Chapter 11. Anxiety & OCD Flashcards
Agoraphobia
A DSM-5 disorder characterized by marked
anxiety about places or situations from which escape
or help is not possible without considerable effort or
embarrassment
Anxiety
An emotional state of psychological distress
that reflects emotional, behavioral, physiological, and
cognitive reactions to threatening stimuli
Anxiety sensitivity
The tendency to perceive anxiety symptoms as upsetting and aversive; may explain a person’s likelihood of developing panic disorder
Apprehensive expectation
An essential feature of GAD; excessive worry about the future
Attachment
The emotional bond between caregiver and
child during the first few years of life; promotes safety
and allows the child to explore his or her environment
Behavioral inhibition
The capacity to inhibit play and vocalization, to withdraw, and to seek a parent when encountering unfamiliar people or situations
Cognitive avoidance theory
Posits that worry (and GAD) is maintained through negative reinforcement; individuals replace images of imminent danger with more abstract, analytical thoughts about future misfortune
Cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT)
The integration of cognitive and behavioral interventions to produce behavior change; relies on the premise that changes in thoughts or overt actions can affect emotions
Cognitive restructuring
Cognitive interventions that involve challenging biases and distortions that lead to negative emotions by looking for objective evidence to support
them
Compulsions
Repetitive behaviors or mental acts that
an individual feels driven to perform in response to an
obsession or according to specific, inflexible rules
Contingency management
A behavioral intervention in which a person receives positive reinforcement for confronting a feared stimulus and is not allowed to avoid or escape the stimulus
Cortico-basal-ganglionic circuit
A neural pathway that underlies OCD; consists of the (1) orbitofrontal cortex, (2) cingulate gyrus, and (3) caudate
Excoriation disorder
A DSM-5 disorder characterized by recurrent skin picking that results in lesions; causes distress or impairment
Expectancy theory of panic
An explanation for the emergence of panic disorder; posits that people are prone to anxiety about panic attacks because of their heightened sensitivity to anxiety
Exposure and response prevention (EX/RP)
A behavioral intervention used to treat OCD; involves exposing oneself to a series of stimuli that elicit obsessions and avoiding their corresponding compulsive behaviors
Exposure therapy
A form of behavior therapy used to treat anxiety and related disorders; involves repeatedly confronting feared stimuli for discrete periods of time until anxiety or negative affect dissipates
Fear
A behavioral and physiological reaction to immediate threat, in which the person responds to imminent danger by confrontation or escape
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
A DSM-5 disorder characterized by persistent worry, that is difficult to control, and associated with restlessness, poor concentration, fatigue, irritability, tension, and/or sleep problems
Habit reversal training
A behavioral technique used to decrease unwanted actions; the person engages in a behavior that, when carried out, makes it impossible to produce the unwanted action
Interoceptive exposure
A behavioral intervention unique to the treatment of panic disorder; the person intentionally produces physiological symptoms of panic and then uses relaxation techniques to cope with these symptoms
Maladaptive anxiety
Anxiety characterized by (1) intensity that is out of proportion to the perceived threat, (2) chronicity that lasts beyond removal of the immediate threat, and (3) impairment
Metacognition
The ability to think about one’s own thoughts and feelings
Modeling
A behavioral intervention in which the child acquires a new behavior through imitating another (i.e., observational learning)
Mowrer’s two-factor theory of anxiety
A general theory of anxiety that posits that disorders emerge through classical conditioning and are maintained through negative reinforcement
Obsessions
Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or images that are experienced as intrusive and unwanted
Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD)
A DSM-5 disorder characterized by obsessions and/or compulsions that are time consuming and cause significant distress or impairment
Panic attack
An abrupt surge of intense fear or discomfort that reaches a peak within 10 minutes and is characterized by heightened negative affect and physiological arousal; can occur by itself or in the context of an anxiety disorder
Panic disorder
A DSM-5 disorder characterized by recurrent, unexpected panic attacks and 1 month of worry about future attacks or a change in behavior because of the attacks
Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcus (PANDAS) theory
An explanation for some causes of childhood OCD; posits that streptococcus infection leads to an autoimmune reaction that causes OCD-like symptoms, tics, and irritability
Relaxation training
A cognitive–behavioral intervention designed to reduce physiological arousal and avoid panic; usually involves muscle relaxation, controlled breathing, and pleasant imagery or self-statements
Selective mutism
A DSM-5 disorder characterized by consistent failure to speak in social situations in which there is an expectation for speaking (e.g., at school); lasts for at least 1 month and impairs functioning
Self-monitoring
A behavioral intervention to treat unwanted actions; the individual observes and records the frequency of the actions during the course of the day
Separation anxiety disorder (SAD)
A DSM-5 disorder characterized by a developmentally inappropriate and excessive fear of separation from attachment figures; lasts at least 4 weeks in children and causes distress or impairment in functioning
Social anxiety disorder
A DSM-5 disorder characterized by marked fear or anxiety about one or more social situations in which the individual is exposed to possible scrutiny by others; lasts at least 6 months and causes distress or impairment
Specific phobia
A DSM-5 disorder characterized by marked fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation; persists for at least 6 months and causes distress or impairment
Systematic desensitization
A behavioral technique based on classical conditioning; the person associates a feared stimulus with an incompatible response (e.g., relaxation)
Tics
Sudden, rapid, nonrhythmic, and stereotyped behaviors that are involuntary; can be motor or vocal
Tourette’s disorder
A DSM-5 disorder characterized by the presence of multiple motor and vocal tics lasting for more than 1 year
Trichotillomania
A DSM-5 disorder characterized by the repeated pulling out of hair, resulting in hair loss; causes distress or impairment
Vasovagal response
A physiological response that involves a rapid increase and sudden decrease in blood pressure; shown by individuals with blood-injection-injury phobias
Worry
A cognitive response to threat in which the person
considers and prepares for future danger or misfortune
