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PS346 > Current approaches to treating/explaining mental illness > Flashcards

Current approaches to treating/explaining mental illness Flashcards

1
Q

Summarise and evaluate the medical model

A
  • biological basis (neurotransmitters, brain abnormality, genetic factors)
  • believes commonly, neurotransmitter imbalances like GABA - anxiety and serotonin in depression
  • bio origins, bio treatments (lobotomies, ECT)

However

  • model is reductionist (simplifies to basic bio structures|0
  • fails to explain dysfunctional beliefs
  • implicit assumption that dysfunction =extreme forms of things
  • biology = creates stigma and stereotypes
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2
Q

How does the medical model propose we treat mental illness?

A

Anti-depressants:

  • 1960’s
  • tricyclics: increase norepinephrine and serotonin available for synaptic transmission
  • MAO inhibitors: for panic/bipolar disorders (used when no response from others)
  • SSRI’s: prolongs serotonin action by reducing serotonin reuptake

Anti-psychotics:

  • Chlorpromazine (1960,70’s)
  • blocking dopamine receptors to reduce psychotic symptoms
  • many bad side effects (blood disorders) = causes treatment adherence - injection as an alternative

Anxiolytic Drugs:

  • tranquilisers
  • GABA increases at synapses
  • usually on short period prescriptions to avoid dependency
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3
Q

What are some problems with drug treatments?

A
  • medicalising mild psychopathology
  • perception of dependence for the functioning (even without physical dependence)
  • prevents understanding of psychopathology (not analysing the root causes)
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4
Q

Describe the behavioural approach to explaining and treating mental illness

A
  • psychopathology is from learned reactions (thus dysfunctional behaviour = classical/operant conditioning )
  • learning due to consequences (checking behaviours, alcohol dependence)
  • reinforcement and punishment-based
  • treatment involves systematic desensitization, flooding approaches (extinguishing the associations)
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5
Q

What are some issues with the behavioural approach?

A
  • neglects the cognitive aspect (dysfunctional thoughts)
  • ignores complexity
  • reinforcement history can be hard to trace (empirical?)
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6
Q

How does the cognitive approach account for mental illness (Ellis and Beck)?

A
  • irrational beliefs and judgements can cause emotional distress and unrealistic demands
  • Beck’s theory of depression (negative triad)- biases in processing information (developing a negative schema on the self, the world and the future)
  • thinking determines emotion (event -> cognition -> emotion)
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7
Q

What are some issues with the cognitive approach?

A
  • dysfunctional thought may be a symptom rather than a cause

- little understanding of how the thoughts develop (rationalisation or emotion?)

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8
Q

Briefly describe the psychodynamic approach to mental illness

A

Freud

  • unconscious mind and conflicts
  • different levels of consciousness with no clear divisions but differen t degrees (alcoholism, dreams - over two)
  • human motivation = satisfying instinctual drives (sex and life-preserving)
  • Personality - id, ego, superego
  • Libidio - child is born with fixed mental energy which later becomes the adult sex drive (bio inheritance)
  • conflict between id, ego and superego = psychopathology
  • fixation in a psychosexual stage = psychopathology
  • reducing conflict using defence mechanisms (usually acquired through socialism)
  • failed defences and patterns of emotional pan - disorder (could be in unconscious)
  • psychodynamic formulation = general concepts froma theory and apply to individual to explain symptoms
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9
Q

What are some issues with the psychodynamic approach?

A
  • despite being influential, concepts are difficult to define and measure
  • very little empirical support
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10
Q

Describe psychodynamic therapy

A
  • focus on unconscious conflicts
  • psychoanalysis (revealing and understanding the source of conflicts) to regain control
  • uses a wide range of techniques:

free association = verbalising thoughts and tapping into the unconscious without guard

transference = used by the therapist to explore and understand redirection of feelings to another (counter-transference = reactions of the therapist to the patient = affects the therapeutic relationship) - analysing ways of interacting

dream analysis = unconscious msgs make take symbolic representation

  • latent content (implicit/hidden you recall)
  • manifest content (explicit content recalled)
  • Freud suggests we understand the ID via dreams
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11
Q

Describe Carl Rogers’ person-centred approach to mental illness

A
  • encouraging personal development, awareness, free will
  • this helps resolve conflicts and psychopathology - enables self-actualisation (a process, not an end goal)
  • humans have a positive developmental drive to fulfillment (in any conditons) - universal drive in unique individal

Philosophical underpinnings of the theory:

  • humanism (rational, have worth, need to grow and develop via actualising)
  • existentialism (individuals can shape their own lives) - choice, freedom, concrete individual existence
  • phenomenology (regarding nature of reality; we function in a subjective, perceptual frame of reference) - basically noticing/observing but not interpreting or making assumptions
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12
Q

What was Roger’s opinion of what personality is and how mental illness may arise?

