Anxiety and fear related disorders

What are the diagnostic criteria for anxiety disorders?

Symptoms must be intense, persistent, unreasonable, last almost every day for several months, cause distress, disrupt everyday life, and other conditions must be ruled out.

What are typical symptoms of Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)?

• Persistent almost constant state of anxiety- Over several months- Ongoing feeling of apprehension- Worries about daily things Health , family etc. but amplified- Muscle tension, trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating

What is agoraphobia characterized by?

An intense fear in situations where one might feel trapped or unable to get help, such as on public transport or in crowds. It involves fear of bad or embarrassing incidents occurring in public, leading to active avoidance of these situations

What is specific phobia (blood-injection-injury type)?

• Intense fear or anxiety is consistently triggered by a specific thing or situation

• For BII it's the sight of blood, getting, seeing or thinking about an injection or injury.

• Level of fear is out of proportion

• Decreased blood pressure causing fainting.

What does the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7) measure?

Frequency of GAD symptoms over the last two weeks, using a 7-item, four-point scale.

What is a sample GAD-7 item response scale?

Not at all (0), Several days (1), More than half the days (2), Nearly every day (3).

What does the Blood Injection Phobia Inventory (BIPI) assess?

18 blood/needle-related situations, measuring 27 possible reactions per situation, on a four-point scale from never to always.

What is the purpose of the BIPI?

To measure situational and anticipatory anxiety in blood and injection contexts.

What was the aim of Mas et al. (2010)?

To develop a measure of blood phobia symptoms for first-language Spanish speakers.

What methodology did Mas et al. (2010) use?

Compared blood phobics and controls on 50 anxiety items, removing unhelpful items, and used interviews and the Fear Questionnaire (FQ).

What was concluded by Mas et al. (2010)?

The BIPI is a valid measure of blood phobia in Spanish speakers.

What does the genetic inheritance explanation for phobias propose?

We are born with a predisposition to fear certain objects; this is transmitted genetically as a survival mechanism.

How does evolution relate to genetic explanations of fear?

People who avoided genuine threats survived and passed on their tendency to avoid dangers through DNA.

What was the aim of Öst et al. (1992)?

To determine if blood phobics are similar enough to injection phobics to classify blood-injection as one phobia.

How did Öst et al. (1992) gather data?

Self-reports on phobia origins, age of onset, family history, and fainting, plus physiological measures during exposure to phobic stimuli.

What did Öst et al. (1992) conclude?

Blood and injection phobias are similar and should be classified together, but blood phobia shows a stronger genetic component and more severe biological reactions.

How does classical conditioning explain phobias?

A neutral stimulus becomes associated with fear through pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, so the neutral stimulus eventually elicits a conditioned fear response.- Negative reinforcement maintains the phobia by the person avoiding the situation which might lead to it not being cured or contered by a positive experiencePrevents reality testing

What was the aim of Watson and Rayner (1920)?

To investigate if emotional responses like fear can be classically conditioned and if this fear generalizes.

Who was the subject in the Watson and Rayner (1920) study?

A nine-month-old boy known as Little Albert.

How was fear conditioned in the Watson and Rayner (1920) study?

The boy was exposed to a rat paired with a loud noise; after repeated pairings, the boy developed fear of the rat and similar stimuli.

What did Watson and Rayner (1920) conclude?

Fear can be classically conditioned in humans and generalizes to similar stimuli.

How does the psychodynamic explanation account for phobias?

Phobias arise from unresolved unconscious conflicts between primal urges (ID) and moral constraints (ego and superego). When these urges are repressed, anxiety occurs, and phobias serve as symbols of these internal conflicts

What was Freud's theory related to phobias?

Anxiety and fear stem from the impulses of the ID, particularly when desires are denied or repressed.

What was the aim of Freud's (1909) case study?

To describe the development and recovery of a phobia in a young child (Little Hans).

How did Freud collect data on Little Hans?

Through interviews and letters from the boy's father, containing observations and statements from Hans.

What did Freud's case study contribute to phobia understanding?

It provided longitudinal insight into the developmental and causal factors of phobias.

What is systematic desensitization?

A behavioral therapy aiming to gradually reduce fear by teaching relaxation, creating an anxiety hierarchy, and slowly exposing the person to feared situations.

What is reciprocal inhibition in systematic desensitization?

The principle that it's not possible to experience two opposing emotions (like fear and deep relaxation) at the same time.

What are the three stages of systematic desensitization?

1) Learning relaxation techniques, 2) Constructing an anxiety hierarchy, 3) Gradual exposure paired with relaxation until calm.

How does systematic desensitization work?

By replacing the fear response to a stimulus with relaxation, weakening the fear response over time.

What is the goal of applied muscle tension in treating BII phobia?

To tense major muscle groups to increase blood pressure and counteract the tendency to faint at the sight of blood or injections.

What was the aim of Chapman and DeLapp (2013)?

To investigate if Blood-Injection-Injury (BII) phobia could be treated with CBT and applied muscle tension.

Who was the subject in Chapman and DeLapp (2013)?

A 42-year-old male diagnosed with BII phobia.

What methods were used in Chapman and DeLapp (2013)?

Interviews for life history, questionnaires for anxiety and depression, nine CBT sessions, applied muscle tension, and use of a fear hierarchy and SUDS.

What were the results of Chapman and DeLapp (2013)?

Patient's anxiety around blood/injections was reduced, enabling medical procedures without fear, with improvements maintained at 4, 10, and 12-month follow-ups.

What are some strengths of the Chapman and DeLapp (2013) case study?

Provided rich qualitative data and used quantitative and qualitative measures for thorough analysis.

What are some limitations of the Chapman and DeLapp (2013) case study?

Findings are not generalizable, and there may be self-report bias.