Cross-cultural

Social psychology

Collectivism

Expression (computer science)

Psychiatry

Developmental psychology

Construals

Computer science

Anxiety

Construal level theory

Anthropology

Individualism

Psychology

Political science

Psychotherapist

Sociology

Artificial intelligence

Social anxiety

Distress

Medicine

Programming language

Clinical psychology

Perspective (graphical)

Current Psychiatry Reports

A person’s cultural background influences the experience and expression of emotions. In reviewing the recent literature on cross-cultural aspects of anxiety disorders, we identified some culturally related ethnopsychology/ethnophysiology factors (the culture’s conceptualizations of how the mind and body function) and contextual factors that influence anxiety disorders. Ethnopsychology/ethnophysiology factors include the person’s ideas about the mental and bodily processes (and their interaction), whereas contextual factors are associated with the social norms and rules that may contribute to anxiety, including individualism vs. collectivism and self-construals. From the perspective of ethnopsychology/ethnophysiology and contextual factors, we will discuss “khyâl cap” (“wind attacks”), taijin kyofusho, and ataques de nervios, three prominent examples of culture-specific expressions of anxiety disorders that have all been included in the DSM-5 list of cultural concepts of distress.

Cross-Cultural Aspects of Anxiety Disorders