Anxiety Flashcards
1
Q
How did ost and Westling (1995) gathered data for panic disorder during 3 phases?
A
- Independant assessor ratings: By qualified therapist
- Self-report scales: providing quantitative data
- Self-observation of panic attacks: keeping a diary of frequency and severity of attacks
2
Q
Explain how the treatment of applied relaxation differed from the treatment of the CBT group in ost and westling?
A
- The AR group were taught progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) to be used in both panic and non-panic situations
- CBT group was only taught CBT
3
Q
Explain how physiological effect of applied relaxation is different from the physiological effect of applied tension?
A
- AR: involves tensing and relaxing muscles slowly to relax muscles, decrease blood pressure and counteract the effects of stress-related hormones
- AT: involves tensing muscles rapidly to increase blood pressure
4
Q
What is strength for behavioural techniques to treat anxiety disorders?
A
- techniques can be applied by anyone, in any place at any time
- They are more likely to be generalized because all people can learn and unlearn following the same principles
5
Q
What is weakness for behavioural techniques to treat anxiety disorders?
A
- They take time and effort from the person (compared to taking medication)
- They ignore the role of biochemical
- Therapist is needed, which is more costly than taking a drug
6
Q
What is systematic desensitisation?
A
- Gradual exposure therapy
- The patient is taught relaxation techniques and are gradually exposed to increasing levels of the objects they have phobia of until their phobic reaction subsidies
7
Q
Describe the cognitive explanation of phobias
A
- A phobia may develop due to irrational thoughts
- The person believes that the phobic object as more dangerous or harmful than the object really is
- Due to this thoughts, when the person sees the object they will have a strong fear reaction
- These irrational thoughts could have developed from bad experience and the irrational belief that is likely to happen in the future
8
Q
What are 2 strengths of cognitive explanation of phobias?
A
- With the evidence of DiNardo’s study, he found that dog phobia was more common in people who had a fearful experience with a dog and also believed that it will likely to happen in the future again. This evidence supports the explanation as it shows how people with phobia would have irrational thoughts compared to those people who had the bad experienc but did not believe it would happen again. This increases the validity of the cognitive explanation of phobias
- The explanation is more holistic than other approahes: as it takes into account both the experience of the phobic object as well as the person’s cognitions about the phobic object. The person thinks that there is a high likelihood that the bad experience hey had will happen again.
9
Q
Suggest one generalisation that can be made from the study of little Albert
A
The explanation of learning: Classical conditioning
- Albert’s phobia of associating animals with loud noises could be the way in which many eople develop a fear of animals
10
Q
What is the advantage of conducting research on phobias in a laboratory?
A
- A lab experiment has an IV, DV, and controls
- Lab experiments are reductionist so one variable can be isolated and studied
- people know that they are taking part (giving consent)
- IV can be studied precisely
11
Q
What is the disadvantage of conducting research on phobias in a laboratory?
A
- Phobias usually apply to events in the real world and so studies should be conducted in the real world
- Might be reductionist to isolate variables to study when many other variables that are controlled in a laboratory might contribute to the phobia
12
Q
Outline one biomedical/genetic explanation of a phobia
A
- The explanation is that we are prepared to fear certain situations that might pose a threat to survival such as dangerous animals.
- This has been passed on from one generation to the next via DNA
13
Q
Describe one study about classical conditioning of a phobia (Little Albert)
A
- 9 months old baby showed no response to the unconditioned stimulus, a white rat, at the start of the study
- Watson and Raynor banged an iron bar behind little Albert when he touched the white rat and little Albert would cry
- Very soon, little Albert would cry when presented with the conditioned stimulus, a white rat, which shows he learned to be afraid of it through the process of operant conditioning.
14
Q
Describe one strength of the study of little Albert
A
- Lab experiment: cotntrol, reliability, validity
- Longitudinal study
- Used qualitative data
15
Q
Describe on weakness of the study of little Albert
A
- Generalisability: one pps
- Ethical issues: teaching a baby a phobia
- Low ecological validity
16
Q
What is meant by generalised anxiety disorder?
