Chapter 5 - Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Trauma-Related Disorders Flashcards
Characteristics of Anxiety
Feelings
Cognitive processes
Bodily arousal
Behaviour
Anxiety vs Fear vs Panic
Anxiety – future oriented
Fear – present oriented
Panic – false alarm
Etiology of Anxiety
Genetic
Heritability: ~30-50%
Non-specific risk – environmental factors
Neuroanatomy and neurotransmitters
Fear system operates subcortical area
Higher cortical areas can extinguish conditioned fears
No neurotransmitter designated to anxiety
GABA
Serotonin, norepinephrine
Psychological Factors of Anxiety
Behavioural factors
Two-factor theory – acquire fears classical conditioning, maintain operant conditioning
Cognitive factors
Biased view of world – helpless vulnerability
Interpersonal factors
Anxious parenting styles
Early parent-child interactions
Panic Disorder
Experience recurrent/unexpected panic attacks
At least 2 attacks, 4 symptoms
“Fear of fear”
Agoraphobia – anxiety about being in places/situations where difficult to escape and get help if panic attack occurs
3 options for feared situation
Actively avoided
Presence of companion
Endured with extreme anxiety
Etiology of Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia
Biological factors – relatives with disorder = 5x more likely
Psychological factors
Biological challenges induce panic attacks more than control variables
Nocturnal panic – attack occurs while sleeping/relaxing
Fear of letting go (sense of losing control)
Cognitive factors
Catastrophic misinterpretations of bodily sensations
Anxiety-sensitivity – belief symptoms of anxiety will have consequences beyond attack
Alarm theory – false alarm associate with natural cues
Specific Phobias
Excessive/unreasonable fear reactions
Types... Animal Natural environment Blood-injection-injury Situational Other
Etiology of Specific Phobias
Associative model
Classical conditioning
Equipotentiality premise – assumes all neutral stimuli potential to be phobia
Non-associative model
Evolution to fear certain stimuli (danger)
Babies’ prewired anxiety – strangers
Biological preparedness
Natural selection with predisposition to fear certain threats
Disgust sensitivity
Degree susceptible to being disgusted by variety of stimuli
Social Anxiety Disorder
Fear of social/performance related situations
Fear of being negatively evaluated
Overt avoidance – fully avoid situation
Covert avoidance – safety behaviours
Diagnosis and Assessment of Social Anxiety Disorder
Structured and semi-structured interviews
Self-report measures
Difficulty differentiating from agoraphobia
Different reasons of fear
Etiology of Social Anxiety Disorder
Genetic factors
~40% risk
Behavioural inhibition
Early psychosocial experiences – negative events in childhood
Cognitive factors
Concern making mistakes
Judge self as inferior to others – self-focused attention
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Uncontrollable and excessive worry (pathological)
Diagnosis and assessment
Excessive worry present for 6+ months
Worry not confined to certain area – everything
Etiology of Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Avoidance strategy – decreases somatic arousal
Borkevec and Hu
Told participants to worry before exposure
Worry decreased physiological reaction – inhibit cardiovascular activity
Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) – discomfort with ambiguity
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Recurrent uncontrollable thoughts/impulses
Compulsions – repetitive behaviours/cognitive acts to reduce anxiety
Neutralizations – mental acts to cancel/undo feared consequence of obsession
Personal responsibility and guilt
Thought-action fusion (TAF) - belief having thought increases likelihood of coming true
Magical thinking – thoughts cause/prevent events from occurring
Etiology of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Mild genetic risk factors
Neurobiological model
Basal ganglia (motor) and frontal cortex (cognitive) -- more volume BG, less volume FC
Abnormalities in brain system
Abnormalities in serotonin system – SSRIs helpful to reduce symptoms
Catastrophic misinterpretations of intrusive thoughts
