Anxiety disorder

Question 1

describe generalised anxiety disorder

Answer 1

frequent and persistent worry about a perceived threat in the surrounding environment which is usually something that is not actually threatening and the person may realise their fears are disproportionate to the situation. Symptoms must last for several weeks and include apprehension, motor tensions and autonomic over-activity

Question 2

sings of a panic attack

Answer 2

fear of dying or losing control, sweating, nausea, accelerated heart rate, light-headedness, sensation of shortness of breath/choking

Question 3

manifestation of anxiety

Answer 3

restlessness, muscle tension, constantly feeling on edge, difficulty concentrating, tired, irritable, difficulty falling/staying asleep

Question 4

describe agoraphobia

Answer 4

fear of public places like standing in line or using public transport, fear and anxiety lead to avoidance that significantly impairs social and working life

Question 5

describe haemophobia

Answer 5

extreme and irrational fear of blood and can extend to needles, increase in heart rate and drop in blood pressure can lead to fainting

Question 6

describe zoophobia

Answer 6

persistent and irrational fear of particular species of animal, seeing/hearing animal invokes physiological response similar to fear

Question 7

describe BIPI

Answer 7

blood injury phobia inventory, 18 situations involving situations related to blood and injection phobias, 27 phobic responses including physiological cognitive and behavioural, rate frequency of symptom 0-3

Question 8

describe GAD-7

Answer 8

seven item questionnaire measure severity of anxiety, screening test, seven items like ‘feeling nervous, anxious or on edge’ and score between 0-3 (nearly every day)

Question 9

points of evaluation for characteristics

Answer 9

case studies, quantitative data, cultural bias, reductionism, psychometric tests, self-report

Question 10

describe behavioural explanation

Answer 10

classical conditioning, Watson & Rayner, phobia develops as neutral stimulus is paired with unconditioned stimulus and enough pairings occur to have the person end up with fear of neutral stimulus so it is now a conditioned stimulus triggering a conditioned response

Question 11

describe study of behavioural

Answer 11

11 month old infant boy shown a range of different stimuli (white rat, rabbit, cotton wool), reaction was normal without fear, white rat is neutral stimulus, loud sound produced when metal bar is struck with hammer is unconditioned response. When he began to reach for it, loud noise, distress, eventually showed fear so conditioned response when seeing rat so conditioned stimulus

Question 12

describe psychoanalytic explanation

Answer 12

fear results from repressed impulses of id to protect ego, phobia can be redirected fear during intensely frightening experience onto an object

Question 13

describe biomedical explanation

Answer 13

born prepared to fear certain things, transmitted though DNA to help survival, focuses on haemophobia

Question 14

describe study of biomedical

Answer 14

Ost, 81 blood phobic, 59 injection phobic patients, screening interview on impact of phobia on normal life, self-report questionnaire on history and nature of phobia, rating situations which may trigger fearful response. Behavioural test where blood phobics shown 30 min silent color video of surgery, try to watch for as long, track gaze direction, if participant looked away or stopped video then test terminated. Injection phobic had 20 steps described from cleaning fingertip to pricking fingertip, say whether or not its ok, test stop when no. Measures: score of maximal performance, experimenter’s rating of patient’s fainting behaviour (0-4), self-rating of anxiety (0-10), questionnaire on thoughts during test, blood pressure and heart rate monitored.

Question 15

describe results of biomedical

Answer 15

blood-phobic subjects had more first degree relatives with same phobia compared to injection-phobics (61%-29%), blood phobics more likely to faint in phobic situation (77%-48%), strong genetic link for phobias more likely to lead to physiological response

Question 16

evaluate explanation

Answer 16

determinism (little albert associated noise with rat not choose to be afraid), nature vs nurture, reductionist, evidence to support explanations

Question 17

Describe systemic desensitisation

Answer 17

Behavioural therapy based on classical conditioning, Wolpe, patient is taught breathing exercises and muscle relaxation techniques. Fear hierarchy is created with most feared experience at the top and least feared at the bottom. Patient works from bottom up practicing relaxation techniques until highest level is reached

Question 18

Describe applied tension

Answer 18

Developed to help people with blood phobia, involves tending muscles to increase blood pressure and make it less likely to faint

Question 19

Describe Öst study

Answer 19

Two groups of applied tension with applied relaxation and applied relaxation compared against each other, 30 people

Question 20

Describe cognitive behavioural therapy

Answer 20

Patient and therapist identify faulty thinking about phobic experience, practice relaxation technique with sessions exposed to phobic object, think alternative thoughts