Anxiety Flashcards
Why should anxiety be studied?
Very common, 1 in 14
Start early - age 11
Chronic - persistent, life impact, risk for other disorders
What do abnormal fears predict?
Anxiety 23%
Childhood phobias and anxiety reflect fear and anxiety
What is social anxiety?
Early onset
Persistent
Expressed as failing to speak, tantrums, freezing
12 month prevalent estimate vary between .32 and 7%
Are there genetic factors?
Anxiety runs in families, children of parents are at an increased risk - hard to know if it is genes or the environment
30% heritable, depending on the population
Findings show anxiety is a complex polygenic trait
Are there environment factors?
Contribution is poorly understood, work has shown strong support for direct environmental transition - more than genes
non shared environment may play a role
What environmental factors contribute to anxiety?
Parenting and family - attachment, parenting styles, having a parent with a disorder, divorce
Peer factors - peer relationships, victimisations, negative social experience, bullying
Experiencing adverse life events, trauma
Cultural factors
Etilogical model of anxiety
Anxiety emerges early across development, it exists on a continuum of severity - diagnosis requires symptoms which interfere with daily life. Where they sit depends on age, gender and culture
Etilogical model - risk and protective factors
genes/biology - temperament
cognitive - nutrition
behavioural factors - avoiding eye contact
parental, trauma, culture
These all interact that raises risk of SAD
Assumptions of the etiological model
Risk factors increase in a complex way, some increasing risk and some decreasing
Individual differences are underpinned by:
Equinfinality - different pathways and combinations cause it
Multifinality - any risk factor can result in different outcomes, not just SAD
Reciprocal - experience of SAD influences probability of experiencing a risk factor, which increases risk of SAD
Parenting
Parenting interacts in complex ways
Bidirectional effects - not just one way
Parents predict a small, but significant effect of anxiety (over controlling and overprotective is the worst)
Mum and dads have different roles, challenging by father is important for social anxiety disorder
How does the social context create anxiety?
giving a talk answering questions musical/athlete performance writing on a board being with peers speaking to a teacher romantic relationships
What negative outcomes are associated with social anxiety?
Excessive teasing Criticism Bullying and victimisation Rejection Ridicule Humiliation Exclusion by others
What do conditioning theories believe about social anxiety?
Social anxious behaviour is seen as negative by peers and thus becomes paired with aversive social outcomes such as teasing and exclusion, which enhances fear and avoidance
What are socially anxious children?
they have fewer friends low quality relationships less well liked and accepted more negative peer interactions more likely to be rejected, neglected or victimised less socially skilled
Why do socially anxious people experience aversive social outcomes?
Perform less well on social tasks when judged, appear more nervous
unclear whether there are actual deficits in performance due to lack of skills or whether poorer performance is a consequence of anxiety interfering with ability to perform social tasks
deficits lead to a vicious cycle - poor performance = peers respond less positive = negative outcomes = avoiding social interactions
Blote, miers and westerberg - social anxiety on the way children are judged
Examined impact of social anxiety and social performance on way children are judged, pre recorded 20 high and 20 low socially anxious giving a 5 min speech about movies, told they would be evaluated. Speech evaluated on peer rejection attractiveness and performance
Results: highly anxious more rejected and rated as less attractive, have less social skills
moderate positive correlation between high social anxiety and high rejection
higher rejection was mediated by poor social performance
Peer influences
Socially anxious children are at most risk of experiencing peer victimisation and bullying, which is a cause of SAD
SA not just a consequence of victimisation, may increase chances of being victimised
What are the two types of victimisation?
Direct/overt - physical bullying and aggression
Relational - harms social standing and reputation, uses methods such as withdrawal, spreading gossip
Storch et al - victimisation
Investigated victimisation, social avoidance, distress and clinical symptoms
No significant associations between these measures and avoidance and distress
Relational victimisation predicted increased social phobia symptoms one year later
Limitations of Storch et al
Sample: western, white middle class, unequal distribution of males and females
Methods: all self report
Only assessed social anxiety, could’ve been other problems
Didn’t assess moderators, e.g. relationship between victimisation and social anxiety may be influenced by having a close friends, or parent giving support
Research on the association between victimisation and anxiety has produced mixed effects:
Peer victimisation increases anxiety
Overt predicted increases
Overt predicted increased risk of social phobia at age 17
Peer victimisation predicts future internalising problems
Trauma and life events
Exposure to a range of stressful and adverse life events during childhood may increase risk
Rates of social anxiety are twice as likely in a trauma exposed group
they are risk factors for a range of psychiatric disorders
very few studies have looked at moderates and mediators, we don’t understand why some people experience anxiety and some don’t
Gren-landell et al - experience of life events
3000 adolescence, gave them assessment of SAD and measured experience of life events - crime, abuse and victimisation
SAD was highly prevalent and more common in females
More victimisation = more anxiety
A learning history of being badly treated by adults might shape a pattern of viewing the world as a dangerous place to be and contributes to heightened experiences of anxiety
Critical evaluation: only cross sectional, can’t unpick causality, did life event cause symptoms does victimisation cause social anxiety or does anxiety caused event?
Limited types of aversive event investigated
self report- memory bias
sample is specific and limited
What does social anxiety serve?
Evolutionary purpose - minimise group conflict through appeasement and sacrifice of status
Cultural impacts of social anxiety
Effects how it is expressed
Thresholds for clinical diagnosis and prevalence
Social reactions to socially anxious behaviour
Expression of anxiety between cultures
Behavioural manifestations of SAD in UK and Japan are similar but underlying fear is different
UK - predominant fear is negative evaluation (individualist culture)
Japan - causing offence of harm to others due to actions or appearance (collectivist)
Collectivist cultures emphasise needs and goals of the groups as a whole over the needs of each individual - relationships with other members play a role
Prevalence differences in cultures
Very low prevalence in East Asian countries vs high prevalence in western world
may be because East Asian countries view symptoms of SAD in a positive light so impact on daily functioning is likely to be less
western cultures view symptoms as negative, impact on functioning will be higher
Impact on anxiety
Rapee et al recruited students from western and East Asian cultures, read and rated hypothetical vignettes describing characters showing shy vs outgoing behaviours. Each ppt rated impact of behaviours on social likability and impact on job
Likeability - outgoing rated higher than shy
Effect moderated by culture - shy not rated differently across cultures but outgoing rated more likeable by western cultures
Career impact - shy characters have weaker career prospects
Effect moderated by culture - western participants rated prospects of shy characters as significantly poorer than East Asians and career options of outgoing as significantly better
