AI Flashcards 1 Summary
What two factors contribute to abnormal behaviour?
Innate susceptibility for abnormal behaviour, and negative contextual factors that trigger that behaviour.
What are the three models used to define abnormal behaviour?
Cultural/social/ethical, statistical model, and medical model.
What is comorbidity?
Having multiple psychological/psychiatric disorders at the same time.
What is conduct disorder?
A psychiatric disorder characterized by severe antisocial and aggressive behavior, often emerging in childhood or adolescence.
What are some key symptoms of conduct disorder?
Aggression to people and animals, destruction of property, deceitfulness or theft, serious violation of rules, limited prosocial emotions.
What are some characteristics of ‘limited prosocial emotions’ in conduct disorder?
Lack of remorse or guilt, callous lack of empathy, unconcerned about performance, and shallow or deficient affect.
What is the relationship between conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder?
Antisocial personality disorder is considered the adult form of conduct disorder.
What is the prevalence of conduct disorder in the population?
Approximately 7%.
What is the prevalence of psychopathy in the general population and incarcerated population?
1% of the general population and 30% of the incarcerated population.
Is psychopathy synonymous with extreme violence?
No, not all psychopaths commit violent acts, there are also ‘successful psychopaths’.
What is meant by the term ‘antisocial brain’?
It refers to the idea that some individuals may have differences in brain structure or function that predispose them to antisocial behaviour.
What is the connection between neurodevelopmental disorders and antisocial behaviour?
Antisocial behaviour can be linked to abnormal neurodevelopment that can affect brain structure, function, and connectivity, leading to deficits in behavior, cognition and emotion.
How do genetic and environmental factors interact in neurodevelopmental disorders?
Environmental factors often trigger underlying genetic predispositions. The interactions are specific to each developmental stage.
At what age is conduct disorder primarily diagnosed and what is the prognosis for individuals without psychopathic tendencies?
Primarily diagnosed between ages 5 and 20. Many individuals with CD symptoms outgrow these behaviors.
Is psychopathy treatable?
Psychopathy is notoriously challenging to treat effectively.
What are some prenatal and early life environmental factors that can impact brain development?
Maternal smoking, stress, substance abuse during pregnancy, and birth complications.
What are three types of gene-environment correlations?
Passive, active, and evocative.
Explain Passive gene-environment correlation.
Children inherit genetic predispositions from parents that also contribute to the environment that the parents create.
Explain Active gene-environment correlation.
Children actively seek out environments that match their genetic predispositions.
Explain Evocative gene-environment correlation.
A child’s genetic traits elicit negative responses from the environment.
How do genes relate to brain function and behaviour?
Genes code for proteins, which form neurons. Neurons form neuronal populations, which form neural systems, which drive behavior.
What is the role of the amygdala in the neurocognitive model of antisociality?
The amygdala acts as a salience detector, but it is often hyporesponsive to negative stimuli in antisocial individuals.
What are some characteristics of the amygdala in antisocial individuals?
It is often smaller, hyporesponsive to negative stimuli, and deprived of regulatory corticolimbic interactions.
What is the Paralimbic System Dysfunction Model of antisociality?
A model that suggests that antisocial behavior involves more than just the amygdala, and that there are a few areas in the brain that work differently. It also highlights how the brains of antisocial people compensate for certain deficits.
What is the significance of the basal lateral amygdala (BLA) and the centromedial amygdala (CMA) in humans and primates?
The larger BLA in humans and primates allows for complex socioemotional functions.
What are some of the problems with comparing large groups in studies of antisocial behaviour?
Classic approaches oversimplify, overlook variations, and do not account for the fact that conditions exist on a spectrum rather than as a clear distinction.
What are some of the difficulties in treating antisocial behavior?
The approach may have small effect size, and may have predictive limitations.
What is a strong predictor for committing crimes?
Having parents or close relatives who have committed crimes.
What are some protective factors against committing crimes?
Caring parents, education, intelligence, support systems, and falling in love.
What is a working factor in therapeutic outcomes?
40% is determined by factors outside of therapy, 30% is determined by common elements, 15% is determined by placebo effects, and 15% is determined by specific methodology.
What are some examples of individual treatment approaches for antisocial behavior?
Aggression regulation, CBT addiction, Brain4Use, Leer van je Delict (DA), So Cool, EMDR, schema therapy, and neurofeedback.
What are some systemic approaches to treating antisocial behavior?
Functional Family Therapy (FFT), Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT), Multisystemic Therapy (MST), and Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC).
What is the relationship between ODD, CD, ASPD and psychopathy?
ODD can lead to CD, which can lead to ASPD. Psychopathy is associated with ASPD and is an antisocial behaviour with callous unemotional traits.
What are some characteristics of psychopathy?
Superficial charm, egocentricity, lack of empathy and remorse, no fear, stress resistant, and punishment doesn’t hurt.
What are the three clusters of personality disorders?
