Exam 1 Flashcards
earliest attempts at treating mental disorders; cutting a hole in the skill while person was alive in order to allow the demonic spirits to exit; happened in the stone age (prehistoric times); based on the idea of the baby’s soft spot; possession dominated thinking about abnormal behavior
trephining
father of early medicine; responsible for: emergence of scientific viewpoint (clinical observation); early attempts at classification with biological explanations; four humors; brain is important to feelings and behaviors; hiseria in women caused by a wandering uterus; women were simple and not complicated
Hippocrates (460-377 BCE)
responsible for: early mapping of nervous system and how it related to psychological disorders; autopsies; scientific approach (biological basis); causes of psychological disorders (physical and mental)
Galen (CE 130-200)
very unspecific time in history; supernatural explanations for mental disorders; clergy managed mental illness; mass madness (caused by demonic spirits); mentally ill as witches (witchcraft) (not always); scientific aspect of Greek medicine survived in Islamic countries; Avicenna of Arabia
Middle Ages in Europe (CE 500-1500)
wrote The Cannon of Medicine and advocated for the treatment of the mentally ill
Avicenna of Arabia (980-1037 AD)
time period of resurgence of scientific questioning; time of Paracelsus and Weyer; establishment of asylums that were basically storage places with deplorable conditions, violent patients on display for the public (like animals), and unethical treatments
sixteenth century
said that mental illness was not demonic
Paracelsus
wrote about poor treatment of the mentally ill, but did not talk about helping them; one of the first to specialize in mental illness; not well respected and made fun of
Weyer
When did asylums emerge in the US?
mid 18th century
Which 2 people are associated with the humanitarian reform?
Pinel and Tuke
gave patients better conditions; not geared towards treatment
Pinel
believed that all should be treated with kindness; set up retreat center
Tuke
What were the 2 important movements in America in the 19th century?
Moral management and mental hygiene movement
movement of 19th century that focused on the social, individual, and occupational needs of mental patients; focused on what could be helpful
moral management
movement of 19th century that was extremely influential in reforming mental institutions; focused on taking care of patient’s physical needs; overshadowed other 19th century movement
mental hygiene movement
built mental institutions that eventually became crowded so conditions became bad; influential in reforming mental institutions
Dorothea Dix (1802-1887)
a book about the conditions in mental institutions; inspired deinstitutionalization in the 20th century
The Snake Pit
What were the purposes of the National Institute on Health (1946)?
fund research, train doctors, inform public
What was created under the Community Health Services Act (1963)? What happened because of it?
outpatient facilities, inpatient psych units in hospitals; under-funded thus leaving people homeless or in jail
What are the 4 major developments of the contemporary view of abnormal psychology?
- biological discoveries
- development of classification system
- development of psychological basis of mental disorders
- experimental psychology
What was the Kraft-Ebbing experiment (1897)?
major breakthrough for establishment of biological cause of mental disorders; general paresis patients injected with fluids from syphillis patients; found that paresis patients already had syphillis because they had no reaction; possible concrete biological cause
What happened in the case of Phineas Gage?
rod passed through the ventromedial region of his frontal lobe; experienced personality changes; initiated neuropsychological studies
What does the ventromedial region of the frontal lobe control and when does it develop?
rational decision making and emotional processing; developed in mid 20’s
wrote Compendum der Psychiatrie which was a book about different types of psychological symptoms; emphasized brain pathology in mental disorders; created a system of classification for mental disorders; each type was distinct; said we can only study the course of these disorders, not treat them
Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926)
introduced mesmerism; magnets responsible for mental disorders; known for weird treatments; not well respected, made fun of
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815)
introduced hypnosis; followers believed hysteria was self-hypnosis; led to debate over whether mental disorders were biologically or pyschologically based; thought that maybe hypnosis could cure mental disorders
The Nancy School
known for developing psychoanalysis; first attempt to explain psychological origins of abnormal behavior; processes outside a person’s awareness can determine behavior; worked on children
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
father of modern day psychology; established first psychology lab in Germany; studied memory and sensation; many students brought his ideas to the US; monumental in psychology study, even today
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
Who had the idea of classical conditioning? operant conditioning? behaviorism?
Ivan Pavlov
B.F. Skinner
John Watson
Elements of abnormality:
- Is the behavior uncommon or rare?
- What is abnormal is culturally relative
- Does the behavior cause distress?
- Does the behavior affect others?
- Does the behavior lead to impairment or interfere with life?
- Does the behavior cause difficulties for others?
