Exam 1 Flashcards
what is the definition of psychopathology?
the study of abnormal psychology. understanding, treating, and preventing psychological dysfunction
what are the 4 D’s of abnormality
dysfunction
distress
devient
dangerousness
what is the common belief about the disease model?
mental illness is a disease process; behaviors, thoughts, and feelings are pathological
What is the modern view of the disease model?
mental disorders are a collection of problelms
trephination
drilling holes in the head to release evil spirits
yin/yang representation
positive yang must be in balance with negative yin for happiness
were the greeks, romans, and egyptians dominated by spiritual or biologcal theories
biological theories
where does “hysteria” come from
greek for “uterus”
greek’s version of wandering uterus
Hippocrates’ view of abnormal psychology
4 humors: blood, phlem, black bile, yellow bile
4 catagories of abnormal behavior: mania, epilepsy, melancholia, brain fever
need to restore balance to humors
what is the main idea of the mental hygeine movement
people had problems dues to their separation from nature and rapid social changes
what did Philippe Pinel do?
took over french asylum. let patients roam freely and made the facilities clean with good food
What did William Tuke do?
opened Quaker asylum in england called “The Retreat”. Treated patients with respect and dignity
what did Dorothea Dix do
lobbied to improve conditions in asylums in USA. established 30 asylums
who were the early figures of biological perspectives?
Wilhelm Griesinger
Emil Kraepelin
what did Wilhelm Griesinger do?
“The Pathology and Therapy of Psychic Disorders”. Argued all pathological disorders could be explained with brain pathology
what did Emil Kraepelin do?
developed classification scheme for disorders that is the basis for our modern classification systems
What is the importance of general paresis?
insanity->paralysis->death
suppported biological theories. Paresis only came about in people who had syphillis
who are the key psychoanalytic figures?
Mesmer, Charcot, Freud, Breuer
What did Charcot accomplish?
First, believed hysteria was caused by brain degeneration. Bernheim and Liebault showed they could induce hysteria w/ hypnosis. Switched to finding psychological causes for abnormality and trained Freud.
What did Freud an Bruer accomplish?
-groundwork for psychoanalysis: “Psychical Mechanisms of Hysterical Phenomena”
who were key figures in behavioral theories?
Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike, Skinner
Definition of behaviorism
study of impact of rewards and punishments on behavior
What did John Watson do?
used classical conditioning to study behaviors.
claimed he could train any child to be a specialist at anything
what did Thorndike and Skinner accomplish? what did they find?
operant conditioning
behaviors followed by positive consequences are more likely repeated
who were the key figures in cognitive theory.
Bandura, Ellis, Beck
what did Bandura contribute?
self-efficacy beliefs deterine well-being
what did Ellis contribute?
Rational emotive therapy
What was rational emotive therapy and why was it important?
Challenged patients’ irrational beliefs (sometimes harshly). Pushed psychology to stufy thought processes behing serious emotional problems
what did Arron Beck contribute?
Founded cognitive behavioral therapy. focused on irrational thoughts
three causal proposals of the biologic approach
genetic abnormalities
Brain dysfunction
biochemical imbalances
definition of theory
describes causes or contributing factor to psych disorders. provides framework for askin questions and interpreting data
definition of therapy
targets causes of disorders based on specific theory
what structures are part of the forebrain
thalamus
hypothalamus
pituitary gland
lymbic system
cerebrum
function of thalamus
handles incoming and outgoing signals
function of hypothalamus
regulates eating, drinking, sex, temp, emotions
function of pituitary
master gland
parts of lymbic system
amygdala
hippocampus
function of cerebrum
most of our advanced processing
what are the strutures of the hind brain?
medulla, pons, reticular formation, cerebellum
function of medulla
unconcious funcitons (breathing)
function of the pons
sleep and rousal
function of reticular formation
sleep, arousal, attention
function of cerebellum
balance and motor control
advantages of biological therapies
effective
removes blame from sufferer
disadvantages of biological therapies
- side effects
- relying on drugs rather than solving problems
- people more pessimistic when its biological
modeling vs observational learning
observation learning deals with the punishments/rewards of others
advantages of behavioral approaches
effectiveness is supported in research
disadvantages of behavioral approaches
- only works on select disorders
- evidence only comes from labs
- does not recognize free will
describe cognitive therapies
- identify/challenge dysfunctional thoughts and belief systems
- replace irrational cognitions w/ realistic ones
- teach effective problem solving
- short term (12-20 weeks)
describe cognitive behavioral therapy
cgonitive + behavioral techniques. identify and replace dysfunctional thoughts and add behavioral skills
advantages of cognitive approaches
- useful for sexual disorders, anxiety, depression, eating disorders. substance abuse
disadvantages of cognitive approach
- does disorder cause cognitions or cognitions cause disorder?
