Anxiety Disorders

Question 1

What is anxiety?

Answer 1

Anxiety is activated in response to a perceived threat.

Question 2

What are the three systems involved with anxiety, and what role does each play?

Answer 2

1. Physical system – the sympathetic nervous system and flight-or-fight response; mobilizes resources to deal with threat and includes sweating, increased heart rate.
2. Cognitive system – Responsible for the perception of threat, and the attentional shift/hyper-vigilance to the threat. Has difficulty concentrating on other tasks.
3. Behavioral system – escape/avoidance tendencies, as well as aggression

Question 3

What is the Yerkes-Dodson Curve?

Answer 3

This graph shows that there’s an optimal amount of stress to motivate us to do well. Too much stress leads to distress, and too little stress leads to eustress.

Question 4

What is self-efficacy, and how does that relate to stress?

Answer 4

Self-efficacy is specific to the task we are assessing, and the confidence individuals feel they have to complete a certain task. Too much stress can diminish feelings of self-efficacy, and increase anxiety/fear

Question 5

What is normal anxiety?

Answer 5

Necessary for survival, as it helps us to focus on reducing danger. There are individual differences of anxiety between people, but when the fear is taken to an extremity, it can become irrational

Question 6

What makes anxiety abnormal?

Answer 6

Occurrence is excessive or inappropriate, and occurs even in the absence of a threat. It is detrimental to relationships and affects the person’s quality of life.

Question 7

What is the overestimation of threat?

Answer 7

The probability and cost of negative outcome is exaggerated and maintained by avoidance.