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psych final exam > abnormal > Flashcards

abnormal Flashcards

1
Q

abnormal behavior

A

Behavior that is deviant, maladaptive, or personally distressful over a relatively long period of time.

  • extremely fallible definition, too broad and narrow at the same time
  • all attempts to come up with a singular definition of abnormality failed. too many different types to be summarized in one definition
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2
Q

models of understanding abnormality

A 
-many models (theoretical frameworks) for understanding abnormality 
>Psychoanalytic 
>cognitive
>behavioral
>biological
>sociocultural 
-in past these models were like "camps" or political parties 
-was an us-vs-them feel
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3
Q

most modern models of abnormality are integrative

A

true. models are driven more by science. If a given perspective has demonstrated that it can explain something, then that finding is including in the larger understanding of the model

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4
Q

biopsychosocial model

A

come to realize that abnormal behavior is typically product of multiple factors, and focusing only on one is inadequate

  • bio (biological and genetic factors)
  • psycho (thoughts, feelings, behavior)
  • social (interpersonal, cultural)
  • relative contribution of these factors is quite different from one type of problem to the next
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5
Q

how disorder is classified

A

-diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) is the current dominant classification system

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6
Q

ICD (international classification of disease)

A 
which catalogs all known diseases (not just mental ones) but this system tends to follow the lead of the DSM and thus isn't really a true "alternative" 
-for each disorder 
>criteria for a diagnosis
>basic description 
>demographic information
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7
Q

anxiety disorders

A

-fears of specific objects or situations
-Fears are excessive and experienced nearly every time the feared stimulus is experienced.
-Common:
>Animals (e.g., dogs, sharks)
>Environment (e.g., heights, water)
>Situations (e.g., elevators, flying)
-unique type: blood-injection-injury

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8
Q

anxiety disorders: social anxiety disorder

A
  • Fear of social situations; specifically of being embarrassed or humiliated
  • Fun fact: public speaking is the #1 biggest fear of Americans
  • Generally, individuals do not have a lack of social skill
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9
Q

anxiety disorders: panic disorder

A

panic attacks
-Panic disorder is when these attacks become more common/severe, and when they begin to interfere with a person’s life
This can lead to individuals generalizing their fear to the environment… limiting their ability to go places
… leading to Agoraphobia

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10
Q

panic attaks

A

experience of sudden, intense fear that can feel like it “came out of the blue”
-Many people have them, but it doesn’t become often or severe enough to become a problem

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11
Q

anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety disorder

A

Excessive worry and anxiety about a number of things, associated with restlessness, fatigue, muscle tension, sleep problems

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12
Q

anxiety disorders-commoness

A

-Collectively, the anxiety disorders are common.
>Total prevalence ~18%
-Also, most are more common among women than men
>Ratio varies, but about 2:1

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13
Q

anxiety disorders, causes

A

-Behavioral principles help explain the onset
>conditioning, modeling
>but also help to explain the maintenance (neg. reinforcement is critical, every “escape” reinforces the fear)
-biologically, the anxiety disorders are slightly to moderately heritable
-cognitive factors are also very important in maintaining the disorder (e.g. catastrophic misinterpretation of normal bodily sensations plays a role in panic disorder)

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14
Q

obsessive-compulsive disorder

A
  • obsessions= intrusive, distressing, and recurrent thoughts
  • compulsions= repetitive, ritualistic behaviors associated with anxiety or obsessions (washing, counting, tapping, checking, etc.)
  • obsessions and or compulsions need to be chronic and impairing in order to make the diagnosis
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15
Q

OCD- commoness

A 
Low prevalence (~1% .. 2-3% lifetime)
Equally impacts men and women
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16
Q

other disorders associated with OCD

A
  • Hoarding disorder: compulsive hoarding
  • Excoriation: skin picking
  • Trichotillomania: hair pulling
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17
Q

OCD: biological factors

A
  • moderately to strong heritable
  • activity in many brain areas are correlated with OCD, but we don’t know if this is cause or consequence of the disorder
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18
Q

