PSY1022 Lecture 6: PSY1022 – Lecture – Week 6
26 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
PSY1022 – Lecture – Week 6
- anxiety disorders
• anxiety - a generalised state or feeling of fear and apprehension, may be
related to a appticualr event or object and is often accompanied by
increased physiological arousal
• average age at consent is 11 years
• most prevalent of the mental disorders
• anxiety is the most prevalent symptom
- fear and anxiety
• fear is the emotional response to real or perceived threat, whereas
anxiety is anticipation of future threat
• both states overlap but differ - fear tends to be associated more with a
flight or fight response
- anxiety responses - four components
• subjective- emotional - tension and apprehension
• cognitive - worrisome thoughts, inability to cope
• physiological - increased heart rate and blood pressure, muscle tension,
rapid breathing, nausea, dry mouth etc
• behavioural - avoidance of situations, impaired task performance
- DSM-5
• three separate chapters
•
o anxiety disorders
o obsessive compulsive and related disorders
o trauma and stressor related disorders
- phobias
• specific or social
• intense irrational fear related to a category of object or event
• individual experience flight or fight response
• agoraphobias - fear of open or public spaces where escape can be difficult
• social anxiety disorder - social phobia - fear of what people think of you,
negative evaluation of social situations
• specific phobias - fear something specific - snakes, tend to disappear with
age
• phobias are acquired by classical conditioning - Watson
• other views
•
o we are genetically prepared by evolution, to fear certain classes of
objects/events
o phobias may exist differently in different cultures
o phobias can occur at different times of life
o most social phobias arise out of shyness
- panic disorder
• with or without agoraphobia
• terror appearing at unpredictable times, unprovoked by threat
• victim cannot avoid or relieve situation
• panic attacks usually last for several minutes
• symptoms include, sweating, heart palpitations, trembling, chocking
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• panic attacks can occur in all anxiety
• DSM-V panic disorder should be diagnosed if there is inordinate fear of
having future attacks or other maladaptive behaviours such as
agoraphobia
- generalised anxiety disorder
• incorporates real and imagined threat about a number events or
activities
• perpetual worry
• not linked to a specific thing
• individual find it difficult to control the worry and excessive anxiety, have
trouble sleep, considerable bodily tension and fatigue
• unpredictable events during childhood may predispose person to the
disorder
• may manifest later in life after major change
- casual factors for anxiety disorders
• biological/genetic factors
•
o genetic factors may increase susceptibility - autonomic nervous
system overreacts when threat is perceived, causing high levels of
physiological arousal
o OCD - panic and phobias are inherited - genes can influence are
responsible for a person’s level of neuroticism
• cognitive models
•
o maladaptive thoughts and patterns of belief can cause anxiety
disorders
• learning models
•
o some fears are acquired as a result of a traumatic event that has
caused a classical conditioned fear response
o they are acquired as habits through punishment and
reinforcement
• sociocultural models
•
o culture bound disorders that occur in certain locations
- OCD
• obsessions - unwanted, disturbing thoughts, urges and images that re-
occur
• compulsions - repetitive actions/rituals
• specific irrational fear which can be reduced when some ritual is
performed
• behavioural theorists
•
o compulsions are reinforced to reduce anxiety
• cognitive theorists
•
o people who tend to think about weird things expect the worst in
new situations
• biological theorists
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
