Module 48 Mr. Ng Abnormal Psychology Unit 13. Anxiety Disorders Anxiety Disorder: Distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce.

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