Week 5: Anxiety & Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders Flashcards
What is ‘neuroticism?’
A characterological trait of general neurotic quality
* Frequent feelings of anxiety, guilt, worry, apprehension
* Tend to cope poorly with stress
What is ‘anxiety?’
Diffuse, unpleasant sense of apprehension
* A response to a threat that is unknown, internal, vague, or conflictual
* Anticipation of future threat
* More insidious
What is ‘fear?’
A response to a known, external, definite threat
* Emotional response to a real or perceived immediate threat
* More sudden
What is ‘Yerkes-Dodson Law?’
An empirical relationship between pressure and performance. The law dictates that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point.
* With x-axis = arousal, and y-axis = performance
- optimal arousal and optimal performance are at the peak of the bell curve
- range = weak to strong, domain = low to high
What are the biological perspectives guiding anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and trauma and stress-related disorders?
- Unknown genetic factors
- GABA: Inhibitory neurotransmitter that helps prevents neurons from overly exciting their neighbours; With anxiety – there seems to be inadequate production
- Problems with serotonin and/or norepinephrine receptors
- Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF): Activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, plays a role in the limbic system and stress responses
What is the ‘prefrontal cortex’ associated with?
Centre for rational, logical thought. It is involved in laying down new memories and tempering learned fear responses.
* Feeds into the amygdala with an inhibitory effect (dampens the fight-or-flight response, decreases anxiety)
What is the ‘prefrontal & anterior cingulate cortex’ associated with?
It amplifies negative information in your surroundings and makes you pay attention to it.
* Feeds into the amygdala with an excitatory effect (enhances the fight-or-flight response, heightens anxiety)
What is the ‘amygdala’ associated with?
Emotional memories and our learned reactions to them are stored here. When active, it triggers the release of hormones responsible for the fight-or-flight response.
* In people with anxiety disorders, the normal workings of the systems that feed into the amygdala are disturbed, and the amygdala is hyperactive.
What are the effects of the ‘parasympathetic system’ when activated?
Feed, breed, and rest:
- constricts pupil
- stimulates the flow of saliva
- slows heartbeat
- constricts bronchi
- stimulates peristalsis
- stimulates the release of bile
- contracts bladder
What are the effects of the ‘sympathetic system’ when activated?
Fight or flight:
- dilates pupils
- inhibits the flow of saliva
- accelerates heartbeat
- dilates bronchi
- inhibits peristalsis
- conversion of glycogen to glucose
- secretion of adrenaline and noradrenaline
- inhibits bladder contraction
What are the types of anxiety disorders?
- Panic disorder
- Agoraphobia
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Phobic Disorders
- Separation Anxiety Disorder
What is ‘Separation Anxiety Disorder?’
An anxiety disorder is when the individual displays age-inappropriate, excessive, and disabling anxiety about being apart from their parents/caregiver/attachment figure or away from home. Reluctance to go away from attachment figures. May have nightmares and physical symptoms of distress.
What is ‘panic disorder?’
A type of anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of panic.
What is ‘anxiety disorder?’
Type of psychological disorder in which anxiety is the prominent feature.
What does ‘prevalence’ mean?
An overall number of cases of a disorder existing in a population during a given period of time.
