Fear vs Anxiety

What is fear?

• alarm reaction, response to a specific threat

  • a basic emotion

  • flight-fight-freeze reaction

  • immediate response to a threat

What is anxiety?

• more general, possible future danger

  • more complex response pattern

  • unpleasant emotions + cognitions (thoughts, beliefs, interpretations, expectations)

  • avoidance reaction

What mechanisms play a role in development and maintenance of anxiety disorders?

1. Classical conditioning

2. Modeling

3. Operant conditioning

Explain classical conditioning.

A process where a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.

Explain modeling.

Learning fear by watching other people.

Explain operant conditioning.

• this explains why anxiety continues over time

  • key idea: behaviours that are rewarded tend to repeat over time

• Punishment:

  • positive punishment + add smth unpleasant = behaviour decreases

  • negative punishment + take away smth unpleasant = behaviour decreases

• Reinforcement:

  • positive reinforcement + add smth pleasant = behaviour increases

  • negative reinforcement + remove smth unpleasant = behaviour increases

What part of operant conditioning is most important for anxiety disorders?

• negative reinforcement

  • (ex. you’re anxious about giving a presentation = you skip class = anxiety immediately drops)

  • because anxiety disappeared = avoidance increases