Week 5 : Lecture

Question 1

What are the three conclusions about anxiety disorder?

Answer 1

A. They are well treatable most of the time
B. Understanding the nature of anxiety disorders starts with a torough understanding of conditioning theory
C. All effective treatments are variations of exposure treatments

Question 2

Why does the search for new treatments continue?

Answer 2

• incomplete response
• relapse
• problems with accepting the treatment

Question 3

Mowrer’s Theory of Fear & Avoidance

Answer 3

argued that the termination or reduction of fear stimuli negatively reinforced the avoidance response → two-factor theory predicts that the avoidance responding will be learned only that the warning signal terminates when a response is made
1. Acquisition of fear via classical conditioning
2. Avoidance reinforced by operant conditioning → reduces anxiety
3. Fear generates search for safety (fear = balance between signals of threat/signals of safety)
Major impetus (= makes a process happen quicker) for exposure-based treatments of anxiety

Question 4

What were early versions of behavior therapyfor anxiety disorders?

Answer 4

• Based on habituation model
• Teach physiological response antagonistic (works against) to anxiety
• Work your way through an ‘anxiety hierarchy’
• Moderately effective

Question 5

Safety Behaviour

Answer 5

used in an attempt to prevent fears from coming true and to feel more comfortable in situations we are anxious about. This includes for several problems, such as: Social Phobia → gripping objects tightly to avoid shaking, monitoring one’s speech
OCD → compulsions
PTSD → discuss traumatic event in an unemotional way
Pain → avoid daily activities so as not to re-injure
Panic Disorder → holding onto objects, lying down, escaping a situation

Question 6

What is better? Maintainging safety behaviour or decreasing it ? (mbt anxiety)

Answer 6

Decreasing! maintaining stayed the same

Question 7

Van den Hout & Engelhard, 2011: How does EMDR work? (3 things)

Answer 7

1. Eye movements reduce the vividness of imaginations
2. Eye movements and imaginations both use working memory, which has limited capacity
3. EMDR works through di fferent mechanism than ‘exposure’. Maar daar zijn de meningen over verdeeld?