Abnormal Psych Ch5
About this set
Created by:
statsgirl22 on October 19, 2009
Subjects:
Description:
Anxiety Disorders
Log in to favorite or report as inappropriate.
Order by
46 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 fear | the central nervous system's physiological and emotional response to a serious threat to one's well-being |
| anxiety | the central nervous system's physiological and emotional response to a vague sense of threat or danger |
| generalized anxiety disorder | a disorder marked by persistent and excessive feelings of anxiety and worry about numerous events and activites |
| client-centered therapy | the humanistic therapy developed by Carl Rogers in which clinicians try to help clients by being accepting, empathizing accurately, and conveying genuineness |
| basic irrational assumptions | the inaccurate and inappropriate beliefs held by people with various psychological problems, according to Albert Ellis |
| rational-emotive therapy | a cognitive therapy developed by Albert Ellis that helps clients identify and change the irrational assumptions and thinking that help cause their psychological disorder |
| family pedigree study | a research design in which investigators determine how many and which relatives of a person with a disorder have the same disorder |
| benzodiazepines | the most common group of antianxiety drugs, which include Valium and Xanax |
| GABA | the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid, whose low activity has been linked to generalized anxiety disorder |
| sedative-hypnotic drugs | drugs that calm people at lower doses and help them to fall asleep at higher doses |
| relaxation training | a treatment procedure that teaches clients to relax at will so they can calm themselves in stressful situations |
| biofeedback | a treatment technique in which a client is given information about physiological reactions as they occur and learns to control the reactions voluntarily |
| electromyograph (EMG) | a device that provides feedback about the level of muscular tension in the body |
| phobia | a persistent and unreasonable fear of a particular object, activity, or situation |
| specific phobia | a severe and persistent fear of a specific object or situation (other than agoraphobia or social phobia) |
| social phobia | a severe and persistent fear of social or performance situations in which embarrassment may occur |
| classical conditioning | a process of learning in which two events that repeatedly occur together in time become fused together in a person's mind and so produce the same response |
| modeling | a process of learning in which a person observes and then imitates others. Also, a therapy approach based on the same principle |
| stimulus generalization | a phenomenon in which responses to one stimulus are also produced by similar stimuli |
| preparedness | a predisposition to develop certain fears |
| exposure treatment | behavioral treatments in which persons are exposed to the objects or situations they dread |
| systematic desensitization | a behavioral treatment that uses relaxation training and a fear hierarchy to help client with phobias react calmly to the objects or situations they dread |
| fear hierarchy | a list of objects or situations that frighten a person, starting with those that are slightly feared and ending with those that are feared greatly |
| flooding | a treatment for phobias in which clients are exposed repeatedly and intensively to a feared object and made to see that it is actually harmless |
| social skills training | a therapy approach that helps people learn or improve social skills and assertiveness through role playing and rehearsing desirable behaviors |
| panic attacks | periodic, short bouts of panic that occur suddenly, reach a peak within 10 minutes, and gradually pass |
| panic disorder | an anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent and unpredictable panic attacks |
| agoraphobia | an anxiety disorder in which a person is afraid to be in places or situations from which escape might difficult (or embarrassing) or help unavailable if panic-like symptoms were to occur |
| norepinephrine | a neurotransmitter whose abnormal activity is linked to panic disorder and depression |
| locus ceruleus | a small area of the brain that seems to be active in the regulation of emotions. Many of its neurons use norepinephrine |
| amygdala | a small, almond-shaped structure in the brain that processes emotional information |
| biological challenge test | a procedure used to produce panic in participants or clients by having them exercise vigorously or perform some other potentially panic-inducing task in the presence of a researcher or therapist |
| anxiety sensitivity | a tendency to focus on one's bodily sensations, assess them illogically, and interpret them as harmful |
| obsession | a persistent thought, idea, impulse, or image that is experienced repeatedly, feels intrusive, and causes anxiety |
| compulsion | a repetitive and rigid behavior or mental act that a person feels driven to perform in order to prevent or reduce anxiety |
| obsessive-compulsive disorder | a disorder in which a person has recurrent and unwanted thoughts, a need to perform repetitive and rigid actions, or both |
| isolation | an ego defense mechanism in which people unconsciously isolate and disown undesirable and unwanted thoughts, experiencing them as foreign intrusions |
| undoing | an ego defense mechanism whereby a person unconsciously cancels out an unacceptable desire or act by performing another act |
| reaction formation | an ego defense mechanism whereby a person suppresses an unacceptable desire by taking on a lifestyle that expresses the opposite desire |
| exposure and response prevention | a behavioral treatment for OCD that exposes a client to anxiety-arousing thoughts or situations and then prevents the client from performing his or her compulsive acts. AKA exposure and ritual prevention |
| habituation training | a therapeutic technique in which a therapist tries to call forth a client's obsessive thoughts again and againm with the expectation that the thoughts will eventually lose their power to frighten and thus to cause anxiety |
| serotonin | a neurotransmitter whose abnormal activity is linked to depression, OCD, and eating disorders |
| neuromodulator | a neurotransmitter that helps modify or regulate the effect of other neurotransmitters |
| orbitofrontal cortex | a region of the brain in which impulses involving excretion, sexuality, violence, and other primitive activities normally arise |
| caudate nuclei | structures in the brain, within the region known as the basal ganglia, that help convert information into thoughts and actions |
| stress management program | an approach to treating GAD and other anxiety disorders that teaches clients techniques for reducing and controlling stress |
First Time Here?
Welcome to Quizlet, a fun, free place to study. Try these flashcards, find others to study, or make your own.