Anxiety and Emotion Flashcards

1
Q

What are the three dimensions of emotional responses?

A
  1. Behavioural
  2. Physiological
  3. Subjective
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2
Q

What is galvanic skin resistance?

A

Measure of skin’s electrical conductance as affected by sweating

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3
Q

What is the James-Lange theory of emotion?

A

Emotional experience derives from bodily experience

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4
Q

What did Walter Cannon argue?

A

Argued against the idea that bodily functions contributed to emotional experience mainly on the grounds that viscera are relatively insensitive structures and visceral changes are too slow to account for source of emotional feelings

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5
Q

How does spinal cord transection affect emotional feelings?

A

Subjective feelings of fear and anger are diminished

The higher the level of damage, the greater the effect

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6
Q

What is the Schachter-Singer theory of emotion?

A

Cognitive factors are critical in the interpretation of bodily changes and thereby determining emotional experience

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7
Q

What were the three groups in the Schachter and Singer experiment?

A
  1. Epinephrine ignorant - subjects not told symptoms of adrenaline injection
  2. Epinephrine misinformed - subjects told inaccurate side effects
  3. Epinephrine informed - subjects told accurate symptoms to expect
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8
Q

What were the two experimental conditions of the Schachter and Singer experiment?

A
  1. Euphoric stooge

2. Angry stooge

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9
Q

What was the hypothesis of the Schachter and Singer experiment?

A

Subjects in misinformed group would be most affected by external manipulations as they had the least adequate explanation for their bodily changes

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10
Q

How was the Schachter and Singer experiment measured?

A
  1. Self report
  2. Behavioural observations
  3. Pulse rate was measured
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11
Q

What were the results of the Schachter and Singer experiment?

A
  1. EpiIgn and EpiMisInf showed more emotion that the informed and placebo groups
  2. The quality of the emotion was determined by the subject’s cognitive appraisal of the context in which the bodily changes occurred
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12
Q

What is somatic anxiety?

A

Anxiety resulting largely from physical symptoms as opposed to external stressors?

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13
Q

How is somatic anxiety treated?

A
  1. Beta blockers (eg. propranolol)

2. Benzodiazepines

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14
Q

What type of anxiety to benzodiazepines treat more effectively?

A

Psychic rather than somatic

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15
Q

Which structures form the limbic system?

A
  1. Papez’s circuit
  2. Amygdala
  3. Septum
  4. Prefrontal cortex

NOT hippocampus

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16
Q

Which structures form Papez’s circuit?

A
  1. Hypothalamus
  2. Medial cortex
  3. Anterior thalamus
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17
Q

What is Kluver-Bucy syndrome?

A

Psychic blindness

  1. Tameness
  2. Lack of emotional responsiveness
  3. Excessive examination of objects with mouth
  4. Hypersexual behaviour
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18
Q

Which brain structures are particularly important for conditioned fear?

A

Amygdalae

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19
Q

What is Pavlovian fear conditioning?

A

Unconditioned stimulus becomes associated with an intrinsically aversive stimulus such that the conditioned stimulus elicits a fear response

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20
Q

Which brain structure is important for recognition of fearful faces?

A

Amygdalae

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21
Q

What are the amygdalae important for?

A
  1. Conditioned fear
  2. Recognition of fearful faces
  3. Interpreting emotional faces
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22
Q

What are anxiety disorders?

A

Healthy response to, and anticipation of, fear becomes dysfunctional

23
Q

What is the healthy response to fear?

A
  1. Subjective changes - dread, impending doom
  2. Behavioural changes - fight or flight
  3. Physiological changes - increased heart rate, pupil dilatation
24
Q

What are the main anxiety disorders?

A
  1. Phobias
  2. PTSD
  3. Panic disorder
  4. Generalised anxiety disorder
  5. Agoraphobia
25
Q

What are the symptoms of PTSD?

A
  1. Recurrent flashbacks
  2. Intrusive thoughts
  3. Anxiety
26
Q

What is agoraphobia?

A

A fear of crowds or public places that gives rise to panic attacks

27
Q

What are the three key characteristics of phobias?

