Summary #1 just scared
Fear
= alarm reaction/basic emotion that involves activation of fight-flight response to immediate
danger/stimulus.
Absence of external danger panic attack (fear and doom)
Anxiety
= unpleasant cognition/emotion oriented to the future & it’s more diffuse
Arousal
Reactivity may become too intense/specific maladaptive/problematic
Focus
Problem solving
Phobia
= persistent disproportionate fear of an object or situation that presents little danger & leads
to avoidance
Components: fear VS. anxiety
1. Cognitive (immediate fear VS. worry and negative mood)
2. Physiological (sympathetic nervous system VS. tension and chronic over arousal)
3. Behavioral (fight-flight response VS. general avoidance)
Anxiety may become too intense/attached to specific situatons maladaptive/problematic
Anxiety disorder (30-40%, western society)
= Unrealistic/irrational fear or anxiety that causes significant distress & function impairment.
- Anxiety is out of proportion to threat
- Individual is constantly experiencing anxiety (no stimulus)
- Anxiety is chronic and disabling constant emotional distress dysfunctional
Economically expensive to treat
High individual/social
burden
Disabling (like physical
illness)
Factors involved in anxiety
disorders
- Classical condition
- Social
environment/parenting
- Distorted cognitions
- Sociocultural environment
- Psychological factors
Main anxiety related disorders
- Specific phobias
- Social phobia/social anxiety disorder
agoraphobia
, Specific phobias
= marked fear or anxiety about an object/situation that leads to significant
distress/impairment/avoidance and is excessive & irrational.
1. Animal
2. Natural environment
3. Blood-Injury-injection much comorbidity
4. Situational within categories
5. Other
Patients hold Phobic beliefs
= beliefs about phobic stimuli that maintain the fear and avoidance behavior. information as
to why they believe a stimulus is threatening and what the appropriate reaction is.
Epidemiology
- 12% prevalence
- More common in women
- May start in childhood
Psychological factors
- Anxiety is a defense mechanism against impulses generated from the ID (Freud)
- Specific phobia is learned
Reinforcement of avoidance (reduces distress)
Reinforcement when others are considerate
Vicarious conditioning: watching someone else be phobic/ watch neutral person
undergo a frightening experience
Direct conditioning/ traumatic conditioning
Inflation effect: once exposed to a traumatic event, follow up events related to
the initial one quickly strengthens conditioning + likely to develop phobia
individual differences in learning/acquiring a phobia
- Evolutionary preparedness
= certain stimuli posed real threats to ancestors and are
easily acquired as being frightening
resistant to extinction
Biological factors
- Serotonin transporter gene (promotes fear conditioning)
- COMT met/met gene (reduces extinction)
- Behavioral inhibited toddles + development of specific phobia
- Monozygotic twin studies, show moderate heredity
- Biological preparedness quick conditioned acquisition of fear to fear relevant
stimuli
- Non-associative fear acquisition
= fear of biologically relevant stimuli develops naturally, requires no background
trauma (young kids’ period of fear for
everything). Time passes; habituation.
- Disease avoidance model of animal phobias
Fear
= alarm reaction/basic emotion that involves activation of fight-flight response to immediate
danger/stimulus.
Absence of external danger panic attack (fear and doom)
Anxiety
= unpleasant cognition/emotion oriented to the future & it’s more diffuse
Arousal
Reactivity may become too intense/specific maladaptive/problematic
Focus
Problem solving
Phobia
= persistent disproportionate fear of an object or situation that presents little danger & leads
to avoidance
Components: fear VS. anxiety
1. Cognitive (immediate fear VS. worry and negative mood)
2. Physiological (sympathetic nervous system VS. tension and chronic over arousal)
3. Behavioral (fight-flight response VS. general avoidance)
Anxiety may become too intense/attached to specific situatons maladaptive/problematic
Anxiety disorder (30-40%, western society)
= Unrealistic/irrational fear or anxiety that causes significant distress & function impairment.
- Anxiety is out of proportion to threat
- Individual is constantly experiencing anxiety (no stimulus)
- Anxiety is chronic and disabling constant emotional distress dysfunctional
Economically expensive to treat
High individual/social
burden
Disabling (like physical
illness)
Factors involved in anxiety
disorders
- Classical condition
- Social
environment/parenting
- Distorted cognitions
- Sociocultural environment
- Psychological factors
Main anxiety related disorders
- Specific phobias
- Social phobia/social anxiety disorder
agoraphobia
, Specific phobias
= marked fear or anxiety about an object/situation that leads to significant
distress/impairment/avoidance and is excessive & irrational.
1. Animal
2. Natural environment
3. Blood-Injury-injection much comorbidity
4. Situational within categories
5. Other
Patients hold Phobic beliefs
= beliefs about phobic stimuli that maintain the fear and avoidance behavior. information as
to why they believe a stimulus is threatening and what the appropriate reaction is.
Epidemiology
- 12% prevalence
- More common in women
- May start in childhood
Psychological factors
- Anxiety is a defense mechanism against impulses generated from the ID (Freud)
- Specific phobia is learned
Reinforcement of avoidance (reduces distress)
Reinforcement when others are considerate
Vicarious conditioning: watching someone else be phobic/ watch neutral person
undergo a frightening experience
Direct conditioning/ traumatic conditioning
Inflation effect: once exposed to a traumatic event, follow up events related to
the initial one quickly strengthens conditioning + likely to develop phobia
individual differences in learning/acquiring a phobia
- Evolutionary preparedness
= certain stimuli posed real threats to ancestors and are
easily acquired as being frightening
resistant to extinction
Biological factors
- Serotonin transporter gene (promotes fear conditioning)
- COMT met/met gene (reduces extinction)
- Behavioral inhibited toddles + development of specific phobia
- Monozygotic twin studies, show moderate heredity
- Biological preparedness quick conditioned acquisition of fear to fear relevant
stimuli
- Non-associative fear acquisition
= fear of biologically relevant stimuli develops naturally, requires no background
trauma (young kids’ period of fear for
everything). Time passes; habituation.
- Disease avoidance model of animal phobias
