Week One: Emotion Theory

Question 1

What are the six processes that could maintain anxiety-related negative beliefs? (Clark 1999)

Answer 1

Safety-seeking behaviors, attentional deployment, spontaneous imagery, emotional reasoning, memory processes, and the nature of the threat representation.

Question 2

Possible Essay Question: If anxious patients’ beliefs are mistaken, why do the beliefs persist? If the world is not as dangerous as the patient assumes, why do they not notice this and correct their thinking? Describe three maintaining processes from the Clark 1999 reading.

Answer 2

( 6 processes)
Saftey Behaviors

Question 3

What is a safety seeking behavior? (Clark 1999)

Answer 3

a behavior that is performed in order to prevent or minimize a feared catastrophe, such behaviors often explain why the non-occurrence of a feared event fails to change patient negative beliefs
- essentially a pt will believe that performing the safety behavior is the only reason the feared outcome did not occur - therefore maintaining their negative beliefs

Question 4

How does attentional deployment maintain anxiety? (Clark 1999)

Answer 4

1. attention toward threat cues (common with phobias and panic disorder) example: patient with hypochondriasis pays extra attention to heart rate patterns, and bodily sensations, because of this attentional deployment they become aware of benign bodily sensations that other people would not notice.
2. attention away from threat cues ( common with social phobia) example: a social phobia patient avoids looking at facial cues, however, reduced processing of other people would mean that social phobics would have less chance to observe other people’s responses in detail and therefore unlikely to collect from other peoples reactions information that would help them see that they generally come across more positively than they think. (Attentional avoidance maintaining their fear)

Question 5

Why would patients with spider phobia, show attentional bias towards threat cues versus patients with social phobia show attention away?

Answer 5

In regard to spider phobia, looking away does not remove the threat and actually might increase it as then the person can’t keep track of where the spider is. Versus social phobia looking away decreases social engagement, and also allows them to avoid the social rejection that they are fearing/ assuming is happening.

Question 6

What are the aspects of an emotion? (Lecture notes)

Answer 6

Emotion: a distint pattern of brain activity
Feelings: subjective experince and cognitive interpretation
Sense of Purpose: Impulse to action, Goal directed motivational state, and functional aspect of coping
Bodily Response: bodily preperation for action and physiological activent
Expressive Behavior: Facial expression, voice tone, social signals/ communications

Question 7

Emotion is what?

Answer 7

A distinct pattern of brain activity that influences your feelings, sense of purpose, expressive behavior and bodily responses

Question 8

What function do emotions serve?

Answer 8

1. When vital interests are at stake/ survival of self and offspring
2. emotions as action tendencies that prepare you for survival
3. Emotion is a motivator for behavior
   ex: low energy: hunger: consumption of food: energy

Question 9

Schachter-Singer Two factor Theory of Emotions

Answer 9

1. stimulus causes physical arousal
2. we cognitively label the physical response and associate it with an emotion
3. We feel the emotion
   Criticism: What comes first? the physical arousal or the interpretation of the physical arousal

Question 10

What is Cognitive Appraisal Theory on emotions?

Answer 10

1. stimulus appears
2. Thoughts, labeling the stimulus and immediate experience of the physiological response of physiological response
3. Fight or flight (or freeze)
   - primary and secondary appraisal
   - emotions and heart racing come so quickly that you as an individual won’t be able to tell what came first
   - thinking comes before experiencing the emotion
   - emotion requires the internpation of stimulus

Question 11

Neuroticism (overall and relevance to anxiety course)

Answer 11

1. genetically transmitted
2. closely associated with various symptom disorders; depression, anxiety disorders, trauma and stress-related disorders, OCD, and related disorders
3. makes certain individuals more susceptible to anxiety disorders

Question 12

What is a vulnerability factor of Anxiety disorders?

Answer 12

Neuroticism
- (keep in mind that some stimuli are more often/common to the an object of anxiety versus others; spiders vs flowers)

Question 13

Where does selectivity of anxiety come from?

Answer 13

1. Vicarious learning (can learn anxiety through observing others be afraid of it)
2. Latent Inhibition
3. Preparedness

Question 14

When is anxiety abnormal vs normal?

Answer 14

Abnormal is not the nature of the anxiety response itself rather it is the intensity of the response disproportionate to the seriousness of the threat

Question 15

Anxiety disorders overall idea

Answer 15

• CS activates a memory of the US which causes the emotion
• the nature of the CS and the US are different for the different disorders
• must lead to dysfunctioning in daily life

Question 16

Difference in safety vs avoidance behavior?

Answer 16

Safety: taking measures DURING the feared situation to prevent fear

Avoidance: not going into the situation you are afraid of
- both behaviors fail to disapprove of fears

Question 17

Panic Disorder

Answer 17

Catastrophic misinterpretation of bodily sensations

Question 18

Social Phobia

Answer 18

fear of disapproval from others because others see signs of social anxiety (blushing, trembling, etc)

Question 19

OCD

Answer 19

fear of guilt from behaving irresponsibly

Question 20

PTSD

Answer 20

catastrophic misinterpretation of the consequences of trauma and the significance of trauma

Question 21

Limitation with exposure for anxiety disorder?

Answer 21

Mental images are very strong in anxiety disorders and exposure doesn’t tackle mental images