Behavioural science and socio-cultural psychiatry Flashcards
Anterograde amnesia
Inability to create new memories (to transfer new information from the short-term to the long-term store).
(Likely) mechanism of anterograde amnesia
Damage to hippocampus
Retrograde amnesia
loss of memory for information that was acquired before the onset of the amnesia
Type of memory most affected in retrograde amnesia
Episodic
Areas that when damaged, can cause amnesia
Medial temporal lobe
Hippocampus
Midline diencephalon
Source amnesia
Inability to remember where, when or how previously learned information has been acquired, while retaining the factual knowledge.
Psychogenic amnesia
Memory disorder characterized by sudden retrograde episodic memory loss, said to occur for a period of time ranging from hours to years
aka dissociative amnesia
Global psychogenic amnesia
Fugue states are common. Characterized by a sudden loss of autobiographical memories for the whole of a person’s past.
Situation-specific amnesia
refers to a gap in memory for a traumatic incident
aka lacunar amnesia
Transient global amnesia
a condition characterised by transient loss of memory. It typically affects those over 50 and spontaneously resolves within 24 hours.
Proposed mechanism of transient global amnesia
a variant of migraine, a form of epilepsy, or a presentation of a TIA (transient ischemic attack).
Anti-psychiatry movement beliefs
Supports the notion that mental illnesses are social constructs which reflect deviation from social norms.
Thomas Szasz dates
1920-2012
Thomas Szasz is known for
Hungarian-American psychiatrist and scholar known for his criticism of the mental health system and his role in the antipsychiatry movement.
Thomas Szasz beliefs
Mental illness was a social construct rather than a biological disease. Szasz argued that labelling certain behaviours as mental disorders was a way for society to exert control over individuals and suppress unconventional thinking.
Thomas Szasz advocated for
Personal autonomy and argued against involuntary psychiatric treatment, emphasizing the importance of individual rights and the need for voluntary and consensual approaches to mental health care.
R.D. Laing dates
1927-1989
R.D. Laing is known for
Scottish psychiatrist who challenged traditional psychiatric practices and played a significant role in the antipsychiatry movement
R.D. Laing beliefs
Emphasized the importance of understanding the subjective experiences and social contexts of individuals experiencing mental distress. Laing believed that mental illness could arise as a response to dysfunctional family or societal dynamics
R.D. Laing advocated for
A more humane and compassionate approach to psychiatric treatment, stressing the need for therapeutic relationships, empathy, and the creation of supportive environments to aid individuals in their recovery.
Michel Foucault dates
1926-1984
Michel Foucault known for
French philosopher, social theorist, and historian of ideas who contributed to critiquing psychiatric practices. Although his work was not directly associated with the antipsychiatry movement, it had a significant influence on its development.
Michel Foucault’s work
Foucault examined how psychiatric institutions exerted control and discipline over individuals—explored the relationship between psychiatry, society, and the normalization of behaviour, questioning the validity of psychiatric diagnoses and challenging the authority and oppressive aspects of institutional psychiatry.
Franco Basaglia dates
1924-1980
Franco Basaglia known for
Italian psychiatrist who played a crucial role in the movement for the reform of mental health care in Italy
Franco Basaglia impact
He advocated for the closure of psychiatric hospitals. Basaglia believed that mental health care should prioritize social integration, human rights, and autonomy. He implemented ‘democratic psychiatry,’ which involved treating mental health issues within the community, destigmatizing mental illness, and promoting social inclusion for those with psychiatric disorders. Basaglia’s efforts significantly impacted mental health policies and practices globally.
Attribution theory (who + when)
Fritz Heider (1958)
Attribution theory is…?
It provides the framework necessary to understand how individuals explain why events in their environment happened. Attribution theory deals with how the social perceiver uses information to arrive at causal explanations for events. It examines what information is gathered and how it is combined to form a causal judgment.
When we hear that a co-worker had an accident on his way to a meeting, we are more likely to explain this behaviour in terms of our co-worker’s carelessness rather than considering that he was running late.
Example of Fundamental Attribution Error
Fundamental Attribution Error
When we make attributions about another person’s actions, we are likely to overemphasize the role of dispositional factors rather than situational causes.
A student who studied may explain her behaviour by referencing situational factors such as ‘I have an exam next week’, whereas others will explain her studying by referencing dispositional factors such as ‘She’s ambitious and hard-working’.
