Contents
Lecture 7: Acquisition of Fear.................................................................................................................3
History and basics of conditioning......................................................................................................3
Fear conditioning in the lab................................................................................................................4
Fear conditioning in the brain.............................................................................................................5
Criticism of traditional learning theory...............................................................................................5
Contemporary fear learning...............................................................................................................6
Fear acquisition and clinical fear and anxiety.....................................................................................7
Mineka & Zinbarg (2006): A Contemporary Learning Theory Persective on the Etiology of Anxiety
Disorders................................................................................................................................................8
Specific phobia....................................................................................................................................8
Social phobia....................................................................................................................................10
Panic disorder with and without agoraphobia..................................................................................10
Posttraumatic stress disorder...........................................................................................................12
Generalized Anxiety Disorder...........................................................................................................12
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder........................................................................................................13
Conclusions.......................................................................................................................................14
Lenaert et al. (2014): Aversive learning and generalization predict subclinical levels of anxiety: A six-
month longitudinal study.....................................................................................................................14
Design...............................................................................................................................................15
Methods...........................................................................................................................................15
Results..............................................................................................................................................15
Discussion.........................................................................................................................................16
Lecture 8: Deconstructing fear memory: Extinction and reconsolidation.............................................17
Disrupting memory consolidation.....................................................................................................19
Craske et al. (2014): Maximizing exposure therapy: An inhibitory learning approach..........................20
Inhibitory learning model of extinction............................................................................................20
Deficits in inhibition and anxiety disorders.......................................................................................21
Inhibitory learning versus habituation and behavioral testing approaches to exposure...................21
Therapeutic strategies for enhancing inhibitory learning and retrieval............................................22
Therapeutic strategy for enhancing inhibitory regulation.................................................................24
Case studies......................................................................................................................................25
Elsey & Kindt (2017): Tackling maladaptive memories through reconsolidation: From neutral to
clinical science......................................................................................................................................27
Lecture 9: Intrusive Thinking................................................................................................................28
,Visser et al. (2020): Intrusive thinking across neuropsychiatric disorders: From molecules to free will
..............................................................................................................................................................29
Abstract............................................................................................................................................29
Introduction......................................................................................................................................30
What are the everyday manifestations of intrusions and their control?...........................................30
What are the main manifestations of intrusive thinking in mental health disorders?......................33
Revisiting the definition of intrusive thinking: A synthesis................................................................37
How to best study the processes underlying intrusive thinking and its control................................39
Summary of commonly used methods and desiderata for invesitgating intrusive thinking..............43
Lecture 10: The Psychology of Suicidal Behavior..................................................................................45
O’Connor & Nock (2014): The Psychology of Suicidal Behaviour..........................................................48
Introduction......................................................................................................................................48
Epidemiology....................................................................................................................................48
Multifactorial causes and the role of psychiatric disorders...............................................................49
Psychological theories of suicidal behaviour.....................................................................................49
Psychological risk and protective factors..........................................................................................51
Psychological treatment...................................................................................................................55
Key directions for psychological research.........................................................................................56
Lecture 11: Mood instability in the context of bipolar spectrum disorder............................................56
Broome et al. (2015): Mood Instability: Significance, Definition and Measurement............................59
Defining and measuring mood instability.........................................................................................59
Investigations and implications of mood instability..........................................................................59
Vannucci et al. (2022): Positive moods are all alike? Differential affect amplification effects of ‘elated’
versus ‘calm’ mental imagery in young adults reporting hypomanic-like experiences.........................60
Introduction......................................................................................................................................60
Method.............................................................................................................................................61
Procedure.........................................................................................................................................61
Measures..........................................................................................................................................61
Discussion.........................................................................................................................................62
Lecture 12: Distorted Reality: Psychotic Symptoms..............................................................................63
Kapur (2003): Psychosis as a State of Aberrant Salience: A Framework Linking Biology,
Phenomenology, and Pharmacology in Schizophrenia.........................................................................67
Dopamine as the “Wind of the Psychotic Fire”.................................................................................67
Dopamine as a Mediator of Motivatonal Salience............................................................................67
Psychosis as a Disorder of Aberrant Salience....................................................................................68
Dampening of Aberrant Salience by Antipsychotics..........................................................................69
, Implications and Predictions of This Model......................................................................................70
Relationship to Other Models and Ideas...........................................................................................70
Qualifications and Boundaries..........................................................................................................71
Hasson-Ohayon et al. (2017): The Special Challenges of Psychotherapy with Person with Psychosis:
Intersubjective Metacognitive Model of Agreement and Shared Meaning..........................................71
Constructing Agreement as an Intersubjective Process: Three Foundational Challenges in
Psychotherapy with Persons with Psychosis.....................................................................................72
Possible Paths for Resolutions of the Barriers to Agreement and Shared Meaning: Metacognition
and Empathy.....................................................................................................................................73
Summary, Conclusions and Additional Considerations.....................................................................74
Balter (2014): Talking Back to Madness................................................................................................75
Stress and vulnerability.....................................................................................................................75
Sandy’s CBT.......................................................................................................................................76
Lecture 7: Acquisition of Fear
Anxiety disorders:
Very common;
1/14 people worldwide affected.
