Taak 3: Cognitive approach & safety behaviour

Question 1

Cognitive theories of anxiety disorders suggest that maladaptive schemas and the resulting exaggerated threat appraisals are maintained by…? What three aspects?

Answer 1

1. Biased information processing
2. Avoidance and safety-seeking behaviour
3. Engagement in maladaptive cognitive strategies

Question 2

What is the defenition of: Any behaviour that is performed in order to prevent a feared catastrophe from occurring and/or reduce its impact on the individual. It happens because a person with anxiety can’t always avoid a situation.

Answer 2

Safety (seeking) behaviour

Question 3

Thought suppresion is the tendency to suppress unwanted negative thoughts. What happens if someone suppresses the thoughts for a longer time? What defenition can you name this?

Answer 3

Rebound effect: successful immediate suppression of thoughts often comes at the cost of a rebound later on

Question 4

Thought suppression has a number of undesirable side effects that can contribute to the maintenance of anxiety disorder. Which one is false?

A. Successful in short term, but become less effective when employed over longer periods of time.

B. Thought suppression doesn’t appear to have a direct negative effect on mood, but it comes later on.

C. Thought suppression can sustain or even increase negative appraisals related to the suppressed thought

D. Engaging in the suppression of intrusive negative thoughts should then lead to the maintenance of catastrophic appraisals

Answer 4

B. Thought suppresion DOES appear to have a direct negative effect on mood.

Question 4

Thought suppression has a number of undesirable side effects that can contribute to the maintenance of anxiety disorder. Which one is false?

A. Successful in short term, but become less effective when employed over longer periods of time.

B. Thought suppression doesn’t appear to have a direct negative effect on mood, but it comes later on.

C. Thought suppression can sustain or even increase negative appraisals related to the suppressed thought

D. Engaging in the suppression of intrusive negative thoughts should then lead to the maintenance of catastrophic appraisals

Answer 4

B. Thought suppresion DOES appear to have a direct negative effect on mood.

Question 5

Thought suppression, repetive negative thinking, worry and rumination are examples of?

Answer 5

Maladaptive cognitive coping strategies.

Question 6

Fit the terms with the right discription.

1. Primary appraisal
2. Secondary appraisal
3. Reappraisal
4. Appraisal of symptoms

A. appraisals are not static but are updated as the situation unfolds
B. immediate appraisal of a situation as threatening
C. Threat appraisals in anxiety disorders are not only related to external stimuli but often also concern the very symptoms of anxiety or other thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensation experienced by the individual.
D. individual’s perception of how well he or she will be able to cope with this threat

Answer 6

1 = B
2 = D
3 = A
4 = C

Question 7

Threat appraisals are thought to be due to cognitive schemas, what are cognitive schemas?

Answer 7

Underlying cognitive structures that have developed in response to earlier experiences and that can be activated by matching triggers

Question 8

True or false? People with anxiety have…
1. more negative, more rigid and less flexible cognitive schemas.
2. a higher level of maladaptive beliefs and assumptions.
3. a higher level in threat appraisals

A. 1 and 2 are true, 3 is false
B. 1 and 3 are true, 2 is false
C. 2 and 3 are true, 1 is false
D. All 3 are true

Answer 8

D. All 3 statements are true by research

Question 9

What is an example of a restorative safety behaviour?
a. Avoiding touching things
b. Calling someone to calm down
c. Checking for exits
d. Leaving home only when accompanied

Answer 9

B. Calling someone to calm down

Question 10

What is the vigilant-avoidant pattern that is typical for patients with anxiety disorder?

A. Attentional bias towards the feared stimulus that sustains for as long as the feared stimulus is close
B. Initial avoidance that is quickly followed by attentional bias towards the feared stimulus
C. Initial attentional bias towards the feared stimulus that is quickly followed by avoidance

Answer 10

C. Initial attentional bias towards the feared stimulus that is quickly followed by avoidance.

Question 11

“Dogs are mean and dangerous” What kind of cognitive process is this an example of?
A. Appraisal
B. Safety seeking behavior
C. Belief
D. Assumption

Answer 11

C. Belief (they are unconditional in nature)

Question 12

Which of the following behaviors is an example of preventive safety behavior?
A) Escaping from situations or activities
B) Relying on safety signals
C) Attempts to control or suppress emotional responses

Answer 12

B. Relying on safety signals

Question 13

According to cognitive theories of anxiety, what is the role of schemas?
A) They guide information processing on a more automatic level.
B) They cause emotional dysfunction due to irrational beliefs.
C) They refer to the secondary stress experienced by individuals when appraising their symptoms.
D) They are the immediate appraisals or evaluations of threatening situations.

Answer 13

A. They guide information processing on a more automatic level.

Question 14

What is interpretational bias (IB)?
A) The tendency to show threatening interpretations of ambiguous stimuli
B) The preference for benign interpretations of ambiguous stimuli
C) The ability to accurately interpret ambiguous stimuli
D) The avoidance of interpreting ambiguous stimuli

Answer 14

A. The tendency to show threatening interpretations of ambiguous stimuli

Question 15

What is memory bias (MB)?
A. The accurate recall of memories
B. The avoidance of recalling memories
C. The enhancement or repelling of memory recall
D. The automatic activation of positive memories

Answer 15

C. The enhancement of repelling of memory call

Question 16

Name 5 cognitive processes in anxiety disorders.

Answer 16

• Belief/assumption
• Appraisals
• Information processing bias
• Safety seeking behaviour
• Dysfunctional cognitive strategies

Question 17

What are the 5 most prominent biases in anxiety disorders?

Answer 17

• Attentional bias
• Interpetation bias
• Memory bias
• Covariation bias
• Reasoning bias

Question 18

Fit the terms with the right discription.
1. Attentional bias
2. Covariation bias
3. Interpetation bias
4. Reasoning bias

A. Anxiety-disordered individuals may tend to overestimate the contingency between concern-relevant stimuli and aversive outcomes.
B. When threatening and neutral stimuli occur together, the focus of individuals suffering from an anxiety disorder will likely be biased toward threat.
C. Individuals in fact tend to search for belief-confirming information and that their habitual reasoning pattern is biased in a way that confirms rather than falsifies prior beliefs
D. Patients tend to show threatening thoughts of ambiguous stimuli relevant to their concerns.

Answer 18

1 = B
2 = A
3 = D
4 = C

Question 19

Which is NOT true?
A. Individuals with Social Anxiety show bias in social and non-social situations
B. Individuals with Depression show bias in social and non-social situation
C. Depression symptoms in social anxiety disorder increased interpretation bias is social situations

Answer 19

A.

Question 20

What is a difference between preventive safety behaviour (or experiental/emotion avoidance) and restorative safety behaviours?

Answer 20

Preventive safety behaviours are performed to prevent future distressing emotional responses or increases in anxiety.

Restorative safety behaviours are performed to impede the emotional experience in a feared situation. Those behaviours most often aim at either reducing: bodily symptoms related to anxiety or, the perceived likeliness of feared consequences (e.g., dying, embarrassing oneself, bringing harm to oneself or others).

So one is about avoiding a situation to prevent future distressing emotional responses. And the second one is about slowing down the emotional experience in a feared situation.