able 2. Process Model of Fear and Anxiety
ntecedents
Critical Attributes
Consequences
ear
• Sudden threat to biological integrity
• Change in environment
• Threatening facial expression
• Certain innate conditions
• Neutral event paired with innate fear
pathways
• Obvious behavioral change: fright, fight, flight, or freeze
• Focus on source of threat
• Sudden onset of threat
• Apprehensive in order to perform risk assessment
• Cardiovascular excitation
• Avoids danger.
• Survives.
• May develop long lasting fear memory.
nxiety
• Perceived threat to homeostasis
• Presence of impending change:
loss of economic status, source of loss
of others, change in career, retirement,
change induced by motor or sensory loss
• Mostly subjective: uneasiness or rising apprehension
• Transformation into relief behaviors: restlessness
• Anxiety may not be known or identifiable
• Personal growth
• Physical illness
• Acting out behavior
efinitions
• Fear: a sufficiently potent, biologically driven, motivated state wherein a single, salient
threat guides behavior. It is a defensive response to perceived threat or the result of exposure to
a single cue presented in an environment reminiscent of the original fear experience.
• Anxiety: a heightened state of uneasiness to a potential nonspecific threat that is inconsistent
with the expected event and results when there is a mismatch between the next likely event and the
actual event.