anxiety-based disorders Flashcards

Question

example of anxiety and attention bias in the emotional stroop task

Answer 1

Watts et al ( 1 9 8 6 ) : Spider phobic’s presented 3 word lists-- general emotional words; neutral words, and spider related: WEB; TARANTULA ; CRAWL; phobic’s as fast as controls on first two lists but slower colour naming spider words

Answer 2

Gaze on a cross Word pair shown Words will include a threatening and non threatening word E.g. table and death Then a dot will appear in either the threat related word box or the neutral word box

Answer 3

Dot Probe Task • Word pairs (threat and non-threat), follow by a dot probe in the same position as one of them. Trait- anxious and anxious patient’s focus on threat word (e.g., MacLeod & Mathews, 1988). Anxious individuals move their attention to the threat word and are faster to name the threatening word than the non threatening word as their attention is already focused on identifying threat

Answer 4

* Homophone Spelling * Listen to words with 2 alternative meanings * (e.g. die; dye, tease; teas, slay; sleigh). * Trait -anxious write threatening word (Eysenck, MacLeod & Mathews, 1987).

Answer 5

Williams et al (1988). Processing stage theory: anxiety affects automatic processing leading to bias Unclear whether bottom up or top down - isn’t clear on if anxiety is automatic or strategic Bottom-up process anxiety is seen as low level out of conscious awareness and is hardwired or highly learned attention may be a consequence - top down - part of coping

Answer 6

Eysenck (1992). Hypervigilance theory:Trait anxious scan environment for threat excessively and lock onto it

Answer 7

Wells & Matthews (1994). S-REF theory: Anxiety associated with activation of Cognitive Attentional Syndrome (CAS) involving self-focus, worry, monitoring for threat and ironic coping responses (bias is a consequence of coping strategy) bias is a consequence of threat monitoring

Answer 8

* Anxiety interferes with functioning * Anxiety is prolonged/excessive * Anxiety impairs quality of life gets in the way of social and occupational functioning

Answer 9

* Anxiety disorders * OCD and related disorders * Trauma and Stress related

Answer 10

* Separation anxiety * Selective mutism * Specific phobia * Social anxiety disorder * Panic attack * Agoraphobia * Generalized anxiety disorder * Substance induced * Anxiety due to medical condition * Unspecified anxiety disorder

Answer 11

cluster around animals and objects | preparedness theory states phobias are biological predisposition that was an advantage in the past

Answer 12

a fear of places or situation that may make you feel trapped

Answer 13

Panic attacks are a sudden increase in anxiety where at least 4 symptoms are present e.g. increased heartrate, sweating becoming dizzy, nausea , shortness of breath Occur suddenly Reach peaks in 10 mins Are a disorder in their own right A sense of immediate catastrophe May think they’re going to have a heart attack or lose mind or going crazy Can occur in any psychological disorder e.g. depression with panic attacks or hypochondriasis with panic attacks Exist across any psychological problem areas or on their own

Answer 14

GAD is characterised by excessive worry The content of the individual worry varies Worry about anything Generalised form of anxiety

Answer 15

Caffeine - anxious | Too much caffeine can lead to a dependency and anxiety attacks

Answer 16

Medical conditions | E.g. mitral valve prolapse where heart and blood flow can lead to panic like symptoms

Answer 17

Anxiety without diagnostic criteria or anxiety NOS Don’t fully meet criteria of one disorder Not quite meeting diagnostic criteria

Answer 18

* OCD * BDD * Hoarding * Trichotillomania (hair pulling) * Excoriation (skinpicking) * Substance induced OCD * OCD related medical condition * Other specified OCD * Unspecified OCD

Answer 19

* Intrusive thoughts * Image or urge * Ego-dystonic (disgusting/abhorrent) 80% of people have ego-dystonic thoughts which are also called normal obsessions Normal obsessions aren’t much different to pathological obsessions what is different is how people interpret and deal with these thoughts Experienced by the individual as disgusting or abhorrent

