Chapter 11 Flashcards
Fear
a response to a specific perceived danger, either to oneself or a loved one
Anxiety
a general expectation that something bad might happen; ongoing sense of uncertainty/threat
Social anxiety
intense anxiety around social situation (especially having other’s attention on you)
Startle response
reaction to something sudden, where the muscles tense rapidly, the eyes close for a moment, and the shoulders pull up towards the ears, arms closer to the head
Startle potentiation
enhancement of the startle response when the situation is cued as frightening or unpleasant
- psychopaths don’t have this!`
Startle potentiation (how?)
information from the ears goes to the pons, medulla, and spinal cord
- takes less than 1/5 a second
Major Categories of Fears
social threats, physical threats (nonalive), and dangerous animals
Prepared learning
people are predisposed to fear certain things (or learn certain things) more than others because of evolution
Prepared learning (how??)
- amygdala receives input from vision, hearing, etc and sends it to the hippocampus to learn, the pons to tag/react, and the prefrontal cortex to think/interpret
- response mediated by pons reaction, as it is saying whether to tag or react to it
Anxiolytics
drugs that treat anxiety symptoms
an agonist
helps GABA
Positive Feedback Loop
output feeds back into the system to increase initial inputs, and tends to burn-out/lose steam because it requires constant input (symptoms emerge)
Negative Feedback Loop
output feeds back in to decrease initial inputs, and tends to stick (symptoms are maintained
Hostile aggression
aggression motivated by anger, with the intent to hurt someone
Instrumental aggression
aggression used to achieve something one wants
- more common
Anger Management Training (4)
cognitive restructuring
social skills training
exposure therapy
problem solving