Chapter 1 Flashcards
Symptoms def?
Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that indicate a mental disorder
Syndrome def?
a group of symptoms that appear together and are assumed to represent a specific type of disorder
Etiology def?
the cause(s) of a disease/disorder
2 features used to determine magnitude of abnormality?
- Duration and frequency → (how long have they been there, how often do they appear)
- Functional impairment → (how much are they impacting daily life or normal activities)
2 incorrect/insufficient ways of defining abnormal behavior?
- Personal distress –> subjective discomfort
- Statistical norms –> relative frequency in a population
Problems with defining based on personal distress?
- not enough to define by itself
- some people don’t know ab their symptoms
- distress doesn’t create a disorder
–> ex. anxiety over test
Problems with defining based on statistical norms?
- something can be rare without being a problem
- something can be rare and desirable
–> ex. talent, intelligence, etc. - doesn’t specify how rare it needs to be to qualify
Harmful dysfunction model def / components?
Condition is only a disorder if…
- Results from failure of some internal mechanism, biological or psychological (dysfunction)
- Causes harm to the person as judged by the standards of their culture (harmful)
Harmful dysfunction model problems?
- we don’t know how all the things are supposed to function properly
- definition treats harm as dichotomous
–> harm or no harm
–> IRL its a spectrum
How does DSM identify disorders? (uses ___, ignores ___, depends on ___)
- identified based on symptoms
- causes (etiology) often unknown, and/or unimportant to diagnosis
- depends on observations and descriptions, often from the patient themselves too
DSM definition –> 5 defining characteristics?
- Symptoms → disturbance of cognition, behavior, or emotional regulation
- Clinically significant distress or disability in social, occupational, or functional life
- Dysfunction in psychological, biological, or developmental processes associated with mental processing
- Not expectable response to common stressors or losses
- Not primarily a result of social deviance or conflicts with society
Etic vs. emic –> what are they? which is which?
- perspectives on how to study abnormal behavior
- eTic –> ouTsider’s
- eMic –> iNsider’s
Etic perspective
- OUTsider
- pre-existing info
- outsiders are asking questions and gathering data
- ex. dentistry
Emic perspective
- INsider
- members of culture are best source of information
Problem - suppression facilitation model def?
- social pressures suppress some behaviors and facilitate others
- Also affects how a caregiver views their child’s behavior
- ex. study between US and Jamaica
Epidemiology def?
study of the frequency and distribution of disorders within a population
Comorbidity def?
manifestation of more than one disorder
Incidence def?
number of new cases of a disorder that occur in a population within a specific period
Prevalence def?
total number of active cases (old and new) present in the population at a given time
Lifetime prevalence def?
total proportion of people in the population who have been affected by the disorder at some point in their lives
Global burden of disease def?
Mortality and disability (measured in years) (effect of disease)
What 2 big changes happened in the 1950s?
- people became aware of the conditions in state mental hospitals
- invention of effective antipsychotic medications
Community mental health act (1963) did what?
- provided funding for community mental health centers
- goal was to transfer patients from state hospitals to community centers
Problems:
- state hospitals closed
- community centers didn’t always receive enough funding, have enough doctors/providers
- there wasn’t always somewhere for the patients to go
4 conclusions about the role of culture in disorders?
- All disorders are shaped, somewhat, by cultural factors
- No disorders are entirely due to culture/society
- Psychotic disorders are less influenced by culture than nonpsychotic ones
- Symptoms are more likely to vary across cultures than the disorders themselves
