2: Anxiety Flashcards
Mental health is understood as a symptom. How does this affect how research on mental health is carried out?
- when conducting experiments actually only focusing on a single aspect of the mental health
- eg mood, emotion, thought
What are the 2 different types of data that can be collected and when are the mostly used?
- Qualitative
- good for starting topics with not much info
- getting more details/ understanding = generate ideas for a quantitative research
- ideal for small sample - Quantitative = something you want to quantify
What are the different research designs to collect quantitative data and in which order?
What are their main limitation?
- Cross-sectional
- Longitudinal
- Experimental
- low ecological validity - since it is artificial
Describe the following research design for quantitative data: Cross-sectional
often first step
- control group vs treatment groups
- only tells correlation + what comes first
Describe the following research design for quantitative data: Longitudinal
- insight into what comes first
- same group of people followed for a long period of time
- can start predictions but still not = causation
Describe the following research design for quantitative data: Experimental
- manipulation of variable to bring particular outcome
- can help identify causation
Why is anxiety/ fear considered to be normal + important?
- is common xp
- survival value = triggers action
What is the relationship between anxiety x performance?
- inverted U
- too much/ little = low performance but a little bit seems to be good
- but arousal doesn’t have to be fear/ anxiety
What can anxiety/ fear cause?
- Psychological disorders
- Social conflicts
- pride = a form of anxiety - underlying sense of fear (Stephan + Stephan) - Physical illness
What % of the US population suffer for anxiety disorder - persistent, excessive + cause of distress?
25/ 30 % of US population (Kessler et al, 2005)
Why is it important to focus on the different ways people escape/ deal with anxiety?
- different + potentially toxic way of escaping it
- worrying, gambling, addiction etc
- doesn’t deal with actual cause of anxiety tho
How are Anxiety + Fear conceptually different?
F = state caused by exposure to real concrete/ imagined fear
(Constanzi et al, 2011)
- Phasic - fear builds up and quickly falls back down
VS
A = state characterised by expectation/ preparation of danger to something you don’t know
(Freud 1926, Sadock + Sadock, 2007)
- Tonic - low moderate level persisting = chronic
How is A/F defined?
perception of danger if there is a threat to ur environment
How is A/F related to learning + memory?
- bad xp = response in the future (Fanselow, 1994)
What overlapping characteristics have resulted in F/A being used interchangeably?
- autonomic responses
- bodily reactions
- unhelpful beliefs - selectively attending to threatening info
- use defensive behaviour - seek safety
Give an example of how A/F can co-occur
- rubbery = initial robbery = fear = lingering anxiety
Why is it difficult to run from anxiety?
unknown threat
so start worrying as a defensive behaviour
What are the DSM 5 Criteria which must be met to be diagnosed with a Phobia?
- FEAR most important to specific threat
- phobic object avoided/ endured with intense fear/ anxiety
- fear out of proportion - maladaptive not helpful no more
- aware fear is irrational
- has to persist for 6 months
- must cause distress/ impairment to life
- not caused by other disorders/ medication
What are the DSM 5 criteria of GAD?
- excessive anxiety + worry
- last for at least 6 months
- occurs more often than not
- person anxious about more than one thing
- can’t just switch it off
- sinificant impact on life
- shouldn’t be attributed to other disorder/ mdication
eg no panic attack , coail anxiety = social anxiety disorder, eating anxiety = eating disorder maybe?
What are the symptoms of anxiety, where at least 3 or more have to be present for the diagnosis of GAD?
- restlessness
- trouble concentration
- muscle tension
- irritability
- being easily fatigued
sleep disturbances
How prevalent are GAD in UK?
- most frequent mental illness
- Phobias less common vs GAD + Depression
- over age GAD - most common problem across all ages
- until age of 65 continues
- Phobias = similar but less people
Has there been an increase in the diagnosis of GAD + Phobias?
YES (Chapman, 1997)
- 4 –> 6% GAD
- 4 –> 2.4% phobias
Why is it suggested that fear of death + interpersonal fears should be common in GAD?