Example of Actor-observer Bias
Actor-observer bias
We tend to overvalue dispositional explanations of others’ behaviours and undervalue situational explanations of our own behaviour.
Difference between correspondence bias & Fundamental Attribution Error
In correspondence bias we believe this is always how the other person is, an enduring characteristic rather than something transient (but still personal)
Correspondence bias
The tendency to draw inferences about a person’s unique and enduring dispositions from behaviours that can be entirely explained by the situations in which they occur (that the person’s behaviour corresponds to the person’s unique dispositions).
A tennis player who wins his match might say, ‘I won because I am a good athlete,’ whereas the loser might say, ‘I lost because the referee was unfair.’
Example of self-serving bias
Self-serving bias
Refers to people’s tendency to attribute their successes to internal factors but attribute their failures to external
If a child witnesses two other children whispering and assumes they are talking about him, that child makes an attribution of negative intent, even though the other children’s behaviour was potentially benign.
Example of hostile attribution bias
Hostile attribution bias
An interpretive bias in which individuals exhibit a tendency to interpret other people’s ambiguous behaviour as hostile rather than benign.
False consensus effect
Refers to the tendency for people to project their way of thinking onto other people. In other words, they assume that everyone else thinks the same way they do.
The traditional echo chamber view of social media — that people surround themselves with people who share their opinions, intensifying that group’s norms and beliefs
Example of false consensus effect
What was the Beecher Paper?
Listed 22 cases of medical research where subjects were subject to experimentation without being fully informed of their status as research subjects, and without knowledge of the risks of such participation in the research. 1966.
Suppose a patient ruminates about a past mistake at work, instead of delving into why they feel so bad about it. In that case, the therapist might guide them to recognise their pattern of rumination and then encourage them to engage in an activity they’ve been avoiding, breaking the rumination cycle.
Example of behavioural activation
Behavioural activation
Therapeutic approach for depression that primarily emphasises activity scheduling
History of behavioural activation
Introduced by Martell in 2001
Bion’s Group Dynamics
He believed that groups had a collective unconscious that operated similarly to that of an individual. Therefore, he claimed that the function of this unconsciousness was to protect the group from the pain of reality.
Working Group
In Bion’s group dynamics is a group that is working well and getting the job done
Dependency basic assumption group
The group turns towards a leader to protect them from anxiety.
Fight-flight basic assumption group
The group acts as if there is an enemy who must be attacked or avoided. The enemy can be within the group or external. The group may pursue and defeat the perceived enemy but will soon create another one.
Pairing basic assumption group
The group acts as if the answer lies in the pairing of two of the members. This pairing may be friendly or extremely hostile.
The way doctors in different specialities become so damning of one another.
Example of fight-flight basic assumption group
When a group of strangers gets together for the first time, there can be an awkward silence before someone finally takes the initiative and becomes the leader.
Example of dependency basic assumption group
Bystanders more likely to help
Male, not strangers
Bystanders less likely to help
Dangerous, many other people, physical cost of intervention, perpetrator present
Ivan Pavlov created
Classical Conditioning
Incubation
This occurs in fear responses. When a person is exposed to a stimulus which causes fear (for example being bitten by a dog), the fear response can increase over time due to brief exposures to the conditioned stimulus (for example to sight of dogs).
Counter conditioning
Involves pairing a feared conditioned stimulus with a positive outcome (e.g., food). Over repeated CS-positive US pairings, the fear response declines, and is often replaced by an appetitive response
Extinction
If a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus then the conditioned response will disappear
Exposure therapy for anxiety disorders is an example of what
Extinction classical conditioning
Aversive conditioning
A technique where an unpleasant stimulus is paired with an unwanted behaviour (such as nail-biting, smoking) in order to create an aversion to it
Temporal conditioning
the unconditioned stimulus is paired to time (there is no conditioned stimulus). The unconditioned stimulus is presented at regular intervals (for example, every 20 minutes). Eventually the unconditioned response will occur shortly prior to the unconditioned stimulus.
Delay conditioning
The conditioned stimulus precedes the unconditioned stimulus by a delay. The conditioned stimulus is still active when the unconditioned stimulus begins.
Trace conditioning
Involves the presentation of the unconditioned stimulus once the conditioned stimulus has finished.
