Cognitive Perspectives of Psychopathology

Question 1

what is cognition

Answer 1

“the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding thought, experience, and the senses.” - Gross

Question 2

5 features of depression

Answer 2

emotional (sadness)
motivational (lack of)
behavioural (slowness in speech, no energy)
physical (headaches, no sleep)
cognitive (negative view of self, world)

Question 3

diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder

Answer 3

presence of five of the following symptoms during the same 2-week period: at least one must be either (1) depressed mood; or (2) loss of interest or pleasure

Question 4

triad of negative schemas

Answer 4

ineptness
self-blame
negative self-evaluation

Question 5

cognitive biases

Answer 5

Negative Triad - self, future, the world.
Negative schema
Negative behaviour

Question 6

Stroop Task (Gotlib & Cane, 1987)

Answer 6

Depressed individuals are slower at naming the colours of negative words

Question 7

Evidence for Beck (3 tasks)

Answer 7

Dichotic listening procedure
Memory tasks
Interpretational bias

Question 8

Rumination

Answer 8

habit of thinking a lot

Question 9

Seligman (1974) - research with…

Answer 9

Dogs

• gave electric shocks
• trained to avoid shocks

Question 10

attributional styles

Answer 10

global/specific
stable/unstable
internal/external

Question 11

anxiety disorders 4

Answer 11

generalised anxiety disorder

social anxiety disorder

panic disorder

specific phobic disorders

Question 12

Clark and Beck - catastrophic misinterpretations of somatic sensations

Answer 12

misinterpretations and sensations become a vicious cycle

Question 13

what are Phobias

Answer 13

Specific type of anxiety…

Extreme, irrational fear of a specific object or situation

Avoidance plays a key role in maintaining the phobia

Avoidance is reinforcing

Cognition plays a role in explanation, or how/what the sufferer thinks or says about the object/situation

Hiding phobia can cause other detrimental effects

Question 14

Phobia e.g. Agoraphobia

Answer 14

most common phobia (60% of all patients with phobias)
Commonly defined as fear of open spaces…
But primary fear = fear of leaving the security of the home
Secondary fear = fear of open spaces

Patients tend to be more aware of the secondary fear than the primary one, hence the definition, which also highlights the importance of how we think and explain what we are feeling…

Question 15

PTSD

Answer 15

Anxiety disorder in response to extreme physical or psychological trauma outside of normal human experience

Shell shock in soldiers who fought in WWI

Then “combat fatigues” pre-1980

Then “post traumatic stress disorder” in DSM-III (1980)

Question 16

aspects of PTSD

Answer 16

Intrusion symptoms

Memories, dreams, flashbacks, prolonged distress & physical reactions

Memory seems to be the key

Then response to the memory

Cause almost exclusively environmental

Classical conditioning

But not everyone will develop PTSD so other factors thought to be at work

Diagnosis can only occur in light of a specific traumatic event, but increasing evidence to show it may not be necessary (e.g. emotional upheavals such as divorce)

Question 17

Cognitive aspects of PTSD

Answer 17

Dual representation theory (Brewin et al, 1996):

Symptoms result from a dissociation between memory and “snapshots” of the event

Two memory systems implicated

Verbally accessible memory system (VAM)

Situationally accessible memory system (SAM)

VAM thought to be impaired, therefore fear in the memory is the focus

Without the autobiographical memory the “snapshots” are likely to return as involuntary flashbacks

Question 18

Dual representation outcomes

Answer 18

Completion / integration
Chronic emotional processing
Premature inhibition of processing

Question 19

Theory of mind

Answer 19

ability to understand our own and others mental states

Question 20

attentional processes

Answer 20

sustained attention
selective attention
divided attention

Question 21

types of delusions

Answer 21

persecution
grandeur
reference
nihilistic