PSYC1002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Panic Disorder, Xerostomia, Hypervigilance
19 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
‘Normal’ vs. ‘abnormal’ anxiety
Often labelled "fear" or panic
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Experience of anxiety is the same in normal and abnormal anxiety (it's about how
much they experience, amount)
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Fight/flight response - mobilises physical resources to deal with threat
▪
Body prepares physically to leave situation or fight if situation is
inevitable
▪
Mind alert
□
Less saliva, dry mouth
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Breathing rate increases
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Digestion slow
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Liver releases sugar to provide quick energy etc
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Symptoms/changes
▪
Physical system
○
Perception of threat
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Attential shift towards the threat
▪
Hypervigilance - selectively search for any info to help you deal with
situation to survive, difficult to concentrate on other tasks
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Cognitive system
○
Escape/avoidance - safest and most frequently used option
▪
Aggression
▪
Freezing
▪
Behavioural system
○
3 inter-related systems activated in response to perceived threat
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Anxiety
Normal anxiety
Abnormal anxiety/anxiety
disorders
Evolutionary value -> survival
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Physical vs social threat
○
Realistic/objective threat to self
•
Insects, animals, heights, enclosed places
○
Get anxious even without ever having
experienced it
○
e.g. phobias
○
Specific "prepared" stimuli
•
Novel stimuli - never seen before but assume
dangerous to be safe
•
Eliciting conditions
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Generates expectancy of harm (outcome) ->
product of perceived probability and perceived
cost
•
Based on past experiences, observations and
instruction
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e.g. spider is a stimulus, not actual fear
○
Person doesn't fear actual thing, but outcome
of situation
•
Threat appraisal
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Tendency to perceive
threat in ambiguous
situations
(overestimate
probability of the cost
of the perceived
threat)
○
Extent to which
anxiety response is
activated
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Specific fears ->
abnormal anxiety
○
Trait anxiety
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Individual differences in
Anxiety occurs in
absence of objective
threat, more intense
○
Same (physical, cognitive,
behavioural) systems
activated but occurrence
excessive or inappropriate
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Not qualitatively different from
normal anxiety
L4 and 5 - anxiety and related disorders
Thursday, 12 October 2017
1:06 PM
abnormal psyc Page 1
threat, more intense
than objective level of
threat
Cost/probability of
harmful outcome
○
Physical fears ->
predominantly
probability
overestimation
○
Social fears ->
predominantly cost
overestimation
○
Characterised by
overestimation of threat
-
Interferes with
everyday social or
occupational activities
○
Frequency and
intensity of anxiety
interferes with
person's function/life
○
Socially
inappropriate/harmful/unex
pected
-
Categorised according to
focus of anxiety in DSM
-
The nature of anxiety and related disorders
Anxiety and related disorders re-categorised in DSM-5 according to the FOCUS OF
ANXIETY
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Screen clipping taken: 16/10/2017 1:11 PM
3 different categories in DSM-5
Need to know ones in bold
DSM-IV vs. DSM-5 classifications of anxiety and related
disorders
abnormal psyc Page 2
Document Summary
L4 and 5 - anxiety and related disorders. Experience of anxiety is the same in normal and abnormal anxiety (it"s about how much they experience, amount) 3 inter-related systems activated in response to perceived threat. Fight/flight response - mobilises physical resources to deal with threat. Body prepares physically to leave situation or fight if situation is inevitable. Liver releases sugar to provide quick energy etc. Hypervigilance - selectively search for any info to help you deal with situation to survive, difficult to concentrate on other tasks. Escape/avoidance - safest and most frequently used option. Get anxious even without ever having experienced it e. g. phobias. Novel stimuli - never seen before but assume dangerous to be safe. Generates expectancy of harm (outcome) -> product of perceived probability and perceived cost. Person doesn"t fear actual thing, but outcome of situation e. g. spider is a stimulus, not actual fear.
