Cognitive Explanations – Anxiety disorders

Explain their thoughts!

Cognitive explanations  What are the main assumptions?  How can we relate what we know to disorders?

Bad experience Negative thoughts Excessive worry Fear Poor thinking and inability to cope

Cognitive Biases – What do you think these are? Relate them to anxiety disorders (2 mins)

Match the bias with definition Cognitive biasExplanation. Attention bias Interpretation bias All or nothing thinking Refers to the tendency to selectively notice threat stimuli, even when those stimuli are irrelevant to current goals. The tendency to read ambiguous or mildly negative cues in a negative or catastrophic manner When a person splits their views into extremes. Where everything is divided up into black-or-white terms. This occurs when an individual thinks the worst in response to ordinary situations Catastrophic thinking

Identify the bias  When Elaine arrives at the concert, she begins to notice herself experiencing physical symptoms of panic and anxiety. She tries a deep breathing technique, but still has a panic attack. Elaine leaves the concert early, telling herself that she will “never overcome her condition” and that she “lets her nervousness ruin every situation.”

Identify the bias  Laura has fear of spiders. Laura and a group of friends walk in to room and Laura is the only person to notice a spider's web in the corner of the room.

Identify the bias  You're a police officer. You're working the late shift. The weather is bad. It's been snowing now for 3 hours. The roads are slick, and there are a number of traffic accidents that you and your department are working. It's eight o'clock. You call home to check on your wife and family. You have two young sons. Your wife doesn't answer the call. You quickly become convinced that something bad has happened, even though you talked with her a few hours ago, and she was not planning on going out because of the bad weather, you convince yourself that she has and that her and your children have been involved in an of accident.

Identify the bias

GAD - Symptoms  Read the case study on the next slide. (Trina – diagnosed with GAD)  Can you identify any cognitive biases?

Trina has always been an anxious person. She describes herself as a "worry bug" and her friends and family often tell her she worries too much. During high school she found it very difficult to control her worry about being on time for class or appointments, her grades, losing her friends, getting her parents angry, her appearance, whether her teachers liked her, and which university she would attend. Since then she has also worried excessively about whether her current boyfriend will leave her, her cats, her work performance, her weight, and having enough time in the day to get everything done. Trina has great difficulty controlling these worries and they often intrude when she is trying to relax alone at the end of each day, during down time at work, and when out with friends. She feels exhausted all the time with constant muscle tension and body aches. She notices that she is frequently irritable (e.g., snaps at her room mate and boyfriend inappropriately). Trina can't remember when she last felt relaxed as she always feels jumpy, tense, and on guard for something bad to happen. For the past 6 months she hasn't been sleeping very well. She often lies in bed worrying for several hours, wakes frequently during the night, or wakes up too early and can't fall back asleep. On days when her worrying is really problematic she has difficulty concentrating at work and several friends have commented that she often seems distracted. Trina also checks her work excessively even though it means she often has to work late. She also asks her friends or family what they think about her appearance or other worries until they get frustrated with her. Trina knows her worry is a problem but she is concerned that without her worrying everything would fall apart or get worse.

Dinardo (1988) What was the aim of this study?  What are the details of the sample? Total sample, average age  How many had GAD? Aims Sample Background What did DiNardo want to find? Results What research method was used in this study? What was were administered to each group? What happened? How was data collected? Method & Procedures What was the top symptom suffered by most patients? What did GAD patients report? Evaluation Points?

Cognitive explanation - evaluation  In pairs discuss and make notes on the strengths and weaknesses of the explanation.  Strengths:  Weakness

Complete the table – learning space Similarities Differences BehaviouralBiologicalCognitive Behavioural Biological Cognitive

Questions  A)How might cognitive psychologists explain phobia? [10]  B) Compare explanations of the disorder you referred to in part (a). (15 marks)