OCD: behavioral factors

A
  • many times the compulsions and obsessions are logically tied. (fear of contamination hand washing)
  • both can reinforce the other. The key to the most effective OCD treatment available is to break this cycle
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19
Q

post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

A

disorder caused by the experience of trauma, which leads to hypervigilance, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, intrusive thoughts about the trauma, nightmares, etc
>Not exclusive to combat – accidents, sexual assault, terrorism, etc

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20
Q

PTSD commonality

A
  • Prevalence: 3-4% of adults each year

- Men and women appear to be equally at risk, but the type of trauma is often different

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21
Q

PTSD factors

A
  • cognitive factors
  • biological factors
  • behavioral factors
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22
Q

PTSD: cognitive factors

A

attempts to avoid recollection of the trauma is the most powerful predictor of who develops PTSD
>But yet forced recollection (“debriefing”) is harmful

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23
Q

PTSD: biological factors

A

hippocampal differences appear to be the result of the disorder (not cause) but might contribute to the disorder continuing.

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24
Q

PTSD: behavioral factors

A

number of prior traumas experienced raises the chance of developing PTSD

25
Q

mood disorders: unipolar (depression)

A 
-two different diagnoses 
>major depressive disorder 
_severe depression, at least two weeks 
_w/ a lack of interest/pleasure, sleep problems, appetite problems, fatigue, suicidal thoughts 
>persistent depressive disorder 
_same general symptoms, but less severe 
_but at least 2 years
26
Q

mood disorders: prevalence

A
  • ~7% of adults
    >low in children, high in adolescence
  • 2:1 Female:male gender ratio
    -2.6% more common among women
27
Q

mood disorders: possible causes

A
  • highly genetic
  • generally poorly understood, with no major theory currently accepted
  • biological
  • cognitive
  • stress
28
Q

mood disorders: biological causes

A
  • depression is mildly/moderately heritable, but environmental factors are more important
  • We currently have no validated biological theory of depression (the old “lack of serotonin” theory has been disproven)
29
Q

mood disorders: cognitive causes

A
  • depression is the result of maladaptive ways of thinking.
  • Do you ruminate after something bad happens, or let it go?
  • Do you tend to live mindfully, in the moment, or are you someone whose mind is always on something else?
30
Q

mood disorders: stress

A
  • All contemporary theories of depression involve stress. Major life events are a common precipitant of depression.
  • However, individuals react differently to life stress
  • diathesis-stress models
31
Q

diathesis-stress models

A
  • Diathesis: a predisposition of some sort (cognitive, behavioral, biological, etc)
  • These models suggest that a person needs to have the predisposition to a disorder, as well as high stress to result in disorder
32
Q

mood disorders: bipolar disorder

A

-Bipolar Disorders involve combination of periods of depression and periods of mania.
>They do not have to “alternate”
>Mania: a period of unrealistically elevated mood
Often associated with risky behavior, increased levels of behavior, decreased need for sleep
Also known as “manic depression” in the past.

33
Q

anorexia nervosa

A
  • Eating disorder that involves the relentless pursuit of thinness through starvation. (from the book)
  • not entirely accurate, other methods used rather than starvation ex. exercise and laxatives
34
Q

Individuals with Anorexia often perceive themselves to be overweight even when they are dangerously thin

A

true

35
Q

People with anorexia often do engage in binging and purging (forced vomiting).

A

true

36
Q

bulimia nervosa

A

-recurrent episodes of binge eating. Characterized by:
>Eating, in a discrete period of time, an amount of food that is definitely larger than what most individuals would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances
>A sense of lack of control over eating during that episode
-recurrent inappropriate compensatory behaviors in order to prevent weight gain
-is someone meets criteria for anorexia and Bulimia, only anorexia is diagnosed (it takes precedence)

37
Q

binging and purging does NOT distinguish anorexia from bulimia

A

true, distinguished by whether the person is significantly underweight (if yes: anorexia)

