Ch 16+17 Flashcards
A behavior is considered to be normal
when it helps a person to assimilate approximately into their society and to function independently as expected for their age.
Medical approach to normality
Diagnosing someone with a mental illness or physical illness, is referred to as the medical approach to normality. In this case, a persons state of mental health is determined by a set of symptoms. If a mental illness is diagnosed, treatment is required.
Functional Approach to Normality
It is not normal when these thoughts, feelings and behaviors become intense and interfere with normal activities.
Functional Approach to Normality (Psychological Dysfunction definition)
Occurs when there is a breakdown in the way a person thinks, feels and behaves.
Mental health is a
state of emotional and social wellbeing in which individuals realize their own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and can contribute to their community.
Mental Health Problem
refers to a problem that causes emotional, cognitive and behavioral difficulties that effect relationships and functioning in every day life. (Depression)
A mental illness is a
mental disorder that affects one or most functions of the mind, and can interfere with a person’s thoughts, emotions, perceptions and behaviors.
A mental disorder implies
the existence of a clinically recognizable set of symptoms and behaviors that usually need treatment to be deviated.
What is the difference between a mental illness and a mental health problem?
A mental illness is more severe and ongoing than a mental health problem.
What is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)?
It is the most widely used classification system in Australia. It is a handbook that is used by clinicians and researchers to identify and classify symptoms of mental disorders. It is descriptive.
What does the DSM not do?
It does not specify the causes of the mental disorder, nor does it direct the treatment.
What is the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)?
The ICD is produced by the World Health Organization. It is descriptive and largely based on the symptoms reported by the patient and criteria ranked as importantly by professionals. It covers a wider range of illness than the DSM.
Stress is a
psychological and physiological response to internal or external sources of tension (stressors) that challenge a persons ability to cope. Stressors can be positive or negative, environmental, physiological or social/culture in nature.
Eustress
refers to a positive psychological response to a perceived stressor.
Distress
refers to a negative psychological response to a perceived stressor.
According to Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional model of stress and coping,
stress is regarded as a ‘transaction or cognitive appraisal determines how to deal with the situation. This appraisal is influenced by a person’s beliefs, goals and personality.
Lazarus focused on
working with people. It became apparent that it was not just the response to the stressor or the stressor itself that was important but, rather, the individuals perception and assessment of that stressor.
Lazarus and Folkman’s model outlines two main stages during the cognitive assessment of a situation:
primary and secondary appraisal.
Primary appraisal is the
initial evaluation process where the person determines whether the event is a threat or a challenge.
During Primary appraisal, the significance of a situation can be classified as:
1 Harm/Loss - assessment of that some type of damage has been done such as poor test result.
- Threat - assessment that there may be a future harm/loss
- Challenge - assessment that there is an opportunity for personal growth
- Neutral - assessment that this event is of little or no personal importance/relevance.
Secondary appraisal is the
stage where the person considers what options are available to them and how they will respond.
Both stages involve emotional forecasting, which is where
the person predicts the possible emotional impact of each potential response.
Problem-focused coping looks
at the causes of the stress from a practical perspective and works out ways to deal with the problem. (Pros/cons list, information seeking, taking control)
Emotion-focused coping involves
trying to reduce the negative emotional feelings associated with the stressor. (meditation, denial, talking to friends)
Strengths of the Lazarus and Folkman’s model,
- Used human subjects in developing the model
2. Used a cognitive approach to stress wiht a focus on how people cope with psychological stressors
Weaknesses of the Lazarus and Folkman’s model,
- Greater focus on psychological factors meant that less emphasis was placed on the physiological elements of the stress response
- Did not include cultural, social or environmental factors in looking at how individuals perceive a stressful event
Homeostasis is
where our automatic bodily functions such as heart rate, digestion and respiration are maintained at a state of equilibrium by the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system.
Allostasis is
‘where the body maintains stability or homeostasis through change’. The model accept that each person will perceive and respond to a stressor in their own way.
Allostatic load is
where the body is repeatedly forced to adapt to the situation. This leads to cumulative negative effects as the body tries to re-establish allostasis.
Allostatic overload is
when the demands of the stressor exceed the body’s ability to repeatedly adapt.
4 situation when allostatic overload can occur:
- Repeated exposure to new stressors in the persons environment
- Inability to adapt to the stressor
- Once activated, the stress response takes a long time to shut down so that stress hormones remain in circulation for longer.