A
- GAD is a long-term condition that causes feelings of anxiety about a wide range of situatfions and issues, rather than one specific events
- People with GAD feel anxious most days and often struggle to remember the last time they felt relaxed
17
Q
Suggest 2 advantages of using GAD (quantitative data) to assess anxiety
A
- Responses from pps can be compared with responses from other pps on the same rating scale
- Data can be analysed statistically
- Objective, so no researcher bias
18
Q
Outline 2 advantages of the sample used to develop the GAD-7
A
- Random sampling: no sampling bias
- 12 different states of the USA so more generalised
- large numbers (965) so less effect of anomalies
19
Q
What are the strength of using telephone interviews to assess anxiety?
A
- Interviews allows people to present their side of the study in full detail (can collect qualitative data)
- Interviews can be done in a safe and private environment
- Interviews can be recorded providing evidence of what was said should it be needed
20
Q
What are the weakness of using telephone interviews to assess anxiety?
A
- People can more easily withdraw (Put down telephone/ hang up)
- People may get bored for long phone calls
- People not understand rating scale so repeating might take time
21
Q
Outline Freud’s psychoanalytic explanation of phobias
A
- Phobias are defense mechanisms against anxiety created by any unresolved conflict between the id and the ego. The ego uses displacement for example to rechannel anxiety to another “thing”. in the classic case little hans had a fear of horses, displaced from a fear of his father
22
Q
What are the two limitations of this psychoanalytic explanation of phobias
A
- There is no scientific evidence that id, ego or superego exist
- A phobia may be a direct result of an incident rather than displaced anxiety
23
Q
Describe advantages of using case studies to study phobias
A
- A case study is a detailed investigation into one thing, in the case of abnormality, this would be a person
- Unique cases could be understood which adds to knowledge about the disorder
- A range of different methodologies are often used: interviews, questionnaire, tests
24
Q
Describe disadvantages of using case studies to study phobias
A
- Case study can be one individual and so cannot be generalised
- individual differences (or everyone is unique) in disordes means that what is applied to one person cannot always be applied to others
- People who have disorders are by definition abnormal and so findings cannot be applied to people without the disorder
25
What is meant by button phobia?
- It is an irrational and persistent fear of buttons. People suffering from it tend to avoid clothes with buttons. It is relatively rare phobia
26
Describe CBT as a treatment for a button phobia
- CBT addresses negative patterns and distortions in the way we look at the world and ourselves
- This involves 2 main components, which includes cognitive therapy, which examines how negative thoughts contribute to anxiety and the phobia of buttons. It also examines the behaviour to situations that trigger anxiety.
- The patient will attend regular appointments and complete homework assignments to identify their triggers to their button phobia as well as practice the new thinking patterns and behaviours which will help to reduce their anxiety around buttons
27
Explain strength of CBT as a treatment for anxiety disorder
- Short nature of therapy (8-12 sessions)
- Effectiveness as backed up by research evidence, clear strategies to implement, specific homework to complete each week, reduction in anxiety
28
Explain weakness of CBT as a treatment for anxiety disorder
- Motivation to undertake therapy, time and ability to do homework set each week
- Cost of treatment
- Subjective nature of therapy sessions (some people find it difficult to describe their anxiety issues)
29
Definition of anxiety?
It is classified as a pattern of frequent, persistent worry and apprehension about a percieved threat in the environment
30
What are the common symptoms of anxiety?
- Muscle tension
- Restlessness
- Difficulty concentrating
- Tiredness and irritation
31
Describe BIPI
- It measures haemophilia
- Self report measure that lists 18 situations involving blood and injections to find cognitive phyiosological and behavioural responses
- Patients are asked to rate on a scale of 0-3 the frequency of each symptom (0= never 3=always)
32
Describe GAD-7
- It is a questionnaire
- It is a screening test often used by general practitioners to enable further refarral to a psychiatrist
- Has 7 items which measure the severity of anxiety
- Score between 0-3 to measure frequency of symtoms
33
Describe behavioural explanation of phobia
- Phobia may be a result of a classical conditioning where when a neutral stimulus is paired with a frightening stimulus, future association with the neutral stimulus will produce a fearful conditioned response.
34
Evaluate BIPI and GAD-7
- Have been shown to have good concurrent validity with other tests.
- As concurrent validity is the evaluation of validity by comparing similar measures at the same time to ensure they produce similar results under the same circumstances.
- They, therefore are valid and reliable tools for assessing anxiety and blood phobia
- Self report: patient bias
