio psiquiátrico. Procedeu-se à avaliação de 30 pessoas adultas divididas em dois grupos, um com diagnóstico de transtorno do pânico e outro sem diagnóstico psiquiátrico avaliado sistematicamente. Os participantes foram avaliados individualmente através do Inventário de Sintomas de Stress de Lipp e da Escala de Locus de Controle de Levenson. A comparação estatística apontou que o grupo com transtorno do pânico apresentou mais indicadores de stress com predomínio da fase de resistência e a percepção de ser controlado pelo acaso, sorte ou destino, caracterizando maior suscetibilidade ao stress e à baixa confiança na previsibilidade dos eventos.
This study purpose is to define the stress level and the external events control notion in patients with panic disorder in comparison to subjects with no psychiatric disturbs. The sample was composed by 30 adults divided in two groups, one group with diagnosis of panic disorder and the other without psychiatric diagnosis, all of them systematically evaluated. The participants were evaluated individually through the Lipp Stress Symptoms Inventory and the Levenson Scale of Locus of Control. The statistical comparison has shown that the group with panic disorder presented more stress indicators with predominance of the resistance phase, and control perception more susceptibility for stress and low confidence in events prediction ability as they believe in chance, luck or fate determination.