- Inadequate activation of the fight-or-flight response leading to other bodily systems trying to compensate.
Who developed the BioPsychosocial model?
George L.Engel in 1977.
Engel believed
that the clinician had an important role in influencing the person’s recovery. His aim was to bring greater ‘empathy’ and ‘compassion’ into the patient-practioner relationship.
The BioPsychosocial model was a ___ approach, that was a
holistic approach, that was a collaborative pathway to mental and physical health.
Biological factors -
Considers a person’s functioning in terms of bodily structures such as the brain and nervous system. Explains behaviour in terms of physiology.
Types of treatment/assessment include medication, medical procedures or neuroimaging.
Psychological Factors -
- Personality
- Behaviour
- Perception
Social Factors -
- school environment or pressures
- work environment or pressures
- level of education
The 4 strategies used for coping with stress are:
- Biofeedback
- Meditation and Relaxation
- Physical Exercise
- Social Support
Biofeedback -
is a scientifically based treatment that uses sensitive instruments to monitor and provide feedback/information about a person’s heart rate, respiration rate, brainwaves, skin temperature etc. A person may use this information to consciously alter their readings whilst using relaxation techniques.
Meditation and Relaxation -
Meditation redirects a person’s usual flow of conscious thought to a more focused pathway that leads to a deep state of calmness and relaxation. Mediation techniques are able to reduce baseline levels of physiological and psychological arousal and assist people to better deal with the stressors of day-to-day life.
Relaxation can be described as a process of releasing one’s muscles and thoughts (breaking techniques, visualisation), where each part of the body is systematically tensed and relaxed until the person experiences a realise of physical and psychological tension.
Physical exercise -
refers to an activity that requires exertion, with the purpose of improving fitness or health. Studies have shown that regular physical exercise is effective in returning the body to homeostasis more quickly and in reducing the impact of stress.
Social Support -
refers to the network of family, friends, neighbours and community members that are available during difficult time to provide emotional, physical and financial assistance. High levels of social support showed greater immune response.
Abnormal is used to describer
data that lie outside the normal range for the population; statistically the 2% at the extreme top and extreme bottom of the distribution.
Criticisms of the DSM:
- Symptoms of mental illnesses can vary between cultures/people.
- Relies on person reporting on their own symptom (self-reports)
- People can be unaware of their own condition - diagnosis difficult.
Who is described as the ‘father of stress research’?
Hans Selye
Which is an example of psychological stress?
Break up
Which is an example of physical stress?
Illness, extreme weather
What argument did Lazarus and Folkman make about what is the most important factor in stress?
How a person perceives a stress is more important then how they perceive the event.
What are protective factors in relation to stress?
Factors in a persons life that help build their resilience to stress (steady job,supportive family).
What is meant by the categorical approach to the classification of mental illness?
The clinician determines whether a necessary symptom or sign is present or absent (fits into one category or not)
List one advantage of this approach of classification.
The approach allows for clarity and less ambiguity in classification.
Describe one advantage of using a dimensional approach to classify mental disorders compared with using a categorical approach.
Dimensional approach allows for differing severity of illness and is not as simple as just having the illness or not, as with the categorical approach.
In addition to the main mental illness diagnosis, describe two other types of information that the DSM system assesses.
Intellectual disability can be assessed by the DSM as well as it can be used to assess general illnesses such as diabetes.
Provide two reasons why psychologists and psychiatrists use a classification system of mental conditions and disorders.
They are useful in the diagnosis of mental conditions to ensure the appropriate treatment and management can be administered to patients. Also it allows mental health professionals to assess the prevalence of certain mental conditions and disorders and assess their impacts on society.
Describe two strengths of dimensional approaches to the classification of mental disorders.
They take into account a wider range of a person’s symptoms and characteristics by measuring them on many scales. They also reduce the stigma of mental conditions by not labelling a person as having a particular medical condition.
Describe the two types of allostatic overload.
Type 1 - an attempt by the body to adapt to a stressor where energy expenditure exceeds energy intake and a response is initiated to reduce the overload to redress the balance.
Type 2 - energy intake remains in surplus to demand but social and environmental demands are such that the stress response is maintained.
List three situations where allostatic overload may occur.
- Frequent and recurrent stressors
- Failure of the person or organism to adapt or change in the face of the stressor.
- Failure of the body to switch off an allostatic response despite the stressor being removed or reduced.
Meditation is
Relaxation by either a concentrative method of focusing on a single thought or function to the exclusion of all other distractions.