GAD thought to stem from 2 core/ underlying fears:
- Interpersonal Anxiety
- Survival Anxiety
Why are interpersonal + survival anxiety thought to be the core/ underlying fears of GAD?
- primal fears
Infant = unaware of self + desire to survive = survival A
Infant = separation from mother = interpersonal A - wanting to be looked after/ cared for
How does the 2 underlying f/a result in today’s GAD?
Over time increasing more remote cues are established:
EG: fear of being alone –> dependency of other for feeling secure —> fear of disappointment —> fear of failing
What evidence is there supporting the idea that GAD has underlying fears based on survival anxiety?
- GAD patients reported xp less maternal love + more neglect in childhood
Cassidy et al, 2009 - Fear of dying, illness + injury frequent concerns in generally anxious individuals
Beck et al, 1974
What did Borkovec et al (1983) find supporting the idea that GAD had underlying fears based on interpersonal anxiety ?
- interpersonal concerns more common in general anxiety among a same of 305 uni students
- social/ evaluative fears most strongly associates w/ worry + tension
- Objects/ events of non-social nature generally not associate
What is worry (Borkovec + Inz 1990, Freeston et al, 1996)?
verbal linguistic style of processing - thoughts
- form of preoccupation/ response to unpreparedness, unwanted/ potentially aversive outcomes
- basically an effort to control
(Miller, 1979; Freeston et al, 1994
What evidence is there supporting the claim that worrying is a response to being intolerant of uncertainty (Osmanagaoglu et al, 2018)?
- they know that the plane is unlikely to crash but because it isn’t 100% = worry = anxiety
What are believed to be the origins of worrying?
- not reassuring parenting + insecure attachment (Muris et al, 2000)
- xp difficulty of past (Lagattuta, 2007
What evidence is there to suggest that worrying is actually not a feature of anxiety, but exacerbates anxiety (Borkovec et al, 1983)?
3 conditions:
- control: think about neutral topic
- asked to worry
- Asked to focus on physiological changes of anxiety/ become more anxious (butterfly in stomach)
= group asked to worry had more negative thought intrusion vs those asked to focus on anxiety
What is the role of worrying in core core fears become increasingly associated with more remote cutes = caught up in a net of worry/ anxiety?
Worrying = thought activity Thought = responses to memory
- so when worrying you end up making associations with previous memories
What did Butler et al (1995) find suggesting worrying hindered emotional processing?
- Showed ppt a distressing video
- Asked to either worry or generate mental image of video
= worry associated w/ greater decrease in anxiety immediately after video BUT
= over 3 days = greater negative thought intrusions reported
What did Borkovec + Hu (1990) when ppt were asked to image frightening image and asked to relax or worry as their heart rate was monitored?
Worry = lower changes in heart rate VS relaxation group BUT
- worry group = higher anxious over time
What did Borkovec + Hu’s study (1990) that found worry ppt = less changes in heart rate but xp greater anxiety overtime suggest about worry?
an avoidance strategy for emotionally distressing topics
- hide behind thoughts + feel safe = left unresolved = maintain anxiety
- Thinking rather than xp
(Borkovec et al, 1993, Borkovec + Roemer, 1995
What are the different learning theories explaining the origins of phobia?
- CC
- Evolutionary theories
- Alt learning perspective
Describe CC (Ost + Hugdahl, 1985)
CC = learnt fear reactions
- conditioned to be afraid
- any stimulus an be source of phobia
- if stimulus makes you anxious at the same time of high intensity fear = pairing and associated + generalisation
Who was little Albert?
(Watson + Raynor, 1920)
- 1 yr old infant
- loud sound = startling
- became afraid of mouse - of fear to loud noise transferred to rats
- generalised fear = white towel / white furry item
What did Ost + Hogdhal (1981) find when examining the origins of social + clausterphobias in animals supporting CC?
social + clausterphobis 58% attributed to conditioning
What % of undergrads said their phobia was a result of conditioning xp (Rimm et al, 1977)?
