Abnormal Psychology

Module 48Mr. Ng

Abnormal PsychologyUnit 13

Anxiety Disorders• Anxiety Disorder: Distressing, persistent

anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety.

• Anxiety is a feeling of impending doom or disaster characterized by:–Mood symptoms: tension, agitation, etc.–Bodily symptoms: sweating, increased

heart rate, muscular tension, etc.–Cognitive symptoms: worry, distractibility

Anxiety Disorders• We will look at: –Panic Disorder–Generalized anxiety disorder–Phobias–Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Anxiety Disorders• Panic Disorder: when an individual

experiences repeated attacks of intense anxiety, along with:–severe chest pain–tightness of muscles–choking–feeling light-headed or faint–profuse sweating–clammy hands

• Symptoms can last for a few minutes to a couple of hours

• Panic attacks have no apparent trigger and can happen at any time

• Since they are statistically rare, having perhaps 3 of these in a 6-month period would be cause for alarm.

Anxiety Disorders

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder: a person is unexplainable and continually tense and uneasy.• Similar to panic disorder.• Panic disorder has acute symptoms

short in duration, whereas generalized anxiety disorder has less-intense symptoms for a longer period of time.

Anxiety Disorders

• Phobias: intense, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object or situation.–5% of the population suffers from

some mild form of phobic disorder.–A fear turns into a phobia when a

compelling, irrational desire to avoid a dreaded situation or object, disrupts the person’s daily life.

Anxiety Disorders

• Common phobias include:–Agoraphobia: fear of being out in public–Acrophobia: fear of heights–Claustrophobia: fear of enclosed spaces–Social Phobia: fear of being scrutinized by others (extreme shyness).

Anxiety Disorders

• Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD): unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions (compulsions) that you feel compelled to perform.• A person who has OCD probably

knows they have it, but feels unable to resist their compulsions and break free.

Anxiety Disorders

• Obsession: persistent, intrusive, and unwanted thoughts that an individual cannot get out of his/her mind.–Different from worries; they

generally involve a unique topic (e.g. dirt, contamination, death, aggression), are often offensive, and are seen as uncontrollable.

Anxiety Disorders

• Compulsion: ritualistic behaviors performed repeatedly, which the person does to reduce the tension created by the obsession. –Common compulsions: hand washing, counting, checking, touching.

Anxiety Disorders

• Most people with OCD are either:–Washers: afraid of contamination.–Checkers: repeatedly check things

they associate with harm or danger.–Doubters: afraid if everything isn’t

perfect something terrible will happen.–Counters: obsessed with order and

symmetry.–Hoarders: fear something bad will

happen if they throw anything away.

Anxiety Disorders

• Example of OCD: a person thinks about germs all the time and washes their hands three times in a row every time they pass a sink.• You may check the stove 20 times

to make sure its off.• Hoarders

Anxiety Disorders

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): The result of some trauma experienced (natural disaster, war, violent crime) by the victim.• Characterized by haunting

memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and/or insomnia that lingers for 4 or more weeks after a traumatic experience.

Anxiety Disorders

• Victims re-experience the traumatic event in nightmares about the event, or flashbacks in which the individual relives the event and behaves as if he/she is experiencing at that moment.

• Victims may also experience reduced involvement with the external world, and general arousal characterized by hyper-alertness, guilt, and difficulty concentrating.

Anxiety Disorders

The Learning Perspective• Fear Conditioning: Anxiety develops

when bad events happen. • We are classically conditioned to

fear when we experience bad things.• Observational learning: acquiring

fears by observing others’ fears.• We transmit fears just as if we

experienced them ourselves.

Explaining Anxiety Disorders

The Biological Perspective• Natural Selection: We fear things

that were dangerous to our ancestors. Those that did not fear those things died from them and thus their genes were not passed on.• Ex. Some snakes are poisonous and

thus were feared by ancestors and now are feared by us.

Explaining Anxiety Disorders

• Genes: We inherit traits that are predisposed to certain fears and high anxiety.• Ex. Twins develop similar phobias.• Brain: Certain regions of our brains

are over aroused. Those regions are involved in impulse control and habitual behaviors.

Explaining Anxiety Disorders