definition of repression
ego pushes anxiety-provoking material back into the unconscious (aka motivated forgetting); deffense mechanism Freud thought was the most effective
definition of free association
client talks about whatever comes to mind and therapist notices themes and how one thought leads to the next
definition of resistance
not telling therapyist emotionally heavy info
what is “working through”
repeatedly going over painful memories
describe interpersonal therapy
-shift focus from unconcious to clients’ relationship with others
- structured and directive
disadvantages of psychodynamic approaches
- lack of scientific data b/c hard to prove
- long term, so unaffirdable
what is the main idea of the humanistic approach?
all people have innate capacity for goodness and living a full life
describe client-centered therapy
unconditional positive regard: accepting who a person is but not their behaviors
empathetic and authentic communication
what is reflection in therapy?
therapist attempts to understand what client is experiencing and communicating (reflective listening) and checks with client about accuracy of understanding
advantages of humanistic approach
refreshing change b/c its positive
disadvantage of humanistic approach
- vague and not subject to scientific testing
- can’t be used for severe disorders
what is the main focus of third wave approaches?
peoples’ ability to understand and regulate emotion
what is dialectical behavior therapy?
very intense therapy to manage negative emotions and control impulsive behaviors
describe acceptance and commitment therapy
- face distressing situations/emotions instead of avoiding
- uses mindfulness an acceptance
what does a psychological assessment include
evaluated pychological, social, and emotional functioning
what are the 3 types of validity
content
predictive
construct
what is content validity
how well a test measures a phenomenon
predictive validity
how well a test predicts future behavior
construct validity
how well a test measures one thing and not another
what are the 4 types of reliability
test-retest
alternative form
internal
interrater
internal reliability
consistency between dif parts of test
definition of standardization
administering, scoring, interpreting test in a standard way
what does a mental status exam include?
clients’ appearance and behavior, thought processes, mood and affect, intellectual functioning, sensorium
what is sensorium
knowing where, who, when you are
mood vs affect
mood: emotion felt
affect: emotion expressed
describe MMPI-2
550 items
10 clinical scales
4 validity scales
describe a projective test
client responds to ambiguous stimuli and “projects” their thoughts and emotions onto it
which DSM’s used psychoanalytic theory
I and II
what was significant about the DSM III
-outlined specific criteria
-behaviors that must be shown/experenced
how do later versions of the DSM compare to earlier ones
- specify how long symptom must be present
- most conditions require symptoms to interfere w/ life
- abnormality should be defined as impact on ability to function and sense of well-being
what are 4 steps of scientific method?
1) define problem and hypothesis
2) choose and implement method
3) collect and analyze data
4) draw conclusions
what is a null hypothesis?
prediction that there is no relationship between phenomena
what is important in step 2 of the scientific method
- designate variables
- operationalization
what is operationaliztion?
finding a way to measure and manipulate variables
advantages of case studies
able to study rare problems
disadvantages of case studies
- cannot be generalized to larger population
- lacks objectivity
what are the types of correlational studies?
continuous
group comparison
cross sectional
longitudinal
continuous correlational study
two or more continuous variables measured
group comparison correlational studies
two or more groups compared on a variable
cros sectional correlational studies
participants assessed at one point in time
statistical significance
how likely a result is due to chance
advantages of correlational studies
- longitudinal studies can determine if group differences cause an event or if an event causes group differences
- good external validity
disadvantages of correlational studies
-longitudinal studies expensive and time consuming
- cannot infer causation
- third variable problem
what are epidemiological studies?
a study of frequency and distribution of a disorder
What is prevalence rate?
the proportion of the population that has the disorder at a given point or time
what are incidence rates?
number of new cases in a disorder
advantages of epidemiological studies
provide infor for who’s at most risk
disadvantages of epidemiological studies
- cannot establish causation
- third variable problem
what are human laboratory studies?
exposing participans to an event in a lab and determining its impact
what is internal validity?
changes in DV directly caused by manipulation of IV
what are demand characteristics?
when a participant gueses the study’s purpose and changes their behavior
how can you combat demand characteristics?
- filler measures (objects in the test that has notiong to do with what you are trying to measure)
- cover story (deception about the purpose of experiment)
- double blind
advantages of laboratory research
- higher control
- random assignment
disadvantages of laboratory research
- bad external validity
- ethical limitations
describe a single-case experimental design
- studies one or a few individuals intensely
- uses ABAB design OR multiple baseline design
what is the ABAB design
treatment introduced (mesurements taken) –> treatment withdrawn (measurements taken) –> treatment reintroduced (measurements taken)
what is multiple baseline design?
- same individual but in different settings
OR - different individuals at different points in time
advantages of single-case experiments
more intensive assessment of participants
disadvantages of single-case experiments
- limited generalizability
- cannot test all hypotheses
what is a family history study?
-identify people with disorder
- identify control group (similar in every way BUT without disorder)
- trace family tree to see how many people in family history have disorder
what is meta-analysis?
a statistical technique to summarize results across several studies
what are the steps of meta-analysis?
1) literature search
2) transform results of each study into common statistic
3) examine average effect size across studies
advantages of meta-analysis
provides more power to find out significant effects
disadvantages of meta-analysis
- problems with methodology
- file drawer effect (studies that do not support hypothesis they were designed to are less likely to get published)
