Abnormal Psych Final Exam 2
Questions and All Correct Answers
2025-2026 Updated.
anxiety - Answer an apprehension over an anticipated problem; tends to be about a future
threat, often accompanied by mild autonomic arousal
fear - Answer a reaction to immediate danger; tends to be about a threat that is happening
now; an emotional response to immediate danger
sympathetic arousal - Answer response that occurs in both fear and anxiety. anxiety involves
moderate arousal and fear involves higher arousal. Anxiety and fear are both adaptive
responses. fear is fundamental for the "fight or flight" reaction.
yerkes-dodson model - Answer The model that shows that very little arousal proves to be bad
for performance, but too much can be bad for performance as well. There is a sweet spot for
arousal and performance.
True or False: Both anxiety and fear play a significant role in anxiety disorders - Answer True
True or False: Fear often involves moderate arousal, and anxiety involves higher arousal. -
Answer False. Fear often involves HIGH arousal, and anxiety involves MODERATE arousal
True or False: anxiety and fear are usually adaptive - Answer True
Clinical features of anxiety disorders - Answer All of the anxiety disorders involve excessively
high anxiety, and with the exception of GAD, all involve tendencies to experience unusually
intense fear. It is one of the most common types of psychological disorders.
Specific phobia - Answer fear of specific objects or situations that is out of proportion to any
real danger
social anxiety disorder - Answer fear of unfamiliar people or social scrutiny. much more
chronic than just being shy.
,panic attack - Answer is a sudden experience of intense apprehension, terror, or feelings of
impending doom, accompanied by at least FOUR other symptoms. physical symptoms are very
similar to having a heart attack
agoraphobia - Answer anxiety about being in places or situations from which escaping or
getting help would be difficult if anxiety symptoms occurred; virtually unable to leave their
house. Commonly feared situations include crowds and crowded places
generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) - Answer the central fear is worry. disorder characterized
by chronic, persistent worry
depersonalization - Answer a feeling of being outside one's body
derealization - Answer a feeling of the world not being real
worry - Answer refers to the cognitive tendency to chew on a problem and to be unable to let
go of it. often unable to settle on a solution
comorbidity in anxiety disorder - Answer more than half of people with one anxiety disorder
meet the criteria for another anxiety disorder during their lives. They are also highly comorbid
with other psychological disorders such as major depression and OCD. Comorbidity is associated
with greater severity and poorer outcomes of the anxiety disorders
What is the size of the gender ratio in anxiety disorders? - Answer 2 to 1 (women)
Which countries have the highest rates of anxiety disorders? - Answer The United States and
European countries
True or False: Cultural concepts of distress are less common than the DSM-5 anxiety disorders in
every country where prevalence estimates are available - Answer False. Cultural concepts of
distress are MORE common. The prevalence estimates that omit cultural concepts of distress
may be misleading. Culture and environment do influence what people come to fear.
What is at the heart of many anxiety disorders? - Answer classical conditioning of a fear
response
, - Disturbances in the activity of the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and other brain regions
involved in processing fear and emotion
- Decreased functioning of GABA and serotonin; increase NE activity
- Increased cortisol awakening response (CAR)
- Behavioral inhibition
- Neuroticism
- Cognitive influences, including sustained negative beliefs, perceived lack of control, over
attention to cues of threat, and intolerance of uncertainty.
Safety Behaviors - Answer mental or behavioral acts that reduce anxiety in social situations by
reducing the chance of negative social outcomes. Used to protect against feared consequences
Mowerer's Two-Factor Model - Answer Behavioral theory of anxiety disorders, suggests two
steps in the development of an anxiety disorder:
1. through classical conditioning a person learns to fear a neutral stimulus (conditioned
stimulus) that is paired with an intrinsically aversive stimulus (UCS)
2. a person gains relief by avoiding the CS. Through operant conditioning, this avoidant response
is maintained because it is reinforcing (it reduces fear)
Flaws of Mowerer's two factor model - Answer many people who have anxiety disorders
cannot remember any threatening event that triggered their symptoms. Second, many people
who do experiences serious threats do not develop anxiety disorders.