36% of phobias has conditioning xp undergrads
What % of blood + dental phobics attributed their phobia to conditioning?
61%
What are the limitations of CC as an explanation for the origin of phobias?
- Research = not reporting 100% saying caused by conditioning
- doesn’t explain all - People often don’t remember cause of phobia
- clinicians often cannot discover aversive conditioning events
- doesn’t account for incubation = fear becoming worse over time
How many spider phobics, out of 120, were able to recall conditioning event (Davey, 1992)?
1/ 120
How many snake phobics were actually bitten by a snake (Murrary + Foote, 1979)?
3/ 35
How many parents, out of 50, were able to give an acquisition reason for their child’s phobia of water (Menzies + Clarke, 1993)?
1/ 50
What is the evolutional theory of phobias (Seligman, 1971)?
Preparedness theory:
- pre-wired to develop phobias + functional response = genetically inherent
- phobias not random
- biologically ready to fear: snakes, height, animals etc = common
- but guns/ hammers not so common
How can the high selectivity of phobias be explained by the preparedness theory (Evolutional T)?
Genetically inherent - prepared to quickly learn to develop phobia = no conditioning xp needed
VS
unprepared learning
- little Albert but with a household object = not same fear conditioning
What is the “snake in the grass effect” (Ohman + Mineka, 2001)?
brain sensitive to reptiles = fear part of brain quickly + strongly activated = amgdyla
= genetically predetermined to react
What was the response like when an unclear image of a snake was presented (Forbes et al, 2011)?
snake in the grass effect
so really genetically present for us to respond to specific threats
What was found when infants were exposed to sounds of natural threat, unnatural threat and positive sounds (Erlich et al, 2013)?
infants showed preferential processing of evolutionary fear-related sounds VS others
What are the limitations of the preparedness theory?
- Spiders not really a threat for humans (Renner, 1990) but lots of people suffer from arachnophobia
- Tiger + mushrooms = more threatening but less people have these phobias
- Slugs v common threat but how is this an evolutionary advantage?
- Acquisition of bio fear + non-bio fear similar (Ohman et al, 1975)
- but bio fear were more resistance to extinction tho - No new implication for treatment
How did Mclnally (1987) try to explain origins of phobia by natural selection? (Mclnally, 1987)
natural selection shaped people to be scared to anything that is different from human form
- still doesn’t explain fear of buttons/ inanimate objects
What did Ost et al (1997) suggest about the resistance of fear of evolutionary stimuli?
more resistance VS non-evolutionary stimuli but can be eradicated quite quickly
What did Poulton + Menzies (2002) conclude about phobia acquisitoin after reviewing literature?
3 differnt ways of developing a phobia
- Have our own adaptive fears but can be mediated/ estinguished by the environment
- conditoin reposne not needed for this - different learning xp
- evolutionaly irrelevant phobias
- 3 learning pathways
What did Poulton et al (1999) find after conducting a longitudinal study on the fear of heights supporting the role of environment in evolutionary-linked phobias?
those who fell when younger = significantly more common among people who were not afraid of height
- so instead of xp –> phobia (like CC or preparedness) helped not develop it
What are the 3 learning pathways of phobia as suggested by Rachman (1977)?
- conditioning
- vicarious conditioning
- transmission of info
- this is dangerous!
What did Merckellback et al (1991) find when they asked children where they thought their fear came from?
- attributed to transmission of info + modelling
- positive relationship between mother’s + child’s fears (Muris et al, 1996)
- witnesses fear response to images, spelling test = fear in children (Muris et all, 1996)
- Passing on negative info = fear (Muris et al, 2010)
What did Decbiec + Sullivan (2014) find about mother + baby rats when mother rats were taught to fear peppermint smell?
- when mum exposed and baby in another room
- baby = fear response
- as it smelled the mother’s fear response
What are 2 other alternative explanation for the origins of phobia other than CC + evolutionary explanation?
- Phobia = disgust
2. Cognition - misinterpretation of bodily sensations
What is disgust?
emotion of revulsion/ strong disapproval aroused by something unpleasant or offensive
