PSYC 3140 Lecture 5: Abnormal psychology 3230 - lecture 5.docx

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3140
• Professor: James Alcock

Document Summary

Fear: abrupt, unpleasant central nervous system response for immediate action to respond to actual threat or danger. When frightened, the sympathetic division of ans triggers action in a variety of organs and glands to help us survive in the face of danger. Fear may be triggered by information from the outside world even before we are consciously aware of that is causing fear: e. g. Later, cortex decides whether object really is a snake. Abnormal psychology -psych 3230: either arguments fear response and evasive behaviour, or halts the response. In people with phobias, the prefrontal cortex may lose its ability to control the amygdala, leaving it free to arouse fear in situations that are not threatening. This reflects the fact that we have two separate systems for processing information about the world: affective/experiential (amygdala, hippocampus, etc. , cognitive/intellectual (cortex) Remember: fear response is vital to our survival allows for fast, energized action.