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Abnormal Psychology Kring Ch 6

Terms in this set (26)

Agoraphobia
anxiety about situations in which it would be embarrassing or difficult to escape if anxiety symptoms occurred
Anxiety
An unpleasant feeling of fear and apprehension accompanied by increased physiological arousal, in learning theory, considered a drive that mediates between a threatening situation and avoidance behavior. Anxiety can be assessed by self-report, by measuring physiological arousal, and by observing overt behavior.
Anxiety Disorder
Disorders in which fear or tension is overriding and the primary disturbance; include phobic disorders, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and agoraphobia. In DSM-IV-TR, these disorders also included obsessive-compulsive disorder, acute stress disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder.
Anxiety Sensitivity Index
A test that measures the extent to which people respond fearfully to their bodily sensations; predicts the degree to which unexplained physiological arousal leads to panic attacks.
Anxiolytics
Minor tranquilizers or benzodiazepines to treat anxiety disorders
Behavioral Inhibition
The tendency to exhibit anxiety or to freeze when facing threat. In infants, it manifests as a tendency to become agitated and cry when faced with novel stimuli and may be a heritable predisposition for the development of anxiety disorders.
Benzodiazepines
Any of several drugs commonly used to treat anxiety, such as Valium and Xanax.
D-cycloserine (DCS)
A medication that enhances learning which has been found to enhance the effects of exposure therapy for several of the anxiety disorders.
Depersonalization
An alteration in perception in which the individual loses a sense of reality and fear-estranged from the self and perhaps separated from body; may be a temporary reaction to stress and fatigue or part of panic disorder, depersonalization disorder, schizophrenia.
Derealization
Loss of the sense that the surroundings are real; present in several psychological disorders such as panic disorder, depersonalization disorder and schizophrenia.
Fear
A reaction to real or perceived immediate danger about the present; can involve arousal, or sympathetic nervous system activity
Fear Circuit
Set of brain structures, including the amygdala, that tend to be activated when the individuals feeling anxious or fearful; especially active among people with anxiety disorders.
Fear-of-fear hypothesis
A cognitive model for the etiology of agoraphobia; suggests the condition is driven negative thoughts about the consequences of having panic attack in public.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Disorder characterized by chronic persistent anxiety and worry.
In vivo
As applied in psychology; taking place in a real-life situation
Interoceptive Conditioning
Classical conditioning of panic attacks in response to internal body sensations of arousal (as opposed to the external situations that trigger anxiety).
Mowrer's Two-Factor Model
Mowrer's theory of avoidance learning according to which (1) fear is attached to a neutral stimulus by pairing it with a noxious unconditioned stimulus, and (2) a person learns to escape the fear elicited by the conditioned stimulus, thereby avoiding the unconditioned stimulus.
Panic Attack
A sudden attack of intense apprehension terror, and impending doom, accompanied by symptoms such as labored breathing, nausea, chest pains, feelings of choking and smothering, heart palpitation, dizziness, sweating, and trembling.
Panic Control Therapy (PCT)
A cognitive behavior treatment, based on the tendency of individuals with panic disorder to overreact to bodily stimuli, in which sensations are included physically and coped with under safe conditioning.
Panic Disorder
An anxiety disorder in which the individual has sudden, inexplicable, and frequent panic attacks; in DSM-IV-TR, diagnosed as with or without agoraphobia.
Prepared Learning
In classical conditioning theory, a biological predisposition to associate particular stimuli readily with the unconditioned stimulus.
Safety Behaviors
Behaviors used to avoid experiencing anxiety in feared situations, such as the tendency of people with social phobia to avoid looking at other people (so as to avoid perceiving negative feedback) or the tendency of people with panic disorder to avoid exercise (so as to avoid somatic arousal that could trigger a panic attack).
Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRI)
Any of various drugs that inhibit the presynaptic reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine, such that neurotransmitters will have more prolonged effects of postsynaptic neurons.
Social Anxiety Disorder
A collection of fears linked to the presence of other people.
Specific Phobia
An unwarranted fear and avoidance of a specific object or circumstance, for example, fear of nonpoisonous snakes or fear of heights.
Subthreshold Symptoms
Symptoms of a disorder that are clinically significant but do not meet full diagnostic criteria.
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