Answer 20

• Overt or covert action • Aim is to decrease distress ex. Washing checking Compulsions can lead to significant interference with life as often very time consuming

Answer 21

Body dysmorphia - anxiety in ones appearance - may thing head or ears are too big even when in a normal range

Answer 22

hair pulling

Answer 23

skin picking

Answer 24

* Reactive attachment disorder * Disinhibited social engagement disorder * PTSD * ASD * Adjustment disorders * Other specified trauma and stressor disorder * Unspecified trauma and stressor disorder

Answer 25

PTSD - occur after trauma Complex ptsd - multiple traumas and abuse Delayed onset ptsd - develop months or even years after trauma exposure e.g. 9/11 individuals experienced acute stress which then decreased after a number of years when they were reminded of the trauma then then went on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder

Answer 26

Acute stress disorder Often occurs within 4 weeks of being exposed to a trauma Can have memory difficulties, increased arousal, sleepiness Normal response which usually decreases within 4 weeks When these difficulties tend to persist a diagnosis of ptsd may be warranted It’s this persistence that marks a normal vs maladaptive response

Answer 27

Fear of performance or social situations in which person is subject to scrutiny • Exposure almost invariably causes anxiety • The situation is avoided or endured with intense anxiety/distress • Common symptoms: sweating, shaking, blushing, blank mind, fear of humiliation Bias in cognitive processes can be formulated SAD -common anxiety disorder associated with other issues such as substance abuse, mood disturbance and difficulty in social interaction Stop from getting on with life, relationships and it’s also associated with depression, suicidality and substance misuse

Answer 28

* Social Skill deficit (little support) | * Cognitive-behavioural factors (Clark & Wells, 1995):

Answer 29

Individuals with social anxiety are deemed to have a lack of social skills like conversation skills or assertiveness Little evidence - doesn’t explain the way social anxiety presented e.g. specific forms of social anxiety involve fear of using a telephone or eating while being observed but the individual doesn’t lack a skill to do this Early treatment trained people in social skills and while this did work it was due to exposure not increasing skills , instead the psychological data directs us towards looking at cognitive factors such as bias and attention and behavioural factors

Answer 30

• Coping responses and cognitive processes not deficits are central to anxiety maintenance Model draws on becks schemas theory and the cognitive model Social anxiety is maintained by individual coping strategies and cognitive processes

Answer 31

1. Self-focused attention 2. Processing of inner image 3. Safety behaviours & avoidance 4. Anticipatory processing 5. The post mortem

Answer 32

the Clark and Wells model

Answer 33

``` social situation activates assumption percieved social danger - negative automatic thoughts processing self as a social object safety behaviours somatic & cognitive symptoms ```

Answer 34

assume person with social anxiety has underlying beliefs or assumptions about the social world distinguishes between situation and vulnerability factors

Answer 35

Varying maintenance mechanisms that are keeping the patient experiencing anxiety Anticipatory processing - social anxiety patients will worry and anticipate danger for hours or days before entering the social situation Failure and anxiety starts before situation therefore the bias processing has already started which leads to difficulty in having an experience that challenges the negativity Post mortem - when the anxious person leaves the social situation the anxiety continues and they go over the situation again and again and ruminate and overanalyse the performance - too busy for using on threat and themselves that they only remember their inner image e..g how did I look , what did i say reinforces the negative image even if it went well from an observer perspective the positive experience can be neutralised due to the post mortem and the cognitive rumination that bias and cognition that maintains anxiety

Answer 36

safety behaviours and inner image

Answer 37

Anxiety is multi faceted we can usefully distinguish normal and pathological norms of anxiety Anxiety itself can be broken down into sub components with the word component being particularly relevant in understanding behaviour and performance High anxiety is associated with cognitive biases and such biases have been explored and used to develop an understanding and more effective treatments of anxiety such as social anxiety disorder

Answer 38

a cognitive avoidance response to percieved threat

Answer 39

difficult to control repetitive thoughts concerning personal problems focusing on fact one is depresed

Answer 40

increased blood pressure and cortisol levels | lower heart rate variability