Chapter 5 Flashcards
What are the characteristics of anxiety?
- future-oriented
- physiological, cognitive, behavioural symptoms of fear
What is the difference between anxiety, fear, and panic?
- anxiety is about something that might happen in the future, but fear is about something that is happening now
- fear and panic are both about something that is happening now, but panic is what it is called when someone is afraid but there is not actually any threat
What are the main theories for the etiology of anxiety?
- biological:
(a) genetics
(b) neuroanatomy - psychological
(a) behavioural
(b) cognitive
(c) inter-personal factors
What are the temperamental traits associated with anxiety?
- behavioural inhibition (tendency to respond to new situations with heightened arousal)
- neuroticism (tendency experience negative emotions)
What is the fear circuit?
- part of the brain that makes us feel fear
- sensory information ⟶ thalamus ⟶ amygdala ⟶ hypothalamus ⟶ midbrain ⟶ brain stem ⟶ spinal cord
How is the fear circuit involved in anxiety?
- low stimulation of the fear circuit causes anxiety directly
- higher thought processes are not involved in this circuit (the brain can move you without you being aware of it)
Which neurotransmitters are involved in the etiology of anxiety and why?
- GABA - if too little then doesn’t inhibit anxiety, so benzodiazepines work on GABA
- serotonin
- norepinephrine - regulate/de-activate fear circuit, work in SRIs
What is the behavioural theory of the etiology of anxiety?
- two-factor theory
- at first there is classical conditioning, this is how a person becomes afraid of something
- then he keeps avoiding the stimulus (operant conditioning)
What is the cognitive theory of the etiology of anxiety?
- people have biased perceptions (schemas) about the world and themselves
(a) world dangerous
(b) future uncertain
(c) they are not able to deal with this, e.g. helpless and vulnerable - pay attention only to the information that confirms their views
How can interpersonal factors affect anxiety?
- parents inconsistent with how they show their love and caring
- cause belief systems
- children can develop anxious-ambivalent attachment style
- learn to fear being abandoned
- get anxious of others because they are constantly worrying that others will leave them
What is an interactionist model of the etiology of anxiety?
- triple vulnerability
(a) general biological (nervous, behaviourally inhibited)
(b) general psychological (low self-control and self-esteem)
(c) specific psychological (real danger, false alarm, observing someone else’s experience)
What are the main anxiety disorders?
- panic disorder
- agoraphobia
- specific phobia
- social anxiety disorder
- generalized anxiety disorder
- obsessive-compulsive disorder
- post-traumatic stress disorder
What are the symptoms of a panic attack?
- fast heartbeat
- sweat
- trembling
- feeling that you can’t breathe
- feeling of choking
- pain in chest
- nausea
- dizzy
- chills or heat sensations
- numbness or tingling
- derealization or depersonalization
- fear of losing control
- fear of dying
Which anxiety orders are panic attacks part of?
can be part of most anxiety disorders, for example if someone has a phobia or social anxiety they will experience a panic attack if they are forced to come close to the thing they have a phobia for or to people
What is the difference between panic disorder and other types of panic attacks?
in other types of disorders, panic attacks have a reason (they are associated with something specific), but in panic disorder there is no reason or explanation, they “just happen” or they happen because the person fears having a panic attack
What are the symptoms of panic disorder?
- panic attack that happens suddenly and unexpectedly (“out of nowhere”)
- for at least one month constantly worrying that he might have another attack or worrying about the consequences of the first attack (like thinking they will “go crazy” or die)
What are the demographics of panic disorder?
- develops in later teenage to early adult
- women are twice as likely as men to develop it
- comorbid with depression, substance abuse, other anxiety condtiions
What are the symptoms of agoraphobia?
- doesn’t leave the house or go into other situations because they fear that they will have a panic attack be unable to escape
- situations are avoided, require the presence of a companion, or the person suffers with extreme anxiety
How are panic disorders diagnosed?
- behavioural avoidance test (BAT) - psychologist asks patient to go into situation the patient normally avoids and then gives a rating for how anxious they were
- symptom induction test - psychologists asks the patient to induce symptoms of panic and then measure
- biological measurements - heart rate, breathing, blood pressure when a person is getting closer to something they fear
What are some of the theories of the etiology of panic disorder?
- biological: when body thinks it is losing control it activates panic response
- cognitive: catastrophic misinterpretation of bodily sensations
- anxiety sensitivity: person thinks the effects of the panic attack will have negative consequences
- alarm theory: when a person’s brain activates the “correct” response for the “wrong” event, and then the person begins to fear internal sensations that were there when he had his first attack (classical conditioning)
What is catastrophic misinterpretation?
when a person incorrectly thinks that his normal changing bodily sensations are due to something very wrong like a heart attack
What is a phobia?
extreme and constant fear of something specific
What are the symptoms of a phobia?
- a fear so strong that it interferes with functioning:
(a) spending excessive amount of time avoiding it
(b) worrying about it constantly
What are the types of phobia?
- animal
- natural environment
- blood injection-injury
- situational
- other (choking, vomiting, clowns, illness, etc.)
