Psych 343 Final Study Guide

What physiologic factors contribute to nocturnal enuresis in children?

A possible deficiency in an antidiuretic hormone. Children with enuresis do not show the usual increase in ADH during sleep so they continue to produce more urine during the hours of sleep than their bladders can hold. Some children just lack normal development of the signaling process of the brain that is supposed to wake you up when your bladder is full

How would you distinguish an adjustment disorder from major depressive disorder?

Adjustment disorder: the child has a problem adjusting to a major life change I.e. moving to a new home and going to a new school; parent died; broke up with boyfriend; Precipitating event that led to depressive symptoms Adjustment disorder is a time-limited problem. DSM says 6 months. MDD has an episodic nature; comes and goes, gets worse and remits; lasts a lot longer than adjustment disorder

What is substance withdrawal?

Adverse physiological or psychological symptoms that occur when the substance is withdrawn when you don't have it any longer. When you don't have the substance, your body feels terrible, your cognition is affected, there's clear effects within the body and the brain for not having the substance.

What factors (Biological, Genetic, Sociocultural, etc) are most influential in the etiology of eating disorders and obesity?

All three play a part, but sociocultural plays the largest factor.

What symptoms differentiate body dysmorphic disorder from anorexia nervosa?

Anorexia Nervosa is characterized by significantly low body weight. There is also a fear/extreme anxiety of weight gain. So they are severely underweight but they have a disturbance in their perception of their body, so they keep thinking they need to lose more weight. BDD is not an eating disorder; much more about a specific physical characteristic that is not always body-size related. A person's distress is related to that certain physical characteristic. - BDD just has a perceived physical deformity

How do treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorders differ from those for anxiety disorders?

Anxiety disorder treatments just focus on gradual exposure to the anxiety-provoking stimuli while treatments for OCD involve exposure AND response prevention. They expose the person to anxiety-provoking stimuli and then have them not respond.

What is the role of the behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation neural systems in anxiety disorders?

Anxiety disorders are composed of too much inhibition. They are backing away, staying away, avoiding potential threats. Their inhibition system is over-activated.

How does avoidance of anxiety provoking stimuli reinforce anxiety?

Avoidance of stimuli reduces anxiety, so then that reinforces avoidance. It tells you the way to not feel uncomfortable about the anxiety-provoking stimuli is to stay away from that stimuli, to get out and get away from it. So then you have a lack of exposure to that stimuli and thus do not ever receive disconfirming evidence that the stimuli is actually not so scary.

How are anorexia nervosa and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder different?

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder is characterized by avoidance or restriction of food intake, leading to significant weight loss and/or nutritional deficiency. - In some cases, children manifest this disorder by avoiding or restricting food based on its sensory characteristics (e.g. appearance, color, taste, smell, or temperature). Different from anorexia because it does not involve a fear of weight gain.

How would you distinguish separation anxiety disorder from social anxiety disorder?

Biggest distinction is with social anxiety disorder it is all about performance anxiety. It's about worrying about what others think of your performance. - Social anxiety is more likely to be seen in older childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Separation anxiety is about separation from attachment figures. Feelings of unsafety when away from parents or caretakers etc. - Most likely to see separation anxiety in young children like preschoolers

How does binge eating disorder differ from bulimia nervosa?

Binge eating - loss of control, large amounts of food in one sitting; not purging Bulimia - Eating + purging

What are the primary tenants of developmental psychopathology?

Biological influences Emotional influences Behavioral and cognitive influences family, cultural, and ethnic influences

What features distinguish bulimia nervosa from binge eating/purging type anorexia?

Bulimia has a sense of loss of control. Bulimia is also binge + purge Anorexia is more about over-control rather than loss of control. Anorexia has a high OCD comorbidity

What cognitive errors are common among individuals with anorexia nervosa?

Strong obsessive component; obsession with weight gain and food; Cognitive errors are related to self-perception of being overweight when the person is unhealthily underweight. Error in self-perception Strong conviction of hanging onto the overcontrol aspect of this disorder; it's consistent with their perception of their self-control, it's hard to separate themselves from their behaviors because they like to be in control of how much they eat etc. They identify with the disorder Another cognitive error is that "my worth is tied to my weight"

Physiological changes associated with sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activation:

Sympathetic nervous system: increases heart rate and blood pressure and decreases digestion and blood flow to the skin. Parasympathetic: decreases heart rate and blood pressure and increases digestion and blood flow to the skin.

