Lecture 3: Models Of Anxiety

Question 1

What is important in Clark’s adaptation of cognitive therapy for panic

Answer 1

Emphasizes that in panic disorder the focus is primarily on bodily sensations and their catastrophic misunderstanding, this maintains a high level of distress and can lead to other activities being avoided because it leads to the same sensations (hypervigilance to sensations)

Question 2

What is the difference between the old brain and the new brain

Answer 2

Old = harm avoidance, reproduction, competing, caring (fight, flight, freeze, etc.)
New = imagination, thinking, planning, rumination, mentalizing, self-monitoring

Question 3

What is the difference between worry and rumination

Answer 3

Worry = chain of thoughts, negatively affect-laden and relatively uncontrollable; attempt of mental problem solving —> future, anxiety
Rumination = repetitive and passive thinking about one’s symptoms of depression and the possible cause and consequence of these symptoms —> past, depression

Question 4

What is post event processing (PEP)

Answer 4

Thinking about social situations, self-focused

Question 5

What are 5 models of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Answer 5

1. Meta cognitive model (MCM, Wells); type 1 worry = positive beliefs about worry —> people believe they are problem solving and thinking about the future, type 2 worry = negative beliefs about worrying —> leads to ineffective coping strategies
2. Avoidance model of worry and GAD (AMW); worry is verbal and thought-based, inhibits mental imagery and associated somatic and emotional activation —> this inhibition precludes emotional processing of fear that is theoretically needed for successful habituation and extinction
3. Intolerance of uncertainty model (IUM); uncertain situations are too stressful/upsetting, chronic worry in response —> belief that worry will help cope/prevent situations —> worry leads to negative problem orientation and cognitive avoidance —> maintains worry
4. Emotion dysregulation model (EDM); emotional hypoerarousal (more intense), poorer understanding of own emotions, more negative attitudes about emotions, maladaptive emotion regulation —> strategies lead to worse emotional states than those initially set out to regulate
5. Acceptance-based model of GAD (ABM); perceived external threat —> internal experiences —> problematic relationship with internal experiences (belief that they are part of the individual) —> experiential avoidance (worry) —> behavioral restriction (reduced activity in valued actions/activities)

Question 6

What is contrast avoidance in relation to GAD

Answer 6

A study showed that people in the worry condition seem to avoid contrast of emotions (going from one emotional state to the other) —> theory that came from this suggested that people might use worry to decrease contrast —> always in a state of arousal instead of going from one state to the other

Question 7

Explain the Heimberg & Rapee model

Answer 7

Mental representations about themselves in a social situation —> preferential allocation of attentional recourses (ideas about how they are the focus of other people’s attention) —> ideas about what they think people think of them —> external indicators of evaluation and perceived internal cues (eg. blushing) —> think there’s a large possibility of negative evaluation towards them —> overestimate the consequences of this —> behavioral symptoms (safety behaviors) —> safety behaviors might have negative consequences

Question 8

What are 5 ways in which information processing biases play a role in SAD

Answer 8

• attention; much attention on negative cues, paying attention to only internal cues might lead others to actually evaluate you negatively because you might see uninterested
• self-focused attention; increased self-focused attention to internal cues
• interpretation; tendency to interpret neutral/ambiguous situations as threatening
• implicit associations; high SA was associated with being less likely to exhibit implicit associations between self and positive social attributes following a speech threat
• imagery and visual memories; more likely to look at the self from an observers perspective in recent social interactions, negative self-imagery led to higher self-reported anxiety

Question 9

How does emotional regulation relate to SAD (6)

Answer 9

SA(D) predicts
1. heightened intensity of emotions
2. poor understanding of emotions
3. negative reactivity to emotions
4. being less attentive to own emotions/less able to describe them
5. greater emotional suppression
6.difficulties in emotional responding

Question 10

What is the self-regulation depletion hypothesis (Kashdan0

Answer 10

Paradox in which excessive attempts to make a positive impression, appear and feel less anxious, and avoid rejection, deplete the self-control resources necessary to prevent socially undesirable behavior —> decreased likelihood of positive interpersonal outcomes and reduced positive affect

Question 11

What 2 categories are there in safety behaviors

Answer 11

• avoidance subtype; leads to negative reactions and higher state of anxiety
• impression-management subtype; did not actually lead to negative reactions —> may be helpful

Question 12

When comparing the models of GAD, which categories are there and which belongs to which

Answer 12

• cognitive models; meta cognitive & intolerance of uncertainty
• emotional/behavioral; emotion dysregulation & acceptance-based
• integrated model; avoidance model of worry and GAD

Question 13

What are 3 limitations to the study of GAD models

Answer 13

• heavy reliance on self-report measures
• identification of GAD samples often relies on continuous measures
• lack of experimental designs

Question 14

What 2 things may PEP lead to

Answer 14

• negative self-impressions
• biased retrieval of negative memories