Anxiety Flashcards
(25 cards)
4 parts to anxiety
Emotional
Cognitive
Physiological
Behavioural
Emotional part to anxiety
Fear Dread Panic Frustration Disappointment Anger Sadness Depression
Cognitive part to anxiety
Thoughts and worries that often take the form of what if questions
‘What if I am not good enough?”
Physiological part to anxiety
Increased heart rate Shortness of breath Tight chest Dizziness Weakness Tingling legs Feeling faint Muscle tension Headaches Tension in face and head Lump in throat Nausea or other stomach discomfort Feeling hot Sweating Blushing
Behavioural part to anxiety
Reduced performance due to anxiety
Avoidance
DSM-5 criteria for GAD
The presence of excessive worry or anxiety about a variety of topics, events or activities which occurs more often than not for at least 6 months and is clearly excessive
The worry experienced is very challenging to control
The anxiety is accompanied by at least 3 of the following symptoms
• Edginess or restlessness
• Tiring easily, more fatigued than usual
• Impairment of concentration or feeling as though the mind goes blank
• Irritability
• Increased muscle aches or soreness
• Difficulty sleeping, trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, restlessness at night, unsatisfying sleep
Advantages to diagnostic disorders in anxiety
- Lots of studies support the existence of different conditions at least to some extent
- Gives medical professionals a language for communication
Classical conditioning of phobias
Ost (1987) some phobias appear to be learned via classical conditioning where a phobic stimulus is paired with a frightening event
Little Albert
Watson & Rayner (1920)
Conditioned a little boy to be scared of a white rat by making a sound that made him scared while presenting the rat
Bagby (1992) waterfall
Girl developed a phobia of water after getting trapped between some rocks by a stream with a waterfall overhead. The waterfall covered her in water, and she thought she would never be able to get out
Jacobson et al. (1995) chemotherapy
Conditioned fear and nausea in response to lemon-lime Kool-Aid after repeated pairings of the beverage to the chemotherapy treatment the group were undergoing
Critique of learning theory for phobias
Some phobias are not conditioned and are learned through modelling
Many people with phobias cannot recall a traumatic event which caused them to become phobic
Not everyone who has something traumatic happen to them develop a phobia
Doesn’t explain the phenomenon of incubation
Incubation
Under certain conditions exposure to a fear provoking conditioned stimulus results in sustained growth of fear even when the presentations are unreinforced
Eysenck (1967)
Modelling of phobias
Some phobias develop after seeing someone else show a fear of an object or situation
Children copied the anxious behaviour of their parents prior to a spelling test (Burstein et al., 2010)
Children imitated the calm or anxious behaviours shown towards animals by their peers (Broeren et al., 2011)
Rhesus monkeys have also been found to acquire fears by observing fearful behaviours in other monkeys (Mineka & Cook, 1986)
Negative information and phobias
Phobias can result from negative information given about an object or situation (Rachman, 2002)
Children who were given frightening information about an animal such as ‘it can jump in your throat’ were more fearful than those who were given neutral or positive information
Parents play an important role in creating fear in children by passing on negative information about animals (Remmerswaal et al., 2010)
Genetic link of phobias
Twin studies have suggested a heritability of between 35 and 45% for phobias overall (Hettema et al., 2003)
Critique of genetic link in phobias
Not 100% concordance rate and so there are other factors in play
Brain regions implicated in phobias
Heightened sensitivity of brain regions amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex and thalamus, found to be highly active in spider phobics who look at pictures of spiders (Schweckendiek et al., 2011)
Biological preparedness
Preparedness theory – innate tendency to be scared of certain animals and situations which stems from their danger in the evolutionary past (Seligman, 1971)
Critique of preparedness theory
Difficulty explaining some of the phobias associated with modern living such as elevators and costumed characters such as clowns
Evolutionary theories are retrospective and so they cannot be proven
Epidemiology of anxiety disorders
Anxiety disorders are the most frequently occurring of all mental disorders in the USA affecting 28.8% of the population (Kessler et al., 2005)
Arikian & Gorman (2001)
The total cost estimate for anxiety disorders comprises more than 30% of the total expenditures for mental illnesses; the cost of anxiety drug therapy accounts for 53% of the drug expenditures for mental illnesses
Greenberg et al (1999)
The total annual cost of anxiety disorders has been estimated to be between $42.3 billion and $46.6 billion, of which more than 75% can be attributed to morbidity, mortality, lost productivity, and other indirect costs
ABC theory of anxiety
Ellis (1993)
A - activating event
B - belief
C - consequence
Example
Man asks someone out on a date and gets rejected (activation event)
Man believes that he is worthless because the girl doesn’t want to date him (belief)
Man becomes anxious or depressed (consequence)
