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Psych 239 > CH 3/4 - Classification, Assessment, Research > Flashcards

CH 3/4 - Classification, Assessment, Research Flashcards

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1
Q

science

A

pursuits of systematized knowledge through observation

-derived from the latin scire, meaning to know

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2
Q

testability and replicability

A
  • a hypothesis must be amenable to systematic testing that could show it to be false
  • the results observed must be replicable (that is, they occur under prescribed circumstances not just one but repeatedly)
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3
Q

theory

A 
a set of propositions meant to explain a class of phenomena
-a way of making sense of data by trying to understand what's in front of us
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4
Q

the role of theory

A

the primary goal of science is to advance theories to account for data, often by proposing cause-effect relationships

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5
Q

hypothesis

A

expectations about what should occur if a theory is true

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6
Q

operationalism

A
  • one of the criteria applied in judging the legitimacy of a theoretical concept
  • the process of taking a concept and defining it in terms so that it is an observable and measurable operation
  • must be vary though of becoming too reductionistic and making sure we don’t lose the forest thr the trees
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7
Q

case study

A
  • detailed study of one individual, typically based on a paradigm
  • provides detailed descriptions (historical and biographical info, info abt therapy sessions, etc)
  • several studies can be compared and analyzed for common elements through a specific method
  • in terms of evidence, useful to negate universal theories/laws but not for ruling out alternative hypotheses
  • very useful for generating hypotheses
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8
Q

qualitative research

A
  • similar to a case study, focuses on unique and rich experiences of a small group of ppl studied in depth
  • descriptive accounts with subjective idiographic emphasis rather than quantitative research
  • subject to similar downfalls as case studies, but when done correctly, can illuminate important phenomena, themes, etc and can be very useful for the generation of hypotheses
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9
Q

epidemiological research

A
  • study of frequency and distribution of a disorder in a population (data gathered abt rates of a disorder and possible correlates in large sample or population, providing a general picture of a disorder)
  • focuses on determining a disorder’s prevalence, incidence, and risk factors
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10
Q

correlational research

A
  • looks at whether there’s a relationship among 2+ variables
  • makes use of correlation coefficient (r) which may take and value from +/- 1, and measures the magnitude and direction of a relationship
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11
Q

statistical significance

A

likelihood that the results of an investigation were due to chance (often set in psych by a p value of 0.05)

  • chances of a finding beings significant increase with larger correlation coefficient and studies that have a greater number of observations (increasing the likelihood of finding even small relationships)
  • doesn’t allow for causal conclusions (directionality and 3rd variable problems)
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12
Q

experimental design/method

A
  • most powerful too for determine causal relationships
  • participants are randomly assigned to conditions, an independent variable is manipulated in at least one, and a dependent variable is measured across the board
  • useful to evaluate effects of therapies
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13
Q

internal validity

A

the extent to which an effect can be confidently attributed to the independent variable (does it measure what it set out to measure)

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14
Q

external validity

A

whether or not the results observed can be generalized beyond the study at hand

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15
Q

analogue experiments

A
  • the use of an analogue, a related phenomenon, in the lab

- behaviour is rendered temporarily abnormal through experimental manipulations

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16
Q

placebo effect

A

-improvement in physical or psychological condition that is attributed to a client’s expectations of help/outcome rather than to any specific active ingredient in a treatment

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17
Q

single study experimental designs

A

(not super common)
-participants studied one at a time and experience manipulated variable
measure a specific behaviour during:
-baseline (A)
-introduction of treatment (B)
-reinstatement of condition that prevailed in baseline period (A)
-re-intro of experimental manipulation (B)

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18
Q

mixed designs

A
  • combination of experimental and correlational designs
  • classificatory/correlational variable (eg presence or absence of PTSD) are not manipulated/created by the researcher
  • but also experiments demand the manipulation of a variable (ex types of depression treatment)
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19
Q

meta-analysis

A
  • review of several studies in order to determine effects of treatment using statistic called effect size (which lets u say how much of an impact it has)
  • fairly objective, but can be difficult to interpret
  • multiple meta-analyses can be combined into a meta-meta-analysis
  • some factors such as gender or socioec status may influence/qualify results in some meaningful way; these are called moderator variables
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20
Q

paradigm

A
  • a set of basic assumptions, a general perspective, that defines how to conceptualize a study and subject. Helps us know how to gather and interpret info/data, provides a way to think abt a particular subject, and are by definition, really influential, providing us with a model of reality
  • inject inevitable biases into the definition and collection of data, and may also affect the interpretation of facts
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21
Q

major paradigms in psychology

A
  • biological
  • cognitive-behavioural
  • behavioural
  • cognitive
  • psychoanalytic
  • humanistic-existential
  • integrative
  • diathesis stress
  • biopsychosocial
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22
Q

biological paradign

A
  • continuation of somatogenesis hypothesis; mental disorders as caused by aberrant/defective biological processes
  • often referred to as medical or disease model
  • gave rise to studies like behavioural genetics
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23
Q

behavioural genetics

A

study of individual differences in behavior attributable to differences in genetic makeup