What behaviors are common in families where children are at risk for child maltreatment?

Children from abusive and neglectful families grow up in environments that fail to provide consistent and appropriate opportunities to guide their development; instead, these children are placed in jeopardy of physical and emotional harm. Unstable family structure, domestic violence exposure, social isolation and resource deprivation, parent mental disorders; parent substance abuse;

How does nightmare disorder differ from night terror disorder?

Children with night terrors are difficult to arouse during a dream while those with nightmares are not.

What is the difference between classical, prototypical, and dimensional approaches to diagnosing psychopathology?

Classical approach: there are clear distinctions between disorders, you have to meet all criteria to be diagnosed with a disorder; you have to fit into the clear-cut box; and if you are in one box then you can't be in another box. Prototypical approach: suggests that there are core characteristics for disorders, and then some varying symptoms that you may or may not have. This is the DSM approach. Allows for some variability within the diagnosis. Dimensional approach: More focused on characteristics and the degree to which you do or don't possess that characteristic. More like the spectrum disorders. The challenge with this one is where do you draw the line? When is it one disorder and when is it another disorder?

What are the components of cognitive-behavioral treatment for anxiety disorders?

Cognitive therapy targets distorted thoughts by identifying inaccurate thinking, and challenging and changing maladaptive thoughts. This is combined with behavioral treatments.

How do cognitive and behavioral therapies for anxiety disorders differ?

Cognitive: identifying errors in thinking and trying to restructure people's thinking. Behavioral: focus on behavioral activation; engaging in rewarding activities

What functional benefit do compulsive behaviors confer in OCD? What are the downsides to engaging in compulsive rituals (both functional and in terms of maintenance of symptoms)?

Compulsive behaviors help to reduce and manage the anxiety associated with stimuli; but this reduction of anxiety doesn't last. Downsides are that: Normal activities of children with OCD are impaired - like social interaction, school functioning, or family relationships. So engaging in compulsive rituals get in the way of your life. It prevents you from being able to do the things that kids normally do. Also engaging in compulsions and then having a reduction of anxiety is reinforcing. It makes you want to keep engaging in the compulsion because it reduces your anxiety.

Describe the different kinds of validity relevant to psychological assessment.

Content: whether the test includes all the different items that comprise that construct - I.e. if a test is designed to survey arithmetic skills at a 3rd grade level, content validity indicates how well it represents the range of arithmetic operations possible at that level Construct: does the thing that we're measuring actually represent the construct accurately - Does measuring how many times a couple kisses in a day accurately represent the construct of love? Concurrent: does it measure the same thing as another measure. Is it consistent across different types of measurement? - Giving the depression scale and beck depression inventory at the same time Predictive: implies that your measure predicts performance on some other sort of assessment/outcome I.e. does GRE predict performance as a graduate student

What factors increase risk for anorexia and bulimia among adolescents?

Context around food and eating and weight in the family. Maternal dieting and maternal restriction of food intake for anorexia Bulimia is that the food environment is one of the strongest factors here. There is some genetic risk, but it is more about how the family approaches food, what do their family meals look like? What is the commentary around food? How do mothers talk about their food and weight and how do they model healthy eating behavior. Cultural pressure for thinness and body type. Huge cultural implication.

What compensatory behaviors are used to control weight in bulimia nervosa?

Counting calories, vomiting, taking laxatives, fasting, exercise, diet pills.

What are the potential side effects of benzodiazepines for anxiety treatment?

Drowsiness and dependence risk (can be really addictive) Short-acting; only work when you take them Not a good long-term treatment We don't know much about long-term effects

Which developmental periods in childhood/adolescence confer the greatest risk for developing eating disorders?

Early to mid-adolescence, ages 14-16, 90% females

What does effect size mean in treatment research? Why does effect size matter?

Effect size is the strength of the relationship; so the effectiveness of treatments.

What do selective mutism and social anxiety disorder have in common?

Evidence suggests that with selective mutism, they worry about saying something wrong, they worry about evaluation or criticism from the teacher, and thus they have learned that it's best to just not talk to unfamiliar adults. This worry about saying something wrong and worry about criticism is similar to social anxiety disorder.

What type of research design would be best to determine whether psychotherapy or a drug treatment is more effective for treating depression in adolescents?

