ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF ANXIETY IN THE CONTEXT OF AN INDIVIDUAL'S RELIGIOSITY

Abstract

The article considers the semantic nuances of the connection between anxiety and religiosity, and their psychodynamics in the process of the identity change of the individual. Despite the rather high level of religiosity among people, there is also anxiety, which has intensified as a result of quarantine restrictions. It is noted that the need to study the concept of "anxiety" in psychology arose as a result of identifying patterns of interaction between conscious and unconscious structures of the psyche, as well as the influence of hidden sources of anxiety on the mental life of a person. The author, considering anxiety as a complex process, including cognitive, affective and behavioural reactions at the level of a holistic personality, proposes to explore its semantic connotations with the phenomenon of religious fear. Religious fear, differing in its procedural nature, has certain stages: an anxiety reaction (physiological reaction of the body) associated with a person's assessment of the future situation as threatening; the stage of intimidation, when fear is transformed into a certain mental state, acquires a stable form (mental reaction of the body); the stage of love, the physiological and mental defence mechanisms of the body are activated, giving it integrity (spiritual reaction of the body). Anxiety is considered by us as a stable emotional and personal formation, which can be in a certain life situation of a believer a rather unstable phenomenon. A conceptual scheme for the analysis of anxiety in the process of attracting adherents to new religious movements is proposed, during which it somewhat changes its functional purpose. It is emphasized that this model will make it possible to find out a holistic mechanism for regulating the state of the individual, taking into account the anxiety factor in the framework of a complex personal-cognitive process of assessing and comprehending the religious situation. It was revealed that it is love that allows the development of the ability of a person to distinguish the nature of anxiety and adjust their activity in accordance with extreme religious situations and their overcoming.