Anxiety Disorders Flashcards
Who developed the two factor model of anxiety?
Mowrer 1947
What is the two factor model of anxiety?
- Classical and operant conditioning
- Conditioned stimulus (dog) paired with unconditioned stimulus (dog bite, pain) eliciting a conditioned response (fear)
- Avoidance (safety) behaviour sustains fear (phobia)
- Extensions of this theory are modelling (Fredrikson, 1997) and verbal instruction (Rachman , 1978)
What are criticisms of the two factor model?
- Not all phobias are reported as a result of conditioning
- Not all individuals who experience aversive encounters develop phobias
- Phobias are predominantly specific to life threatening objects and situations (snakes, spiders, heights)
- Prepared learning
What is prepared learning (Seligman, 1971)?
Fear circuit in brain prepared by evolutionary exposure to threats (we learn fear for survival)
Explain study of prepared learning and modelling
Cook and Mineka (1989) showed rhesus monkeys videos of another monkey expressing fear of toy objects (snake, croc, rabbit and flower). Monkeys only developed fear of snake and croc. Suggests fear is more easily conditioned when object is a potential threat.
Which anxiety disorders are common to conditioning models?
- Specific phobias
- Social anxiety
- Panic disorder
What are criticisms of Seligman’s (1971) prepared learning theory?
Biologically prepared fears do not always pose as much threat as other things that are generally not feared. For example:
- Species of spiders that are not poisonous far outweigh those that are, with only 200 poisonous species reported world wide.
- Whereas there are over 100 known poisonous mushrooms in the USA alone
What are examples of safety (avoidance) behaviours in social anxiety disorder
- Avoiding situation that causes anxiety
- Avoiding eye contact
- Disengaging from conversation
- Seperating from others
Describe classical conditioning model in relation to panic disorder
- Panic attacks are classically conditioned responses to situations that evoke anxiety or bodily states of arousal (interoceptive conditioning)
- Interoceptive conditioning refers to the physical signs of anxiety that produce the first panic attack which subsequently becomes a conditioned response to physical change
- People with panic disorder sustain classically conditioned fears longer (Michael et al., 2007)
What support is there for Rachman’s (1978) vicarious conditioning?
Ollendick and King (1991) found that fears in children were mostly attributable to information from parents and vicarious learning as opposed to direct conditioning
What are three cognitive factors relating to anxiety disorders?
- Sustained negative beliefs about the future
- Perceived control
- Attention to threat
What types of anxiety can be caused by cognitive factors?
- Panic disorder
- Social anxiety disorder
- Agoraphobia
- Generalised anxiety disorder
What is Clark and Wells (1995) theory of cognitive causes of anxiety?
- Too much focus on negative self-evaluation
- People have unrealistic negative beliefs about the consequences of their social behaviour
- Believe they will be rejected (blushing)
- Constantly think abut how other perceive them
- Constantly pay too much attention to inner feelings
What models support Clark and Wells (1995) theory?
- Gerlach et al., (2001) looked at blushing and found that participants with social anxiety were more likely to overestimate how much they would blush when made to carry out tasks (singing)
- Ashbaugh et al., (2005) asked participants to rate their performance after a speech. Socially anxious participants were more self critical than controls
What is Clark’s (1996) cognitive model relating to panic disorders?
Body sensations misinterpreted as impending doom (heart attack)