A

19 propositions to describe change, circumstances of change and qualities of promoting

  • organism valuing
  • requires positive self-regard
  • conditional positive regard = conditions of worth
  • incongruity between the ideal and the real self can lead to suffering
  • defences (blaming other aspects increases incongruence and is difficult to get out of)
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13
Q

briefly evaluate the person-centred theory

A
  • difficult to evaluate
  • overly optimistic of human nature (stark difference with psychodynamic)
  • develops good and effective therapy
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14
Q

Describe what humanistic therapies are

A
  • highlighting purpose, personal responsibility and positivity
  • encourages acceptance of responsibility, awareness of subjectivity
  • therapist participates but is not absorbed or judgemental - becomes an alert companion
  • no rules, non-directive
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15
Q

What are the core conditions Rogers’ proposed would be sufficient for change (humanistic therapy)?

A
  • 2 persons in a psychological contract
  • client is in a state of incongruence
  • therapist is congruent/ genuine
  • therapist experiences an empathetic understanding of the client’s frame of reference (communication)
  • therapist has empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard

Essential from the therapist:

  • congruence
  • unconditional positive regard
  • empathy
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16
Q

Describe briefly the seven stages of the process (Rogers)

A
  • flowing continuum (not discrete)
    1) client defensive and resistant to change
    2) less rigid (talk about external events)
    3) client talks about themself but avoid discussion of present events
    4) deep talks and the better therapeutic relationship
    5) expressing emotion, relies on self and accepting more responsibility
    6) rapid growth toward congruence and develops UPR (the point at which formal therapy is no longer required)
    7) client fully functioning and self-actualising (relating therapy to real life)
17
Q

describe how emotion may cut across different psychological paradigms

A
  • emotion can be studied from multiple perspectives
  • what an individual wants to feel depends on where they are from (ideal affect)
  • China = valuing less arousing positive emotions (calmness) more than happiness (this also reduces the use of drugs like cocaine - U.S.A value happiness more so seek treatment from those drugs - although China may use heroin/opioids)
18
Q

describe how some sociocultural factors may cut across paradigms

A
  • gender (depression is twice as likely in women then men but antisocial behaviour disorder is the opposite)
  • risk factors may effect genders differently (men more likely to have ADHD, APD than women - due to father to son genetics)
  • some disorders - specific to cultures; eating disorder specific to Western (or hikkomori in Japan - social disorder in men)
  • prevalence rates of disorders may also var cross-culturally
  • poverty (related to APD, anxiety)
19
Q

What is interpersonal therapy?

A
  • understanding that relationships influence disorders - psychodynamic approach
  • object relations theory: patterns in close relationships shape thoughts and feelings
  • attachment theory: type or style influences adult psychology
  • combine theories = relational self = empirically supported = positive feeling associated with people you are in close relations with

Four issues are examined:

  • unresolved grief
  • role transitions
  • role disputes
  • interpersonal and social deficits
20
Q

Describe cognitive behavioural treatments to psychopathology

A
  • changing unhelpful cognitions to change unhelpful emotions
  • hot cross bun model, thought record sheet (identifies the cognitive maintenance, tackles root)
  • Rational emotive therapy or CBT
  • assessing CBT ABC model
  • tackling thinking biases and using homeworks/questioning processes
21
Q

notion check

A

read.

22
Q

What is the difference between grey and white matter?

A

Grey matter = cell bodies, dendrites, axon terminals

White matter = tracts of myelinated nerve fibres

23
Q

Describe the HPA axis involvement in mental illness

A

-hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal axis

  • faced with threat > hypothalamus release CRF > communicates with the pituitary to release adrenocorticotropic hormone > adrenal glands > cortisol release (stress hormone)
  • increased/constant cortisol production, chronic stress - implicated in SZ, depression
24
Q

Give three influential assumptions of the psychodynamic approach

A
  • childhood relationships and experiences shape adult personality
  • there are unconscious influences on behaviour
  • the causes and purposes of human behaviour are not always obvious
25
Q

Describe the effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy

A
  • as effective as other empirically supported treatments but not deemed superior
  • lacking evidence of short-term studies

PS346 (8 decks)

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