Chapter 15 - Psychological Disorders Flashcards
1
Q
normal vs. abnormal: categorical or dimensional?
A
- categorical: you either have it or you don’t (ie. broken leg)
- dimensional: a continuum -> you can have it in degrees
2
Q
criteria for abnormality
A
- distress
- maladaptiveness (causing functional problems)
- irrationality
- unpredictability
- unconventionality and statistical rarity
- observer discomfort
- violation of moral and ideal standards
3
Q
abnormal behaviour
A
- always a judgement (can be subjective - ie. pseudo patient study where people without mental disorders were brought into mental hospital and doctors still believed they had disorders)
- early explanations: demons, spirits, hysteria, etc.
4
Q
Emil Kraepelin
A
- believed mental disorders had physical basis
- created first comprehensive classification system
- abnormal behaviour as illness/disease
- patterns of symptoms
5
Q
Franz Mesmer
A
- disruptions of animal magnetism
- hypnotism (mesmerism)
6
Q
Jean-Martin Charcot
A
- used hypnotism to alleviate/induce symptoms
- this was a “psychological” explanation
7
Q
modern perspectives
A
- biological (brain activity, genes)
- psychological (psychodynamic, behavioural, cognitive, sociocultural)
- interactions between all of the above
8
Q
psychodynamic
A
unconscious conflict
9
Q
behavioural
A
- learning theory
- ex. kid who can’t concentrate in class has other motivations for behaviour (ie. struggling in class, wanting peer approval, etc.)
- about observable, demonstrable behaviours
10
Q
sociocultural
A
role of culture in disorders
11
Q
Gene-environment interaction
A
gene-environment interaction is important to help us understand psychological disorders -> key factor in biopsychosocial approach
12
Q
prevalence
A
- women have more cases of serious mental illness than men
- younger people have higher rates than older people (may be because older people “burn out”, or because negative emotions decrease with age)
- women have more distress disorders (ie. anxiety, depression) while men have more substance abuse/dependency disorders
- low sociocultural component to schizophrenia -> always roughly 1% across cultures (depression also present in every society)
13
Q
DSM pre-1980
A
- paragraph descriptions
- allowed for a lot of interpretation when diagnosing someone
- low inter-rater reliability
14
Q
DSM-III (1980)
A
- specific criteria rates one at a time
- minimum number required to meet diagnosis
- less room for subjectivity
- higher inter-relater reliability
- leads to a lot of heterogeneity (people with different symptoms can be diagnosed with the same thing) -> limits validity
15
Q
DSM-IV
A
- axis 1: clinical disorders
- axis 2: personality disorders, mental retardation
- axis 3: general medical conditions
- axis 4: psychosocial and environmental problems/stressors
- axis 5: global assessment of functioning (GAF scale)
16
Q
DSM-5
A
- addition of dimensions
- axes 1, 2, 3 combined into single axis
- axis 5 omitted
17
Q
comorbidity
A
- co-occurring disorders (ie. having anxiety and depression at the same time)
- occurs excessively in DSM -> there are still improvements to be made in the way things are defined
18
Q
DSM definition of mental disorder
A
- individual’s behavioural or psychological syndrome
- consequences include significant distress or disability
- not expectable response to common stressors/losses
- reflects underlying psychobiological dysfunction
- not result of social deviance or conflicts with society
19
Q
Formulating new diagnosis
A
- group of experts appointed
- discuss seperateness, clinical significance, threshold, defining characteristics, differentiation from other behaviours/disorders, etc.
20
Q
psychological disorder
A
- marked by clinically significant disturbance to individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behaviour
- disturbed/dysfunctional thoughts or maladaptive behaviours that interfere with everyday life
21
Q
medical model
A
concept that diseases and psychological disorders have physical causes and can be diagnoses, treated, and in most cases cured, often through hospital treatment
22
Q
epigenetics
A
- study of environmental influences on gene expression
- our environment can affect whether or not a gene is expressed, thus affecting development of psychological disorders
23
Q
ADHD
A
psychological disorder marked by extreme inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity
24
Q
anxiety disorders
A
characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviours that reduce anxiety
25
generalized anxiety disorder
when a person is continually tense and apprehensive even though there is no specific threat present. Symptoms (ie. restlessness, fatigue, irritability) must persist for 6 months for a diagnosis
26
panic disorder
anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dream in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations (panic attack), often followed by worry of next attack
27
phobia
anxiety disorder marked by persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation
28
OCD
characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and actions (compulsions) or both
29
PTSD
- characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for 4 weeks or more after a traumatic experience (war, combat, natural disasters, etc.)
