Ch 4

Question 1

Anxiety

Answer 1

• Emotions involved include nervousness, unease, worry, restlessness etc.
  → physical symptoms include increased heart rate, sweating, tension etc.
• anxiety as a disorder is defined as excessive for the circumstance, lasts beyond the circumstance, and occurs in abnormal circumstances
• can be informative, motivating, and can warn us of potential risks

Question 2

Anxiety vs fear

Answer 2

• Fear is an immediate response to a serious threat
• anxiety is more anticipatory and the danger is more vague (avoid or mitigate risk/danger)

Question 3

Allostasis

Answer 3

• Adaptive processes that maintain homeostasis
  → many of our mental and physical processes are anticipatory or future-oriented

Question 4

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

Answer 4

• Persistent and excessive feelings of anxiety and worry about numerous events and activities
  → often co-morbid with other conditions such as depression

Question 5

GAD: sociocultural perspective

Answer 5

• GAD is more likely to develop in people who face ongoing societal conditions that are dangerous (societal disruption/conflict)
  → crime-ridden neighborhoods, poverty, fewer educational and job opportunities

Question 6

GAD: psychodynamic perspective

Answer 6

• The view that all children experience some degree of anxiety as part of growing up and using ego defense mechanisms to combat this anxiety
  → it defence mechanisms are particularly inadequate, these individuals may develop GAD

Question 7

GAD: humanistic perspective

Answer 7

• Believe GAD occurs when people stop looking at themselves honestly and acceptingly
  → denial of true thoughts, emotions, and behaviours result in anxiety because of their inability to self-actualize

Question 8

GAD: cognitive-behavioural perspective

Answer 8

• Anxiety as the result of maladaptive thinking and behaviours
  → irrational assumptions: inaccurate and inappropriate beliefs (always expecting the worst)
  → overstate the extent to which they should be competent and successful (failure to reach standards reads to self-reproach)
  → intolerance of uncertainty: worrying about the possibility of certain events
  → meta-worry (worry about working), positive beliefs (worrying allows for the appraisal of threats), negative beliefs (worrying is harmful/dangerous)
  → avoidance model: anxiety as a coping mechanism from more adverse situations
  → emotional dysregulation model

Question 9

Cognitive-behavioural treatments

Answer 9

• Cognitive-Behavioural therapy: challenge maladaptive assumptions (learn to accept worries and let them go)
• pharmaceutical therapies (benzodiazepines, anti-psychotic drugs, anti-deppressant drugs)

Question 10

GAD: biological perspective

Answer 10

• Genetic factors (more likely to have GAD if a relative has it)
• abnormal GABA (inhibitory transmitter) activity affects the amygdala which is responsible for fear/emotion responses
  → benzodiazepines prolong the opening of GABA receptors (reduces neuron firing rates)

Question 11

Phobia

Answer 11

A persistent and unreasonable fear of a particular object, activity, or situation

Question 12

Agoraphobia

Answer 12

• Particularity debilitating phobia—fear of going outside/fear of public spaces
  → people may be isolated in their homes and unable to carry out daily activities
  → often co-morbid with panic disorder

Question 13

Causes of phobia

Answer 13

• Learning from experience: having a fearful experience may be associated with fear towards similar objects/situations
• classical conditioning: if an object/situation co-occurs in time/space with a fearful experience it may be associated with fear even if it wasn’t the cause
• modelling: seeing others express a fear response to an object/situation may cause you to also learn to fear it
• avoidance: once a fear is learned people avoid the thing that causes them fear and therefore never unlearn the fear
• evolutionary: people are inherently predisposed to fear objects/situations that are potentially threatening

Question 14

Treatments for phobias

Answer 14

• Exposure therapy: fearful people are repeatedly exposed to the objects or situations they dread
  → systematic desensitization: gradually expose people to their phobia while teaching them to relax
• flooding: repeatedly expose people to the phobia
• modelling: therapist exposes themselves to the phobia while the client watches
• support groups: people with the same phobia enter the situation together
• pharmaceuticals

Question 15

Social anxiety disorder

Answer 15

• Severe and persistent anxiety that is specific to social situations (can be broad or manifest in specific situations)
• cognitive-behavioural perspective: social anxiety is caused by dysfunctional beliefs and/or unrealistic expectations

Question 16

Treatment for social anxiety disorder

Answer 16

• Cognitive-behavioural therapy
• benzodiazepines or anti-depressants
• exposure therapy
• modelling
• social skills training

Question 17

Panic disorder

Answer 17

• panic attacks: sometimes an anxiety reaction can take form as periodic short bursts of panic that occur suddenly, reach a peak within a few minutes, and gradually pass (intense terror, smothering sensation)
• panic disorder is an anxiety disorder marked by recurrent and unpredictable panic attacks
  → often accompanied by agoraphobia (afraid they will have a panic attack in public)

Question 18

Panic disorder treatment

Answer 18

• Anti-depressants
• benzodiazepines
• cognitive-behavioural therapy
• exposure therapy
• relaxing/breathing exercises
• cognitive reappraisal

Question 19

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Answer 19

• A disorder in which a person has recurrent obsessions, compulsions, or both
  → obsession: persistent thought, area, impulse or image that is experienced repeatedly and feels intrusive (the thought)
  → compulsion: a repetitive behaviour or mental act that a person feels driven to perform (the act)
• distinguished from habits, routines, or superstitions due to the distress and dysfunction it causes

Question 20

OCD: biological model

Answer 20

• OCD associated with a hyperactive network
  → hyperactive thalamus leads to increased anxiety and increased attention paid towards this sensation

Question 21

OCD treatment

Answer 21

• Anti-depressants (particularly SSRI’s)
• exposure and response prevention

Question 22

Illness anxiety

Answer 22

• Persistent anxiety about one’s health
  → symptoms of mild illness are interpreted as more serve than they actually are