Experimental, double blind, between groups comparison Why? More internal validity, controls for confounds, objective evidence as compared to anecdotal

What is gradual exposure for anxiety symptoms? How do you use this approach in exposure therapy?

Exposure and response-prevention; so you expose the person with OCD to an anxiety-provoking stimuli, then you have them resist engaging in the compulsion. Over time they can go more often without engaging in the compulsion and are better able to control the compulsions.

Why do therapies for PTSD expose children to their experience of traumatic events? How does this differ from re-experiencing, a symptom of PTSD?

Exposure strategies essentially involve having children or youths talk about the traumatic event and their feelings about it at a speed that is not too distressing for them. Enables them to master painful feelings about the event and to resolve the impact the event has on their life. During this process they are able to correct any untrue or distorted ideas about what happened, such as feeling they are to blame or could have done something to prevent it. Throughout each session, they are taught stress management and relaxation skills to help them cope with unpleasant feelings or intrusive memories about the trauma.

What are the differences between fear, anxiety, and panic?

Fear: present-oriented worry Anxiety: Worry about future events Panic: sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety

What is dissociation? Why might this happen in children/adolescents with traumatic experiences?

In reaction to emotional and physical pain from abusive experiences, children or adults voluntarily or involuntarily may induce an altered state of consciousness. This process allows the victim to feel detached from the body or self, as if what is happening is not happening to him or her. Trauma victims may rely on this form of psychological escape to the extent that profound disruptions to self and memory can occur.

What is drug-seeking behavior?

Includes excessive amount of time invested in getting the substance, spending a lot of money to get the substance.

What prevention strategies have the most promise for reducing child maltreatment?

Individual parent training interventions to teach adaptive coping skills.

Which disorders have been shown to have chiefly neurobiological etiologies? Which have more contribution of environment?

Internalizing disorders are split but they have a lot more contribution of environmental etiologies (i.e. anxiety disorders) Externalizing disorders have more neurobiological etiologies (i.e. conduct disorder and oppositional defiance disorder)

What distinguishes a binge eating episode from simply overeating?

It is an abnormal situation (a non-holiday event, every day thing) consistently happening

How does a urine alarm used to treat nocturnal enuresis remedy bedwetting?

It is based on classical conditioning principles; uses an alarm that sounds at the first detection of urine. - A single drop of urine completes the electronic circuit, setting off a piercing alarm that causes the child to tense and reflexively stop urinating. For the alarm to be effective, an adult must wake the child up, which usually is not easy, walk him to the bathroom, get him to finish urinating in the toilet, and then reset the alarm. - If the ritual is carefully followed, the alarm will begin to wake the child directly within 4 to 6 weeks, and by 12 weeks he will likely master nighttime bladder control and no longer need the alarm.

Why does daytime napping make sleep problems for children worse?

It reduces the sleep pressure that builds throughout the day.

How are cognitive and behavioral therapies used in conjunction with one another?

Many treatments combine both by identifying errors in thinking and working to restructure an individual's thoughts while helping them to engage in rewarding activities. Doing both of these together tends to be the most effective in general. However, cognitive therapies are less effective with young children because they are not yet at a high enough cognitive level. So cognitive therapies are introduced when the child is old enough to comprehend abstract cognitive concepts.

What sleep hygiene behaviors are used to treat sleep disorders?

May involve identifying suspected causes of disrupted sleep and involving other family members in maintaining a chosen routine. Individualized bedtime rituals, such as reading, singing, or playing a quiet game, establish a positive transition to bedtime, and regular bedtimes and waking times establish a consistent routine.

Why is the criterion of age 5 years or older included in the diagnostic criteria for enuresis?

Most children have bed-wetting accidents until age 5 or so - Bedwetting is developmentally normal for children younger than 5 years old.

Which form of child maltreatment is most common?

Neglect

How do projective tests differ from neuropsychological tests?

Neuropsychological Assessment → links brain function to behavior - Looking at observable behaviors and seeing how they may relate to brain function in specific areas of the brain

Which of the anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorders are most amenable to treatment with medications?

OCD is not effectively treated with medications. A combination of CBT and medications (like benzodiazipines or SSRIs) are most effective with anxiety disorders

In what ways do adolescents with substance use disorders differ from adults with these disorders?

