Exam 2 - Additional Reading Review Questions

Question 1

EVOLUTIONARY BENEFITS OF PSYCHIC PAIN

Question 2

Explain the author’s major concern about the use of psychiatric drugs as “mood brighteners.”

Answer 2

• Concern: Are “mood brighteners” harmful because they are blocking bad feelings that are actually useful?
• If “bad” emotions were selected during natural selection, then they must be useful.

Question 3

What is the author’s explanation for why pain is painful? What is his explanation for why we don’t have
neutral emotions?

Answer 3

• Pain is painful because it must alert you and serve as the highest priority at that moment.
• We don’t experience neutral emotions because they pose neither opportunity nor threat.

Question 4

What purpose does sadness fill, according to this author?

Answer 4

According to the author, the ruminating characteristics of sadness allows people to sit down and deeply reassess life goals and strategies. Through this reassessment, you avoid making the same mistake again.

Question 5

Explain why the author believes we weren’t designed to be happy.

Answer 5

He believes we have emotions to survive, not to be happy. The main goal of being human is to survive.

Question 6

DEPRESSION’S UPSIDE

Question 7

Explain the opposing views in this article regarding the nature/usefulness of rumination.

Answer 7

• Depression is bad and challenges Darwin’s evolutionary theory, it impedes reproduction. it is a waste of mental energy.
• Depression has a purpose and is an adaptive response.
  • “Analytic rumination hypothesis”: Depression is used to increase our analytical skills and make it easier to pay continuous attention to a difficult dilemma. Without rumination we would be less likely to solve our predicaments.

Question 8

What are the key criticisms of Andrews and Thomson’s “analytic rumination hypothesis”?

Answer 8

• Suggested that Andrews and Thomson neglect the variants of depression (chronic depression or late-life depression) that don’t fit their evolutionary theory.
• People with depression can struggle with doing anything, including investing in child care which could have detrimental effects on the survival of offspring.
• Depression is too heterogeneous of a disorder to just be explained by a simple evolutionary explanation. Its too complex!

Question 9

HEAD CASE

Question 10

Describe the concerns of Greenberg, Wakefield, and Kirsch regarding depression/depression treatment.

Answer 10

• Greenberg: thinks depression is being overdiagnosed. He believes that depression treatment is just a CONSPIRACY to paste a big smile over a world that we have good reason to feel sick about.
• Wakefield: depression is being overdiagnosed bc the criteria includes normal sadness. (ex: being sad after losing a job is normal)
• Kirsch: antidepressants aren’t useful and are “fancy placebos”. Even though evidence shows antidepressants work, a patient experiences side effects when they take, so since they know they are taking the drug, they start to feel better (compared to if if they took the placebo.)

Question 11

Why does Kirsch dismiss the results of the STAR*D trial?

Answer 11

Kirsch says its one big PLACEBO effect!!
- Each time you give a participant a new drug, you turn up the placebo effect.
-Also, the anti-depressive episode could have just passed on its own.

Question 12

According to the article, why were SSRIs initially marketed as antidepressants even though they’re
commonly used to treat anxiety?

Answer 12

• Anxiety drugs acquired a bad name bc they were highly overused and caused problems like birth defects and were addictive.
• Thus, they promoted these drugs as antidepressants!

Question 13

THIS SIMPLE FIX COULD HELP

Question 14

What is the homework assignment recommended by the “Let Grow Project?”

Answer 14

The Let Grow Project tells kids to go home and ask their parents if they can do something new by themselves, that they have felt ready to do do but haven’t done yet.

Question 15

How was this approach modified to “independence therapy” for anxious kids?

Answer 15

Independence therapy reconceptualized exposure therapy with encouraging kids to try new things on their own. Allowing kids to be more independent and less worried.

Independence therapy is beneficial for anxious kids bc it exposes them to doing new things on their own (so they don’t feel as anxious about it) Its lets them trust themselves.

Question 16

YOU DON’T LOOK ANOREXIC

Question 17

What is “atypical anorexia?”

