Abnormal Behavior Lecture Outline Spring Semester ‘24

Flashcards summarizing key concepts from the lecture notes on abnormal behavior, specifically anxiety and related disorders.

Anxiety Disorders

Characterized by neuroticism and commonalities across effective treatments such as graduated exposure and cognitive restructuring.

Specific Phobias

Common fears occurring in about 12% of people, often beginning in childhood and more frequent in women.

Psychoanalytic Viewpoint

Phobias as a defense against anxiety stemming from repressed impulses, displaced onto external objects.

Classical Conditioning

A process where a fear response can be conditioned to neutral stimuli when paired with traumatic events.

Vicarious Conditioning

Learning of phobias through observing someone else's fearful behavior rather than direct experience.

Evolutionary Preparedness

Concept that certain fears and phobias are learned rapidly due to evolutionary advantages.

Behavioral Inhibition

A temperamental variable linked to higher risk of specific phobias if present in early childhood.

Exposure Therapy

Behavior therapy exposing individuals to stimuli that elicit fear, effective for treating phobias and anxiety.

Cognitive Restructuring

Therapeutic technique aimed at identifying and altering negative automatic thoughts.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Characterized by free-floating anxiety resulting from unresolved unconscious conflicts.

Panic Disorder

Involves recurrent panic attacks, often accompanied by agoraphobia and sensitivity to bodily sensations.

Cognitive Theory of Panic

Suggests panic disorder involves hypersensitivity to bodily sensations and dire interpretations.

Anxiolytics

A category of medications used to treat anxiety and panic, acting quickly but can lead to dependence.

Cultural Perspectives

Variations in anxiety disorders manifestation and prevalence across different cultures.

Ataque de Nervios

A culturally specific anxiety reaction among Caribbean Latinos, characterized by overwhelming emotional experiences.

Koro

A culturally related syndrome from Southeast Asia associated with the fear of bodily disfigurement.