Diagnosis Flashcards
What are adaptive behaviours?
Adaptive behaviours are age appropriate, everyday living skills that develop as a person ages or gains experience. They assist in the ability to relate to others, become independent and function on a daily basis. These behaviours can be assessed through an Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System (ABAS). The following areas are covered in this:
- communication
- community use
- functional academics
- home living
- health and safety
- leisure
- self-care
- self-direction
- social
- work
The development of these behaviours is shown through personality predisposition, resilience, secure attachment, parental interest in education, happy and secure home environment and financial security.
What are maladaptive behaviours?
Maladaptive behaviours are developed in early childhood as a means of reducing anxiety that interfere with a person’s ability to function. Tantrums, screaming and self-harm are examples of this. Maladaptive behaviours can be viewed as coping mechanisms.
What is the sociocultural approach to normality?
Normal behaviour is based of social and cultural cues. The way we interact with others, dress, eat and talk follows societal cues.
What is the functional approach to normality?
- Suggests a person can function relatively independently at a level expected for their age
- A person who can think, feel and behave in a manner that allows them to carry out the activities they do and be a productive member of society is considered normal.
What is the historical approach to normality?
Normality is based of cues from the period of time, and this changes in periods.
What is the situational approach to normality?
- Determines what is or is not normal by using situational cues
- Example- it would not be seen as a normality to laugh at a funeral or in Japan slurping noodles is an indication food is good but if you did it in Australia it would be disrespectful
- Tied up with cultural expectations
What is the statistical approach to normality?
- Identifies normal behaviours by the frequency of behaviour within the specified population
- Measures of Mean, Median and Mode demonstrate a statistical approach to normality. For example, if we look at a normally distributed bell curve, data that sit towards the centre of the curve is viewed as ‘normality’
- Relates to developmental norms e.g. if an infant does not learn to crawl it would be viewed as an abnormality
What is the medical approach to normality?
- Views mental disorder in terms of a physical illness with a possible biological basis
- Example- medication for a person suffering from depression
What is a psychological disorder?
A mental or psychological disorder is one that affects one or more functions of the mind and can interfere with a person’s thoughts, emotions, perceptions and behaviours. This implies the existence of a clinically recogniseable set of symptoms and behaviours that usually need treatment to be alleviated. The two main categories in this are psychosis and neurosis.
What is the difference between DSM-5 and the International Classification of Diseases?
The DSM-V includes criteria to diagnose a disorder, while the ICD includes this, but without additional considerations.
What are the four main categories of psychological disorders?
Mood disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders and psychotic disorders are the four main categories.
Explain a mood disorder.
Mood disorders are diagnosed when an individual shows severe symptoms of flattened mood, low self-esteem and lack of motivation. Unipolar, bipolar and major depressive disorder are three of these disorders. Symptoms of these include insomnia, appetite changes, worthlessness, thoughts of suicide, difficulties concentrating, loss of enjoyment, intense feelings of sadness or guilt, trouble initiating action, anxious distress, dimished libido and feeling slowed down, restless or excessively busy
What are examples of an anxiety disorder?
Examples of anxiety disorders are phobias, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Post-traumatic Stress Disorders, Generalised Anxiety Disorder. The types of phobias are animal, natural environment, situation and blood-injection-injury phobias.
Explain a personality disorder.
Personality disorders are psychological disorders in which an individual shows a rigid and unhealthy pattern of thinking, functioning and behaving. Within this, there is Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) where the individual has extreme instability of moods and relationships, and Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), which is the tendency to appear calm and charming while acting in the opposite manner.
Explain a psychotic disorder.
A psychotic disorder is a severe mental disorder that causes abnormal thinking and perceptions of reality.