A
  1. Persistent fear of object/situation that most people find tolerable
  2. Awareness of the irrationality of the fear outside of the situation
  3. Patient changes daily routine to avoid contact with phobic stimulus
28
Q

What are the different types of phobia?

A
  1. Specific phobia
  2. Social phobia
  3. Agoraphobia
29
Q

How is phobia of blood/needles different?

A

Physiological response involves drop in heart rate and blood pressure rather than increase

Can lead to fainting

30
Q

What is the prevalence of phobias?

A

6% population requires clinical treatment

1% housebound

31
Q

Who is more likely to develop phobias?

A

Women

First degree relatives of phobic patients

32
Q

What happened in the case of Little Albert?

A

11-month old baby conditioned to fear a white rat by pairing it with a loud noise

When first showed the rat with no noise, he reached out to touch it, showing he did not fear it to begin with

After five trials with the loud noise, presentation of the rat alone elicited crying and hiding behaviour

33
Q

What is avoidance?

A

Running away or avoiding phobic stimulus prevents extinction from taking place as the running away is interpreted as a lucky escape

Negative reinforcement as sense of relief is felt

34
Q

How does Mowrer suggest phobias are acquired and maintained?

A
  1. Acquired by Pavlovian conditioning

2. Maintained by operant (instrumental) conditioning

35
Q

What is operant (instrumental) conditioning?

A

Changing behaviour by reinforcement following achievement of desired response

36
Q

What is biological preparedness?

A

Evolutionary bias towards certain phobias that would be beneficial due to the danger that they pose, eg. snakes and spiders rather than guns and knives, which are relatively new

37
Q

What is vicarious conditioning?

A

Developing a fear response after observing someone else’s fearful response to phobic stimuli

38
Q

What is extinction?

A

Loss of a phobia following repeated exposure to the stimulus in the absence of negative stimuli

39
Q

What is flooding?

A

Patient is exposed to conditioned stimulus until their anxiety subsides

40
Q

What is modelling therapy?

A

Patient observes another person experience the conditioned stimulus in a non-fearful manner

Assumes that conditioning can occur vicariously

41
Q

What is systematic desensitisation?

A
  1. Patient trained in relaxation technique
  2. Patient and therapist develop hierarchical list of phobic situations, from least scary to scariest
  3. Exposed to least scary situation and asked to implement relaxation technique
  4. Work their way up to scariest stimulus
42
Q

What are predisposing factors?

A

May be biological and psychological in origin

Traumatic experience in childhood, such as being bitten by a dog

43
Q

What are precipitating factors?

A

Events that bring this vulnerability to the surface, often in adulthood

44
Q

What are triggering factors?

A

Presentation of the stimulus that elicits phobic response

45
Q

What are maintaining factors?

A

Interact with triggering factors to perpetuate vicious cycle of phobia

For example:

  1. Avoidance
  2. Hyper-vigilance
  3. Thought suppression
46
Q

What is Urbachs-Wiethe disease?

A

Bilateral calcification of the amygdalae

47
Q

How do the brains of phobic patients differ from normal subjects?

A
  1. Overactive amygdalae - increased amygdala responses when exposed to phobic stimulus
  2. Underactive prefrontal cortex - less downregulation of amygdala response
48
Q

What are the most common anxiolytic drugs prescribed in the UK?

A
  1. Benzodiazepines

2. SSRIs

49
Q

What are benzodiazepines used for?

A
  1. Anxiety
  2. Anti-convulsants
  3. Hypnotics
  4. Sleep-inducers
50
Q

What are the disadvantages of benzodiazepines?

A

Associated with dependence-withdrawal syndrome, cognitive impairment and memory loss

51
Q

What are the symptoms of dependence-withdrawal syndrome?

A
  1. Loss of appetite
  2. Insomnia
  3. Anxiety
52
Q

What are the binding sites for benzodiazepines?

A

GABA-A receptors

53
Q

How is the serotonin system implicated in phobias and anxiety?

A

Implicated in amygdala hypersensitivity to aversive stimuli

Short 5HTT allele show greater amygdala responses to fearful faces, and at increased risk of anxiety and depression