Chapter 4 Anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and trauma-related disorders QUIZ 1

Question 1

acute stress disorder

Answer 1

a short-lived anxiety reaction to a traumatic event; if it lasts more than a month, it is diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder

Question 2

agoraphobia

Answer 2

literally, fear of the marketplace; anxiety disorder in which the person fears situations in which it would be embarrassing or difficult to escape if panic symptoms occurred; most commonly diagnosed in some individuals with panic disorder

Question 3

anxiety

Answer 3

an unpleasant feeling of fear and apprehension accompanied by increased physiological arousal; can be assessed by self-report, measuring physiological arousal and observing overt behaviour

Question 4

anxiety disorders

Answer 4

disorders in which fear or anxiety is overriding; include phobic disorders, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder and agoraphobia

Question 5

anxiolytics

Answer 5

minor tranquilisers or benzodiazepines used to treat anxiety disorders

Question 6

behavioural inhibition

Answer 6

the tendency to exhibit anxiety or to freeze when facing threat. In infants, it manifests as a tendency to become agitated and cry when faced with novel stimuli and may be a heritable predisposition for the development of anxiety disorders

Question 7

benzodiazepines

Answer 7

any of several drugs commonly used to treat anxiety, such as Valium and Xanax

Question 8

body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)

Answer 8

a disorder marked by preoccupation with an imagined or exaggerated defect in appearance — for example, facial wrinkles or excess facial or body hair

Question 9

caudate nucleus

Answer 9

a nucleus within the basal ganglia involved in learning and memory that is implicated in body dysmorphic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Question 10

compulsion

Answer 10

the irresistible impulse to repeat an irrational act or thought over and over again

Question 11

depersonalisation

Answer 11

• an alteration in perception of the self in which
• the individual loses a sense of reality
• and feels estranged from the self
• and perhaps separated from the body;
• may be a temporary reaction to stress and fatigue
• or part of panic disorder, depersonalisation disorder or schizophrenia

Question 12

derealisation

Answer 12

loss of the sense that the surroundings are real; present in several psychological disorders, such as panic disorder, depersonalisation disorder and schizophrenia

Question 13

dissociation

Answer 13

a process whereby a group of mental processes is split off from the main stream of consciousness or behaviour loses its relationship with the rest of the personality

Question 14

exposure and response prevention (ERP)

Answer 14

the most widely used and accepted treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, in which the sufferer is prevented from engaging in compulsive ritual activity and instead faces the anxiety provoked by the stimulus, leading eventually to extinction of the conditioned response (anxiety)

Question 15

fear

Answer 15

a reaction to real or perceived immediate danger in the present; can involve arousal or sympathetic nervous system activity

Question 16

fear circuit

Answer 16

set of brain structures, including the amygdala, that tend to be activated when the individual is feeling anxious or fearful; especially active among people with anxiety disorders

Question 17

fear-of-fear hypothesis

Answer 17

a cognitive model for the aetiology of agoraphobia; suggests the condition is driven by negative thoughts about the consequences of having a panic attack in public

Question 18

generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)

Answer 18

a disorder characterised by chronic, persistent anxiety and worry

Question 19

hoarding disorder

Answer 19

a disorder in which the person has a compulsive need to acquire objects and extreme difficulty in disposing of those objects

Question 20

imaginal exposure

Answer 20

treatment for anxiety disorders that involves visualising feared scenes for extended periods of time; frequently used in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder when in vivo exposure to the initial trauma cannot be conducted

Question 21

in vivo exposure

Answer 21

real-life exposure to the object or situation that is feared, such as exposure to a phobia (such as a snake) or returning to the location where the traumatic event has taken place

Question 22

interoceptive conditioning

Answer 22

classical conditioning of panic attacks in response to internal bodily sensations of arousal (as opposed to the external situations that trigger anxiety)

Question 23

locus coeruleus

Answer 23

the brain region in the fear circuit that is especially important in panic disorder; the major source in the brain of norepinephrine, which helps trigger sympathetic nervous system activity

Question 24

medial prefrontal cortex

Answer 24

a region of the cortex in the anterior frontal lobes involved in executive function and emotion regulation that is implicated in mood and anxiety disorders

Question 25

Mowrer’s two-factor model

Answer 25

Mowrer’s theory of avoidance learning according to which (1) fear is attached to a neutral stimulus by pairing it with a noxious unconditioned stimulus and (2) a person learns to escape the fear elicited by the conditioned stimulus, thereby avoiding the unconditioned stimulus

Question 26

obsession

Answer 26

an intrusive and recurring thought that seems irrational and uncontrollable to the person experiencing it

Question 27

obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Answer 27

an anxiety disorder in which the mind is flooded with persistent and uncontrollable thoughts or the individual is compelled to repeat certain acts again and again, causing significant distress and interference with everyday functioning

Question 28

orbitofrontal cortex

Answer 28

the portion of the frontal lobe located just above the eyes; one of three closely related brain regions that are unusually active in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Question 29

panic attack

Answer 29

a sudden attack of intense apprehension, terror and impending doom, accompanied by symptoms such as laboured breathing, nausea, chest pain, feelings of choking and smothering, heart palpitations, dizziness, sweating and trembling

Question 30

panic disorder

Answer 30

an anxiety disorder in which the individual has sudden, inexplicable and frequent panic attacks

Question 31

post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Answer 31

an extreme response to a severe stressor, including recurrent memories of the trauma, avoidance of associated stimuli, negative emotions and thoughts, and symptoms of increased arousal

Question 32

prepared learning

Answer 32

in classical conditioning theory, a biological predisposition to associate particular stimuli readily with the unconditioned stimulus

Question 33

safety behaviours

Answer 33

behaviours used to avoid experiencing anxiety in feared situations, such as the tendency of people with social phobia to avoid looking at other people (so as to avoid perceiving negative feedback) or the tendency of people with panic disorder to avoid exercise (so as to avoid somatic arousal that could trigger a panic attack)

Question 34

serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)

Answer 34

any of various drugs that inhibit the presynaptic reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine, such that both neurotransmitters will have more prolonged effects on postsynaptic neurons

Question 35

social anxiety disorder (social phobia)

Answer 35

a collection of fears linked to the presence of other people

Question 36

specific phobia

Answer 36

an unwarranted fear and avoidance of a specific object or circumstance, for example, fear of non-poisonous snakes or fear of heights

Question 37

thought suppression

Answer 37

key feature of obsessive-compulsive disorder; has the paradoxical effect of inducing preoccupation with the object of thought

Question 38

yedasentience

Answer 38

the subjective sense of knowing that one has achieved closure on an action or thought; theorised to be deficient among persons with obsessive-compulsive disorder