  • genotype (unobserved genetic constitution; fixed at birth but not static, bc of phenotype)
  • phenotype (totality of observable behavioural characteristics; dynamic and produced by interaction of genotype and environment)
  • clinical syndromes are disorders of pheno and not genotype
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24
Q

methods of behavioural genetics

A

family method (to study genetic predisp. among members of family, bc average number of genes shared by blood relatives is known

  • index/proband method (looking at individuals who have the diagnosis in question)
  • twin method (study of concordance rates)
  • adoptees method (looking at diff btw environment and genetic makeup as contributors to behaviour)
  • ability to offer gen interpretation of data from twin studies hinges on the equal environment assumption
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25
Q

neuroscience

A

study of the brain and nervous system

forms: cognitive, molecular, cellular

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26
Q

deep brain stimulation

A
  • a biol approach to treatment
  • plant battery-operated electrode in the brain to deliver low-level electrical impulses
  • quite effect, though specific processes and mechanisms have yet to be identified
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27
Q

cognitive-bahvioural paradigm

A
  • comprises behavioural (learning) and cognitive perspectives
    behaviour: abnormal behav as responses learned in some way, via methods such as classical and operant conditioning or modelling
    cognitive: studies mental processes (attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, thinking) and regards learner as an active interpreter of a situation
  • beneficial in psychotherapy, strong evidence form improvement in depression, anxiety and eating disorders, autism, schizophrenia, can be a more effect LT treatment than antidepressants
28
Q

classical conditioning

A
  • pavlov and his dogs
  • conditioned and unconditioned stimuli and responses
  • extinction
29
Q

operant conditioning

A
  • skinner and his box
  • behaviour followed by positive consequences will be repeated while behaviour followed by negative consequences will be discouraged
  • positive reinforcement (strengthening of a response by presentation of pleasant event)
  • negative reinforcement (strengthen present response by removing aversive stimulus)
30
Q

Theory of Mind

A

ID: fully present at birth, accounts for all energy needed to run the psych, responsible for basic urges (food, water, warmth, affection, sex), primarily unconscious
EGO: begins to develop after 6 months of life, tasked to deal with reality, primarily in the conscious awareness
SUPEREGO: develops throughout childhood, operated roughly as a conscience

31
Q

pleasure principle

A
  • psychoanalytical
  • ID seeks immediate gratification (sometimes through primary process thinking (generating images, fantasies of what it desires)); when unsatisfied, tension is produced and the ID does whatever it can to relieve this
32
Q

reality principle

A
  • pyschoanalytical
  • function/process of EGO, which is tasked to deal with reality through planning, decision making, secondary process thinking
  • determines we can’t just operate solely on the pleasure principle
  • mediates demands of reality and ID’s desire for immediate gratification
33
Q

the conscience

A
  • psychoanalytical
  • the superego is the final part of the psyche to emerge, and operates roughly as the conscience
  • kids begin to incorporate parental values into their own bc they want parental approval as opposed to disapproval (ex learning that bed-wetting and nail-biting are bad)
34
Q

the psychoanalytical paradigm: anxieties

A
  • objective (ego’s reaction to danger in the world; ex when one’s life is in jeopardy they feel realistic anxiety)
  • neurotic (feeling of fear that is not connected to reality or any real threat)
  • moral (arises when impulses of superego punish the individual for not meeting expectations (satisfying the superego’s perfection principle)
  • according to freud, you can barely go a second without these unavoidable intrapsychic conflicts as the structures of the mind fight
35
Q

defense mechanisms

A

-unconscious strategies used to protect ego from anxiety

repression, denial, projection, displacement, reaction, regression, rationalization, sublimation

36
Q

psychoanalytic paradigm

A

-freud
-psychopathology from unconscious conflicts in the individual
-theories are unscientific (based on anecdotes during therapy sessions and not grounded in objectivity)
lasting contributions:
-childhood experiences help shape adult personality
-there are unconscious influences on behaviour
-ppl use defense mechanism to control anxiety/stress
-valid research shows effectiveness o psychodynamic therapies

