| Summary: | According to the World Health Organization, in 2017, Brazil was considered the most anxious country in the world, with 9.3% of the population diagnosed with the disorder. Thus, explaining and treating anxiety have becomea challenge for different psychological theories, including Behavior Analysis. The aim of this paper is to systematize how the national analytical-behavioralliterature has discussed anxiousbehavior. For this, a bibliographic-exploratory research has beenconducted, whose sources arearticles published in national journals specialized in Behavior Analysis, and which presented some of the anxiety subtypes used by the DSM-V. Fifteen articles have beenselectedand documented, whose informationhas beengrouped into analysis categories compilingthe main themes associated with the discussion of anxiety. The analytical-behavioralliterature criticizes teleological and internalist conceptions of anxiety, and understands it as a complex behavioral phenomenon, since its explanation involvesphylogenetic, ontogenetic and cultural aspects. Despite its complexity, analytical-behavioraldiscussions have focused on the ontogenetic level. In this domain, anxious behavior exhibits interactionsofreflex and operant responses, with overtand coverttopographies, which occurin order to avoidcontact with conditioned aversive stimuli. Although it can also be understood as “ordinary”, different models and analytical-behavioralpsychotherapeutic techniques (FAP, SiMCCIT) have beencited to deal with anxious behavior as a clinical complaint. It highlights the importance of Behavior Analysis to expand the studies on anxiety at the cultural level, seeking strategiesfor prevention and coping with the phenomenon with wider potentiality.
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