- more common in women
- 75% experience trauma, only 10% develop PTSD
30
major depressive disorder
- experience prolonged hopelessness, sadness, lethargy, eventually rebounding to normality
- Can be diagnosed if you have these symptoms for 2 weeks
- Signs: poor appetite, insomnia, lethargy, feelings of worthlessness
- Loss of interest in family, friends, and activities
- Generally, women are more susceptible to depression than men
31
mania
hyperactive, wildly optimistic state in which dangerously poor judgement is common
32
bipolar disorder
- when a person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania
- Signs of bipolar disorder: overtalkative, overactive, little need for sleep, elated, grandiose optimism and self-esteem
- Mild bipolar disorder may result in higher creativity
- PET scans show that brain energy consumption rises and falls with emotional swings
33
rumination
compulsive fretting - overthinking about our problems and their causes
34
negative explanatory style
- used by depressed people
- viewing bad events in terms that are stable ("it's going to last forever"); global ("it's going to affect everything I do"); and internal ("it's all my fault")
35
cycle of depressed thinking
1. stressful experience
2. negative explanatory style
3. depressed mood
4. cognitive and behavioural changes
36
schizophrenia
characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and or diminished/inappropriate emotion expression
37
delusion
false belief, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic distress
38
chronic schizophrenia
- aka process schizophrenia
- symptoms usually appear by late adolescence or early adulthood
- as people age, episodes last longer and recovery periods shorten
39
acute schizophrenia
- aka relative schizophrenia
- can begin at any age, frequently occurs in response to traumatic events
- has extended recovery periods
40
dissociative disorders
controversial, rare disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings
41
dissociative identity disorders
- rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits 2 or more distinct and alternating personalities (formerly called multiple personality disorder)
- may be more constructed than real -> DID symptoms appear most often after rather than before therapy. most DID diagnoses made by a small number of therapists, therapists can reinforce DID because getting attention from the therapist can be rewarding for the patient
42
personality disorders
- inflexible and enduring behaviour patterns that impair social functioning
- Causes clinically significant problems (distress to self or others, interpersonal, occupational)
43
antisocial personality disorder
when a person (usually male) exhibits lack of conscious for wrongdoings, even towards friends or family members. May be ruthless or a clever con artist
44
binge-eating disorder
significant binge-eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without the purging or fasting that marks bulimia nervosa
45
agoraphobia
fear of public places (fear of panic public places cause)
46
social phobia
arises in anticipation of public situations or social interactions; fear of negative evaluation
47
biological causes of anxiety disorders
- Preparedness theory of phobias
- Neurotransmitters
- Genetic predisposition
48
psychodynamic causes of anxiety disorders
psychic conflict/fears
49
behavioural causes of anxiety disorders
conditioning/learning; avoidance learning
50
cognitive causes of anxiety disorders
- evaluation of consequences
- interpretation of events
- danger cost/likelihood
- anxiety sensitivity and panic
51
seasonal affective disorder
when people are unhappier in months with less sunlight
52
explaining mood disorders
- Psychoanalytical: unconscious conflicts, anger turns inward to produce depression
- Biological: depression involves genetic predispositions and neurotransmitter abnormalities
- Social-cognitive: Negative thoughts influence biochemical events creating a cycle of depression
53
Beck's cognitive triad model
If you have negative views of themselves, the world, and the future, depression is brought about
54
Learned helplessness model (Seligman)
- Belief (explanatory style) that future is out of one's control
- Dogs given unavoidable shocks develop low motivation; become emotionally rigid, lazy, and scared; and developed difficulties learning – even when they could avoid shocks
55
hopelessness theory of depression
idea that once we're depressed, we become hopeless about our future and we stop trying to better ourselves -> we become stuck there
56
differences in permanence, pervasiveness, and personalization between the 2 explanatory styles
- Optimistic: permanence: temporary; pervasiveness: specific; personalization: external
- Pessimistic: permanence: permanent; pervasiveness: universal; personalization: internal
57
gender and mood disorders
- prevalence of depression 2x higher in women
- Women experience more stressors due to our patriarchal society
- women experience more rumination
58
gender and suicide
- suicide higher in men
- women attempt suicide 3x more often than men
- Suicide rates higher in elderly, can vary by country
59
causes of schizophrenia
- Brain (Dopamine, tissue loss, reduced activity)
- Genetics (strong component, but it only makes up about half the story -> ex. General population = 1%; Identical (MZ) twins where one has schizophrenia = 50%; Children of 2 schizophrenic parents = just under 50%)
- Environmental stressors
- Family conflict and relapse
- Diathesis-stress hypothesis (depending on person's predisposition, a certain amount of stress will cause them to become disordered)
60
anorexia nervosa
- Restriction of energy intake leading to significantly low body weight that is less than minimally normal
- Intense fear of gaining weight or of becoming fat, or persistent behaviour that interferes with weight gain, even though at a significantly low weight
- Disturbance in the way in which one's body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or persistent lack of recognition of the seriousness of the current low body weight
61
bulimia nervosa
- Recurrent episodes of binge eating (Significant eating in 2-hour period or less and sense of lack of control over eating during the episode)
- Recurring inappropriate compensatory behaviours in order to prevent weight gain (eg. Vomiting, misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or other medications, fasting, or excessive exercise)
- At least once a week for 3 months
- Self-evaluation is unduly influenced by body shape and weight
- The disturbance does not occur exclusively during episodes of anorexia nervosa
62
Personality disorder not otherwise specified (NOS)
don't fit into the 10 categories, but still meet criteria for diagnosis -> happens very often with DSM-IV
63
DSM-5 classification of personality disorders
- Anxious/fearful
- Odd/eccentric
- Dramatic/impulsive
64
Personality disorders -> Anxious/fearful
- Avoidant
- Dependent
- Obsessive-compulsive
65
Personality disorders -> odd/eccentric
- Schizoid (lack of interest in a social lifestyle, cold, solitary)
- Schizotypal (eccentric perceptions -> thinking that you know what other people are thinking, thinking you can influence results of sports games, etc.)
- Paranoid
66
Personality disorders -> dramatic/impulsive
- Histrionic (very social and has lots of friends, but relationships are shallow)
- Narcissistic
- Borderline
- Antisocial (manipulative, exploitative, violates rights of others)
67
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
- Inattention and impulsivity
| - 3-7%, higher in boys
68
Autism
- affects verbal, social, joint attention, and bonding skills
- Repetitive behaviours/stimulation
- Increasing prevalence, now estimated at 1 in 200 or higher
69
Hallucinations
- patient experiences an altered world and perceives things that are not there
- auditory hallucinations: hearing voices
70
inappropriate actions and emotions
- Flat affect: zombie-like state of apparent apathy
| - Catatonia: period of remaining motionless
71
types of schizophrenia symptoms
- Positive symptoms: hallucinations, delusions, inappropriate emotions
- Negative symptoms: absence of emotion, absence of tone and expression, silence/catatonia
