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Clinical Psychology > 2: Anxiety > Flashcards

2: Anxiety Flashcards

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1
Q

Mental health is understood as a symptom. How does this affect how research on mental health is carried out?

A
  • when conducting experiments actually only focusing on a single aspect of the mental health
  • eg mood, emotion, thought
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2
Q

What are the 2 different types of data that can be collected and when are the mostly used?

A
  1. Qualitative
    - good for starting topics with not much info
    - getting more details/ understanding = generate ideas for a quantitative research
    - ideal for small sample
  2. Quantitative = something you want to quantify
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3
Q

What are the different research designs to collect quantitative data and in which order?
What are their main limitation?

A
  1. Cross-sectional
  2. Longitudinal
  3. Experimental
  • low ecological validity - since it is artificial
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4
Q

Describe the following research design for quantitative data: Cross-sectional

A

often first step

  • control group vs treatment groups
  • only tells correlation + what comes first
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5
Q

Describe the following research design for quantitative data: Longitudinal

A
  • insight into what comes first
  • same group of people followed for a long period of time
  • can start predictions but still not = causation
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6
Q

Describe the following research design for quantitative data: Experimental

A
  • manipulation of variable to bring particular outcome

- can help identify causation

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7
Q

Why is anxiety/ fear considered to be normal + important?

A
  • is common xp

- survival value = triggers action

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8
Q

What is the relationship between anxiety x performance?

A
  • inverted U
  • too much/ little = low performance but a little bit seems to be good
    • but arousal doesn’t have to be fear/ anxiety
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9
Q

What can anxiety/ fear cause?

A
  1. Psychological disorders
  2. Social conflicts
    - pride = a form of anxiety - underlying sense of fear (Stephan + Stephan)
  3. Physical illness
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10
Q

What % of the US population suffer for anxiety disorder - persistent, excessive + cause of distress?

A

25/ 30 % of US population (Kessler et al, 2005)

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11
Q

Why is it important to focus on the different ways people escape/ deal with anxiety?

A
  • different + potentially toxic way of escaping it
  • worrying, gambling, addiction etc
  • doesn’t deal with actual cause of anxiety tho
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12
Q

How are Anxiety + Fear conceptually different?

A

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

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13
Q

How is A/F defined?

A

perception of danger if there is a threat to ur environment

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14
Q

How is A/F related to learning + memory?

A
  • bad xp = response in the future (Fanselow, 1994)
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15
Q

What overlapping characteristics have resulted in F/A being used interchangeably?

A
  • autonomic responses
  • bodily reactions
  • unhelpful beliefs - selectively attending to threatening info
  • use defensive behaviour - seek safety
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16
Q

Give an example of how A/F can co-occur

A
  • rubbery = initial robbery = fear = lingering anxiety
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17
Q

Why is it difficult to run from anxiety?

A

unknown threat

so start worrying as a defensive behaviour

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18
Q

What are the DSM 5 Criteria which must be met to be diagnosed with a Phobia?

A
  1. FEAR most important to specific threat
  2. phobic object avoided/ endured with intense fear/ anxiety
  3. fear out of proportion - maladaptive not helpful no more
  4. aware fear is irrational
  5. has to persist for 6 months
  6. must cause distress/ impairment to life
  7. not caused by other disorders/ medication
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19
Q

What are the DSM 5 criteria of GAD?

A
  1. excessive anxiety + worry
  2. last for at least 6 months
  3. occurs more often than not
  4. person anxious about more than one thing
  5. 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?
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20
Q

What are the symptoms of anxiety, where at least 3 or more have to be present for the diagnosis of GAD?

A
  1. restlessness
  2. trouble concentration
  3. muscle tension
  4. irritability
  5. being easily fatigued
    sleep disturbances
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21
Q

How prevalent are GAD in UK?

A
  • 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
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22
Q

Has there been an increase in the diagnosis of GAD + Phobias?

A

YES (Chapman, 1997)

  1. 4 –> 6% GAD
  2. 4 –> 2.4% phobias
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23
Q

Why is it suggested that fear of death + interpersonal fears should be common in GAD?

A

GAD thought to stem from 2 core/ underlying fears:

  1. Interpersonal Anxiety
  2. Survival Anxiety
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24
Q

Why are interpersonal + survival anxiety thought to be the core/ underlying fears of GAD?

A
  • primal fears

Infant = unaware of self + desire to survive = survival A

Infant = separation from mother = interpersonal A - wanting to be looked after/ cared for

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25
Q

How does the 2 underlying f/a result in today’s GAD?

A

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

26
Q

What evidence is there supporting the idea that GAD has underlying fears based on survival anxiety?

A
  1. GAD patients reported xp less maternal love + more neglect in childhood
    Cassidy et al, 2009
  2. Fear of dying, illness + injury frequent concerns in generally anxious individuals
    Beck et al, 1974
27
Q

What did Borkovec et al (1983) find supporting the idea that GAD had underlying fears based on interpersonal anxiety ?

A
  • 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
28
Q

What is worry (Borkovec + Inz 1990, Freeston et al, 1996)?

A

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

29
Q

What evidence is there supporting the claim that worrying is a response to being intolerant of uncertainty (Osmanagaoglu et al, 2018)?

