Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Specific Phobia

Abstract This chapter covers the anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and SP. The authors review leading perspectives on the epidemiology, etiology, and maintenance of each of the major anxiety disorders and cover leading factor analytic models of anxiety, from the tripartite model to the tri-level model. The chapter includes an overview of the prevalence and typical course of these disorders and reviews major contributing factors. The authors discuss temperament and personality factors, such as neuroticism, behavioral inhibition, anxiety sensitivity, and positive emotionality; summarize biological perspectives on anxiety disorder etiology; and describe information-processing biases that may also play etiological or maintaining roles. They also discuss vulnerability and contextual variables related to conditioning from direct, vicarious, and interoceptive conditioning to the role of uncontrollability and unpredictability, social reinforcement, and more. Finally, the authors discuss the interpersonal factors at play in the anxiety disorders, including attachment, interpersonal conflict, and expressed emotion.