PSYC1024 · Anxiety, Mood and Stress
Introduction to Anxiety Disorders
Week 5 draws the line between adaptive, everyday anxiety and clinically disordered anxiety — the intensity, duration, disproportion and impairment that cross the diagnostic threshold — and introduces how the anxiety disorders are classified as a family. It closes the mid-term-examinable block (the 20% mid-term covers Weeks 1–2 & 4–5) and sets up the deeper Week 7 treatment of specific disorders. (Week 5's own lecture slides were not among the materials this guide was built from, so the criteria and models below are discipline-standard first-year canon — confirm the exact framing on your Moodle lecture notes.)
What this chapter covers
- 01Adaptive vs disordered anxiety: intensity, duration, proportion to threat, and impairment
- 02The diagnostic threshold: excessive, persistent, disproportionate, and causing distress or functional impairment
- 03The "4 Ds" heuristic for abnormality: deviance, distress, dysfunction, danger
- 04Diagnostic systems: DSM-5-TR (APA) and ICD-11 (WHO)
- 05Overview of the main anxiety disorders (GAD, panic, phobias, social anxiety, agoraphobia)
- 06The diathesis–stress model: predisposing vulnerability × environmental stress
- 07The biopsychosocial model: biological, psychological and social factors together
- 08Maintenance by avoidance: short-term relief via negative reinforcement, long-term persistence
Adaptive or disordered? Apply the diagnostic threshold
- +1(a) is adaptive/normal anxiety. It is proportionate to a real challenge, time-limited (fades once the exam begins), and if anything improves performance — normal anxiety is protective. There is no lasting distress or impairment.
- +1(b) is clinically disordered anxiety. It is excessive and uncontrollable, persistent (about eight months, well beyond the ~6-month duration used for several anxiety disorders), disproportionate, and — decisively — causing distress and functional impairment (sleep, concentration, stopping classes).
- +1Name the threshold criteria: anxiety is judged disordered when it is excessive, persistent, disproportionate to the actual threat, and impairing, and is diagnosed against DSM-5-TR or ICD-11 criteria. The "4 Ds" — deviance, distress, dysfunction, danger — are a useful heuristic for when experience crosses into disorder.
- +1Give an explanatory model: the diathesis–stress model holds that a disorder emerges from a predisposing vulnerability (diathesis — e.g. genetic risk or behavioural inhibition) interacting with environmental stressors, which is why not everyone under stress develops a disorder. The biopsychosocial model integrates biological, psychological and social factors.
Key terms
- Adaptive vs disordered anxiety
- Normal anxiety is protective, proportionate and time-limited and can improve performance; anxiety is disordered when it is excessive, persistent, disproportionate to the actual threat, and causes distress or functional impairment.
- The 4 Ds
- A heuristic for judging abnormality: Deviance (from norms), Distress, Dysfunction (impairment) and Danger. Used to decide when experience crosses into a disorder.
- Diagnostic threshold
- The point at which anxiety is clinically significant — typically excessive, persistent (≥6 months for several disorders), disproportionate, and impairing across life domains. Assessed against DSM-5-TR (APA) or ICD-11 (WHO) criteria.
- Diathesis–stress model
- Disorders emerge from a predisposing vulnerability (diathesis — genetic, temperamental) interacting with environmental stressors. Explains why not everyone exposed to the same stress develops a disorder.
- Biopsychosocial model
- An integrative account of causation combining biological (genes, neurotransmitters such as GABA and serotonin), psychological (cognitive biases, conditioning, avoidance) and social (life events, family, culture) factors.
- Maintenance by avoidance
- Avoiding a feared situation reduces anxiety in the short term (negative reinforcement) but maintains the disorder long term by preventing disconfirmation of the feared outcome and blocking extinction — the rationale for exposure-based treatment.
Introduction to Anxiety Disorders FAQ
When does anxiety become a disorder?
When it is excessive, persistent (often around six months or more for several disorders), out of proportion to the actual threat, and — most decisively — causes distress or impairs functioning across life domains. Intense but brief, proportionate, non-impairing anxiety is still normal and can even help performance. Diagnosis is made against DSM-5-TR or ICD-11 criteria, with the "4 Ds" (deviance, distress, dysfunction, danger) as a rough heuristic.
What is the diathesis–stress model?
It explains why only some people who face stress develop a disorder: a disorder emerges when a predisposing vulnerability (the diathesis — genetic risk, temperament such as behavioural inhibition) interacts with environmental stressors. Neither alone is usually sufficient. The related biopsychosocial model widens this to biological, psychological and social factors together.
How are anxiety disorders classified?
As a family of related disorders in DSM-5-TR — generalised anxiety disorder, specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia and separation anxiety disorder — sharing excessive fear/anxiety and avoidance but differing in the focus of the fear. Note that OCD and PTSD sit in separate DSM-5 chapters, not with the anxiety disorders. Week 7 goes into the individual disorders in depth.
Can AI help me with this material?
Yes. Sia can drill you on the adaptive-vs-disordered threshold, quiz you on the classification of the anxiety-disorder family, and walk through the diathesis–stress and biopsychosocial models with worked cases. It mirrors how the content is assessed at UNSW; it does not sit the mid-term for you, and UNSW academic-integrity rules apply.
Exam move
Week 5 closes the mid-term-examinable block, so make sure the diagnostic-threshold criteria are automatic: excessive, persistent, disproportionate, and — the criterion that decides most items — impairing. Learn the ~6-month duration marker and practise classifying vignettes as adaptive or disordered by naming which criterion tips each one over. Keep the two explanatory models straight and be able to say what each adds: diathesis–stress explains why vulnerability plus stress is needed, and the biopsychosocial model widens the lens to biological, psychological and social factors. Get an overview map of the disorder family (GAD, panic, phobias, social anxiety, agoraphobia) ready now — Week 7 fills in the detail — and note that OCD and PTSD are classified separately. Understand maintenance by avoidance here, because it is the hinge that sets up exposure treatment in Week 9. Because Week 5's own lecture materials were not among the materials this guide was built from, confirm the exact criteria wording on Moodle. Rehearse on the revision quiz and ask Sia for extra classification cases.
Working through Introduction to Anxiety Disorders in PSYC1024? Sia is AskSia’s AI Psychology tutor — ask any PSYC1024 Introduction to Anxiety Disorders question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how PSYC1024 is taught and assessed. Read this chapter free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.
