Week 2 Lecture 2 - Anxiety nature, theory & processes Flashcards
What is anxiety?
- a basic emotion
- a personality dimension
- a psychological disorder
As a basic emotion, what is anxiety?
- normal response to danger or thought
- has multiple subsystems: cognitive, behavioural, physiological
As a personality dimension, what is anxiety?
- trait anxiety –> on which individuals vary on
- neuroticism
As a psychological disorder, what is anxiety?
GAD, OCD, panic etc.
What is the nature of anxiety?
- cognitive and physiological preparation for future threats
What is the content specificity hypothesis?
- different emotions have different content of thought and coping behaviours
What are the 2 dimensions of state-anxiety?
- cognitive (worry)
- autonomic (emotional/ physiological)
What is worry?
- chain of negative, repetitive thought
- “what if” thoughts
- future orientated
How is worry different to rumination?
ruminated is past orientated and consists of “why me” thoughts
Is the cognitive or emotional component of anxiety more disruptive?
Cognitive
Shown with experiment on test anxiety in which worry and overthinking hurt performance
In what ways can anxiety be a good thing?
e.g., in athletes –> used to enhance performance
How is anxiety a personality dimension?
people can be more prone to experiencing anxiety than others
What is trait anxiety?
- being more prone to experiencing anxiety
- “relatively stable individual difference in anxiety proneness”
- positively associated with psychopathology
STAI-T shown to have 2 factors, what are they?
- depression i.e., I feel like a failure
- anxiety i.e., I feel nervous
What does trait anxiety positively correlate with?
- selective attention to threat stimuli
- increased with trait anxiety –> more attention to threat, negative thought content, worry more
What is the stronger prediction of attention: trait anxiety or state anxiety?
trait anxiety
What tasks is state anxiety more detrimental in?
- short term memory tasks
- dual tasks
The emotional Stroop Tasks was used to present spider phobic ppts with 3 word lists (emotional, neutral, spider related).
What was found?
- Phobics just as fast as controls for emotional and neutral words
- Phobics paid more attention to fear related words –> bias towards fear stimuli
What tasks can be used to measure anxiety and attention bias?
- Stroop task
- Dot Probe task
- Homophone Spelling
What is the Dot Probe Task? What was one finding?
- Word pairs (threat and non-threat), follow by a dot probe in the same position as one of them
- Trait-anxious and anxious patient’s focus on threat word
What is Homophone spelling test? What was one finding?
- Listen to words with 2 alternative meanings
- Trait-anxious write threatening word
What are 3 explanations of attention bias for threatening stimuli in anxiety prone individuals?
- Williams et al processing theory
- Eysenck Hypervigilance theory
- Wells & Matthews S-REF Theory
What is Williams processing theory?
- anxiety effecting automatic processing leading to bias
- anxiety is viewed as a bottom up process
What is Eysenck’s hypervigilance theory?
- Trait anxious scan environment for threat excessively and lock onto it
- Unclear if this theory is bottom up or top down
- Unclear if anxiety in this model is automatic or strategic
What is Wells & Matthews S-REF Theory?
- anxiety associated with activation of Cognitive Attentional Syndrome (CAS)
- CAS involves self-focus, worry, monitoring for threat and ironic coping responses (bias is a consequence of coping strategy)
- bottom up and top down approach
How does S-REF try and explain how trait anxiety and emotion are linked?
- differences between disorders are less important than the similarities
- metacognitive beliefs as a central factor in state/trait emotion and mechanism?
- Metacognitive beliefs predicted proneness to both domains of trait anxiety
- metacognitive beliefs may be an underlying mechanism of vulnerability attributed to trait-anxiety
When is anxiety a disorder?
- interferes with functioning
- is prolonged/ excessive
- impairs quality of life
In the DSM 5, what are the 3 chapters of anxiety disorders?
- anxiety disorders
- OCD and related disorders
- Trauma and stress related disorders
What are some examples of anxiety disorders?
- separation anxiety
- social anxiety disorder
- panic attack
-GAD
What is a specific phobia?
- cluster around animals or objects
What is a panic attack?
- sudden increase in anxiety
- symptoms: increased HR, sweating, dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath
- immediate sense of catastrophe
What is GAD?
characterised by excessive worry
What are some examples of OCD and related disorders?
- OCD
-BDD - substance induced OCD
- Hoarding
What are some examples of trauma and stress disroders?
- reactive attachment disorder
- PTSD
- ASD
- adjustment disorders
What is acute stress disorder?
- within 4 weeks of exposure to trauma
- symptoms e.g., memory difficulties, increased arousal
- normal response
- decreases within 4 weeks
- if difficulties persist then PTSD
What is PTSD?
- occurs after a trauma (experienced, witnessed)
- multiple types
DSM 5 criteria:
- recurrent memories, flashbacks, marked physiological reactions
- avoidance
- alternation in cognition and mood associated with trauma
What is social anxiety disorder (SAD)?
- fear of performance or social situations in which a person in subject to scrutiny
- exposure almost invariably causes anxiety
- the situation is avoided or endured with intense distress
- common symptoms: sweating, shaking, blushing, blank mind, fear of humiliation
What are 2 clinical models of SAD?
- Social skills deficit
- cognitive behaviour model (Clark and Wells)
What is a social skills deficit?
- little support
- patients lack social skills like conversation skills or assertiveness
What is the cognitive behaviour model (C&W)?
- draws on Beck’s schema theory and cognitive model by Wells
- Coping responses and cognitive processes not deficits are central to anxiety maintenance
- model distinguishes between vulnerability factors and in situation factors
- assumed the person with social anxiety has underlying beliefs about social world
- this leads to negative thoughts in social situations
- safety behaviours also important aspect
According to Clark and Wells Model, why doesn’t social anxiety self correct?
- self-focused attention
- processing of inner image
- safety behaviours and avoidance
- anticipatory processing
- the post mortem
What are safety behaviours?
- behaviours to try and help stay in an anxiety - provoking situation
- less likely to get positive feedback
- individuals using safety behaviours can come across as withdrawn, cold, unfriendly
- safety behaviours contaminate social situation and maintain cognitive and somatic situations
What is anticipatory processing?
- happens before entering feared situation
- hours or days ahead
- difficulty in having an experience that challenges negativity
What is post mortem?
- upon leaving a feared situation
- ruminate and analyze their performance
- reinforces negative inner image even if the interaction was positive
- rumination biases cognition and maintains anxiety
