CLP 3144 Chapter 5: Chapter 5 Textbook Notes: Trauma, Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders

• School: University of Florida
• Department: Clinical and Health Psychology
• Course: CLP 3144
• Professor: Wippold Guillermo

Document Summary

Fear is adaptive when it is realistic, when it is in proportion to the threat, if it subsides when the threat has passed, and if it leads to appropriate behaviors to overcome that threat. Fear becomes anxiety when it persists long after the threat has subsided and when a person engages in maladaptive behaviors in response to a threat. Over evolutionary history, humans have developed fight-or-flight response: a set of physical and psychological responses that help us fight a threat or flee from it. Physiological response of fight or flight (aka anxiety): The hypothalamus activates the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. Heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate increase. The hypothalamus activates the adrenal-cortical system by releasing corticotropin release factor, which signals the pituitary gland to secrete acth which then leads to the secretion of cortisol. After the threat has passed, the hippocampus turns off this physiological cascade. Cortisol: hormone related to stress; released by adrenal glands.