Psychology November 27, 2012 Warm Up

1. Psychology November 27, 2012Warm Up Do you think you suffer from anxiety? What are you anxious about? How do people with anxiety disorders differ from you? How can you cope with anxiety?

2. Anxiety and Mood Disorders • Anxiety disorders cause people to experience irrational or excessive fear. Mood disorders cause people to experience mood changes that are inappropriate to the situation. • What are some characteristics of anxiety? • What are the five major types of anxiety disorders? • How do psychologists explain anxiety disorders? • How do the two main types of mood disorders compare? • Which theories explain the origins of mood disorders?

3. What is Anxiety? • Generalized state of dread or uneasiness that occurs in response to a vague or imagined danger. • Characterized by nervousness, inability to relax, and concern about losing control. • Physical symptoms may include trembling, sweating, rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, increased blood pressure, flushed face, and feeling of faintness or light headedness. • Can effect living, achievement of goals, life satisfaction, and emotional comfort.

4. What are the Five Major Types of Anxiety Disorders? • Phobic Disorder – persistent excessive or irrational fear. • To be diagnosed the fear must lead to avoidance behavior. • Most Common – • Zoophobia – fear of animals • Claustrophobia – fear of enclosed spaces • Acrophobia – fear of heights • Arachnophobia – fear of spiders • Social Phobias – persistent fear of social situations.

5. What are the Five Major Types of Anxiety Disorder? • Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia • Panic attack – short period of intense fear or discomfort, characterized by shortness of breath, dizziness, rapid heart rate, trembling, sweating, choking, nausea and other distressing physical symptoms. • There are persistent fears of other attacks. • Agoraphobia – fear of being in places or situations in which escape may be difficult or impossible. • Most people with agoraphobia have panic attacks when they cannot avoid the stressful situations they fear.

6. What are the Five Major types of Anxiety disorders? • Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) • Excessive or unrealistic worry about life circumstances that lasts for at least six months. • One of the most common anxiety disorder. • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) • Unwanted thoughts, feelings, or ideas that occur over and over again. • Most people practice compulsions, which are repetitive ritual behaviors often involving checking or cleaning something. (constantly checking locked doors, washing hands sometimes as much as 500 times a day!) • One of the most debilitating disorders • Stress Disorder • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Acute Stress Disorder • http://www.youtube.com/user/VeteransMTC?v=SqjwV-lsVEs • Events trigger disorder and vary in length of time.

7. How do Psychologists explain anxiety disorders? • Psychological View • Presented even though they are not widely accepted! – they influence later theories therefore making them important! • Psychoanalytic theory – anxiety is the result of “forbidden” childhood urges that have been repressed or hidden from conscious. • Learning theory – phobias are learned at childhood, during traumatic events (crowds, storms, or observing phobic behavior from others.) • Cognitive theory – people make themselves feel anxious by responding negatively to most situations and coming to believe they are helpless to control what happens to them.

8. How do Psychologists explain anxiety disorders? • Biological View • Tend to run in families, suggesting a role for genetic factors. • Anxiety disorders may be the exaggerated remains of adaptive fears. • Interaction of Factors – biological and psychological • People who have panic disorders often overreact psychologically to physical sensations. • Sensations of rapid heart rate and rapid breathing lead to fear.

9. How do the TWO TYPES of MOOD DISORDERS compare? • Depression – worthlessness, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, extreme sadness • BY FAR the most common, effecting more than 100 million people world wide. • Symptoms (major) – persistent depressed mood for most of the day, weight loss or gain, loss in pleasure of normal activities, sleeping more or less, fatigue, reduced ability to make meaningful decisions, thoughts of death or suicide. • In order for diagnosis to be made you must suffer from at least five symptoms (note not all are listed.)

10. How do the TWO TYPES of MOOD DISORDERS compare? • Bipolar Disorder – changes from extreme depression to wild elation and back again! • Symptoms Manic phase (major) – inflated self esteem, inability to sit still or sleep restfully, pressure to keep talking or switch topics, racing thoughts, difficulty concentrating. • May also experience hallucinations or delusions, impulsive behaviors (spending sprees, quitting job, foolish business investments.)

11. How do psychologists explain mood disorders? • Psychological View • Psychoanalytic view – connects past events to the present. People prone to depression suffered a real or imagined loss of a beloved object or person in childhood. • Learning View – believed that learned helplessness makes people prone to depression. • Cognitive View – suggests people are prone to depression because of their habitual style of explaining life events. • Biological View • Tend to occur in more close relatives. Identical twins are the most affected of them all.

12. Activity • Read the Mood and Anxiety Disorder article. • After you have finished reading I will pose questions/statements from the article and notes that you can agree or disagree with. • Everyone will have the opportunity to share their opinion if they want. I am asking EVERYONE to share at least once (grade), each time after that is considered a BONUS share. • Everyone will have an opportunity, please SPEAK UP!