Focus this lecture: early learning experiences.
History and basics of conditioning
Ivan Pavlov: classical conditioning.
Aspects:
o Neutral stimulus (NS);
Lead to OR.
o Orientation response (OR);
o Unconditioned stimulus (US);
Leads to UR.
o Unconditioned response (UR);
CS + US -> UR.
o Conditioned stimulus (CS);
Leads to CR.
o Conditioned response (CR).
John B. Watson: fear comes from learning experiences.
Contrast to existing view that fear is innate.
‘Little Albert’ study: loud noise (US) which the baby feared (UR) whenever baby began to play
(OR) with white rat (NS). This way, they trained the infant to fear (CR) the rat (CS).
o Illustrates Pavlovian (classical) conditioning.
o Generalization to other animals and objects.
Fear response (UR) shifts from aversive stimulus (US) to previously neutral stimulus (CS).
Original view: CS – CR association;
, Contemporary view: CS – US association.
Deconditioning (Mary Jones): ‘Little Peter’ – counter-conditioning study.
Associative learning can also lead to unlearning of conditioned response.
Why does fear persist as CS is “harmless”?
Two-process model (O.H. Mowrer):
o Fear acquisition: classical conditioning;
o Maintenance of fear: operant conditioning.
Avoidance of feared object (CS) -> decrease fear -> increase in avoidance
behaviour.
Prevents someone from learning that fear for CS is unfounded, and
so fear persists.
Fear conditioning in the lab
Animal research:
Sound (CS) -> electric shock (US).
CR: freezing.
Human research:
Spider (CS) -> electric shock (US).
CR: two ways of meauring.
o Subjective: US expectation;
o Physiological: startle response, skin conductance.
Differential fear response: CS- used as control condition, then
compared to CS+.
o CS+ for 8 seconds, then US (shock);
o Startle probe right before US, height of anticipation (fear) to
US.
o CS- for 8 seconds, startle probe after 7 seconds, no US.
o After conditioning: US-expectancy higher for CS+ than for CS-.
Indicative of fear learning.
o After conditioning: startle response stronger to CS+ than for CS-, and NA.
Indicative of fear learning.
Noise alone (NA) used to see if CS- is truly at baseline.
Spider in hand is CS-.
Lecture 7: Acquisition of Fear.................................................................................................................3
History and basics of conditioning......................................................................................................3
Fear conditioning in the lab................................................................................................................4
Fear conditioning in the brain.............................................................................................................5
Criticism of traditional learning theory...............................................................................................5
Contemporary fear learning...............................................................................................................6
Fear acquisition and clinical fear and anxiety.....................................................................................7
Mineka & Zinbarg (2006): A Contemporary Learning Theory Persective on the Etiology of Anxiety
Disorders................................................................................................................................................8
Specific phobia....................................................................................................................................8
Social phobia....................................................................................................................................10
Panic disorder with and without agoraphobia..................................................................................10
Posttraumatic stress disorder...........................................................................................................12
Generalized Anxiety Disorder...........................................................................................................12
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder........................................................................................................13
Conclusions.......................................................................................................................................14
Lenaert et al. (2014): Aversive learning and generalization predict subclinical levels of anxiety: A six-
month longitudinal study.....................................................................................................................14
Design...............................................................................................................................................15
Methods...........................................................................................................................................15
Results..............................................................................................................................................15
Discussion.........................................................................................................................................16
Lecture 8: Deconstructing fear memory: Extinction and reconsolidation.............................................17
Disrupting memory consolidation.....................................................................................................19
Craske et al. (2014): Maximizing exposure therapy: An inhibitory learning approach..........................20
Inhibitory learning model of extinction............................................................................................20
Deficits in inhibition and anxiety disorders.......................................................................................21
Inhibitory learning versus habituation and behavioral testing approaches to exposure...................21
Therapeutic strategies for enhancing inhibitory learning and retrieval............................................22
Therapeutic strategy for enhancing inhibitory regulation.................................................................24
Case studies......................................................................................................................................25
Elsey & Kindt (2017): Tackling maladaptive memories through reconsolidation: From neutral to
clinical science......................................................................................................................................27
Lecture 9: Intrusive Thinking................................................................................................................28
,Visser et al. (2020): Intrusive thinking across neuropsychiatric disorders: From molecules to free will
..............................................................................................................................................................29
Abstract............................................................................................................................................29
Introduction......................................................................................................................................30
What are the everyday manifestations of intrusions and their control?...........................................30
What are the main manifestations of intrusive thinking in mental health disorders?......................33
Revisiting the definition of intrusive thinking: A synthesis................................................................37
