16: Psychological Disorders - Anxiety Disorders

Question 1

Anxiety Disorders

Answer 1

group of behaviour disorders in which anxiety and maladaptive behaviours are core of the disturbance

• Frequency and intensity of anxiety responses are out of proportion to situation that triggered them

Question 2

Anxiety Disorders

Have 4 components

Answer 2

1. Subjective-emotional component (feelings of tension and apprehension)
2. Cognitive component (feeling of inability to cope, sense of impending danger)
3. Physiological responses (increased heart rate and blood pressure, muscle tension)
4. Behavioural responses (avoidance of certain situations and impaired task performance)

Question 3

Phobic Disorder

Answer 3

Phobias – strong and irrational fears of certain situations or objects

• Most common include agoraphobia (fear of open and public spaces), social phobias, and specific phobias (dogs, snakes, spiders, etc.)

Question 4

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Answer 4

Generalized anxiety disorder – a chronic state of diffuse, or “free-floating”, anxiety that is not attached to specific situations or objects

Question 5

Panic Disorders

Answer 5

• Panic disorders – anxiety disorder characterized by unpredictable panic attacks and a fear that another will occur
  
  • Much more intense than generalized anxiety disorder
• Many people develop agoraphobia because of fear that they will have an attack in public

Question 6

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Answer 6

• Anxiety disorder characterized by persistent and unwanted thoughts and compulsive behaviours
  
  • People realize obsessions and compulsions have no value, and want to stop
• Obsessions – repetitive and unwelcome thoughts, images, or impulses that invade consciousness
• Compulsions – repetitive behavioural responses that are difficult to resist
• Genetic link found with Tourette’s, childhood disorder characterized by muscular/vocal tics, facial grimacing, vulgar language
  
  • Increased activity in frontal lobes, decreased serotonin activity

Question 7

Focus on Neuroscience

The Neuroscience of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Question 8

Causal Factors in Anxiety Disorders

Biological Factors

Answer 8

Genetic factors may create a vulnerability to anxiety disorders

• Abnormally low levels of GABA activity may cause people to have highly reactive nervous systems that quickly produce anxiety responses in response to stressors
• Biological preparedness makes it easier to learn to fear certain stimuli, and may explain why phobias seem to centre on certain classes of primal stimuli and not on more dangerous modern ones, such as guns

Question 9

Causal Factors in Anxiety Disorders

Psychological Factors

Psychodynamic Theories

Answer 9

Anxiety is central feature of psychoanalytic conceptions of abnormal behaviour

• Neurotic anxiety – state of anxiety that arises when impulses from the id threaten to break through into behaviour
  
  • Form of anxiety disorder determined by how ego’s defense mechanisms deal with neurotic anxiety

Question 10

Causal Factors in Anxiety Disorders

Psychological Factors

Cognitive Factors

Answer 10

Cognitive theorists stress role of maladaptive thought patterns and beliefs in anxiety disorders

• Eliciting stimuli → physiological responses → catastrophic appraisals → panic attack

Question 11

Causal Factors in Anxiety Disorders

Psychological Factors

Anxiety as a Learned Response

Answer 11

Behavioural perspective believes anxiety disorders result from emotional conditioning

Question 12

Causal Factors in Anxiety Disorders

Sociocultural Factors

Answer 12

Culture-bound disorders – behaviour disorders whose specific forms are restricted to one particular cultural context

Question 13

Eating Disorders

Question 14

Eating Disorders

Causes of Anorexia and Bulimia