“Odd or Eccentric” (Cluster A), “Dramatic, Emotional, or Erratic” (Cluster B), and “Anxious or Fearful” (Cluster C).
What are some characteristics of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)?
Disregard for the rights of others, impulsivity, deceitfulness, and lack of remorse.
What is the key age requirement for diagnosis of ASPD?
The diagnosis is typically made at age 18 or older.
What is the emphasis of the Dutch Juvenile Law?
Development over punishment, prioritising therapy and skill development.
What is the role of forensic assessment in the legal system?
To assess mental health, determine criminal responsibility, assess risk for recidivism, and determine if treatment is needed.
What are the three components of the biopsychosocial model?
Biology, psychology, and social.
What is the development timeline for the prefrontal cortex and what role does it play in behavior?
It continues to develop into the 20s and 25s, and is involved in controlling behaviour.
When does the social-emotional system (amygdala) fully develop?
Around ages 16-20.
What is the relationship between reward sensitivity and delinquent behavior in adolescents?
Adolescents are more sensitive to rewards and less sensitive to punishment, which may drive them toward delinquent behavior.
What role does executive functioning play in criminal behaviour?
Problems with executive functioning, such as controlling and shifting behaviours, can drive people towards criminal behaviour.
What is the significance of empathy and executive function in understanding delinquent behavior?
Violent crime can be rooted in problems with impulsivity or executive function, as well as lack of empathy, so it’s important to understand the mechanisms driving the behaviour.
What are the research goals regarding delayed development in relation to delinquent behavior?
To understand the relationship between biopsychosocial development and delinquent behavior, to determine if delinquent behavior ends at a certain point of time, and to create profiles about development in relation to desistance in delinquent behavior.
What are some positive and critical aspects of empathy?
Empathy plays a positive role in caring interactions, but it can also be myopic, selective, fleeting and destructive.
What are some components of empathy?
Emotional contagion, personal distress, concern, mentalizing.
How does testosterone relate to aggression?
It makes people more emotionally reactive, reduces fear and stress responses, reduces empathic responses, and downregulates mentalizing.
What is the connection between endocrinology and morality?
Hormones like testosterone and cortisol can affect moral behavior and lead to immoral actions.
What is the role of empathy in antisocial personality disorder?
People with ASPD often do not take the perspective of others into account, or do not act on it. They are self-oriented.
How is connectivity between the amygdala and other brain regions affected in psychopathy?
Reduced anatomical and functional coupling between the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is observed.
What is social cognition?
The human ability to understand each other as conscious beings with internal mental states.
Name some brain structures involved in social behaviour.
Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC), Pre-supplementary Motor Area (Pre-SMA), Medial Prefrontal Cortex (MPFC), Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC), Ventral Anterior Cingulate (vACC), Amygdala, Posterior Parietal Cortex (PPC), Temporoparietal Junction (TPJ), Anterior PFC, Anterior Temporal Cortex (ATC), Insula.
How is the prefrontal cortex related to social behavior in different psychiatric disorders?
Dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex is associated with psychiatric disorders that are also characterized by disturbances in social behaviour.
What is the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL)?
It is the golden standard for determining psychopathy, it is not an official diagnosis in the DSM.
What is the relationship between emotion recognition and behaviour?
It is important to not only recognise emotions, but to determine what actions will be taken in response.
How do people typically react to angry faces?
Healthy controls show avoidance tendencies.
How do individuals with psychopathy respond to angry faces?
They show a decreased avoidance to angry faces.
What is the approach-avoidance task (AAT)?
A task that measures automatic action tendencies (approach positive stimuli/avoid negative stimuli) using joystick movement and stimuli like happy and angry faces.
What is the role of oxytocin as a potential intervention?
Oxytocin is a hormone that facilitates prosocial behavior and may have therapeutic value for social deficits.
How does oxytocin effect approach-avoidance tendencies?
Oxytocin decreases avoidance of angry faces.
What is performance monitoring?
It’s the process of continuously monitoring our performance for possible deviations from the goal.
What brain areas are involved in detecting errors?
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the insula.
How does psychopathy affect performance monitoring?
People with psychopathy show decreased neural activity in monitoring other’s performance, which may be related to problems in social learning.
How many people die by suicide annually?
How many people die by suicide annually?
700,000 people globally.
What is a key risk factor for suicide?
Previous suicide attempt.
What is the most common type of mental disorder associated with suicidality?
Depression, anxiety disorders, trauma- and stressor-related disorders (PTSD), substance use, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and personality disorders.
What is the diathesis-stress model?
The model explains mental disorder development through the interaction of inherent vulnerabilities (diathesis) and external stressors.
What are some characteristics of the risk factors for suicide?
There is no prediction model that accurately pinpoints risk for suicide, it is a complex interaction with no one variable that can determine whether someone has suicidal thoughts or will develop them.
Does talking about suicide elicit suicidal thoughts?
No, it lowers stigma.
