Chapter 2 - Anxiety disorders

Question 1

Fight or flight response

Answer 1

Physiological changes in the human body that occur in response to a percieved threat, including elevated heart rate, metabolism, blood pressure, breathing and muscle tension; these changes prepare the body for resisting or fleeing from the source of threat.

Question 2

Negative reinforcement

Answer 2

Increasing the frequency of a behaviour (e.g., escape or avoidance) through the removal of an aversive experience (e.g., anxiety).

Question 3

Autonomic nervous system

Answer 3

Part of the peripheral nervous system that regulates involuntary functions such as heart rate, digestion, respiration rate and perspiration; includes the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.

Question 4

Specific phobia

Answer 4

Anxiety disorder characterised by extreme fear of a specific object or situation, which results in the individual avoiding the object or situation.

Question 5

Prepared classical conditioning

Answer 5

Theory that evolution has prepared people to be easily conditioned to fear objects or situations that were dangerous in prehistoric times.

Question 6

Exposure therapy

Answer 6

Behavioural technique in which the client confronts the feared stimuli that s/he has avoided until his/her anxiety reduces; there are various types of exposure such as in vivo versus imaginal.

Question 7

In vivo exposure

Answer 7

Technique of behaviour therapy in which clients confront their feared objects/situations in real life (as opposed to imaginal exposure).

Question 8

Flooding

Answer 8

Behavioural technique in which the client is intensively exposed to a feared object until his/her anxiety diminishes.

Question 9

Extinction

Answer 9

In learning theory, elimination of a classically conditioned response by removal of the unconditioned stimulus or the elimination of an operantly conditioned response by removal of the reinforcement.

Question 10

Habituation

Answer 10

Lessening of an organism’s response with repitition of the stimulus.

Question 11

Inhibitory learning

Answer 11

Learning that occures when new associations between conditionedstimuli (CS) and unconditioned stimuli (US) are developed during exposure therapy. The original associations between the CS and US are not erased.

Question 12

Self-efficacy

Answer 12

Person’s belief the s/he has the ability to succeed in a specific situation.

Question 13

Agoraphobia

Answer 13

Anxiety disorder characterised by a fear of situations in which it would be difficult to escape or in which help may not be readily available (such as enclosed places and crowds) in the event of experiencing panic symptoms.

Question 14

Panic attack

Answer 14

Episode during which an individual experiences a rapid increase in the physiological and cognitive symptoms of intense fear and discomfort.

Question 15

Panic disorder

Answer 15

Anxiety disorder characterised by recurrent, unexpected panic attacks.

Question 16

Neuroticism

Answer 16

Personality trait entailing a tendency to experience negative emotional states.

Question 17

Anxiety sensitivity

Answer 17

Belief that the bodily symptoms of anxiety have harmful consequences.

Question 18

Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs)

Answer 18

Class of antidepressant drugs such as imipramine and amitriptyline.

Question 19

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

Answer 19

Class of antidepressant drugs (such as fluoxetine) that inhibit the reuptake of serotonin.

Question 20

Benzodiazepines

Answer 20

Drugs (such as Valium and Xanax) that reduce anxiety and insomnia.

Question 21

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)

Answer 21

Type of psychological treatment that combines both cognitive and behavioural concepts and techniques.

Question 22

Interoceptive exposure

Answer 22

behavioural technique that entails exposing the individual to the physical sensations of a panic attack.

Question 23

Social anxiety disorder (social phobia)

Answer 23

Anxiety disorder characterised by an extreme fear of being judged or embarrassed in front of others, causing the individual to avoid social situations.

Question 24

Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)

Answer 24

Anxiety disorder characterised by chronic worry in daily life accompanied by physical symptoms of tension.

Question 25

Meta-beliefs

Answer 25

Beliefs about one’s own beliefs and those of others.

Question 26

Azapirones

Answer 26

Class of drugs (such as buspirone) that may be used in the treatment of generalised anxiety disorder.

Question 27

Wait-list control group

Answer 27

In treatment outcome study, group of participants that functions as a no-treatment control group while the experimental group receives the intervention.

Question 28

Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT)

Answer 28

Short-term psychological treatment originally dveloped by Gerald Klerman, Myrna Weissman and their collegues for the treatment of derpession; addresses the client’s interpersonal problems as a way of improving his/her psychological symptoms.