Chapter 16 Flashcards
Name and describe 3 broad criteria of abnormal behavior that must be present before that behavior is diagnosed as psychological disorder.
Statistical deviance - is the person’s behavior outside of normal range of behavior
Maladaptiveness - does the person’s behavior pose a danger to self or others?
Personal distress - does the behavior cause personal anguish or discomfort?
Define developmental psychopathology and contrast the developmental psychopathology perspective to a medical or disease perspective
Developmental psychopathology - A field of study concerned with the origins and course of maladaptive or psychopathological behavior
Alan Sroufe believes that psychopathology is not a medical condition or disease that people have or are born with but rather the outcome of a developmental process.
Describe the diathesis stress model of psychopathology (illustrate with an example)
Psychopathology results from the interaction over time of a vulnerability to psychological disorder (diathesis) and the experience of stressful events.
Diathesis is a predisposing genetic makeup, physiology, set of cognitions, personality or a combination of those.
Example: Predisposed to depression - not likely you will become depressed unless there is a compounding of stressful events. Similar to gene-environment correlation.
Describe the two defining features and four abnormalities of brain functioning associated with autism spectrum disorder
Two features
- Social and communication deficits - difficulty with social cues
- Restricted and repetitive interests and behaviors
Four abnormalities
- Mute
- Rocking
- Flapping hands
- Disorganized attachments
List and briefly describe suspected causes of autism, including genetic and environmental influences
Genetic - links with twins; chromosones, older father
Environmental - virus or chemicals in the environment interacting with a genetic predisposition; prenatal exposures; epigenic effects and gene expression
What are 2 early experiences that could contribute to depressive symptoms in infancy?
Family environment - abuse, neglect, important attachment severed, depressed caregiver.
Describe the symptoms of depression in young children. What is the preferred treatment?
Losing interest in activities, eating poorly, express excessive shame or guilt, sadness, irritability.
Major depressive disorder
An affective or mood disorder characterized by at least one episode of feeling profoundly sad and hopeless, losing interest in almost all activities, or both.
Diathesis stress model
Psychopathology results from the interaction over time of a vulnerability to psychological disorder and the experience of stressful events
Substance use disorder
Occurs when a person continues to use a substance despite adverse consequences such as putting the person in physical danger or interfering with work or school
Cascade model of substance use
Transactional, multifactor model that envisions development as a flow of water, gaining momentum and contributing to the next influence in the chain
Ruminative coping
Way of managing stress that involves dwelling on problems and attempting to analyze them; may help explain higher rates of depression in females than in males
Social norms
A socially defined expectation about how people should behave in particular social contexts.
Age norms
Societal expectations about what behavior is appropriate or normal at various ages
Classic autism
Abnormal social and communication development, restricted interests, repetitive behavior
Asperger syndrome
Normal or above average intelligence, good verbal skills, but deficient social cognitive and social communication skills
Co-morbid
Occurring with other disorders
Resilience
High function in the presence of risk factors
Ivar Lovaas
Autism treatment with applied behavior analysis
Simon Baron-Cohen
Extreme male brain hypothesis
Bulimia nervosa
Binge purge syndrome
Anorexia nervosa
Literally “nervous loss of appetite”
Describe gender differences in adolescent suicidal behavior
Females attempt suicide more often than males do, but males more often commit suicide when they try. This is mainly because men use more lethal techniques (especially guns).
Describe the major characteristics of dementia and Alzheimers
Dementia is a progressive deterioration of neural functioning associated with cognitive decline—for example, memory impairment, declines in tested intellectual ability, poor judgment, difficulty thinking abstractly, and often personality changes as well
The first noticeable symptoms of Alzheimer’s, detectable 2–3 years before dementia can be diagnosed, are usually difficulties remembering recently encountered material such as new acquaintances’ names or yesterday’s lunch menu
Explain how one can distinguish between irreversible dementias like Alzheimers and reversible dementias delerium, depression and normal aging
Reversible dementias can be caused by alcoholism, toxic reactions to medication, infections, metabolic disorders, vitamin deficiencies, and malnutrition. If these problems are corrected—for example, if the individual is taken off a recently prescribed medicine or is placed on a nutritious diet—a once “senile” person can be restored to normal mental functioning. By contrast, if that same person is written off as a hopeless case of Alzheimer’s disease, a potentially curable condition may become a progressively worse and irreversible one.
Only after all other causes, especially potentially treatable ones, have been ruled out should a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease be made.
