Jeopardy !!!!!

Cognitive Approach to Anxiety

100

What does the cognitive approach of anxiety focus on?

How people with anxiety process information. 

200

Individuals with anxiety disorders tend to focus on ____ information in their environment (fill in the blank).

Threat-relevant 

300

What is the test that can measure the level of interference regarding personal risk to perceived threats?

The Stroop test. 

400

Define the term catastrophizing.

Cognitive distortion where a person exhibits an exaggerated sense of negativity, assuming the worst outcomes and interpreting minor problems as major calamities. 

500

List one strength and one limitation of this approach.

Strengths: 

• Empirical evidence supports the role of cognitive factors in anxiety

• Led to successful treatments for patients’ lives.

Limitations: 

• For ethical reasons, people with actual anxiety disorders are often not used in research. So, "anxiety" or "panic symptoms" are measured, rather than being diagnosed a anxiety disorders.
• Unclear whether thinking patterns cause anxiety disorders.
• The Treatment Aetiology Fallacy – the misconception that the success of a treatment reveals the cause of the disorder.

Diagnostic Criteria

100

Which diagnostic criteria did we use?

DSM-5

200

Excessive _____ /worry for at least ____ months (fill in the blank).

Anxiety; 6

300

Disturbance is attributable to the physiological effects of a substance (true or false).

False

400

How many symptoms are needed to be reported in children for an anxiety diagnosis?

One symptom 

500

Name 3 of the 6 symptoms associated with anxiety. 

1. restlessness

2. fatigue

3. difficulty concentration

4. irritability 

5. muscle tension

6. sleep disturbance 

Butler & Mathews (1983)

100

What is the methodology and design?

Quasi Experiment; Independent Measures Design 

200

What is the sample design?

Purposive Sampling 

300

What are the independent and dependent variable(s)?

Independent Variable: anxiety diagnosis (or not)

Dependent Variable: personal risk rating given 

400

How did the participants react in each group, and why?

Participants with anxiety significantly overestimated personal risk for negative events as opposed to controls. This is because people with anxiety have an exaggerated sense of negativity (catastrophizing). 

500

List one strength and one limitation.

Strength: high ecological validity, high construct validity 

Limitation: low internal validity - hard to establish relationship between variables (IV not being manipulated)

Telch & Harrington (2011)

100

What is the methodology and design?

Lab Experiment; Matched Pairs Design 

200

What was the sample design?

Opportunity Sample 

300

What are the independent and dependent variable(s)?

Independent Variables: low risk or high risk anxiety; arousal or relaxation group

Dependent Variable: presence of panic symptoms 

400

How did the participants react in each group, and why?

Arousal: low panic symptoms; expect symptoms

Relaxation: high panic symptoms; were deceived in what to be expected  

500

List one strength and one limitation.

Strength: lab experiment allows for controls over extraneous variable, and determining cause and effect relationship; high construct validity 

Limitation: low ecological validity