Module 66 REVIEW

• 66-1 How do generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and phobias differ?

• Anxious feelings and behaviors are classified as an anxiety disorder when they form a pattern of distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety.
• People with generalized anxiety disorder feel persistently and uncontrollably tense and apprehensive for no apparent reason.
• In the more extreme panic disorder, anxiety escalates into periodic episodes of intense dread.
• Those with a phobia may be irrationally afraid of a specific object, activity, or situation.

• 66-2 What is OCD?

• Persistent and repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions) characterize obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

• 66-3 What is PTSD?

• Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and sleep problems following some traumatic experience.

• 66-4 How do conditioning, cognition, and biology contribute to the feelings and thoughts that mark anxiety disorders, OCD, and PTSD?

• Through conditioning, anxious or traumatized people may learn to associate their anxiety with certain cues. Stimulus generalization occurs when someone experiences a fearful event and later develops a fear of similar events. Reinforcement helps maintain learned fears and anxieties.
• Cognition can influence our expectations and our interpretation of and reaction to stimuli. We may learn some fears by observing others’ fears. People with anxiety disorders tend to be hypervigilant: They attend more to threatening stimuli, more often interpret ambiguous stimuli as threatening, and remember threatening events.
• Our biology also plays a role. Genetic predispositions for high levels of emotional reactivity and neurotransmitter production make us vulnerable to disorder, as do epigenetic marks. Abnormal responses in the brain’s fear circuits can create inroads for disorder. Natural selection and evolution have prepared us to fear the threats our ancestors faced.

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Andrew is so afraid of spiders that he is having a hard time leaving his “spider-proofed” home and going to work. Andrew’s psychiatrist has diagnosed him with
   1. agoraphobia.
   2. a phobia.
   3. panic disorder.
   4. generalized anxiety disorder.
   5. posttraumatic stress disorder.
2. Leo is always so worried that something bad is about to happen that he can’t stay focused at school. A therapist might best diagnose Leo with
   1. panic disorder.
   2. a phobia.
   3. obsessive-compulsive disorder.
   4. generalized anxiety disorder.
   5. susto.
3. In obsessive-compulsive disorder, obsessions are repetitive ________, and compulsions are repetitive _________.
   1. behaviors; thoughts
   2. behaviors; experiences
   3. thoughts; behaviors
   4. concerns; memories
   5. thoughts; concerns
4. Which area of the brain exhibits higher-than-normal activity in many people with PTSD?
   1. Amygdala
   2. Hippocampus
   3. Hypothalamus
   4. Reticular formation
   5. Occipital lobe
5. Rebekah has grown increasingly nervous about going to school and social gatherings. When she is assigned a presentation in English class, she is so terrified that her teacher and classmates will judge her harshly that she can’t bring herself to go to school at all. A therapist would be most likely to diagnose her with
   1. ADHD.
   2. panic disorder.
   3. obsessive-compulsive disorder.
   4. social anxiety disorder.
   5. posttraumatic stress disorder.

Practice FRQs

1. Using psychological terminology, describe how each of the following perspectives helps us understand anxiety disorders, OCD, and PTSD:
   • Conditioning
   • Cognition
   • Biology

Answer

1 point: The conditioning perspective would consider how a person could learn debilitating fears of various objects and situations. This might happen by way of reinforcement, when the behavior of avoiding a feared stimulus is reinforced by reduced anxiety, or stimulus generalization, when a person experiences a fearful situation and then generalizes that fear to similar stimuli. Pages 681–682

1 point: The cognition perspective would consider how expectations and interpretations might cause a person to overreact to stimuli, and how people may learn some fears by observing others’ fears. Page 682

1 point: The biology perspective would consider how genetic predispositions, epigenetic marks, abnormal brain responses, and natural selection could make us vulnerable to the development of these disorders. Pages 683–684

2. Steve recently lost his job. For each of the disorders below, explain how that diagnosis could have affected his job performance:
   • Agoraphobia
   • Panic disorder
   • Obsessive-compulsive disorder

(3 points)