How to best study the processes underlying intrusive thinking and its control................................39
Summary of commonly used methods and desiderata for invesitgating intrusive thinking..............43
Lecture 10: The Psychology of Suicidal Behavior..................................................................................45
O’Connor & Nock (2014): The Psychology of Suicidal Behaviour..........................................................48
Introduction......................................................................................................................................48
Epidemiology....................................................................................................................................48
Multifactorial causes and the role of psychiatric disorders...............................................................49
Psychological theories of suicidal behaviour.....................................................................................49
Psychological risk and protective factors..........................................................................................51
Psychological treatment...................................................................................................................55
Key directions for psychological research.........................................................................................56
Lecture 11: Mood instability in the context of bipolar spectrum disorder............................................56
Broome et al. (2015): Mood Instability: Significance, Definition and Measurement............................59
Defining and measuring mood instability.........................................................................................59
Investigations and implications of mood instability..........................................................................59
Vannucci et al. (2022): Positive moods are all alike? Differential affect amplification effects of ‘elated’
versus ‘calm’ mental imagery in young adults reporting hypomanic-like experiences.........................60
Introduction......................................................................................................................................60
Method.............................................................................................................................................61
Procedure.........................................................................................................................................61
Measures..........................................................................................................................................61
Discussion.........................................................................................................................................62
Lecture 12: Distorted Reality: Psychotic Symptoms..............................................................................63
Kapur (2003): Psychosis as a State of Aberrant Salience: A Framework Linking Biology,
Phenomenology, and Pharmacology in Schizophrenia.........................................................................67
Dopamine as the “Wind of the Psychotic Fire”.................................................................................67
Dopamine as a Mediator of Motivatonal Salience............................................................................67
Psychosis as a Disorder of Aberrant Salience....................................................................................68
Dampening of Aberrant Salience by Antipsychotics..........................................................................69
, Implications and Predictions of This Model......................................................................................70
Relationship to Other Models and Ideas...........................................................................................70
Qualifications and Boundaries..........................................................................................................71
Hasson-Ohayon et al. (2017): The Special Challenges of Psychotherapy with Person with Psychosis:
Intersubjective Metacognitive Model of Agreement and Shared Meaning..........................................71
Constructing Agreement as an Intersubjective Process: Three Foundational Challenges in
Psychotherapy with Persons with Psychosis.....................................................................................72
Possible Paths for Resolutions of the Barriers to Agreement and Shared Meaning: Metacognition
and Empathy.....................................................................................................................................73
Summary, Conclusions and Additional Considerations.....................................................................74
Balter (2014): Talking Back to Madness................................................................................................75
Stress and vulnerability.....................................................................................................................75
Sandy’s CBT.......................................................................................................................................76
Lecture 7: Acquisition of Fear
Anxiety disorders:
Very common;
1/14 people worldwide affected.
Focus this lecture: early learning experiences.
History and basics of conditioning
Ivan Pavlov: classical conditioning.
Aspects:
o Neutral stimulus (NS);
Lead to OR.
o Orientation response (OR);
o Unconditioned stimulus (US);
Leads to UR.
o Unconditioned response (UR);
CS + US -> UR.
o Conditioned stimulus (CS);
Leads to CR.
o Conditioned response (CR).
John B. Watson: fear comes from learning experiences.
Contrast to existing view that fear is innate.
‘Little Albert’ study: loud noise (US) which the baby feared (UR) whenever baby began to play
(OR) with white rat (NS). This way, they trained the infant to fear (CR) the rat (CS).
o Illustrates Pavlovian (classical) conditioning.
o Generalization to other animals and objects.
Fear response (UR) shifts from aversive stimulus (US) to previously neutral stimulus (CS).
Original view: CS – CR association;
, Contemporary view: CS – US association.
Deconditioning (Mary Jones): ‘Little Peter’ – counter-conditioning study.
Associative learning can also lead to unlearning of conditioned response.
Why does fear persist as CS is “harmless”?
Two-process model (O.H. Mowrer):
o Fear acquisition: classical conditioning;
o Maintenance of fear: operant conditioning.
Avoidance of feared object (CS) -> decrease fear -> increase in avoidance
behaviour.
Prevents someone from learning that fear for CS is unfounded, and
so fear persists.
Fear conditioning in the lab
Animal research:
Sound (CS) -> electric shock (US).
CR: freezing.
Human research:
Spider (CS) -> electric shock (US).
CR: two ways of meauring.
o Subjective: US expectation;
o Physiological: startle response, skin conductance.
Differential fear response: CS- used as control condition, then
compared to CS+.
o CS+ for 8 seconds, then US (shock);
o Startle probe right before US, height of anticipation (fear) to
US.
o CS- for 8 seconds, startle probe after 7 seconds, no US.
o After conditioning: US-expectancy higher for CS+ than for CS-.
Indicative of fear learning.
o After conditioning: startle response stronger to CS+ than for CS-, and NA.
Indicative of fear learning.
Noise alone (NA) used to see if CS- is truly at baseline.
Spider in hand is CS-.
