EXAM 1 - ch2 - causes of psychopathology Flashcards
One-Dimensional Model
Explain behavior in terms of a single cause
Could mean a paradigm, school, or conceptual approach
Tend to ignore information from other areas
Example: Explaining obsessive-compulsive disorder as the result of modeling a parent alone—Behavioral Model only
Multidimensional Model
Interdisciplinary, eclectic, and integrative
“System” of influences that cause and maintain suffering/problems
Draw upon information from several sources
Psychopathology results from multiple influences
Integrative Systems Approach
Allows for different causes in different people for different disorders.
This approach emphasizes:
Multifactorial causes
The biopsychosocial perspective
The diathesis–stress model
The diathesis–stress model is a psychological theory that attempts to explain a disorder as the result of an interaction between a predispositional vulnerability and a stress caused by life experiences. The term diathesis derives from the Greek term for a predisposition, or sensibility
The greater the vulnerability, the less stress needed to trigger a disorder
Equifinality
is used in developmental psychopathology to indicate that we must consider a number of paths to a given outcome
Reciprocal Causality
the way that you are, will influence how our environment will react to us. Temperament differences can cause siblings to be treated differently by their parents.
Lifespan
depression will look very different in different ages
Developmental Psychopathology
We need to understand normal development in order to understand abnormal development
Reciprocal gene-environment model
Outcomes are a result of interactions between genetic vulnerabilities and experience
Examples: depression, impulsivity
Genetics may make people more likely to seek out certain environments, thus affecting their experiences
Epigenetics
Environmental influences (e.g., stress, nutrition) actually affect the expression of certain genes both for the individual and their descendants
The field of neuroscience
The role of the nervous system in disease and behavior
The Central Nervous System
Brain and spinal cord
The Peripheral Nervous System
Somatic and autonomic branches
Somatic Nervous System
controls voluntary muscles and conveys sensory information to the central nervous system
Autonomoic Nervous System
control involuntary muscle movement
further divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic branches
Regulates cardiovascular system & body temperature
Also regulates the endocrine system and aids in digestion
sympathetic
expands energy (3F’s)
parasympathetic
conserves energy (resting)
Neurons
Neurons operate electrically, but communicate chemically