Exam 1 Flashcards
What is the DSM-5-TR? How does it work?
The official diagnostic system used in the US. It lists categories of psychological disorders and criteria for diagnosing.
Who may use the DSM-5-TR?
-Researchers
-Mental health professionals
-Insurance health professionals
-Insurance companies
-Pharm companies
-Policymakers
-Legal system
What does it mean for a diagnosis to have “clinical utility”?
That it should help professionals determine the prognosis, treatment plans, and potential treatment outcomes for a patient.
What is psychopathology?
Study of the nature, development, and treatment of psychological disorders
What are some challenges of psychopathology? (3 answers)
-Maintaining objectivity
-Avoiding assumptions
-Reducing stigma
What is the DSM-V-TR definition of a psychological disorder? (4 answers)
-Syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in cognition, emotion regulation, and behavior
-Reflects a dysfunction in the developmental
psychological, or biological processes underlying mental functioning
-Associated with distress or disability in social, occupational, or other important activities
-Not an expectable or culturally approved response to a common stressor
What are the 3 kinds of paradigms?
-Genetic
-Neuroscience
-Cognitive behavioral
The paradigm that covers “nature via nurture”, genes, and heritability
Genetic
Study of how an environment can alter gene expression
Epigenetics
The extent to which variability in a
particular behavior in a population can be
accounted for by genetic factors
Heritability
What is “Nature via Nurture?”
The idea that environmental influences alter the expression of our genes
The paradigm that covers neurons and neurotransmitters, the neuroendocrine system, and the autonomic nervous system
Neuroscience
What are the two parts of the autonomic nervous system?
Sympathetic and parasympathetic
What is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)?
A structured, short-term psychotherapy
Which part of CBT focuses on observable actions and behavioral responses with the goal of establishing functional and adaptive patterns of behavior?
Behavioral
Which part of CBT states that our interpretations can be adaptive or
maladaptive and attempts to identify and challenge maladaptive
Cognitive
What is the most commonly used form of psychotherapy which is extremely effective for most disorders?
CBT
What are the three factors that cut across paradigms?
-Emotions
-Sociocultural
-Interpersonal
What is the “presenting problem”?
The major symptoms and impairments the patient is experiencing
Assessment that uses psychological tests, observations, and interviews to develop a summary of the client’s symptoms and difficulties
Psychological
What are the advantages of diagnosis?
-Facilitates communication among professionals
-Advances the search for causes and treatments
-Can bring relief to the patient
What is reliability?
Consistency of measurement and the extent to which an assessment will provide the same result over person or time
What is validity?
The extent to which an assessment method actually measures what it claims
What are the advantages of the DSM-5?
-Provides an objective set of
criteria.
-Common language for
clinicians and researchers to
use.
-Decent reliability, particularly in
research settings.
What are the disadvantages of the DMS-5?
-Too many diagnoses (often
overlapping)
-Categorical vs dimensional
-Validity of DSM disorders
-Pathologizing or medicalizing the
human experience
Face-to-face interactions that serve to obtain information about various aspects of a
client’s situation, behavior, and personality. Can be very structured and formal or unstructured and informal but require a lot of skill and practice.
Clinical Interviews
Assessment that suggests aspects of the environment that might contribute
to symptoms. Can be done through direct observation or self-observation
Behavioral assessment
What are the different forms of neurological assessment?
-Brain imaging (CAT scan, MRI, PET scan, etc.)
-Psychophysiological (body changes)
-Neurotransmitter (postmortem)
-Neuropsychological (functions rely on different areas)
What should be kept in mind when integrating assessment data?
-Potential cultural bias of the instrument
or the clinician.
-Under-emphasis on the external factors
-Insufficient validation of measures
-Incomplete data
-Premature conclusions/assumptions
Method of inducing changes in behaviors, thoughts, or feelings
Psychotherapy
What are the goals of psychotherapy?
To help the client deal with the presenting problem
-Reduce emotional discomfort
-Foster insight
-Provide new information/validate
-Assign homework
-Develop hope and expectations of change
Studies that emphasize internal validity
Efficacy studies
Studies that emphasize external validity
Effectiveness studies
Treatment involving interventions that have produced a significant change in clients and patients in randomized controlled trials
Evidence-based treatment (EBT)
What are the common features of psychotherapy?
-A supportive relationship and trust (supportive factors)
-Lay the groundwork for changes in clients’ beliefs and attitudes (learning factors)
-Which lead to behavioral changes (action factors)
Factors that lead to success in therapy that are hard to define and measure
Nonspecific factors
Factors that impact the success of therapy
above and beyond the therapy technique
itself
Specific therapeutic variables
What is the full course of clinical intervention?
-Initial contact
-Assessment
-Goals of therapy/Treatment planning
-Implementing treatment
-Monitoring treatment
-Termination/Discharge
Remember the process of change as
-Please
-Come
-Put
-Away
-Mints
-Precontemplation - No intent to change
-Contemplation - Aware there is a problem but not committed to change
-Preparation - Intends to make a change in the near future
-Action - Changing behaviors, emotions or environment
-Maintenance - Preventing relapse
What is the difference between theory and “good” theory?
In “good” theory, ideas are falsifiable and stated clearly
What word do we never say in science?
Prove
A research method that promotes the pursuit of knowledge through systematic observation and requires that research findings are replicable and testable
Scientific method
What are the benefits of using the scientific method in psychology?
-Establishes clinical psychology as a prestigious discipline
-Using EBTs is “good practice” because then it isn’t just based on the clinician’s subjective opinion
-Improves services and subsequently patient outcomes
What are the 3 approaches to studies in psychology?
-Case study
-Correlational
-Experiment
Study approach that consists of getting detailed information about one person at a time
Case study
Study approach where the researcher determines if two things are related
Correlational
What can correlational studies not determine?
Causation
Significance where the results obtained from a study would be very unlikely to occur if there was no relationship
Statistical
Significance that focuses on the extent to which a relationship is large enough to matter in real life, practical importance
Clinical
Study of the distribution of disorders in a
population and possible correlates
Epidemiology
What are the 3 features of a disorder?
-Prevalence
-Incidence
-Risk factors
Number of people with a disorder
Prevalence
New cases each year
Incidence
Factors that increase risk
Risk factors
What is meant by the term “cookbook medicine”?
It’s often difficult to
implement the highly manualized and
standardized treatments that come out of science
Elevated diagnosis of mental disorders
Diagnostic inflation
What could be the cause of elevated diagnosis?
-Too wide of a net
-Increase in social stress
-“Fads”
-Placebo effect
-Big pharma
What does diagnostic inflation cause?
-Big pharma profits
-Polypharmacy
-Stigma
-Expenses from society and the patient
-Less psychotherapy
What does the umpire metaphor really mean?
-Ump 1 - Diagnosis revealed through science (but not easy to identify)
-Ump 3 - Disorders are arbitrary (but have patterns)
-Ump 2 - We find temporary meanings that aren’t 100% accurate
