disorders of trauma and stress

Question 1

what brain area concerns stress?

Answer 1

hypothalamus- brain interprets danger, NT in the hypthalamus activates the autonomic nervous system + endocrine system

Question 2

what two pathways produce arousal and fear reactions?

Answer 2

• sympathetic nervous system pathway (parasympathetic nervous system is the inverse- calms body down)
• hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal pathway

Question 3

what happens with the pituitary gland stimulaton?

Answer 3

hypothalamus stims the pit. gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (major stress hormone), which stims adrenal glands, releasing corticosteroids including cortisol

Question 4

acute stress disorder

Answer 4

when symptoms start w/in a month after the event and last less than a month. 80% turn into PTSD

Question 5

PTSD, how diff from acute stress disorder?

Answer 5

can start months or years after event, last longer than month

Question 6

bioligical factors of ptsd

Answer 6

biochemical arousal may continue, and damage brain areas

pregnant women may pass on high cortisol levels

Question 7

personality factors of ptsd

Answer 7

people who are more anxious, who don’t feel in control of events in their life, and who cant find positives in negative events are more predisposed

Question 8

social support

Answer 8

ppl w weak family/social support systems more likely to develop it

Question 9

what is the most helpful treatment for ppl with PTSD

Answer 9

exposure therapy , especially in vivo (real, not imagined)

Question 10

eye movement desensitizing and reprocessing

Answer 10

clients move their eyes in a rythmic manner side to side while flooding minds w triggering mems

Question 11

psychological debriefing

Answer 11

to prevent/reduce PTSD, victims of trauma recount the event and their emotions abt it in detail as soon after event as possible
-however, studies have found its ineffective or even detrimental

Question 12

dissociative disorders

Answer 12

one part of a persons memory or identity becomes dissociated w the rest

Question 13

dissociative identity disorder

Answer 13

person has multiple personalities (subpersonalities) often w/o access to each others mems and thoughts. Host/primary personality is most present.
avg number of personalities is 15/women, 8/men (could be 100 or more)
really increased in 80s and 90s, decreased in last 15 years

Question 14

dissociative amnesia disroder

Answer 14

cant recall important events/info, usually stressful ones
-localized (all of a mem), selective (some but not all), generalized (extends before event) or continuous (forgetting continues into present)

Question 15

depersonalization-derealization disorder

Answer 15

feel like theyve become detached from experience of self/mental processes, or watching experience from outside
distortions in perceptions of body parts (bigger/smaller)

Question 16

dissociative fugue

Answer 16

forgets all details of past lives, flee to a new location. Often more outgoing. Ends abruptly. Totally reversable.

Question 17

what 3 ways can subpersonalities interact?

Answer 17

• mutually amnesic: no awareness of each other
• mutually cognizant: each aware of each other
• one way amnesic relationships: most common, some aware of others (coconscious personalites) but its not mutual.

Question 18

how do subpersonalities differ?

Answer 18

• appearance (race, age, gender, size)
• abilities and preferences (if learned to sew in one, couldnt do it another)
• physiological responses (brain activity response to stimuli resembles diff people )

Question 19

psychodynamic view of dissociative disorders

Answer 19

-fear of the dangerous world (from the trauma they experienced) is too much and unconsiously flee to another personality who can look at event safely from afar

Question 20

behavioral view of dissociative disorders

Answer 20

dissociation is a response learned from operant conditioning

temporary relief when mind drifts to other subjects

Question 21

state dependent learning

Answer 21

if ppl learn something when in a particular state of mind/situation, more likely to remember it when in that same sitch.
-ppl who develop dissociative disorders may have state to memory links that are particularly rigid (mems/skills/etc tied ONLY to a particular state of arousa)

Question 22

self hypnosis theory of dissociative disorders

Answer 22

the dissociation is a form of self hypnosis, to forget horrifying events

Question 23

how is dissociative amnesia disorder treated

Answer 23

often goes away on its own
if not, then leading treatments are:
psychodynamic (particularly well suited, bc of emphasis on unconscious and memories)
drug
hypnotic
support for all largely from case studies, not controlled experiemnets

Question 24

how is dissociative identity disorder treated

Answer 24

1) recognize fully the nature of the disorder (first bond w client, maybe introduce subpersonalities to each other)
2) recover gaps in mem (same approaches as w amnesia- difficult tho bc some SP’s may try to protect primary P from remembering)
3) try to integrate the subpersonalities (final merging=fusion. SP’s may view this as death, distrust the process.