Psychology Chapter 5

Front 1

acute stress disorder (ASD)

Back 1

A short lived anxiety reaction to a traumatic event; if it lasts more than a month, it is diagnosed as posttraumatic stress disorder.

Front 2

agoraphobia

Back 2

Literally, fear of the marketplace. Fear of being in crowded or open places. Anixety about situations in which it would be embarassing or difficult to escape if panic symptoms occurred; most commonly diagnosed in some individuals with panic disorder.

Front 3

anterior cingulate

Back 3

In the subcortical region of the brain, the anterior portion of the cingulate dyrus, stretching about the corpus callosum.

Front 4

antidepressants

Back 4

Any drug that alleviates depression; also widely used to treat anxiety disorders.

Front 5

anxiety

Back 5

An unpleasant feelings 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.

Front 6

anxiety disorders

Back 6

Disorders in which fear or tension is overriding and the primary disturbance; include phobic disorders, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, acute stress disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. These disorders for a major category in DSM-IV-TR

Front 7

Anxiety Sensitivity Index

Back 7

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.

Front 8

anxiolytics

Back 8

Minor tranquilizers or benzodiazepines used to treat anixety disorders.

Front 9

behavioral inhibition

Back 9

The tendency to exhibit anxiety or to freeze when facing a threat. In infants, it is manifest as a tendency to become agitated and cry when faced with novel stimuli and may be an heritable predisposition for the development of anixiety disorders.

Front 10

benzodiazepines

Back 10

Any of several drugs commonly used to treat anxiety, such as Valium and Xanax.

Front 11

beta blockers

Back 11

Any of numerous beta-adrenergic antagonists, competitive inhibitors of a class of receptors for the hormone adrenaline; are approved as cardiovascular drugs but often used to treat social phobia, despite a lack of demonstrated efficacy.

Front 12

comorbitity

Back 12

The co-occurence of two disorders, as when a person is both depressed and alcoholic.

Front 13

compulsion

Back 13

The irresistible impulse to repeat an irrational act over and over again.

Front 14

critical incident stress debriefing (CISD)

Back 14

Crisis intervention therapy of a single long session, offered within 72 hours of the traumatic event, and administered regardless of whether the person has developed PTSD symptoms; controversial and possibly even harmful instead of effective.

Front 15

depersonalization

Back 15

An alteration in perception of the self in which the individual loses a sense of reality and feels estranged from the self and perhaps separated from the body; may be a temporary reaction to stress and fatigue or part of panic disorder, depersonalization disorder, or schizophrenia.

Front 16

dissociation

Back 16

A process whereby a group of mental processes is split off from the main stream of consciousness, or behavior loses its relationship with the rest of the personality.

Front 17

derealization

Back 17

Loss of the sense that the surroundings are real; present in several psychological disorders, such as panic disorder, depersonalization disorder, and schizophrenia.

Front 18

eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)

Back 18

Highly controversial therapeutic approach to trauma involving rapid oscillating eye movements along with classic imaginal exposure techniques; possibly efficacious, but no more so than cognitive or exposure therapies.

Front 19

exposure and ritual prevention (ERP)

Back 19

The most widely used and accepted treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, in which the sufferer is prevented from engaging in compulsive ritual activity and instead faces the anxiety provoked by the stimulus, leading eventually to extinction of the conditioned response (anxiety).

Front 20

fear

Back 20

A reaction to real or perceived immediate danger in the present; can involve arousal, or sympathetic nervous system activity.

Front 21

fear circuit

Back 21

Set of brain structures, including the amygdala, that tend to be activated when the individual is feeling anxious or fearful; especially active among people with anixety disorders.

Front 22

fear-of-fear hypothesis

Back 22

A cognitive model for the etiology of agoraphobia; suggests the condition is driven by negative thoughts about the consequences of having a panic attack in public.

