Fear and Anxiety

fear

a state of immediate alarm in response to a serious known threat to one's well-being

anxiety

a state of alarm in response to a vague sense of threat or danger

normal anxiety

an inborn response to threat and the absence of people or objects that signify safety

pathologic anxiety

anxiety that is excessive, impairs functioning

anxiety risk factors

behavioural inhibition and higher autonomic reactivity

anxiety protective factos

optimism, social support

mowrer's two factor theory of avoidance learning

avoidance reduces fear in the short term. this is negatively reinforced > maintenance of anxiety

behavioural inhibition

persistent tendency to exhibit restraint, withdrawal, and reticence when faced with novel or unfamiliar situations and people

autobiographical memory

the recall of specific indidents from one's past

panic disorder

panic attacks without trigger

trauma

exposure to: actual threatened life, serious injury, sexual violation.

type 1 trauma

short term.

type 2 trauma

long term.

ehler's and clark's cognitive model of PTSD

negative appraisals, disjointed trauma memories, and unhelpful coping mechanisms maintain ptsd

emotional processing theory

trauma memory is a fear structure, including stimuli, responses and meaning

prolonged exposure therapy

dismantling harm expectancy of exposure to traumatic memory

specific phobia

disproportional and marked fear/anxiety about specific objects/situations

preparedness theory

we are more prepared to learn some fears because they are evolutionairy advantageous

exposure in vivo

exposure in real life

agoraphobia

extreme fear or anxiety regarding places or situations that might cause panic, feelings of being trapped, helplesness, or embarressment.

generalized anxiety disorder

patients suffer from chronic anxiety or nervousness

type 2 worries (meta worry)

worry about worrying.

white bears experiment

the suppression of thoughts only intensifies unwanted thoughts

OCD

loss of control over thoughts. compulsive behaviours driven by thoughts

obsessions

recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses or images that are intrusive and cause anxiety or distress

compulsions

repetitive behaviours or mental acts that the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession. may not always be associated with the content of the obsession

intrustions

involuntary unwanted thought, that can cause distress.

thought-action fusion

the tendency to assume that a certain thoughts leads to a certain act

social anxiety

a marked fear or anxiety about one or more social situations in which the person is exposed to possible scrunity by others

Clarke and Wells Model

individuals with SAD have distorted beliefs about themselves and how others perceive them. these are maintained by a set of cognitive, attentional, and behavioural processes

Hofmann model

emphasizes the interplay between genetic predispostion, emotional regulation deficits, attentional biases, and distorted cognitive processing in the development and maintenance of SAD.

Rapee and Heimburg model:

social anxiety arises and is maintained when individuals construct an overly negative mental image of how they believe others perceive them, and they compare the image to what they think are the standards for social performances.

combination therapy

combine cognitive behaviour therapy with an enhancer (medication)

massed extinction

exposure therapy in an intensive condensed format. aims to break the association between feared stimuli and anxious responses by repeated exposure

response styles theory

ruminating on one's own depressive symptoms serves to intensify and prolong them

indirect exposure

learning about traumatic experiences of loved ones

numbing abnormality

the inability to experience positive emotions

dissociative symptoms

amnesia, flashbacks

imaginal exposure

emotional engagement with the trauma memory via repeated recounting of the memory

multiple context exposure

a systematic change in context during the exposure sessions

bandura's model

self-efficacy is a primary causal factor in the manifestation of panic symptoms

suffocation false alarm (SFA)

respiratory symptoms are key predictors of panic attacks due to a lowered suffocation alarm threshold

neuroanatomical hypothesis of panic attacks

neural pathway involved in the acquisition of conditioned fear results in the physiological changes associated with panic

extinction

reduction in the anxiety/fear response associated with the feared stimulus

emotional processing theory (EPT)

confrontation with a feared stimulus during exposure activates a fear structure

self-presentation model

people experience social anxiety when they are motivated to make a particular impression on others but doubt their ability to do so

reinforcement sensitivity theory

individual differences in personality are rooted in the sensitivity of three brain systems to positive and negative stimuli