Casual Factors and Models of Psychopathology Flashcards
What is a Model?
- A set of shared assumptions and concepts.
- An agreement about the main causes of abnormal behavior and how to study it.
- Helps scientists to explain and interpret data.
Risk Factor Chart (on computer)
Look at chart
Why are casual risk factors so hard to find and isolate?
Bidirectional Relationships (hard to tell what comes first and what comes second; depression and social withdrawal example)
What is the Diathesis-Stress Model?
When a vulnerability is combined with a stressor within an environment, which increases the risk of developing a disorder.
What is Diathesis?
Vulnerability toward a disorder. (can be biological-genes, psychological, or sociocultural-ethnic groups)
Diathesis-Stress Model Graphs (on computer)
Look at the 2 graphs (general and ideal)
Neuron and Neurotransmitter illustration (on computer)
Look at the illustration
Action Potential illustration (on computer)
Look at illustration
What are excitable neurotransmitters?
Neurotransmitters that will create a chain reaction of more neurons firing.
What are inhibitory neurotransmitters?
Neurotransmitters that will inhibit the firing of more neurons.
Explain Synaptic Transmission:
- An electrical impulse reaches the ending of a neuron.
- This stimulates the release of a neurotransmitter.
- The neurotransmitter travels across the synapse (space between neurons) and comes in contact with the receptors of another neuron.
- This stimulates electrical impulses in this new neuron.
What is the Synaptic Gap?
The space between the terminal button on the axon of a sending neuron (sending neurotransmitter), and the dendrite of a receiving neuron. (receiving the sent neurotransmitter)
What is the overall point of an Action Potential?
- To trigger the release of neurotransmitters into the synaptic gap.
- To prepare the neuron to transmit information between neurons and across the brain.
Serotonin:
responsible for information processing and learning. Also implicated in mood/anxiety disorders. (depression)
Norepinephrine:
responsible for emergency reactions under stress. (fight or flight)
Dopamine:
responsible for pleasure or pain. Also implicated in schizophrenia.
GABA:
reduces anxiety. (inhibitory neurotransmitter)
Glutamate:
excitatory neurotransmitter that can be involved in information processing.
Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis:
This is important whenever there is stress. This creates a negative feedback loop. (look at the illustration on the computer)
Genotype:
What the gene is specifically.
Phenotype:
What the gene does/how it manifests.
What studies show us that a disorder is heritable, but that does not tell us the specific gene involved?
Family Studies.
Passive Effect: (in rGE)
genes can passively be related to our environment. (I.E. environment is also a result of our genes)
Evocative Effect: (in rGE)
a child’s genes evoke particular reactions from their social and physical environment.
Active Effect: (in rGE)
our genes actively shape our environment.
What does rGE stand for?
correlation between Genes and Environment.
How can we study Behavioral Genetics?
Through family histories, twin studies, or adoption studies. (this does not tell us about what genes are involved in a particular disorder)
What 2 studies can tell us about what genes are involved in a particular disorder?
Linkage studies and Association Studies. (these studies require a large sample size)
