Paula has not left her house for several months. when she tries to go out, she experiences great anxiety. she says she is afraid that if she leaves her house to go somewhere, she will not be able to get back. before all this started, paula seemed fairly normal except for having several episodes where, for no apparent reason, her heart started pounding, she started to sweat profusely, and she experienced all the symptoms of fear and terror. one of the reasons she is afraid to leave the house is because she is afraid she will have one of these episodes again. (hint: there are two specific diagnoses here.) specific diagnosis general class of disorder specific diagnosis general class of disorder

Specific diagnosis :Agoraphobia.

General class of disorder: Panic Disorder.

Explanation:

Panic disorder is a major type of anxiety disorder diagnosed in people who experiences repeated and unexpected series or episodes of panic attacks, this includes intense fear with symptoms which may involve heart palpitations, shortness of breath, chest pain, abdominal distress, sweating, trembling or shaking. These periods of fear come on quickly and ends within minutes. Due to worry about when next an attack will occur, an inividual will try to make an effort to avoid attacks by also avoiding certain places which may lead to the individual developing Agoraphobia.

Agoraphobia is the fear of leaving an environment that the inividual considers or knows to be safe. In severe cases, most people with this fear consider their home to be the safest place, hence they avoid leaving the house for as long as they possibly can.

as university of miami psychologists debra lieberman and adam smith pointed out in a recent article in the journal current directions in psychological science, humans have social and psychological mechanisms to deter incest. with very few exceptions, marriages between brothers and sisters and between parents and their children are verboten in every human culture. the primary psychological anti-incest mechanism is the yuck response. even the idea of sex with their mom or dad, bro or sis is upsetting to most people. the psychologist jonathan haidt has found that nearly everyone is repelled by the prospect of brother-sister sex, even in hypothetical situations in which there is no chance of pregnancy).

the biological cost of incest

this raises an interesting question: just what’s so bad about incest? sure, having sex with your dad or your sister seems gross — but why? some anthropologists have argued that incest taboos are learned social conventions. this explanation, however, doesn’t make sense to me as it does not explain the widespread existence of anti-incest mechanisms in creatures ranging from cockroaches to chimpanzees. second, the incest taboo is about as close to a universal law as human moral rules get.

why should mechanisms to avoid incest be so widespread both in nature and across human societies? the answer is simple. the problem with having sex close with relatives is that there is an astonishingly high chance that your offspring will be born with a serious birth defect.