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Summary 1.6 Normal or Abnormal - Problem 3 - Phobias and Anxiety Disorder
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Summary of the third problem of the course 1.6 Normal or Abnormal - Phobias and Anxiety Disorder
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Problem 3 - Phobias, anxiety disordersFear vs Anxiety
Fear – basic emotion – activates fight/flight
• for escape of immediate danger
• if fear response without danger = spontaneous panic attack (dying, impending doom)
– 3 components (not all 3 necessary )
o Cognitive e.g. „I’m gonna die“
o Physiological
o Behavioral (escape)
Anxiety – blend of unpleasant emotions –possible future danger
• 3 components
o Cognitive ( ☹ mood, worry about possible threats, inability to control future event)
o Physiology (tension, chronic overarousal – cuz of readiness to dealing with danger), no fight
or flight response – but preparation for it
o Behavior – strongly avoid situations with danger – but no urge to flee
• Evolution – helped us to prepare for possible threat
• Mild – moderate degrees – enhances learning and performance,
• Conditioning plays a role – we may learn fears/anxieties (e.g. psychological trauma – US, elicits fear
– CR) , (thoughts can also be stimuli)
Phobia – irrational and out of proportion, response to a specific situation or object
Etiology – causing, contributing to
Anxiety disorders
• “unrealistic, irrational fears/anxieties that cause significant distress/impairments in functioning” –
if someone has one, usually have another/depression
• More common in women
• 7-9% occurence, second most common disorder in men, first most common in women
• Specific phobia
• Social anxiety disorder (social phobia)
• Agoraphobia
• (Generalized anxiety disorder)
• (Panic disorder)
Causes:
• Bio factors = genetic contribution – e.g neuroticism – prone to have – moods, risk factor for anxiety
disorders
• Limbic system involved (“emotional brain”) + NT GABA, norepinephrine and serotonin
• Cog fac = classical conditioning,
o + ↑ prone if is feeling of lack of control of env./own emotions – these feelings influences
by parenting styles,
o distorted patterns of thinking also play a role,
o and sociocultural environment
, Treatment:
• Exposure treatment – best kind
• Cognitive restructuring techniques (understanding distorted patterns of thinking)
• + medications good for all except specific phobias (either antianxiety/anxiolytics or
antidepressants)
Phobic disorders
- phobia = “persistent/disproportionate fear of an object/situation that presents little/ no actual danger,
but person avoids these”
Specific phobia DSM criteria
A. Marked fear/anxiety about a specific object/situation/just anticipation
of encountering the object
B. Cases fear/anxiety
C. Is avoided/endured with intense fear/anxiety (even in photos/TV)
D. Fear/anxiety doesn’t reflect actual danger posed, and the sociocultural
context
E. Persistent (usually 6+ months)
F. The distress impairs social/occupational/other functioning
G. Disturbance can’t be explained by symptoms of any other mental
disorder
Usually are aware this fear is excessive/unreasonable
Subtypes:
• Animal (snakes),
• Natural environment (heights -acrophobia),
• blood-injection-injury (seeing blood),
o 3-4% of pop.,
o highly heritable – have both disgust and fear, and a weird response when seeing
blood/injury
o 1st a heart rate acceleration, then a dramatic drop in heart rate and blood pressure +
neausea/dizziness/fainting – doesn’t occur with other specific phobias
o adaptive because one loses less blood when blood pressure drops (when attacked by
a predator and faints)
o Treatment: “applied tension technique” = increased heart rate to stop them from
fainting
• situational (tunnels),
• other (vomiting, “space phobia” – falling down)
Specific phobias – 12% of pop at some point in life – more in women, but depends (90-95% with animals
are women, and 2:1 for blood-injection-injury)
Animal, blood-injection-injury and dental begin in childhood, while claustrophobia, driving phobia –
adolescence/adulthood
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