PSY 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Anxiety Disorder, Psychopathology, Biopsychosocial Model
29 Nov 2017
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Document Summary
Perspectives on psychological disorders: understanding psychological disorders, early explanations and treatments for disorders - abnormal behavior thought to be due to strange forces (god-like powers, evil spirits); belief often leads to heinous treatments to attempt to cure psychopathology. In last 200 years, psychologically disturbed people beaten, burned, castrated in attempt to rid people of psychological disturbance. Panic attack symptoms: heart palpitations, shortness of breath, choking sensation, trembling, dizziness: phobias, irrational, intense fear of some object, activity, situation. Some commonplace phobias said to help our ancestors survive (fear of snakes, heights, etc), but these do not incapacitate the person, so not the same as phobia disorder: disorder - feared stimulus must be avoided. Understanding anxiety disorders: the learning perspective - anxiety disorders are learned, not biological, fear conditioning - anxiety often develops after exposure to uncontrollable, unpredictable events, reinforcement - avoidance of feared stimulus reduces anxiety so behavior is reinforced.
