Chapter 6 - Panic, Anxiety, Obsessions, and Their Disorders Flashcards
Describe the difference between fear and anxiety.
Fear: when the source of danger is obvious (e.g., “I’m afraid of
snakes”)
Anxiety: we frequently cannot
specify clearly what the danger is (e.g., “I’m anxious about my parents’ health”)
How do the symptoms of a panic attack differ from simple fear?
The symptoms of a panic attack are
nearly identical to those experienced during a state of fear EXCEPT that panic attacks are often accompanied by a subjective sense of impending doom (panic attacks also have the cognitive/subjective components)
Describe the four major subtypes of phobias (in the table, ignore “other”) and give examples of phobias
falling into each of the categories?
- Animal: snakes, spiders, dogs
- Natural Environment: storms, heights, water
- Blood-injection-injury: seeing blood or an injury, receiving an injection
- Situational: public transportation, tunnels, bridges, elevators
How is a blood-injection-injury phobia distinct from other types of phobias?
- Rather than showing the simple increase in heart rate and blood pressure seen when most people with phobias encounter their phobic object, these people show an initial acceleration, followed by a DRAMATIC DROP in both heart rate and blood
pressure (can lead to dizziness and fainting). - Evolutionary Basis: having a low blood pressure can actually help you deal with wounds and minimize blood loss. Also, if you pass out, it can save your life because you can appear dead to a predator
Explain how research has linked the concept of evolutionary preparedness to phobias.
- Our evolutionary history has affected which stimuli we are most likely
to fear. Primates and humans seem to be evolutionarily prepared to rapidly associate certain objects such as snakes, spiders, water, and enclosed spaces with frightening or unpleasant events. - Guns, motorcycles, and
chainsaws, by contrast, were not present in our early evolutionary history and so we did not convey any such selective advantage.
Describe the characteristics of social phobia/social anxiety disorder.
Social Anxiety
- Disabling fears of one or more specific social situations (such as public speaking, urinating in a public bathroom, or eating or writing in public)
- In these situations, a person fears that she or he may be exposed to
the scrutiny and potential negative evaluation of others or that she or he may act in an embarrassing or humiliating manner
How could evolutionary theory explain the origin of social phobia?
- Its likely that social phobia emerged as a by-product of dominance hierarchies that are a common social arrangement among animals such as primates
- It is not surprising that humans have an evolutionarily based predisposition to acquire fears of social stimuli that signal dominance and aggression from other humans.
What is behavioral inhibition?
Behaviorally inhibited infants are easily distressed by unfamiliar stimuli and are shy and avoidant (possess neurotic and introverted characteristics as well)
How is the amygdala involved in panic disorder?
- Increased activity in the amygdala plays a central role in panic attacks.
- People with abnormally sensitive fear networks are more likely to develop a panic disorder.
Distinguish between interoceptive and exteroceptive conditioning.
- Interoceptive: internal bodily cues that triggers the panic attack. (ex: you had a headache the first time you had a panic attack so now when you have a headache you start to panic
- Exteroceptive: something outside your body that triggers the panic attack. (ex: you had a panic attack in LR2, so now you get panicked every time in you go into LR2)
Explain how the experience of nocturnal panic challenges a purely cognitive view of this disorder.
- Nocturnal panic refers to waking from sleep in a state of panic.
- Although one might think
that such panic attacks occur in response to nightmares, considerable research shows that this is not the case. - If nocturnal panic attacks occurred in response to dreams, we would expect them to occur during REM sleep, but in fact they occur during Stage 2 and early Stage 3 sleep, usually a few hours after falling asleep
What are “safety behaviors” and how can they function to maintain the panic cycle?
- Safety behaviors are behaviors that people with panic disorder mistake for why the catastrophe did not happen.
- Instead of realizing that each time they have a panic attack, a catastrophe (ex: heart attack) does not happen, they instead attribute it to their safety behavior (ex: breathing slowly or taking medication)
