anxiety-based disorders Flashcards
what is anxiety
- A basic emotion
- Cognitive, behavioural, physiological subsystems
- A personality dimension (trait anxiety or neuroticism)
- A psychological disorder (e.g., panic disorder, OCD)
what is the nature of anxiety
- Cognitive and physiological preparation for future threats
- Distinguishable from mood (content specificity)
- Anxiety is associated with danger
- Depression is associated with hopelessness
content specificity
different emotions have different content of thoughts
content specificity is a variable central to cognitive models of emotion and disorder
anxiety is distinguishable from mood
what behaviour is anxiety associated with
anxiety is associated with danger
anxiety is associtated with avoidance or wanting to fight
what behaviour is depressions associated with
depression is associated with hopelessness
conservation of emotion
resting more
withdrawal
what are the two components anxiety is divided into
cognitive and emotionality components
what research highlights that cognitive and emotionality components of anxiety are different
test-anxiety research
what is factor analysis
Factor analysis - took their data with a large number of different factors and wanted to see if all these items could come together be reduced and related to one or two overarching factors - found two dimensions of state anxiety
what is cognitive anxiety relating to?
worry
the cognitive component worry - worry is the chain of negative thoughts and autonomic
Cognitive dimension is more disruptive than the emotional component
what is autonomic anxiety relating to?
emotional/somatic/emotionality
what is trait anxiety
“relatively stable individual difference in anxiety proneness”
trait anxiety inventory scale
Some people are more prone to experiencing anxiety than others
On this scale increased scores on trait anxiety indicate increased vulnerability or anxiety proneness
what are the causal factors of anxiety
only 1/4 of varience is inherited rest is learned behaviours or related to other factors
reliable cognitive differences - at the level of content of thoughts and the control of attention
differences in the way individuals process information differences in attention and memory
cause or consequence of anxiety?
what is there no differences in high and low anxious trait individuals relating to anxiety
no differences between high and low anxious trait individuals in physiology
brain wave activity- heart rate - galvanic skin response - EEG,HR,GSR
no differences at the physiological or genetic level
what is the % of variance in neuroticism due to genetic factors
25% of variance in neuroticism due to genetic factors
what is trait anxiety
a personality dimension
cognitive - what is trait anxiety positively correlated with?
Trait anxiety positively correlated with selective attention to threat stimuli
High in trait anxiety are more likely to show an attention bias to threatening stimuli
Pay more attention to threat
Tend to show more negative thoughts content focusing on danger
Worry more
what is trait anxiety a strong predictor of?
Trait anxiety stronger predictor of attention than state anxiety
what is the worry component in anxiety linked to in text anxiety
Test -anxiety: worry component linked to performance decrement more than somatic component
worry might be more important than physiological arousal in explaining psychological disorder and explaining decrease in performance
what pattern is seen in anxiety and performance
State anxiety more detrimental than trait anxiety (Eysenck, 1982).
• Worry more damaging than emotionality (Morris et al, 1981).
• State anxiety most detrimental in certain tasks (difficult, short-term memory tasks, dual tasks; (Eysenck, 1997).
what is state anxiety and what does it do
Anxiety can interfere with functioning and negatively impact performance on tasks
State anxiety - how anxious your feeling in the moment impacts performance more than trait anxiety especially for tasks that require effort and attention
why is state anxiety detrimental in certain tasks
State anxiety is more detrimental in certain tasks since worry is using up our attentional resources so its taking our attention away from engaging in other tasks like memory
what is the emotional stroop task
State anxiety impacts performance
Trait anxiety and anxiety disorders do appear to show a reliable effect on attention
This has been demonstrated by emotional strop task
Word naming automatic response - hard to suppress - original
Emotional stroop task - test cognitive theories of emotional disorders
Threat related words are printed in different colours participants are asked to name the colour of the words
Compared to neutral words trait anxious and anxierty disorder patients show greater interference with threat related words
what does the emotional stroop task show
trait anxiety and anxiety disorder show robust effects on attention
greater interference with threat related words
example of anxiety and attention bias in the emotional stroop task
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
what is the dot probe task
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