Classical conditioning could occur in different ways including: - Answer - Direct experience (like
above example)
- Modeling (seeing a dog bit a man or watching a video of a vicious dog attack)
- Verbal instruction (hearing a parent warn that dogs are dangerous)
any of these ways a person could learn to associate a stimulus with fear.
neutral predictable unpredictable (NPU) threat task - Answer tests responses to unpredictable
threats
A. A neutral condition in which they do not experience an aversive stimulus
B. A predictable condition in which they experience an aversive stimulus and receive a warning
beforehand
Questions and All Correct Answers
2025-2026 Updated.
anxiety - Answer an apprehension over an anticipated problem; tends to be about a future
threat, often accompanied by mild autonomic arousal
fear - Answer a reaction to immediate danger; tends to be about a threat that is happening
now; an emotional response to immediate danger
sympathetic arousal - Answer response that occurs in both fear and anxiety. anxiety involves
moderate arousal and fear involves higher arousal. Anxiety and fear are both adaptive
responses. fear is fundamental for the "fight or flight" reaction.
yerkes-dodson model - Answer The model that shows that very little arousal proves to be bad
for performance, but too much can be bad for performance as well. There is a sweet spot for
arousal and performance.
True or False: Both anxiety and fear play a significant role in anxiety disorders - Answer True
True or False: Fear often involves moderate arousal, and anxiety involves higher arousal. -
Answer False. Fear often involves HIGH arousal, and anxiety involves MODERATE arousal
True or False: anxiety and fear are usually adaptive - Answer True
Clinical features of anxiety disorders - Answer All of the anxiety disorders involve excessively
high anxiety, and with the exception of GAD, all involve tendencies to experience unusually
intense fear. It is one of the most common types of psychological disorders.
Specific phobia - Answer fear of specific objects or situations that is out of proportion to any
real danger
social anxiety disorder - Answer fear of unfamiliar people or social scrutiny. much more
chronic than just being shy.
,panic attack - Answer is a sudden experience of intense apprehension, terror, or feelings of
impending doom, accompanied by at least FOUR other symptoms. physical symptoms are very
similar to having a heart attack
agoraphobia - Answer anxiety about being in places or situations from which escaping or
getting help would be difficult if anxiety symptoms occurred; virtually unable to leave their
house. Commonly feared situations include crowds and crowded places
generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) - Answer the central fear is worry. disorder characterized
by chronic, persistent worry
depersonalization - Answer a feeling of being outside one's body
derealization - Answer a feeling of the world not being real
worry - Answer refers to the cognitive tendency to chew on a problem and to be unable to let
go of it. often unable to settle on a solution
comorbidity in anxiety disorder - Answer more than half of people with one anxiety disorder
meet the criteria for another anxiety disorder during their lives. They are also highly comorbid
with other psychological disorders such as major depression and OCD. Comorbidity is associated
with greater severity and poorer outcomes of the anxiety disorders
What is the size of the gender ratio in anxiety disorders? - Answer 2 to 1 (women)
Which countries have the highest rates of anxiety disorders? - Answer The United States and
European countries
True or False: Cultural concepts of distress are less common than the DSM-5 anxiety disorders in
every country where prevalence estimates are available - Answer False. Cultural concepts of
distress are MORE common. The prevalence estimates that omit cultural concepts of distress
may be misleading. Culture and environment do influence what people come to fear.
What is at the heart of many anxiety disorders? - Answer classical conditioning of a fear
response
, - Disturbances in the activity of the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and other brain regions
involved in processing fear and emotion
- Decreased functioning of GABA and serotonin; increase NE activity
- Increased cortisol awakening response (CAR)
- Behavioral inhibition
- Neuroticism
- Cognitive influences, including sustained negative beliefs, perceived lack of control, over
attention to cues of threat, and intolerance of uncertainty.
Safety Behaviors - Answer mental or behavioral acts that reduce anxiety in social situations by
reducing the chance of negative social outcomes. Used to protect against feared consequences
Mowerer's Two-Factor Model - Answer Behavioral theory of anxiety disorders, suggests two
steps in the development of an anxiety disorder:
1. through classical conditioning a person learns to fear a neutral stimulus (conditioned
stimulus) that is paired with an intrinsically aversive stimulus (UCS)
2. a person gains relief by avoiding the CS. Through operant conditioning, this avoidant response
is maintained because it is reinforcing (it reduces fear)
Flaws of Mowerer's two factor model - Answer many people who have anxiety disorders
cannot remember any threatening event that triggered their symptoms. Second, many people
who do experiences serious threats do not develop anxiety disorders.
Classical conditioning could occur in different ways including: - Answer - Direct experience (like
above example)
- Modeling (seeing a dog bit a man or watching a video of a vicious dog attack)
- Verbal instruction (hearing a parent warn that dogs are dangerous)
any of these ways a person could learn to associate a stimulus with fear.
neutral predictable unpredictable (NPU) threat task - Answer tests responses to unpredictable
threats
A. A neutral condition in which they do not experience an aversive stimulus
B. A predictable condition in which they experience an aversive stimulus and receive a warning
beforehand