37
Q

humanistic-existential paradigms

A
  • insight focused
  • place greater emphasis on the person’s freedom of choice
  • free will is the person’s most important characteristic
  • exercising freedom of choice takes courage and can generate pain and suffering
  • seldom focuses on cause of problems and is way more concerned with where you’re going
  • all ppl striving for self-actualization
  • anxiety occurs when there’s a discrepancy between one’s self-perceptions and ideal self
  • client centered and gestalt therapies (Rogers, Perls)
  • likely biases due to research being conducted solely among uni students
38
Q

positive psychology

A

promotes focus on attributes and personal characteristics (resilience, optimism, hope) that emphasize wellness and being able to function (as opposed to psychology’s preoccupation with negative outcomes, dysfunction)
-focuses on protective factors to see why healthy ppl are healthy, instead of risk factors and why the ill are ill

39
Q

familial factor: parental mental illness

A
  • one of the most pernicious risk factors is exposure to mental illness in one/both parents
  • there’s small but sig associations btw maternal depression and higher lvls of internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and general psychopathology in their kids
  • associations strong among younger than older children, and girls than boys, and were overall stronger among families living in poverty
40
Q

peer influences

A
  • research emphasizes peer status and victimization
  • difficult to disentangle whether the MH difficulties/behav tendencies were precursors to or consequences of those peer factors though
  • we do know that popular children then to be better adjusted, and negative peer status led to loneliness, which predicted depression
41
Q

healthy immigrant effect

A
  • immigrants had comparatively lower rates of depression and alcohol dependence than born canadians, unrelated to language proficiency (eng, fren), employment status, or sense of belonging
  • effect is stronger among recent arrivals than those who have lived in canada some time (there may be some interaction, or more recent arrivals might not report for fear of being kicked out)
  • predictors of poor health status are limited language proficiency, limited friendliness of neighbors and problems accessing healthcare
42
Q

diathesiss-tress paradigm

A
  • focuses on interactions btw predisposition to disease (diathesis) and env or life disturbances (stress)
  • possessing diathesis for a disorder increases an indv risk of developing it, but doesn’t guarantee development
  • the stress accounts for how a diathesis may be translated into an actual disorder that passes the clinical threshold
  • psychopathology is unlikely to result from any single factor
43
Q

diathesis

A
  • a constitutional predisposition toward illness
  • any characteristic or set of characteristics (not necessarily just genetic) that increases a person’s chance of developing a disorder (genetic, psychological, and environmental factors can be predisposing to the development of a mental disorder)
44
Q

differential susceptibility

A

-some factors considered diatheses should actually be considered differential susceptibility factors, bc they involve the expected adverse rxns to negative experiences but also positive rxns to positive experiences
(ex a vulnerable child would react poorly to parental criticism but also positively to parental praise)

45
Q

biosychosocial paradigm

A
  • biol, psychol and social factors are conceptualized as diff levels of analysis or subsystems w/in the paradigm
  • offers explanations for causes of disorders that typically involve complex interactions among many biol, psycho, socio-env and sociocult factors
  • aims to understand the whole of a person
46
Q

risk factors

A

factors that interact to put ppl at greater risk of developing a condition and predict negative outcomes

47
Q

protective factors

A
  • factors that predict positive outcomes, such as remission
    ex. IQ, patience, exercise, variations in diet, level of love and support
  • money is not necessarily one
48
Q

resilience

A

ability to bounce back in the face of adversity

-ability to compensate for, cope with, or decrease the symptoms of a developed condition

49
Q

approaches to categorizing abnormal behaviour

A

categorical: a person is either healthy or disordered; it’s an on/off switch with no overlap
dimensional: the patient may fall along a range from superior to very impaired function
Prototypal: conceptual entity predicts an idealized combination of characteristics, some of which the patient may have and others which they may not

50
Q

goals of psychological assessment

A
  • identify and describe symptoms
  • determine chronicity and severity of problems/symptoms
  • evaluate potential causal background factors
  • explore personal resources that might be assets in treatment
51
Q

neurological tests

A
  • can aid in determining site and extent of organic brain disorder
  • exam may include EEG, CAT or PET scans, fMRI
52
Q

clinical interview

A
  • method of psychological assessment
  • generally covers 5 basic topics (identifying data, description of presenting problem(s), psychosocial history, medical/psychiatric history, medical problems/medication)
53
Q

clinical interview formats

A

unstructured: clinicians adopt their own style of questioning rather than following a given template, and ask what they think is most important right then
semi-structured: ask general outline of qs designed to gather info, but also free to branch off and probe as they see fit
structured: follows pre-set series of qs in a particular order

