Critical differences between Psychology and Psychiatry Flashcards
Similarities between Psych and Psia
- treat mentally ill patients
- work in hospital or clinics
- work together on a team
differences between psych and psia
Psychology:explains basic mechanism/theory by which humans work
i.e. disordered/normal mechanisms
behaviour disorders e.g. personality disorder
What’s normal? Individual differences are good
Issue with labelling
focuses on understanding through research, observation and experiments
masters and PHD
psychiatry:
treatment of what’s deemed abnormal for emotional behaviour
how to fix/manage condition or symptoms
e.g. homosexuality was considered abnormal
branch of medicine that specialises in diagnosing and treating mental disorders
medical school
What is Psychology?
he formal study of mind and behaviour
Paradigms of psychology
-cognitivism
-behaviourism
-qualitative
-medical
-social
cognitivism
-memory systems and IQ (positively correlated)
- IQ - how much information processed in what time frame
- the cognitive paradigm examines mental processes such as perception, memory, language, and problem-solving.
- It views humans as active processors of information, emphasizing processes like attention, perception, memory encoding, storage, and retrieval.
- Research methods in cognitive psychology often involve experiments, computer simulations, and neuroimaging techniques to investigate mental processes.
behaviourism
-observable behaviour = measurable
- The behavioral paradigm focuses on observable behaviors and the environmental factors that influence them.
- It emphasizes learning processes such as classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning.
- Research in this paradigm often involves controlled experiments to study the effects of reinforcement, punishment, and other environmental variables on behavior.
qualitative
-experiences? what’s it like for a human in 2024? cancer? ⇒ mechanism based
- subjective experiences of individuals, their capacity for self-awareness, and their pursuit of personal growth and meaning.
- Humanistic psychology focuses on concepts such as self-actualization, subjective well-being, and the importance of personal choice and responsibility.
- Existential psychology explores themes of existential anxiety, freedom, authenticity, and the search for meaning in life
medical
-biological/anatomical
- The biological paradigm examines the biological underpinnings of behavior and mental processes, including genetics, neurochemistry, and brain structure and function.
- It investigates how biological factors such as neurotransmitters, hormones, and brain circuits influence cognition, emotion, and behavior.
- Research methods in biological psychology often involve animal studies, genetic analyses, brain imaging techniques, and pharmacological interventions.
social
-presence/absence of people effect on behaviour
-the sociocultural paradigm focuses on the influence of cultural, social, and environmental factors on behavior and mental processes.
- It examines how cultural norms, societal institutions, socialization processes, and group dynamics shape individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
- Cross-cultural research methods, ethnographic studies, and social psychology experiments are commonly used to investigate sociocultural influences.
Sub-disciplines of psych
- Cognitive
- thinking, feeling, info processing
- IQ - speed and consciousness/unconsciousness
- Social
- people
- Developmental
- thoughts and behaviour change through age
- desire to have children when older
- Statistical
- e.g. average age of having children is 31
- mathematical models
- Clinical
- medication
- Counseling
- Psychology based
- suitable for non-medication disorders
- case-by-case basis
- Biological
- Educational
- learning disabilities e.g. dyslexia
Why is there an increase in mental health issues?
increase in medications to treat symptoms not root of cause
What is Psychiatry?
Branch of medicine concerned with classification, treatment and management of psychiatric or mental disorder and disease
- Notion of dis-ease = uneasy
- controversial definition
Sub-disciplines of psia
- Addiction
- Biological
- SSRI - low serotonin
- Paediatric
- Community
- Cross cultural
- Emergency
- Forensic
- Geriatric
- Military
- Neuropsychiatry
- social
Models
-medical
-cognitive
-behavioural
-qualitative phenomenological
-scientific
Medical Model
- disease due to biological probem
- The medical model views mental disorders as medical conditions that arise from abnormalities or dysfunctions in the brain or body.
- It emphasizes the importance of accurate diagnosis, evidence-based treatments, and medical interventions such as medication management and neurostimulation therapies.
- but what about personality disorder? normal biology but mentally abnormal? (due to childhood abuse)
- e.g. increase in mental health in young people (<21) cannot be biological because of sudden increase from 20 to 50% in only 10 years
- due to society:
- covid-19 and lockdown = loneliness and isolation
- access to internet from young age
- safety: global affairs, wars, WW3?
- social shocks; cost of living crisis, economy crisis
- increase in information overload
