Chapter 14: Abnormal Psychology Flashcards
How did Hippocrates explain the cause of mental disorders?
Hippocrates explained the cause of mental disorder resulted from the relative amount of “humors” or bodily fluids a person possessed. For instance, having too much black bile led to melancholia, or extreme sadness and depression. The idea that bodily fluids cause mental illness was abandoned long ago, however.
Explain the difference between a categorical and dimensional model of mental disorders.
A categorical model of mental disorders is separated on disorders based on what he could observe: groups of symptoms that occur together. For example, he separated disorders of mood from disorders of cognition. This idea was adopted with the DSM, which is the idea that if disorders can be grouped based on similar etiologies and symptoms, then figuring out how to treat those disorders should be easier. DSM 5 disorders are described in terms of observable symptoms.
A dimensional approach would be to consider psychological disorders along a continuum in which people vary in degree rather than in kind. With categorization, the approach can be compared to a simple switch that turns on or off (black/white). The dimensional approach works more like a dimmer switch, that psychological disorders are extreme versions of normal feelings. We are all a little sad at times, but sometimes we feel more sad than usual. But no specific amount of sadness passes a threshold for depressive disorders. In the third section of DSM, researchers are encouraged to examine whether a dimensional approach might be helpful for understanding psychological disorders, particularly personality disorders (maladaptive extremes of Big 5 personality traits).
What are weaknesses of a categorical approach?
A problem with DSM approach is that it implies that a person either has a psychological disorder or does not, which is known as categorical approach. This in turn fails to capture differences in the severity of a disorder.
What is comorbidity?
Comorbidity is the idea that many psychological disorders occur together even though the DSM 5 treats them as separate disorders - for example, depression and anxiety, or depression and substance abuse. Accordingly, people who are found to be depressed should also be examined for comorbid conditions. This is possible because of common underlying factors. Although DSM separates disorders involving anxiety from those involving depression, both types involve the trait neuroticism, the tendency to experience frequent and intense negative emotions.
What is the diathesis-stress model?
The diathesis-stress model is a model that proposes that a disorder may develop when an underlying vulnerability is coupled with a precipitating event. In this model, an individual can have an underlying vulnerability (known as a diathesis) to a psychological disorder. This diathesis can be biological, such as a genetic predisposition to a specific disorder, or it can be environmental, such as childhood trauma. The vulnerability may not be enough to trigger a disorder, but the addition of stressful circumstances can tip the scales. If the stress level exceeds an individual’s ability to cope, the symptoms of psychological disorder will occur. A family history of psychopathology would suggest vulnerability
Describe how a strict behaviorist would explain the etiology (cause) of a mental disorder and how a cognitive-behavioral perspective would differ.
Learning: those are behaviorists who believe behavior is shaped purely by environment; followed by cognitive revolution, you’re not just a rat in a cage and you interpret what is going on
Abnormal psych: strict behaviorists will say, whatever your problem is it’s in your environment just changing structure and environment and how you learn will fix it; cognitive is not just what happens to you is both how you learn it and how you interpret it.
Describe the distinction between internalizing and externalizing disorders.
Internalizing disorders are characterized by negative emotions, and they can be grouped into categories that reflect the emotions of distress and fear. These disorders can include major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and panic disorder.
Externalizing disorders are characterized by disinhibition. These disorders include alcoholism, conduct disorders, and antisocial personality disorders. The disorders associated with internalizing are more prevalent in females, and those with externalizing are more prevalent in males.
What are some trends regarding disorders
A disorder with a large influence from biological factors is likely to be more similar across cultures. A disorder heavily influenced by learning, context, or both is likely to differ across cultures. A major mental health problem around the world might be depression, while manifestations of depression vary by culture.
Describe agoraphobia.
Agoraphobia is when people with this disorder are afraid of being in situations in which escape is difficult or impossible. They may fear being in a crowded shopping mall or using public transportation - the fear is so strong it causes panic attacks. As a result, people who suffer from agoraphobia avoid going into open places or places where there might be crowds. They also fear having a panic attack in public.
What two factors do anxiety disorders rely on?
Anxiety disorders run on two factors: biased thinking when they tend to think of themselves as threatening and focus excessive attention on perceived threats and learning, where a person can develop a fear of flying by observing another person’s fearful reaction to the closing of cabin doors. Such a fear could generalize to other enclosed spaces, resulting in claustrophobia.
Those with inhibited temperamental style are usually shy and tend to avoid unfamiliar people, so they are more likely to develop social anxiety.
What are obsessions?
Obsessive compulsive disorder involves frequent intrusive thoughts and compulsive actions. Obsessions are recurrent, intrusive, and unwanted thoughts or ideas or mental images. They often include fear of contamination, of accidents, or of one’s own aggression. The individual typically attempts to ignore or suppress such thoughts but sometimes engages in particular behaviors to neutralize his or her obsessions.
What are compulsions? How might basic learning processes take a role?
Compulsions are particular acts that the OCD patient feels driven to perform over and over. The most common compulsive behaviors are cleaning, checking, and counting. The person might continually check to make sure a door is locked because of an obsession that his or her home might be invaded, or a person mgiht engage in superstitious counting to protect against accidents, such as counting the number of telephone poles. These actions are taken to prevent something dreadful from happening. Those who have OCt fear what they might do or might have done. Checking is one way to calm the anxiety.
People are aware of their obsessions, yet they are unable to stop them. One explanation is that the disorder results from conditioning. Anxiety is somehow paired to a specific event, probably through classical conditioning. As a result, the person engages in behavior that reduces anxiety and therefore is reinforced through operant conditioning. This reduction of anxiety is reinforcing and thus increases the person’s chance of engaging in that behavior again.
Ie hand washing paired with a reduction of anxiety- ocd would reduce this anxiety only temporarily, so this behavior will recur.
Explain the possible role of the caudate nucleus in OCD.
OCD has been researched to be in part genetically influenced. Particularly OCD genes appear to control the neurotransmitter glutamate. The caudate, a brain structure involved in suppressing impulses, and is smaller and has structural abnormalities in people with OCD. Brian scans show abnormal activity in the caudates of people with OCD. Because the caudate is involved in impulse suppression, dysfunction in this region may result in the leak of impulses into consciousness. This overworks the prefrontal cortex which is involved in conscious control of behavior.
How might strep infection play a role in OCD?
A streptococcal infection apparently can cause a severe form of OCD in some young children. The affected children can suddenly display odd symptoms of OCD, such as engaging in repetitive behaviors, developing irrational fears and obsesions, and having facial tics. An autoimmune response damages the caudate, producing the symptoms of OCD.
What is learned helplessness?
Learned helplessness is a second cognitive model of depression. Learned helplessness means that people come to see themselves as unable to have any effect on events in their lives. When animals are placed in aversive situations they cannot escape (such as an unescapable shock), the animals eventually become passive and unresponsive. They lack the motivation to try new methods of escape if given the opportunity. Similarly, people suffering from learned helplessness come to expect that bad things will happen to them and believe they are powerless to avoid negative events. The attributions or explanations they make for negative events refer to personal factors that are stable and global rather than to situational factors that are temporarily and specific. This attributional pattern leads people to feel hopeless about making positive changes in their lifetime. Dysfunctional cognitive components are a cause rather than a consequence of depression.