38
Q

dissociative identity disorder

A
  • this is the disorder that involves having multiple “alters”
  • alters= different personality states, where the personal often identifies as having a different name, different interests and skills ect.
  • very rare «<1%
39
Q

dissociative identity disorder causes

A

causes:
- Emerging evidence suggests that this is not a naturally-occurring disorder
- Rather, it seems to be caused by therapists who convince their clients that they have this.
- Prevalence is closely tied to popular media reports of DID
- Also the symptoms are closely tied to what’s been described in the media
- On average, it takes 7 years of therapy before this is “identified”
- And the VAST majority of cases are identified by very few therapists, who typically use highly questionable therapy practices

40
Q

Dissociative identity disorder oversimplify

A
  • oversimplifying…
  • the disorder is not naturally occurring
  • incompetent therapists talk highly vulnerable clients into it
41
Q

schizophrenia

A

is not having more than one personality
-A disorder characterized by hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thought and speech, abnormal movement, restricted affect, avolition (lack of doing much) and asociality (lack of social interest).

42
Q

schizophrenia: positive symptoms

A

“positive” meaning pathological excesses

43
Q

hallucinations

A

false perceptual experience

-the majority are auditory; visual is second most common

44
Q

delusions: a false belief

A
  • held in the absence of evidence or in the face of contradictory evidence
  • but must be inconsistent with cultural norms
45
Q

schizophrenia: disordered thoughts/ speech

A
  • loose associations, derailment, word salads

- neologisms (making up new words), clang associations (pointless rhyming)

46
Q

schizophrenia: negative symptoms

A

“negative” meaning pathological deficits

-negative symptoms are more highly associated with functional impairment than the positive symptoms

47
Q

avolition

A

a lack of voluntary activity

48
Q

asociality

A

lack of social involvement and interest

49
Q

flat affect

A

a lack of emotional highs or low

50
Q

schizophrenia causes

A
  • 50% of the variability in schizophrenia can be attributed to genetic differences
  • 50% of the variability can be attributed to the environment.
  • essentially, need both high levels of *stress and a genetic predisposition in order to develop
  • stress can be psych. or phys. such as drug use or sleep problems
51
Q

schizophrenia prevalence

A

-prevalence: about 1 %
>equal number of men and women (but later onset and better prognosis for women)
-generally, a lifetime disorder
>though symptoms can come and go
-positive symptoms are more responsive to medication; neg. symptoms don’t respond
-the disorder tends to first emerge in late teens to the 30s

52
Q

personality disorders

A

-enduring patterns of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture.
-must be enduring, an cross-situationally stable.
-must also cause the person some distress or impairment
>note: distress is often not experienced; the individual often feels that the disorder is “normal”
-cant be diagnosed until adulthood

53
Q

personality disorders- how many

A

-10 currently recognized personality disorders in the DSM
-well just talk about the two most famous ones:
>borderline personality disorder
>antisocial personality disorder

-note: the personality disorders are very difficult to diagnose, and even then, diagnosis is unreliable

54
Q

antisocial personality disorder

A

-aka “psychopathy”
-pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others
-associated systems:
>behaviors that are grounds for arrest
>impulsivity/failure to plan ahead
>irritability and aggressiveness
>last of remorse
>irresponsibility

55
Q

antisocial personality disorder- prevalence

A
  • rare with prevalence estimates at about 1%
  • most are not violent
  • moderately heritable
  • more common among men
56
Q

borderline personality disorder

A

-pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects; and marked impulsively. associated with
>fears of abandonment
>alternating extremes of mood and of views of other people
>suicidal thoughts and behavior (but not necessary for the diagnosis)
>feelings of emptiness

57
Q

borderline personality disorder: prevalence

A

about 2% of adults

-more common among women

58
Q

narcissistic personality disorder

A

-pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy
>Grandiose sense of self-importance
>Preoccupied with fantasies of success, power, etc
>Believes that they are “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, those who are special
>Requires excessive admiration
>Has sense of entitlement
>Interpersonally exploitative
>Lacks empathy
>Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
-prevalence: about 1 %
men have slightly higher rates

psych final exam (4 decks)

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