Backward conditioning
the conditioned stimulus follows the unconditioned stimulus.
Law of contiguity
stimuli need to occur close together in time in order to be associated.
Spontaneous recovery
If the conditioned stimulus is not presented at all for sometime after extinction and is then presented again the conditioned response will return to some degree
Higher Order Conditioning
This occurs when a new stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus when it is paired with an established conditioned stimulus
Stimulus generalisation
The extension of the conditioned response from the original conditioned stimulus to other similar stimuli.
Stimulus discrimination
A stimulus significantly dissimilar to the CS (for example, a bell of a much higher pitch) does not produce a CR.
What was the Willowbrook State School study?
The Willowbrook School was a state-supported institution for children with learning difficulties in New York. During the 1960s, a study was carried out there which involved the inoculation of healthy children with hepatitis and the subsequent administration of gamma globulin for its potential to treat the disorder
What was the Tuskegee syphilis experiment?
A follow-up study of impoverished black farmers with syphilis. A significant proportion of those in the study did not receive available treatment even though it became available halfway through the study. Victims included a number of men who died of syphilis, their wives who contracted the disease, and some children who were born with syphilis
What’s the Belmont report?
Report on the Tuskegee syphilis experiment which introduced many changes into US law on research ethics
Stanford’s Prison Experiment
24 students were recruited who scored highly on measures of maturity and stability. Each participant was then assigned as either a prison or a guard.
Participants were given no guidelines for how to behave, except the guards who were told not to use physical abuse under any circumstances. Within only two days, the participants literally became the roles they were assigned. The guards began to act very harshly and sometimes even cruel to the prisoners.
While no one was physically hurt during the study, a few of the prisoners displayed extreme emotional reactions that warranted termination of the study after only six days.
The Tearooms Study
This study (conducted by Humphreys) involved him hanging around ‘tearooms’ (public toilets where men meet to have sex) to study the population and learn more about the types of men who did it.
However, the method was more controversial than the topic. He never disclosed his motives when he interviewed the men and instead pretended to be a ‘watchqueen’, which raised the issue of informed consent in research.
Milgrams’ Study
Milgram was interested in authority and obedience and devised a study to investigate this.
The participants were told that they were participating in research on the effects of punishment on memory. In each session, the participant was assigned the role of the teacher while a confederate played the learner and was ultimately strapped to an electric chair that could be controlled by the teacher in another room.
The two communicated via an intercom system. Although all participants believed the setup to be genuine, the learner would never receive any actual shocks. The participant’s job was to read the learner a list of words and wait for him to repeat them. If he was incorrect or did not respond, he was shocked. Each time this occurred, the participant had to administer a fake shock that was 15 volts more intense than the last (the maximum was 450 volts). The shock machine was labelled with phrases such as Danger: Severe Shock. If a participant expressed any concern during the session, the experimenter urged him to continue by saying, for example, It is absolutely essential that you continue. But, participants were told at the beginning of the experiment that they were free to leave whenever they wished to do so. Much to the experimenters, and later, the public’s surprise, 30 of the participants continued to follow the procedure and administer shocks until 450 volts was reached. Although Milgram expressed concern for the well-being of his participants, he decided not to terminate the study because each prior participant seemed to have recovered relatively well.
Rosenhan experiment
For this study, eight ‘pseudopatients’ (including Professor Rosenhan) presented themselves with the same symptoms: they reported hearing voices that said, ‘thud, empty, hollow.’ All eight were admitted and diagnosed with severe mental disorders.
The pseudopatients spent between seven and 52 days in psychiatric institutions; not one hospital staff member identified the participants as fake patients, though many other patients did express the belief that they were undercover agents. The pseudopatients eventually left all hospitals against medical advice with their diagnoses ‘in remission.’
The paper, ‘Being Sane in insane places’, was published at a time of extreme scepticism aimed at psychiatry and its institutions and was used to justify a trend toward deinstitutionalisation, in which large psychiatric hospitals were shuttered in favour of community-based care centres.
Social class I
Professional
Social class II
Intermediate
Social class III
Skilled, manual, or clerical
Social class IV
Semi-skilled
Social class V
Unskilled
What is sensory memory?
The capacity for briefly retaining large amounts of information encountered daily.
What type of memory is gathered through auditory stimuli?
Echoic memory
What type of memory is gathered through sight?
Iconic memory
