The ERP analysis, like the behavior analysis, did not did not show evidence of preferential processing of the fearful stimulus in high anxiety group. There was no difference in the interpretations of the morph following the fear-neutral trials between the two groups. It was predicted that high anxious would attend to the fearful adaptor than the neutral adaptor, and would thus interpret the morph as neutral, showing a weaker LPP amplitude than the low anxious individuals. This prediction was based on previous studies, which have shown automatic orientation of gaze towards negative facial expressions and rapid detection of fearful targets by the high anxious (Fox et al, 2000 & 2002; Mogg, Garner & Bradley, 2007. However, contrary to our prediction, …show more content…
Anxious individuals fail to classify a stimulus as ‘fearful’ or ‘safe’, and are thus unable to regulate their fear …show more content…
(Moser, Huppert, Duval & Simons, 2008; Gu, Ge, Jiang & Luo, 2010). According to the cue-utilization theory of Easterbrooke (1959), high anxiety also leads to high emotional arousal, which may hinder the capacity of processing and restrict attention. As a result they may not be attending fully to any of the adaptors and would be less influenced by context. Additionally, the lack of difference between the two anxiety groups in response to fear-neutral adaptors could be attributed to the nature of the adaptors themselves. In all other cases, the adaptors that were used belonged to a single valence (either fear or neutral) but this pair included two adaptors, each of a different valence, presented at the same time. This could have reduced the effect and appeared confusing to the participants. Participants may have tried to attend to both the adaptors at the same time, leading to a mixed perception of the morph. Thus, the uniqueness of these adaptor trials compared to the other adaptor trials may have been influential. Moreover, the high anxious sample was not clinical and was chosen based on the anxiety scores in the
Witte, K. (1994). Fear control and danger control: A test of the extended parallel process model (EPPM). Communication Monographs. doi:10.1080/03637759409376328
Kurayama, Matsuzawa, Komiya, Nakazawa, Yoshida, Shimizu, (2012) confirmed that these neutral stimuluses deed indeed has an effect and played a role in fear conditioning in people. The case showed that Treena had indeed learned to be scared of the incident and it proceeded to become a cue for to get anxious and get panic attacks. It has been claimed that patients with panic disorder exhibited fear potentiated startle responses to safety cues and therefore reduced discrimination between safety and danger signals during acquisition, indicating that the safety signal was processed as the aversive event in contrast to the danger signal (Nees, Heinrich, Flor, 2015). It also showed that the her failing to answer the question had affected her in other classes when she would not participate in other classes hence, this showed that the neutral stimulus has developed and grew into a conditioned stimulus which evoked feelings of fear and anxiety in her, in other words it had become a cue for her to be scared and
There are many things to learn from this article written by Donald Baer, Montrose Wolf, and Todd Risley. It is a very informing article in which you can learn about the current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. The seven dimensions mentioned are: applied, behavioral, analytic, technological, conceptually systematic, effective, and generality.
...er a choice their brain makes for them. As Berns states: “ In many people, the brain would rather avoid activating the fear system and just change perception to conform with the social norm” (Robbins 152).
Preparedness theory of phobia is a concept developed to explain why specific connections to objects are learned...
Fear conditioning is a commonly used behavioral paradigm to test an organism’s ability to create associations and learn to avoid aversive stimuli. There are two methodologies: cue and contextual fear conditioning (Kim & Jung, 2006). In cued fear conditioning, a neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) is paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US) which activates a strong unconditioned fear responses (UR). After a continued training period, the neutral CS is now able to activate a conditioned response (CR). Similarly, context conditioning occurs when the background or context cues, during the condition training, is able to predict the US and activate the fear response. For example, a mice can be placed in a novel environment and given an aversive stimulus (e.g. footshock). When the mice is returned to that same environment, it will display a CR (e.g. freezing). The mice’s ability for contextual fear conditioning is dependent on whether it was able to learn and associate its environment with the aversive stimulus. (Curzon, Rustay, and Browman, 2009)
Alice Park’s article in TIME Magazine, entitled “The Two Faces of Anxiety”, outlines the key positive and negative effects anxiety can have on both the individual and humanity as a whole. Because of the steady increase in diagnoses of Generalized Anxiety Disorder and similar mental illnesses, evaluating the origins of anxiety as well as its effects are crucial steps for developing both medical treatments and alternative methods of coping with the disorder. While many of the 40 million American adults suffering from anxiety believe that eliminating the feeling altogether is ideal, they fail to consider what psychologists have mounds of empirical evidence in support of: anxiety is not inherently adverse, and can, in many cases, be advantageous. Anxiety is generally understood to be a biological process in which specific symptoms, such as increased heart rate and blood pressure, manifest as a response to stressful scenarios. In these potentially-fatal situations, the fight-or-flight response is an evolutionary reaction developed to prevent species from engaging in behavior that could result in extreme negative consequences, while also preparing them for possible conflict. Overall, this response is a constructive adaptation, but an issue arises when individuals face stressful, albeit non-fatal, situations. The body still experiences the same symptoms despite the absence of any “real” danger, and the person suffering from the anxiety feels as though he or she has little control over the behaviors brought on by the condition. Triggered by both genetic and environmental factors, there appears to be a wide variation in the severity of anxiety as well as what treatment methods are effective for each individual. However, many psychologists ...
The anxiety, panic attacks or phobic avoidance associated with the specific object or situation are not better accounted for by another mental disorder…
Fear is a basic human emotion that describes a feeling towards danger and threats. Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other responses such as fight or flight (Layton). According to child and adolescent psychologist, Arcy Lyness, fear activates the fight or flight response, which either prepares a person to stay and fight off the danger or flee from the scene that induced terror. The body stays in the state of fight or flight until the brain receives a signal, confirming that the fear stimulus is no longer there.
intense or extensive than others” (Rapee, et al 17). Some fears may be more common at certain ages; for example, children the ages of three-five will be afraid of the...
In the instance of a bright light presented prior to a shock, the shock is then escaped, creating a reinforcer—the shock is disrupted. As each shock is escaped, a Pavlovian conditioning begins to form through the association of the light with the shock until finally a pairing is formed. At this stage the light has come to represent fear to the subject, who will now seek to escape the fear-associated CS. However, escape from the CS basically equates to avoidance of the US. As such, the two-factor theory of avoidance appears to show that in reality avoidance is not actually avoidance, but rather escape from a CS paired with the initial shock. In other words, because escape is vital for successful avoidance behavior, the theory holds that Pavlovian, as well as operant elements, manage and support avoidance.
This paper is focused on how fear as a subject is being perceived by many as a dominant and primitive human emotion. An uncontrollable energy that’s exists and created within every individual, which is directed towards an object or a given situation that does not present an actual danger. The individual then analyzes that the fear is contradictory and thus cannot help the reaction. Gradually, the phobia aims to build up and aggravate as the fear of fear response takes hold. Eventually they distinguish their fear responses as negative, and go out of their way to avoid those reactions. ‘Fear is derived as a basic feeling and therefore created by us – it is not something we have, but something we do. The principle of fear is to keep us safe.’
Fear is a useful emotion that allows for humans to react promptly in the presence of
Rose, J. (2009, Aug. 17). Perspectives of General Anxiety Disorder. Retrieved on September 5, 2011, from http://psychedonpsychology.blogspot.com/2009/08/perspectives-of-generalized-anxiety.html