Answer 17

Atypical anorexia shares all the same symptoms as anorexia except for being significantly underweight (often used to describe people in bigger bodies that have anorexia)

Question 18

What are some of the ways that weight stigma seems to have affected the treatment received by those
with this diagnosis?

Answer 18

• Oftentimes, people believe only skinny people can have eating disorders, so those in bigger bodies often go undiagnosed. (“To the outside world, they appear standard or “overweight”)
• It takes longer for people with atypical anorexia to be diagnosed.
• Its harder for ppl with atypical anorexia to receive treatment (they may not receive insurance bc they don’t meet the weight requirement.)

Question 19

What arguments in favor of combining anorexia and atypical anorexia are presented in the article?

Answer 19

• Combining anorexia and atypical anorexia will make it easier for ppl with atypical anorexia to be diagnosed and treated.
• Anorexia and atypical anorexia share the same medical and nutritional issues (besides the weight requirement)
• Research shows that body size is a LESS RELEVANT indicator of the severity of eating disorders compared to other factors, including the percentage of body mass lost and the speed of the lost of that body mass.

Question 20

Describe the results of the “starvation experiment.”

Answer 20

• Starvation Experiment: 36 young, healthy men underwent six months of semi-starvation and five months of resumed feeding.
• RESULTS: These mentally fit young men developed many symptoms of anorexia, bulimia, and BED, including obsession with eating, cutting food into small pieces, bingeing and purging, eating very slowly, and body-image issues.
• Shows how starving yourself can cause an eating disorder and issues with eating

Question 21

THE PTSD TRAP

Question 22

Explain Captain Stevens’ concern “that many of these men and women are being pulled into a treatment
and disability regime that will mire them in a self-fulfilling vision of a brain rewired, a psyche permanently
haunted.”

Answer 22

Captain Stevens believes clinicians aren’t separating the few who really have PTSD from those who are just experiencing things like depression, anxiety, etc.

Question 23

What does it mean to argue that PTSD as a construct might be “overextended?”

Answer 23

They are arguing that PTSD has become very overgeneralized and almost expected if you were a veteran. Clinicians are MISTAKING other problems for PTSD.

Question 24

Why does the author argue that PTSD is “almost unique” among psychiatric diagnoses?

Answer 24

PTSD is “almost unique” among other disorders bc it MUST have a link to a traumatic event (its defined by an external cause)

Question 25

Explain the findings of Bodkin’s study.

Answer 25

• When screening for PTSD and trauma separately, it was found that the PTSD rate has ZERO relation to the TRAUMA rate.
• Showed that PTSD is being overdiagnosed.

Question 26

In what ways might the VA system encourage “chronic disability?

Answer 26

• Being diagnosed with PTSD makes a vet eligible for monthly disability payments of up to $4,000. (if they are considered cure – recovers or starts working, they stop receiving the benefits.)
• Ppl want to say they have PTSD for long periods of time so they can continue receiving benefits

Question 27

UNDERSTANDING RACE-BASED TRAUMA

Question 28

How might the DSM criteria for PTSD (as they are currently written) fall short when it comes to recognizing
race-based trauma?

Answer 28

• There is evidence that racism/discrimination can lead to trauma but it is not included in the DSM criteria for PTSD.

Question 29

The author argues that psychological responses to racism can be similar to psychological responses to
sexual assault or domestic violence. Explain her argument.

Answer 29

• In both events, rape victims/domestic violence victims and race-based trauma victims may respond with disbelief, shock, or dissociation.
• Victims can also feel shame and self-blame because they were unable to respond or defend themselves, can led to low self-esteem and self-destructive behaviors.

Question 30

Why might defining trauma as a “discrete event” be inadequate for those who experience racism?

Answer 30

• Defining trauma as a discrete event is limited because many minority individuals experience CUMULATIVE experiences of racism as traumatic, instead of just one discrete event (like a hate crime).

Question 31

What advice does the author have for clinicians?

Answer 31

• Clinicians must be willing and able to assess race-based trauma in their minority patients.
• Clinicians assessing ethnoracial minorities are encouraged to DIRECTLY inquire about the patient’s experiences of racism when determining trauma history.