Physiological dependence is less common than among adults, but psychological dependence is more common in adolescents. Teens are less motivated to stop and are usually referred by others for treatment rather than admitting themselves.

What is the difference between psychological and physiological dependence on substances of abuse?

Physiological dependence refers to withdrawal, so you always see withdrawal symptoms with physiological dependence. Psychological dependence would just be like you feel like you need the substance to function; like you can't wake up because you haven't had your caffeine yet. - Largely subjective symptom.

What characteristics of peer interactions increase adolescent's risk for substance use disorders?

Preceding oneself to be older than peers Feeling disconnected from peers If you hang out with substance using peers, you're more likely to use these yourself by a pretty large magnitude.

How do symptoms of PTSD in preschoolers differ from symptoms of PTSD in older children?

Preschoolers tend to have less cognitive symptoms and more avoidance symptoms as well as re-enacting trauma through play.

What is the utility of projective psychological tests? What is the theory upon which they are based?

Projective test: A form of assessment that presents the child with ambiguous stimuli, such as inkblots or pictures of people. - the hypothesis is that the child will "project" his or her own personality onto the ambiguous stimuli of other people and things. without being aware, the child discloses his or her unconscious thoughts and feelings to the clinicians. Example: ink blot test - based on Freud's psychoanalytic theory of the conscious and unconscious

What is psychomotor retardation? What does this symptom imply regarding the relative contribution of neurobiology vs. environment and cognition? What disorders have psychomotor retardation as a potential symptom?

Psychomotor retardation: involves a slowing-down of thought and a reduction of physical movements in an individual. Can cause a visible slowing of physical and emotional reactions, including speech and affect. - Neurobiological influences tend to manifest themselves in neurological ways. - Lack of appetite or lack of motivation in depression; Slowness of speech in depression; these types of symptoms are psychomotor retardation; - These symptoms imply that neurobiology is more responsible for these psychomotor manifestations.

Randomized control VS Case Study VS Correlational

Randomized is a much larger sample so it can be generalized to the population; random assignment allows us to control for all the different characteristics that might lead to a specific outcome in treatment. More anecdotal evidence with a case study; case study is appropriate with a rare case With well-known disorders and more common disorders, a randomized clinical trial would be more appropriate. Has the highest internal validity. I.e. Did the treatment produce change in OCD symptoms? A correlational study isn't effective in telling whether a treatment works or not. --Randomized trials are considered the gold standard in treatment research

In what ways do the criteria for PTSD in children under 6 differ from the criteria for older children, adolescents, and adults?

Re-enacting their trauma through play. Fewer cognitive symptoms (like re-experiencing or depersonalization/derealization) and more straight up avoidance in young children. --If they encounter a situation that reminds them of their traumatic experience, they will avoid that situation. Have more nightmares, less likely to have day time re experiencing symptoms.

Between social engagement disorder and reactive attachment disorder, which is associated with externalizing pathology (e.g., ADHD)? Which is associated with internalizing pathology (e.g,, anxiety)?

Reactive attachment disorder is associated with internalizing pathology and inhibition Social engagement disorder is associated with externalizing pathology and disinhibition

What treatment is most effective for night terrors?

Reduce stress and fatigue; add late afternoon nap

What is the primary treatment for breathing-related sleep disorders in children?

Removal of tonsils and adenoids.

What do treatments for anxiety disorders and restrictive/avoidant food intake disorder have in common?

Restrictive/avoidant food intake disorder - improving the home environment and relationship between caregiver and child - Treatment regimens involve a detailed assessment of feeding behavior and parent-child interactions, such as smiling, talking, and soothing, while allowing the parents to play a role in infant's recovery. Similar to treatments for anxiety disorders in children because parents involvement in treatment is important. Parents can help expose children to anxiety-provoking stimuli to help the child recognize those things are dangerous, just like parents can improve their interactions with their child to help with restrictive/avoidant food intake behaviors.

How do selective mutism and social anxiety disorder differ?

Selective mutism is not being willing to speak to other people who are unfamiliar, especially adults. They refuse to speak. Oftentimes they are perfectly able to engage with their peers, but with adults, they just do not speak. Social anxiety disorder is more about social performance; they fear messing up or being embarrassed, and thus they try to hide from and avoid social interactions, including interaction with their peers.

How do selective mutism and social anxiety disorder differ? What characteristics do they share?

