Chapter 5

Question 1

What is fear?

Answer 1

The central nervous system’s physiological and emotional response to a serious threat to one’s wellbeing

Question 2

What is anxiety?

Answer 2

The central nervous system’s physiological and emotional response to a vague sense of threat or danger

Question 3

What is generalized anxiety disorder?

Answer 3

A disorder marked by persistent and excessive feelings of anxiety and worry about numerous events and activities

Question 4

What are basic irrational assumptions?

Answer 4

The inaccurate and inappropriate beliefs held by people with various psychological problems, according to Albert Ellis

Question 5

What is rational-emotive therapy?

Answer 5

A cognitive therapy developed by Albert Ellis that helps clients identify and change irrational assumptions and thinking that help cause their psychological disorder

Question 6

What is the family pedigree study?

Answer 6

A research design in which investigators determine how many and which relatives of a person with a disorder have the same disorder

Question 7

What are benzodiazepines?

Answer 7

The most common group of anti-anxiety drugs, which includes Valium and Xanax

Question 8

What is Gamma-amniobutyric acid? (GABA)

Answer 8

A neurotransmitter whose low activity in the brain’s fear circuit has been linked to anxiety

Question 9

What is the brain circuit?

Answer 9

Networks of brain structures that work together, triggering each other into action.

Question 10

What are sedative-hypnotic drugs?

Answer 10

Drugs that calm people at lower doses and help them fall asleep at higher doses.

Question 11

What is a phobia?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What is a specific phobia?

Answer 12

A severe and persistent fear of a specific object or situation

Question 13

What is agoraphobia?

Answer 13

An anxiety disorder in which a person is afraid to be in public situations from which escape might be difficult or help unavailable if panic-like or embarrassing symptoms were to occur

Question 14

What is systematic desensitization?

Answer 14

An exposure treatment that uses relaxation training and a gear hierarchy to help clients with phobias react calmly to the objects or situations they dread.

Question 15

What is flooding?

Answer 15

An exposure treatment for phobias in which clients are exposed repeatedly and intensively to a feared object and made to see that it is actually harmless

Question 16

What is social anxiety disorder?

Answer 16

A severe and persistent fear of social or performance situations where embarrassment may occur.

Question 17

What are social skills training?

Answer 17

A therapy approach that helps people learn or improve social skills and assertiveness through role-playing and rehearsing of desirable behaviour

Question 18

What are panic attacks?

Answer 18

Periodic, short bouts of panic that occur suddenly, reach a peak within minutes, and gradually pass.

Question 19

What is locus coeruleus?

Answer 19

A small brain area that seems to be active in regulating emotions. Many of its neurons use norepinephrine

Question 20

What is the biological challenge test?

Answer 20

A procedure used to produce panic in participants or clients by having them exercise vigorously or perform some other potentially panic-inducing task in the presence of a researcher or therapist.

Question 21

What is anxiety sensitivity?

Answer 21

A tendency to focus on one’s bodily sensations, assess them illogiclaly, and interpret them as harmful

Question 22

What is obsession?

Answer 22

A persistent thought, idea, impulse, or image that is experienced repeatedly, feels intrusive, and causes anxiety

Question 23

What is compulsion?

Answer 23

A repetitive and rigid behaviour or mental act that a person feels driven to perform in order to prevent or reduce anxiety.

Question 24

What is obsessive-compulsive disorder?

Answer 24

A disorder in which a person has recurrent obsessions, compulsions, or both

Question 25

What is neutralizing?

Answer 25

A person’s attempt to eliminate unwanted thoughts by thinking or behaving in ways that put matters right internally, making up for the unacceptable thoughts.

Question 26

What is exposure and response prevention?

Answer 26

A cognitive-behavioural technique use to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder that exposes a client to anxiety-arousing thoughts or situations and then prevents the client from performing compulsive acts. Also called exposure and ritual prevention

Question 27

What is the hoarding disorder?

Answer 27

A disorder in which individuals feel compelled to save items and become very distressed if they try to discard them, resulting in an excessive accumulation of items

Question 28

What is trichotillomania?

Answer 28

A disorder in which people repeatedly pull out hair from their scape, eyebrows, eyelashes, or other parts of the body

Question 29

What is excoriation disorder?

Answer 29

A disorder in which people repeatedly pick at their skin, resulting in signifigant sores or wounds