- We did not discuss this element in lecture
- statistical deviancy
- violation of standards of society
- suffering
- social discomfort
- maladaptiveness
- irrationality or unpredictability
- dangerousness
What is the limitation for statistical deviancy? Suffering?
some disorders are not rare and not all rare behaviors cause problems; everyone experiences stress from time to time
existed since 1952, classifies symptoms/disorders; first version was based on psychodynamic theory; tried to make it theoretical; currently we use the 5th edition; groups disorders by category; contains checklist of observable symptoms
DSM
What are the 4 criteria that must be met in the DSM-5 to classify someone as having a mental disorder?
- clinically significant syndrome
- distress or disability (impaired functioning)
- not culturally sanctioned (culture taken into account)
- considered to reflect behavioral, psychological, biological disfunction
What do we classify disorders (4 reasons)?
provides nomenclature for structuring information, facilitates communication (between clinicians, in court of law); facilitates research; practical reasons (insurance, resource allocations)
What is the downfall of classifying disorders in the DSM (4 things)?
it can impede research that is out of the box, if we only focus on DSM disorders, we may miss other less common disorders/symptoms; stigmatization; loss of information; diagnostic categories are heterogeneous
What are the 4 main criticisms of the DSM?
- disorders may not truly be categorical
- arbitrary cutoffs (no continuum)
- lack of theory about etiology (symptoms but no causes)
- lack of scientific support (lack of research)
study of the cause of a disorder
etiology
something that has to happen for something else to occur, but is not enough on its own
necessary cause
something that on its own will get the job done, but is not necessary
sufficient cause
something that increases the likelihood of something occurring, but is neither necessary or sufficient
contributory cause
something that occurs early on before onset
distal cause
something that occurs relatively close to the onset
proximal cause
_______ and ______ causes are not mutually exclusive. Some symptoms can be both ________ and _______
distal and proximal; necessary and sufficient
The relations between causal factors and psychopathology are _______
reciprocal
What is the goal of etiological research?
to identify factors that can help improve treatment or prevention efforts
model that states that vulnerability + negative event = disorder
diathesis stress model
submodel of the diathesis stress model that needs some amount of diathesis before stress will have any effect; diathesis is necessary for disorder
interactive model
submodel of diathesis stress model that says that diathesis and stress sum together; high diathesis needs less stress for disorder to occur
additive model
viewpoint for understanding psychopathology that states that there is a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social/cultural factors; widely accepted
bio-psycho-social model
viewpoint for understanding psychopathology that states that disorders are diseases of the NS and endocrine systems inherited or caused by pathological processes; not the result of neurological damage but rather abnormality; biological factors interact with psychological and sociocultural factors
biological viewpoint
What are the 5 causes of disorders according to the biological viewpoint?
- neurotransmitter abnormalities
- hormone abnormalities
- genetic vulnerabilities
- temperment
- brain dysfunction and neural plasticity
This biological cause of disorders deals with abnormality in the communication of neurons and chemical imbalances; too much production, dysfunction in deactivations, problems with receptors
neurotransmitter abnormalities
biological cause of disorders dealing with NS linked with endocrine system, pituitary gland, HPA axis (stress response system, problems related to PTSD and depression), sex hormones
hormone abnormalities
biological cause of disorders dealing with chromosomal abnormalities (affects many genes, ex. Trisomy 21 Down’s Syndrome), gene abnormality (usually polygenic), genotype vs. phenotype, twin studies
genetic vulnerabilities
how genes shape the environment; include passive effect (parents provide environment), evocative effect (genes make you behave in a certain way, pull response from others), active effect (shaping environment, seeking out)
genotype-environment correlation
genes impact sensitivity/vulnerability to environment
genotype-environment interaction
percentage of twins sharing disorder or trait in twin studies
concordance
What are the critiques of twin studies?
parents emphasize differences in twins, monozygotic twins are treated more alike
biological cause of disorders dealing with a child’s characteristic emotional and arousal response to various stimuli; believed to form the basis of personality; interactions with environment; kagen’s research (behavioral inhibition = risk factor for anxiety disorders)
temperment
biological cause of disorders dealing with the fact that subtle differences in certain brain structures or function have been linked to various disorders
brain dysfunction and neural plasticity
flexibility of the brain in making changes in organization and/or function in response to pre or post natal experiences, stress, diet, drugs, etc.; rat study (enriched vs. impoverished environments)
neural plasticity
theory developed by Sigmund Freud that emphasizes early childhood experiences and the unconscious; theory of personality (id, ego, superego), anxiety and defense mechanisms, psychosexual stages of development
Psychoanalytic theory