Selective mutism is not being willing to speak to other people who are unfamiliar. You refuse to speak. In many cases, children with selected mutism will speak to their peers without difficulty, but when they speak with other adults, they're just unable to do it. The evidence we have suggests that it's because they worry about saying something wrong. They worry about evaluation or criticism from the teacher, and they've learned that it's best to just not talk to unfamiliar adults. This is a disruption in a typical developmental process.

On a continuum from primarily neurobiological to primarily environmental etiology, where does social anxiety disorder fall?

Sits somewhere in the middle. It depends on the person and the types of symptom presentation they have about where they might fall on the spectrum. - People with severe anxiety, really impairing anxiety, might be more on the spectrum of high neurobiological contribution and others may have more contribution of environment.

In what way does memory for experience differ between nightmares and sleepwalking?

Sleepwalking: no recall of the episode the next morning Nightmares: repeated awakenings with frightening dreams that you usually remember

How does a bioecological model of development affect our understanding of child mental illness?

Talks about multiple systems that affect the child and the child affect those systems. The center is the child. Then it extends to other systems like the family, the child's peers, school, etc. Think about it from a systems perspective to understand what is going on with a child. That's why we don't just treat the child, we treat the systems as well because the child is affected by the systems and the child affects the systems. I.e. When there is a child with ADHD, there will be parent training and family training, as well as coordination with teachers and other systems in the child's life. To understand what is going on with the child and what to do with the problem, we have to understand what is appropriate with their level of development.

What characteristics distinguish adjustment disorder from post-traumatic stress disorder?

The first is not long lasting. It is time-limited and resolves generally within a short amount of time. The second tends to be long-term and doesn't go away, especially without treatment.

How would you distinguish major depression with hallucinations from schizophrenia?

The major difference is that depression has a mood disturbance while schizophrenia does not. Usually, you don't see psychotic symptoms with depression unless their depression has become very severe.

What types of stressful life events meet criteria for a traumatic event consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder?

The person was exposed to: death, threatened death, actual or threatened serious injury, or actual or threatened sexual violence in the following way(s): - Direct exposure; witnessing the trauma; learning that a relative or close friend was exposed to a trauma; indirect exposure to aversive details of trauma, usually in the course of professional duties (e.g., first responders, medics) E.g. major accidents, natural disasters, kidnapping, brutal physical assaults, war and violence, sexual abuse

How does institutional care (e.g., care in orphanages) confer risk for reactive attachment disorder?

There will likely be inadequate care and attention in this kind of a setting

How do the body perceptions of individuals with body dysmorphic disorder differ from these of individuals with eating disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa)?

There's a preoccupation with perceived flaws in physical appearance (not necessarily shape or size of the body) that are not observable or slight to others. Repetitive (compulsive) behaviors (mirror checking, grooming, skin picking) or mental acts (comparison to others) Distress to the point where you feel you can't go out in public

Why are withdrawal, tolerance, and drug-seeking behavior important symptoms of substance use disorder?

They show that there is a physiological dependence and it poses a risk to their safety in general

What symptoms distinguish binge eating/purging type anorexia from bulimia?

Those with the binge-eating/ purging type of anorexia eat relatively small amounts of food and commonly purge more consistently and thoroughly than those with bulimia. Also, those with anorexia also have a dangerously low body weight

What are the components of behavioral intervention for encopresis?

Urine alarm helps to retrain the brain to wake you up when you need to urinate. You don't need to use the alarm indefinitely, rather once your brain is trained to wake up when you need to pee, then you start doing that automatically.

What is the difference between reliability and validity with respect to psychological tests?

Validity: The extent to which a measure actually assesses the dimension or construct that the researcher sets out to measure. - How correct is our result with a given assessment? Are we truly measuring what we claim to be measuring? Reliability: If an assessment method is reliable, results derived from the method would be similar if administered to the same child at a later date - more about replicability. Do we get the same result time and time again?

In what ways has society's understanding of children's mental illness changed over the past 100 years?

Well within the last 100 years, most people thought that children couldn't have a mental illness. How we treat disorders for children has changed a lot. We used to treat them as we would treat adults, but treatments for children have changed and been more developmentally appropriate. Now we treat children within their families rather than institutional care.

What is unique about obsessive compulsive disorder compared to other anxiety disorders?

