Clinical Applications of Learning and Behavior: Anxiety and OCD

Flashcards based on the lecture transcript regarding clinical applications of learning principles for anxiety disorders and OCD.

Anxiety

A normal human response to stress that increases arousal to focus attention on specific situations, but can become a clinical disorder when it results in functional impairment.

Fear

A short-lived physiological alarm response, often called 'fight or flight,' produced by the sympathetic nervous system in response to a physical or imagined threat.

Functional Impairment

The clinical criterion where a condition impacts a person's day-to-day life, regular activities, and ability to function normally in work, school, or social settings.

Internalizing Disorders

Mood disorders, such as anxiety and depression, that focus inward on internal states rather than external behaviors.

DSM-5

A diagnostic manual used to list characterizing features of clinical disorders, containing criteria for conditions like Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).

Behavioral Avoidance

Physically removing oneself from a situation or avoiding a place or person to escape fear or anxiety.

Cognitive Avoidance

A strategy involving distracting oneself or avoiding thinking about a certain event or thought to manage anxiety.

Emotional Avoidance

Engaging in activities or using substances to relieve a state of emotional distress.

Classical Conditioning (in anxiety)

A learning process where a neutral stimulus (an event) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (arousal/panic) until the event alone triggers a conditioned response.

Operant Conditioning (in anxiety)

Stimulus-response learning where avoidant behaviors are maintained because they effectively reduce feelings of worry or dread through reinforcement.

Negative Reinforcement (in anxiety)

The process where the likelihood of avoidant behavior increases because it results in the removal or reduction of an unpleasant state, like fear.

ABC Model

A clinical framework used in psychology to analyze behaviors by looking at Antecedents (the feared situation), Behaviors (avoidance), and Consequences (reduced fear).

Waves of Anxiety

A concept describing anxiety as periodical spikes of arousal over time; if unaddressed, peaks can become higher and the baseline level of anxiety can increase.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

A treatment approach based on the cyclical relationship between thoughts, behaviors, and feelings, aiming to identify and reframe maladaptive patterns.

Cognitive Restructuring

A CBT technique used to challenge and reevaluate unhelpful or catastrophic thoughts, such as overestimating the likelihood of a negative event.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)

A behavioral therapy involving deliberate exposure to obsessional cues while simultaneously preventing the person from engaging in their usual avoidant or ritualistic behaviors.

Fear Ladder

A tool used in systematic desensitization where a person ranks scenarios from $1$ to $10$ (or higher) based on their level of fear to guide gradual exposure therapy.

Psychoeducation

The process of helping individuals identify their own personal triggers and learn the connections between their feelings, behaviors, and thoughts.

DAS21 and K10

Commonly used screening tools (rather than diagnostic tools) used to identify psychological distress and triage levels of risk in patients.

Obsessions

Persistent ideas or intrusive thoughts that a person feels they are unable to control, often driving compulsive behavior in OCD.

Compulsions

Repetitive behaviors or rituals that an individual feels compelled to perform to reduce the anxiety caused by obsessive thoughts.

Safety Behaviors

Unhelpful behaviors or rituals used to manage anxiety in the short term, which therapy seeks to identify and unlearn through exposure.

Riding the Wave

A de-arousal strategy where an individual allows anxiety to peak and subside naturally without intervening with avoidant behaviors.