L4: Anxiety, Social Anxiety Flashcards
What are the three interrelated anxiety systems?
Physical, cognitive and behavioural.
How does normal anxiety differ from abnormal anxiety?
The experience is the same. Abnormal anxiety differs in its intensity, frequency, or in the situations that elicit it.
List the three elements in the physical anxiety system.
- sympathetic nervous system initiates fight or flight response
- body mobilises resources to deal with threat
- symptoms: pounding heart, rapid breathing, trembling, sweating
LIst three elements of the cognitive anxiety system.
- perception of threat
- attention shift and hypervigilance
- difficulty concentrating on any other information
List two elements of the behavioural anxiety system.
- avoidance/escape
- aggression
What three types of situations are likely to elicit normal anxiety?
- realistic/objective threat to self. (can be threat of physical or social harm).
- biologically significant stimuli. E.g. snakes, spiders, anger, heights,
- novel stimuli
What two calculations is expectancy of harm a product of?
- perceived probability of aversive event
- perceived cost of aversive event
What three types of past learning can produce these negative expectancies?
- experience/learning. conditioning.
- observational learning
- instruction
What individual differences are there in anxiety?
- Trait anxiety differs across individuals -> tendency to perceive threat in ambiguous situations, and the extent to which anxiety response is activated.
- specific fears differ across individuals
In what two ways do abnormally anxious people overestimate the threat in a situation?
Overestimating the probability or cost of an outcome.
- Physical threats - objectively costly, but the probability is overestimated.
- Social threats - more like to actually occur, but the cost is overestimated.
What are anxiety disorders co-morbid with?
Each other, depression, substance abuse.
What are the two generalised biological vulnerabilities to anxiety disorders?
- neuroticism
- genetic loadings predisposing to anxiety specifically
What are the two generalised psychological vulnerabilities to anxiety disorder?
- high trait anxiety
- low perceived control
- both increase vulnerability to anxiety disorders and depression
What are the specific psychological vulnerabilities to anxiety, and how are these acquired?
- Focus of threat-related beliefs
- these acquired through direct experience, observation or instruction.
What 7 anxiety disorders are listed in the DSM-5?
- Separation Anxiety Disorder (child or adult)
- Selective Mutism
- Specific Phobia
- Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia)
- Panic Disorder
- Agoraphobia
- Generalised Anxiety Disorder
What are the four main changes to the anxiety disorders between the DSM-IV and DSM-5?
- Selective Mutism added
- Agoraphobia own disorder, not subset of Panic Disorder
- PTSD and Stress Disorder moved to own category
- OCD moved to own category
List the 7 criteria for Social Anxiety Disorder in the DSM-5
A. A persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others. The individual fears that he or she will act in a way (or show anxiety symptoms) that will be embarrassing and humiliating.
B. Exposure to the feared situation almost invariably provokes anxiety, which may take the form of a situationally bound or situationally pre-disposed Panic Attack.
C. The person recognizes that this fear is unreasonable or excessive.
D. The feared situations are avoided or else are endured with intense anxiety and distress.
E. The avoidance, anxious anticipation, or distress in the feared social or performance situation(s) interferes significantly with the person’s normal routine, occupational (academic) functioning, or social activities or relationships, or there is marked distress about having the phobia.
F. The fear, anxiety, or avoidance is persistent, typically lasting 6 or more months.
What is the 12 month prevalence rate of Social Anxiety Disorder in adults in the Australia and the US? How do Europe and Asia compare?
- Prevalence in Australia/US is 7-8%
- slightly lower in Europe and Asia
How does incidence differ by gender?
SAD is 1.5-2.2 times higher in women, in the general population
- in clinical populations, gender ratio is equal
What is the typical age of onset of SAD?
Childhood or adolescence.
What is the course without treatment?
Chronic without treatment.
What comorbidities are found with SAD?
- other anxiety disorders, avoidant personality disorder, depression, substance abuse
What are three assumptions that SAD prone individuals tend to make about social situations?
- Excessively high standards
- Conditional beliefs about consequences
- Unconditional negative beliefs about the self
What is common safety behaviour and how does it contribute to SAD?
- increased self-focused attention.
- this can increase anxiety symptoms, impair social performance, and thus confirm social fears