What's unique about OCD relative to anxiety disorders is that the COMPULSIONS, which are intended to relieve the anxiety associated with the obsessions.

What distinguishes disinhibited social engagement disorder from reactive attachment disorder?

When faced with any form of stress, such as a new situation or adult, children with RAD show no consistent effort to seek comfort or nurturance from their caregiver, and they fail to respond to their caregiver's efforts to comfort them. This is different from social engagement disorder. Also, DSED is more persistent than RAD.

At what point are fear and anxiety considered maladaptive?

When there is no threat or no reason to have anxiety yet you still have it. Maladaptive anxiety represents an over-responsiveness to threats that are not real. Problems that do not exist or that are purely theoretical, that we don't have evidence that they're truly threatening.

What is measurement error?

When we do assessments, our tests are not perfect predictions, they have some error associated with them. I.e. time of day, how much sleep the child got before, etc. that all affects the amount of error in a measurement. What do we do about that? We use confidence intervals. Confidence intervals quantify the error in the test. Acknowledges the fact that our tests are not perfect

What effect does maltreatment in infancy have on infants' attachment to their caregivers?

Will likely develop an attachment disorder

What role to do genetics play in enuresis risk?

You see strong heritability to enuresis, especially nighttime enuresis and it's associated with antidiuretic hormone; If you have an insufficient amount of this hormone, it concentrates the urine at night, so you have higher urine volume and problems with alertness, the signaling pieces. - When your bladder is full but your brain doesn't wake you up.

How does risk for different types of maltreatment (neglect, sexual abuse, physical abuse) vary across child age (e.g., which child characteristics increase risk for sexual abuse)?

Younger children are the most common victims of abuse and neglect Sexual abuse is more common among the older age groups Girls are more likely to be sexually abused Sexual abuse of girls tends to be by a male family member perpetrator while sexual abuse of boys tends to be from a male non-family member perpetrator (scout leaders, camp leaders, etc.)

What is substance tolerance?

you need more of the drug to get the same effect.

What characteristics distinguish disruptive mood dysregulation disorder from oppositional defiant disorder?

Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is characterized by irritable mood.

Why is sleeping late on weekends less ideal for adolescent sleep health?

Disrupts circadian rhythm

What characteristics distinguish Autism Spectrum Disorder from Intellectual Disability?

ASD is problems with social communication; more pragmatic communication and restricted and repetitive interests and behaviors. ID is low cognitive ability ASD does not imply low cognitive ability.

How does childhood schizophrenia differ from Autism Spectrum Disorder? How would you distinguish one from the other?

ASD you certainly have odd and unusual behaviors but not to the point of clear hallucinations and delusions Schizophrenia is clear hallucinations and delusions. Biggest difference is the positive symptoms (hallucinations and delusions) May need to wait longer to determine whether these symptoms are present.

How do behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation neural systems function differently across externalizing and internalizing psychological disorders?

BAS related to externalizing disorders; too much gas, too little breaks - Externalizing disorders have too much activation BIS relates to internalizing disorders; too many breaks, too little gas - Internalizing disorders have too much inhibition

What treatments are effective for circadian rhythm sleep disorders?

Behavioral treatment - The goal of behavioral intervention is to eliminate the sleep deprivation and to restore a more normal sleep-wake routine. The adolescent is asked to keep a sleep-wake and daily activity log, with regular bedtimes and rise times. Chronotherapy - an example would be controlled sleep deprivation; one stays awake one whole night and day, then goes to bed 90 minutes earlier than usual and maintains the new bedtime for a week. This process is repeated weekly until the desired bedtime is reached.

What family and societal factors increase risk for anorexia and bulimia among adolescents?

Having family members that struggle with it Especially maternal views on food

What can parents do to reduce their child's risk for developing anxiety disorders?

Help expose their children to the anxiety-provoking stimuli early on rather than feeding that anxiety by allowing children to avoid what scares them. The child needs exposure to experiences that disconfirm their anxieties.

How does exposure used in behavioral treatments for anxiety disorders reduce anxiety?

Helps the individual realize that their fear is actually not so scary. They get disconfirming evidence about the fear

In what ways are fear and anxiety adaptive?

Our brain is set up to be sensitive to threat; anxiety is specific to threats that might happen down the road and help us to be prepared for those threats that might come along. Anxiety itself is not pathological, and in fact it makes sense and it keeps us safe in many respects.