54
Q

computerized interviews

A
  • ppl respond to qs abt their psychol symptoms and related concerns, which are posed via computer screen
  • ppl tend to reveal more than they do to a human being and can therefore be more helpful in identifying problems that clients are embarrassed of unwilling to report to live interviewers
55
Q

psychological tests

A
  • structured method of assessment used to evaluate reasonably stable traits (intelligence, personality)
  • usually standardized on large number of numbers and provide norms that compare clients’ scores with an average
56
Q

intelligence tests

A
  • often included in assessment of abnormal behaviour
  • usually expressed in the form of an intelligence quotient (IQ); ex WAIS, whose scores cluster around a mean of 100 (with SD of 15)
  • weren’t initially developed for neuropsychology, but subtests relate really well to neural functioning
57
Q

objective tests

A
  • self-report personality tests that can be scored objectively and are based on research foundation
  • ppl respond to specific qs/statements abt their feelings, thoughts, concerns, attitudes, interests, beliefs, etc
  • easy to administer and often reveal info that might not be revealed during a clinical interview or behavioural observation
  • only as valid as the criteria used to validate them
  • cost effective and rapid
58
Q

MMPI-2

A

(minnesota multiphasic personality inventory)

  • > 500 T/F statements that assess interests, habits, family relationships, somatic complaints, attitudes, beliefs , behaviours characteristic of psychological disorders
  • a number of indv scales comprised of items that tended to be answered differently by member of carefully selected diagnostic groups as compared to references
59
Q

projective tests

A

ex. rorschach inkblots, thematic apperception test (tell me a story abt this picture), sentence completion
- present ambiguous stimuli onto which examinee is thought to project their personality and unconscious motives (u can see why the psychodynamics rly like it)
- indirect methods of assessment, may theoretically offer clues to unconscious processes
- reliability and validity are controversial
- do allow freedom of expression, reduce tendency to offer socially desirable responses, and can quickly uncover info that traditional methods might need much longer to get to

60
Q

neuropsychological assessment

A

-measurement of behaviour/performance that may be indicative of underlying brain damage/defects

61
Q

behavioural assessment

A

approach to clinical assessment that focuses on the objective recording and description of problem behaviour

  • aims to sample and indv’s behav in settings as similar as possible to the real-life situation, maximizing the relationship btw the testing situation and criterion
  • examiner may conduct functional analysis of problem behav (in relation to antecedents, stimuli, cues)
62
Q

self-monitoring

A

process of observing one’s own behaviours, thoughts, emotions (things that can be easily counted, such a s food intake, cigs smokes, hours studied)
-can produce highly accurate measurement bc the behav is recorded as it occurs instead of reconstructed from memory (which can be error prone)

63
Q

analogue measures

A

intended to simulate the setting in which the behaviour naturally takes place, but carried out in laboratory or controlled settings
ex. role play (show me how you say hi to someone), mimic what’s happening for you in the real world (measure a phobic person’s response to them approaching the fearful object)

64
Q

behavioural rating scale

A
  • checklist that provides info abt the frequency, intensity, and range of problem behaviours; gives an idea of the scope of whatever the issue might be
    ex. CBCL (child behavioural checklist) asks parents to rate kids on specific behaviours (refuses to eat, is disobedient, hits, is uncooperative, etc)
65
Q

cognitive assessment

A
  • measurement of thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes that may be associated with emotional problems
    ex. thought record or diary, atomatic thoughs questionnaire (ATQ-30) (clients rate weekly frequency and degree of conviction as’d with 30 automatic negative thoughts)
66
Q

ethical issues in assesment

A
  • potential cultural bias
  • theoretical orientation of the clinician
  • under-emphasis on the external situation
  • insufficient validation
  • inaccurate data or premature evaluation (jumping to conclusions/having cognitive set arrive at the issue ahead of time, before all the data has been considered)
67
Q

evidence based assessment

A
  • notion that assessment practices should be just as evidence based as psychotherapies
  • comprised of three elements: assessment tools must be based on sound research finding, measures must have sound psychometric properties (are the reliability and predictability there?), and continual evaluation of the measure (as working once doesn’t mean it always will)

Psych 239 (8 decks)

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