contemporary learning perspective on anxiety disorders Flashcards
watson & rayner proposal for how phobias developed
phobias are classically conditioned fears, where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a traumatic event
wat waren 2 kritiekpunten op dit traditionele conditioning model
- what about individual differences for who develops a phobia and who does not?
- what about vicarious learning?
sources of individual differences in acquisition of phobias
- genetics
- temperament (shy = more likely to develop)
- life experiences:
1. prior exposure to the cs -> latent inhibition -> reducing the subsequent conditioning (dus meer eerdere encounters van CS-no US leidt tot minder kans op een phobia)
2. history of control over environment (hoe meer gevoel van controle en mastery, hoe minder snel anxiety disorders) - context during conditioning (escape possible = better prognosis)
- post event experiences (iets nog veel traumatischer meemaken)
evolutionary perspective on phobias
humans may be predisposed to fear certain stimuli that were ancestral threats: prepared fears, easily acquired and resistant to extinction (such as spiders and snakes)
fear-relevant stimuli show superior conditioning, over fear-irrelevant stimuli. show automaticity and resistance to cognitive control. these are biased associations in preparedness effects. the acquisiton of phobias involves a basic, emotionally driven learning process, shared across mammals.
social phobia may arise from…
direct traumatic conditioning, or social learning.
4 social learning pathways
- vicarious conditioning (vulnerable individuals may develop social phobia after witnessing someone getting humiliated/ridiculed)
- famillial modelling (people with social phobia tend to have more socially avoidant family members)
- direct social reinforcement and verbal instruction (parents tend to reciprocate avoidant behaviours of anxious children, and discussing potentially threatening information could strengthen these avoidant tendencies)
- culturally transmitted display rules and norms: bv Japanese disorder Taijin Kyofusho (TK), which involves fears of embarrasing or offending others.
how can you extend preparedness theory to social anxiety
social anxiety may be linked to the evolution of dominance hierarchies. social stimuli signalling dominance and intra-specific threat may serve as fear-relevant or prepared conditioned stimuli for social anxiety. bv angry face expressions (vaak een sign of dominance during primate conflicts)
temperament can predict the onset of both…
specific phobias in childhood and social phobias in adolescence.
perceptions of …. contribute to individual differences in developing social phobia
uncontrollability
wat voor research was er naar uncontrollability
animal research shows that uncontrollable stressors such as electric shock of social defeat, lead to increased submissiveness. the effects of social defeat, including learned helplessness and fear conditioned responses, are associated with social phobia
goldstein and chambless’s approach of panic attack
- emphasizing exteroceptive and interoceptive conditioning
- fear of fear, resulting from interoceptive conditioning, where low-level somatic sensations of anxiety become associated with higher levels of anxiety
wat is een soort subtype van panic disorder
panic disorder with agoraphobia (die mensen ontwikkelen agoraphobic tendencies because they avoid the situations that may be difficult to escape whenever they have a panic attack).
Bouton exteroceptive and interoceptive conditioning in panic disorder
vulnerable individuals experience conditioning during the initial panic attacks. prototypic conditioned stimilu (CSS) include both interoceptive sensations (heart rate) and exteroceptive stimuli (escalators and malls).
interoceptive conditioning is ook te zien in honden (laboured breathing to intestinal distention) dus het kan dat het daarom ook zo belangrijk is bij panic disorder en panic disorder + agoraphobia
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waar wordt die agoraphobia vaak door veroorzaakt
door exteroceptive conditioning (anxiety becomes linked to places where the panic attacks have occured).
two significant risk factors for developing agoraphobia
- gender (women)
- employment (individuals who work outside the house; less prone) -> avoidance is a maintaining factor
wat voor conditioned stimuli kunnen nog meer de response beinvloeden
- inhibitory stimuli for safety (compagnion mee)
- stimuli associated with anxiety can lead to more safety behaviours
baseline anxiety levels predict who will experience panic in response to panic provocation agents.
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3 key vulnerability factors for developing panic disorder
- genetic and temperamental vulnerability
- psychological vulnerability from prior learning experiences
- specific learning experiences
psychological vulnerability from prior learning experiences=
lack of control, helplessness (bv experiences such as death or divorce).
positive experiences with control and mastery contribute to developing coping abilities.
specific learning experiences =
bv panic attacks: more likely to being encouraged to engage in sickness behaviour during panic attacks. more exposure to chronic illnesses also.
-> observing physical suffering may contribute to evaluating somatic symptoms as dangerous
waar is ptsd aan gelinkt
perception of uncontrollable and unpredictable stress (drawing parallels to animal models of learned helplessness)
trauma phase:
- traumas perceived as uncontrollable and unpredictable are more likely to lead to ptsd
- the psychological state during the trauma is indicated as a critical factor
- psychological readiness, resistance and active coping during torture may reduce the likelihood of developing ptsd.
pre-trauma phase:
- prior exposure to uncontrollable stress sensitizes (gevoelig maken) the person for the harmful effects of trauma
- history of repeated trauma increases the risk (especially when deemed uncontrollable)
- prior experiences of control have a protecting effect
post trauma phase
these factors can have an impact:
- reexperiencing symptoms
- severity of re experiencing symptoms
- re-evaluation, contextual exposure
risk factors GAD
- history of uncontrollable and unpredictable life stress
- suppression of emotional and physiological responses reinforces worry
- attempts to control the worry leads to increased intrusive thoughts -> nog meer anxiety
OCD =
unwanted intrusive thoughts and or compulsive behaviours
wat is een risk factor for ocd development
verbal transmission of dangerous thoughts (bv van ouders -> warnings about contamination, thought-action fusion, nihilistic thoughts)
dus social learning !
wat voor correlatie zie je bij ocd en religie
mensen met een religie meer kans op ocd, waarschijnlijk door meer nadruk thought-action fusion
preparedness in ocd=
obsessions and rituals are often linked to evolutionary themes (bv. animal species that perform displacement activities under conflict, contamination)
learning models suggest targeting…
at risk individuals based on their prior learning histories.
wat kan immunization zijn tegen anxiety disorders
facilitating the development of mastery and exposure to non-anxious mdoels from an early age, especially in children of parents with anxiety disorders