A
  • they know that the plane is unlikely to crash but because it isn’t 100% = worry = anxiety
30
Q

What are believed to be the origins of worrying?

A
  • not reassuring parenting + insecure attachment (Muris et al, 2000)
  • xp difficulty of past (Lagattuta, 2007
31
Q

What evidence is there to suggest that worrying is actually not a feature of anxiety, but exacerbates anxiety (Borkovec et al, 1983)?

A

3 conditions:

  1. control: think about neutral topic
  2. asked to worry
  3. 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

32
Q

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?

A 
Worrying = thought activity
Thought = responses to memory
  • so when worrying you end up making associations with previous memories
33
Q

What did Butler et al (1995) find suggesting worrying hindered emotional processing?

A
  1. Showed ppt a distressing video
  2. 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

34
Q

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?

A

Worry = lower changes in heart rate VS relaxation group BUT

- worry group = higher anxious over time

35
Q

What did Borkovec + Hu’s study (1990) that found worry ppt = less changes in heart rate but xp greater anxiety overtime suggest about worry?

A

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

36
Q

What are the different learning theories explaining the origins of phobia?

A
  • CC
  • Evolutionary theories
  • Alt learning perspective
37
Q

Describe CC (Ost + Hugdahl, 1985)

A

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
38
Q

Who was little Albert?

A

(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
39
Q

What did Ost + Hogdhal (1981) find when examining the origins of social + clausterphobias in animals supporting CC?

A

social + clausterphobis 58% attributed to conditioning

40
Q

What % of undergrads said their phobia was a result of conditioning xp (Rimm et al, 1977)?

A

36% of phobias has conditioning xp undergrads

41
Q

What % of blood + dental phobics attributed their phobia to conditioning?

A

61%

42
Q

What are the limitations of CC as an explanation for the origin of phobias?

A
  1. Research = not reporting 100% saying caused by conditioning
    - doesn’t explain all
  2. People often don’t remember cause of phobia
  3. clinicians often cannot discover aversive conditioning events
  4. doesn’t account for incubation = fear becoming worse over time
43
Q

How many spider phobics, out of 120, were able to recall conditioning event (Davey, 1992)?

A

1/ 120

44
Q

How many snake phobics were actually bitten by a snake (Murrary + Foote, 1979)?

A

3/ 35

45
Q

How many parents, out of 50, were able to give an acquisition reason for their child’s phobia of water (Menzies + Clarke, 1993)?

A

1/ 50

46
Q

What is the evolutional theory of phobias (Seligman, 1971)?

A

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
47
Q

How can the high selectivity of phobias be explained by the preparedness theory (Evolutional T)?

A

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

48
Q

What is the “snake in the grass effect” (Ohman + Mineka, 2001)?

A

brain sensitive to reptiles = fear part of brain quickly + strongly activated = amgdyla
= genetically predetermined to react

49
Q

What was the response like when an unclear image of a snake was presented (Forbes et al, 2011)?

A

snake in the grass effect

so really genetically present for us to respond to specific threats

50
Q

What was found when infants were exposed to sounds of natural threat, unnatural threat and positive sounds (Erlich et al, 2013)?

A

infants showed preferential processing of evolutionary fear-related sounds VS others

51
Q

What are the limitations of the preparedness theory?

A
  1. Spiders not really a threat for humans (Renner, 1990) but lots of people suffer from arachnophobia
  2. Tiger + mushrooms = more threatening but less people have these phobias
  3. Slugs v common threat but how is this an evolutionary advantage?
  4. Acquisition of bio fear + non-bio fear similar (Ohman et al, 1975)
    - but bio fear were more resistance to extinction tho
  5. No new implication for treatment
52
Q

How did Mclnally (1987) try to explain origins of phobia by natural selection? (Mclnally, 1987)

A

natural selection shaped people to be scared to anything that is different from human form
- still doesn’t explain fear of buttons/ inanimate objects

53
Q

What did Ost et al (1997) suggest about the resistance of fear of evolutionary stimuli?

A

more resistance VS non-evolutionary stimuli but can be eradicated quite quickly

54
Q

What did Poulton + Menzies (2002) conclude about phobia acquisitoin after reviewing literature?

A

3 differnt ways of developing a phobia

  1. Have our own adaptive fears but can be mediated/ estinguished by the environment
    - conditoin reposne not needed for this
  2. different learning xp
    - evolutionaly irrelevant phobias
    - 3 learning pathways
55
Q

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?

A

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

56
Q

What are the 3 learning pathways of phobia as suggested by Rachman (1977)?

A
  1. conditioning
  2. vicarious conditioning
  3. transmission of info
    - this is dangerous!
57
Q

What did Merckellback et al (1991) find when they asked children where they thought their fear came from?

A
  • 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)
58
Q

What did Decbiec + Sullivan (2014) find about mother + baby rats when mother rats were taught to fear peppermint smell?

A
  • when mum exposed and baby in another room
  • baby = fear response
  • as it smelled the mother’s fear response
59
Q

What are 2 other alternative explanation for the origins of phobia other than CC + evolutionary explanation?

A
  1. Phobia = disgust

2. Cognition - misinterpretation of bodily sensations

60
Q

What is disgust?

A

emotion of revulsion/ strong disapproval aroused by something unpleasant or offensive

Clinical Psychology (17 decks)

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