REVIEW Anxiety Disorders, OCD, and PTSD

Learning Objectives

Test Yourself by taking a moment to answer each of these Learning Objective Questions (repeated here from within the module). Research suggests that trying to answer these questions on your own will improve your long-term memory of the concepts (McDaniel et al., 2009).

Question

41-1 How do generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and phobias differ?

ANSWER: Anxious feelings and behaviors are classified as an anxiety disorder only 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. Two other disorders (OCD and PTSD) involve anxiety but are classified separately from the anxiety disorders.

Question

41-2 What is OCD?

ANSWER: Persistent and repetitive thoughts (obsessions), actions (compulsions), or both characterize obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Question

41-3 What is PTSD?

ANSWER: Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include four or more weeks of haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or sleep problems following some traumatic experience.

Question

41-4 How do conditioning, cognition, and biology contribute to the feelings and thoughts that mark anxiety disorders, OCD, and PTSD?

ANSWER: The learning perspective views anxiety disorders, OCD, and PTSD as products of fear conditioning, stimulus generalization, fearful-behavior reinforcement, and observational learning of others' fears and cognitions (interpretations, irrational beliefs, and hypervigilance). The biological perspective considers the role that fears of life-threatening animals, objects, or situations played in natural selection and evolution; genetic predispositions for high levels of emotional reactivity and neurotransmitter production; and abnormal responses in the brain's fear circuits.

Terms and Concepts to Remember

Test yourself on these terms.

Question

anxiety disorders (p. 537)
generalized anxiety disorder (p. 537)
panic disorder (p. 537)
phobia (p. 538)
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (p. 539)
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (p. 540)
an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations. Often followed by worry over a possible next attack.
an anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation.
a disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions), actions (compulsions), or both.
a disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience.
psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety.
an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal.

Experience the Testing Effect

Test yourself repeatedly throughout your studies. This will not only help you figure out what you know and don’t know; the testing itself will help you learn and remember the information more effectively thanks to the testing effect.

Question 14.9

1. Anxiety that takes the form of an irrational and maladaptive fear of a specific object, activity, or situation is called a .

Question 14.10

2. An episode of intense dread, accompanied by trembling, dizziness, chest pains, or choking sensations and by feelings of terror, is called

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 14.11

3. Marina became consumed with the need to clean the entire house and refused to participate in any other activities. Her family consulted a therapist, who diagnosed her as having - disorder.

Question 14.12

4. When a person with an anxiety disorder eases anxiety by avoiding or escaping a situation that inspires fear, this is called

A.
B.
C.
D.

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