Week 5: Anxiety, Trauma, and Stressor-Related Disorders

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering definitions, diagnostic criteria, aetiological models, assessments, treatments, and sociocultural aspects of anxiety, trauma, and stressor-related disorders from PSYC251 Week 5.

Stress

A psychological or physiological response to a stimulus that occurs when situational demands are interpreted to be greater than the available resources to cope.

Anxiety

An emotional state characterized by apprehension and tension, where an individual anticipates impending danger, catastrophe, or misfortune.

Trauma

Psychological harm that occurs as a result of very frightening or distressing events that are life-threatening or a significant threat to a person's wellbeing.

Anatomy of the Nervous System

The organization of nervous systems into the Central Nervous System (brain and spinal cord) and Peripheral Nervous System (all nerves and sensory structures outside CNS), which divides into Somatic (voluntary control) and Autonomic (involuntary control: Sympathetic, Parasympathetic, and Enteric).

Sympathetic Nervous System

A branch of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for action to deal with real or perceived threats ("fight or flight").

Parasympathetic Nervous System

A branch of the autonomic nervous system that promotes relaxation and energy conservation ("rest and digest").

HPA Axis Response in Stress

A neuroendocrine pathway where perceived stress causes the Hypothalamus to release CRH, prompting the Anterior Pituitary to release ACTH, which stimulates the Adrenal Cortex to release cortisol.

Types of Anxiety (Lingiardi & McWilliams, 2017)

Anxiety classifications including Separation (loss of loved one), Mutilation (damage to body), Moral (transgressing values), Annihilation (becoming catastrophically overwhelmed), Fragmentary (self-disintegration), and Persecutory (fear of harm).

Specific Phobia

An anxiety disorder characterized by marked, persistent (lasting at least 6 months) fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation that almost always provokes immediate, disproportionate fear and is actively avoided or endured with intense distress.

Social Anxiety Disorder

An anxiety disorder marked by intense, persistent (6 months or more) fear or anxiety about social situations where the individual may be scrutinised by others, fearing negative evaluation, humiliation, or rejection.

Panic Disorder

An anxiety disorder defined by abrupt surges of intense fear reaching a peak within minutes with 4 or more somatic/cognitive symptoms, followed by 1 month or more of persistent worry about additional attacks or maladaptive behavioural changes.

Agoraphobia

An anxiety disorder involving marked, persistent (6 months or more) fear triggered by real or anticipated exposure to 2 or more of 5 situations: public transportation, open spaces, enclosed spaces, lines/crowds, or being outside the home alone.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

A condition characterized by recurrent intrusive, unwanted thoughts or urges (obsessions) and/or repetitive physical or mental acts performed to reduce anxiety according to rigid rules (compulsions), taking more than 1 hour per day.

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

An anxiety disorder characterized by excessive anxiety and worry occurring more days than not for at least 6 months about a number of events or activities, accompanied by 3 or more somatic/cognitive symptoms.

Cognitive Triad of Anxiety (Beck, 1967)

Threat-oriented mental structures regarding the Self (vulnerable, lacking coping skills), Others (hostile, unpredictable, dangerous), and the Future (catastrophic, unmanageable harm).

Information Processing Model of Anxiety (Beck & Clark, 1997)

A three-stage model comprising Stage 1: Pre-attentive Processing (rapid screening/hypervigilance), Stage 2: Primary Appraisal (overestimating threat danger), and Stage 3: Secondary Appraisal (underestimating internal coping capacity).

State vs. Trait Anxiety

State anxiety is an in-the-moment reaction to a specific stressor that disappears when resolved, whereas trait anxiety is a lifelong personality trait where anxiety occurs without clear triggers.

Benzodiazepines

Anxiolytic medications (e.g., Lorazepam, Diazepam) that amplify GABA to slow central nervous system activity, acting within 15 to 40 minutes, but carrying high risks of physical dependence and withdrawal.

Exposure Therapy

A psychological intervention that systematically increases exposure to feared stimuli using a Subjective Units of Distress (SUD) hierarchy to facilitate habituation and inhibitory learning, breaking the cycle of avoidance.

Types of Trauma

Distinctions in traumatic experiences: Acute (single isolated event), Chronic (repeated, prolonged exposure), Complex (multiple overlapping events), and Physical (severe bodily injury).

Prolonged Grief Disorder

A trauma/stressor disorder following the death of a close person at least 2 months prior (6 months in children), characterized by persistent, daily intense yearning or emotional pain lasting at least 1 month.

Adjustment Disorder

The onset of emotional or behavioural symptoms in response to an identifiable stressor occurring within 3 months of stressor onset, causing marked distress, and lasting no more than 6 additional months after stressor termination.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

A condition lasting more than 1 month following exposure to actual/threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence, characterized by symptoms across Intrusions, Avoidance, Negative alterations in cognitions/mood, and Alterations in arousal/reactivity.

Acute Stress Disorder (ASD)

A disorder developing after exposure to a traumatic event, requiring 9 or more symptoms across intrusion, negative mood, dissociation, avoidance, and arousal, with a duration of 3 days to 1 month post-trauma.

Neurocircuitry Model of Trauma (Rauch et al., 1998)

A biological model positing PTSD symptoms result from breakdown between a hypersensitive Amygdala (threat overreaction), a hypoactive Medial PFC/ACC (failed top-down emotion regulation), and an impaired Hippocampus (failed memory contextualization).

Maintenance Model of PTSD (Kearney, 2019)

A cognitive cycle where triggers activate vivid traumatic memories and overestimated danger, inducing anxiety that drives safety-seeking behaviors, which lead to a failure to contextualize memories and sustain PTSD symptoms.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

A PTSD intervention developed by Shapiro (2001) using bilateral stimulation (e.g., side-to-side eye movements) to tax working memory, mimic REM sleep neural activity, and trigger an orienting response to reduce memory emotional valence.

Cultural Concepts of Distress in Trauma

Culturally specific somatic and psychological manifestations of severe distress, including Susto (soul leaving body in Latin America), Khyal cap (wind attacks in Cambodia), and Ataque de nervios (screaming/shaking episodes in Hispanic populations).