What Are Safety Behaviors?
Safety-seeking behaviors (‘safety behaviors’) are actions that people take in response to a real – or perceived – threat. When a threat is real, safety-seeking behaviors are adaptive. Stepping out of the way of a speeding car, leaving a burning building, or attending hospital when faced with a medical emergency are all actions which can save your life. However, if a misinterpretation leads an individual to perceive a threat in the absence of real danger, safety-seeking behaviors can prevent the anxious individual from learning about the (true) absence of danger.
The What Are Safety Behaviors? information handout can be used to introduce clients to the concept of safety-seeking behaviors, their short-term advantages, and their long-term effects.
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Introduction & Theoretical Background
Salkovskis (1997) argues that anxiety poses a paradox: “Why do people suffering from anxiety fail to benefit from the repeated experience of surviving anxiety-provoking situations unharmed?”. Put another way, why does someone “continue to fear a catastrophe that repeatedly fails to materialise?” (Seligman, 1988).
Safety-seeking behaviors (‘safety behaviors’) are actions that people take in response to a real – or perceived – threat. When a threat is real, safety-seeking behaviors are helpful (adaptive). Stepping out of the way of a speeding car, leaving a burning building, or attending hospital when faced with a medical emergency are all actions which can save your life. However, if a misinterpretation leads an individual to perceive a threat in the absence of real danger, safety-seeking behaviors can prevent the anxious individual from learning about the (true) absence of danger:
“Inappropriate seeking of safety can prevent the anxious person from discovering that their fears
Therapist Guidance
“When people are anxious about something bad occurring, they often do things to prevent that bad thing from happening. Do you do anything like that? Psychologists have a name for these actions you take – they are called ‘safety-seeking behaviors’ or ‘safety behaviors’. What do you make of the things that these anxious people are doing?”
References And Further Reading
- Salkovskis, P. M. (1991). The importance of behaviour in the maintenance of anxiety and panic: a cognitive account. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 19(1), 6-19.
- Salkovskis, P. M. (Ed.). (1997). Frontiers of cognitive therapy. Guilford Press.
- Seligman, M. E. P. (1988). Competing theories of panic. In: S. Rachman & J. D. Maser (Eds.), Panic: Psychological perspectives (pp. 321–329). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.