Front 23

generalized anixety disorder (GAD)

Back 23

Disorder characterized by anxiety so chronic, persistent, and pervasive that it seems free-floating. The individual is jittery and strained, distractible, and worried that something bad is about to happen. A pounding heart, fast pulse and breathing, sweating, flushing, muscle aches, a lump in the throat, and an upset gastrointestical tract are some of the bodily indications.

Front 24

imaginal exposure

Back 24

Treatment for anxiety disorders that involves visualizing feared scenes for extended periods of time. Frequently used in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder, when in vivo exposure to the initial trauma cannot be conducted.

Front 25

interoceptive conditioning

Back 25

Classical conditioning of panic attacks in response to internal bodily sensations of arousal (as opposed to the external situations that trigger anxiety).

Front 26

locus ceruleus

Back 26

The brain region in the fear circuit that is especially important in panic disorder; the major source in the brain of norepinephrine, which helps trigger sympathetic nervous system activity.

Front 27

Mowrer's two-factor model

Back 27

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.

Front 28

neuroses

Back 28

Old term for a large group of nonpsychotic disorders characterized by unrealistic anxiety, depression, and other associated problems.

Front 29

neuroticism

Back 29

The tendency to react to events with greater than average negative affect; a strong predictor of onset of anixety disorders and depression.

Front 30

nonverbal memories

Back 30

Memories based on connections between sensory stimuli and external events.

Front 31

obsession

Back 31

An intrusive and recurring thought that seems irrational and uncontrollable to the person experiencing it.

Front 32

obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

Back 32

An anxiety disorder in which the mind is flooded with persistent and uncontrollable thoughts or the individual is compelled to repeat certain acts again and again, causing significant distress and interference with everyday functioning.

Front 33

orbitofrontal cortex

Back 33

The portion of the frontal lobe located just above the eyes, one of three closely related brain regions that are unusually active in individuals with OCD.

Front 34

panic attack

Back 34

A sudden attack of intense apprehension, terror, and impending doom, accompanied by symptoms such as labored breathing, nausea, chest pain, feelings of choking and smothering, heart palpitations, dizziness, sweating, and trembling.

Front 35

panic control therapy (PCT)

Back 35

A cognitive behavior treatment, based on the tendency of individuals with panic disorder to overreact to bodily stimuli, in which sensations are induced physically and coped with under safe conditions.

Front 36

panic disorder

Back 36

An anxiety disorder in which the individual has sudden, inexplicable, and frequent panic attacks; in DSM-IV-TR, diagnosed as with or without agoraphobia.

Front 37

phobia

Back 37

An anxiety disorder in which there is intense fear and avoidance of specific objects and situations, recognized as irrational by the individual.

Front 38

posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Back 38

An anxiety disorder in which a particularly stressful event, such as military combat, rape, or a natural disaster, bring in its aftermath intrusive reexperiencings of the trauma, a numbing of responsiveness to the outside world, estrangement from others, and a tendency to be easily startled, as well as nightmares, recurrent dreams, and otherwise disturbed sleep.

Front 39

prepared learning

Back 39

In classical conditioning theory, a biological predisposition to associate particular stimuli readily with the unconditioned stimulus.

Front 40

selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI)

Back 40

Any of various drugs that inhibit the presynaptic reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin, thereby prolonging its effects on postsynaptic neurons.

Front 41

social phobia

Back 41

A collection of fears linked to the presence of other people.

Front 42

specific phobia

Back 42

An unwarranted fear and avoidance of a specific object or circumstance, for example, fear of nonpoisonous snakes or fear or heights.

Front 43

subthreshold symptoms

Back 43

Symptoms of a disorder that are clinically significant but do not meet full diagnostic criteria.

Front 44

thought suppression

Back 44

Key feature of OCD; has the paradoxical effect of inducing preoccupation with the object of thought.

Front 45

tricyclic antidepressants

Back 45

A group of antidepressants with molecular structures characterized by three fused rings; interfere with the reuptake of norepinephrine and serotonin.