Exam 4 content (new stuff) Flashcards
Immune system & health
People who are stressed engage in behaviors that compromise immune function
Stress increases the release of hormones that suppress immune function
More stressed = more susceptible to disease
General adaption syndrome
Seyle’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in 3 stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion
Alarm
Sympathetic nervous system
Increase heart rate, blood to skeletal muscles
Resistance
Body temperature, blood pressure, and respiration increase
Epinephrine and norepinephrine pumping
As time passes and no stress is relieved, body reserves dwindle
Exhaustion
More vulnerable to disease, collapse, and death
Type A personality
someone who is competitive, driven, impatient, verbally aggressive, anger prone
More likely to die from cardiac events and have weakened immune system from stress
Type B personality
someone who is easygoing and relaxed
Hardiness
Some people just seem to be immune to the effects of stress
Personality characterized by: a sense of commitment rather than alienation, control rather powerlessness, problems seen as challenges rather than as threats
Control (external vs internal)
Being in control of a situation helps you minimize stress
External locus of control: perception that outside forces beyond our personal control determine fate
Internal locus of control: perception that we control our own fate
Primary appraisal
appraising the event as a stressor or not
Secondary appraisal
assessing our ability to respond to the stressor (after we determine it is a stressor)
Coping strategies
Primary and secondary appraisal
Problem focused coping
Emotion focused coping
Thought suppression (does not work, more problems later on)
Relaxation
Aerobic exercise
Problem focused coping
attempting to alleviate stress directly by changing the stressor or the way you interact with it
Emotion focused coping
attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding/ignoring the stressor and attending to emotional needs related to our stress reaction
What defines a psychological disorder?
Abnormal - deviates from the norm
Maladaptive - behavior is disruptive
thoughts and behaviors interferes with relationships, ability to get things done
Personal distress from their symptoms and actions
Except in personality disorders because they are unable to feel guilt
Explanations for why disorders occur
Chemical imbalances
Early childhood experiences
Environmental factors, e.g., stress
Distorted thought processes
Genetics
Biological approach
Abnormal behavior results from some physical dysfunction
a physical problem that leads to mental illness- something wrong with your brain and that’s why you are behaving distressingly
Psychological approach
Psychological disorders are the result of past and present life experiences
Psychodynamic approach
intrapsychic conflict
childhood experiences and unconscious conflicts are the cause of psych disorders
Behavioral approach
abnormal behavior is learned
developed a fear of spiders after seeing a spider once after a traumatic event so u were classically conditioned to be afraid of them
also reinforcement or punishment to act a certain way
Cognitive approach
distorted thinking
ways you think impact how you see the world and your behavior
Sociocultural approach
Psychological disorders occur within the context of society
Thomas Szaz theory
problems in living not mental illness
says labeling something as a mental illness marginalizes people and lets them blame bad behavior on the illness instead of taking blame
Believes mental illness is a myth
DSM-5
Information about prevalence, etiology, prognosis
info about the symptoms someone needs to have to be diagnosed, how many people have the disorder, how the disorder develops/the causes of it, and what’s the expected course of the disorder
last revised in 2013
Criticisms of the DSM-5
Reinforces disease model
the idea that you have an illness/something wrong with you
Everyday problems viewed as mental problems
normal problems are pathologized
grief can be seen as depression but that’s not accurate
Overly responsive to political issues
listens too much when people complain to add/remove something instead of using data to make these decisions
Power of the label
stop seeing someone as a person and instead just a collection of symptoms
Rosenhan study
Mood disorders
Major depression
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Bipolar disorder
Suicide
Major depression symptoms
Depressed mood- persistently sad
Loss of interest, energy, motivation, nothing makes you happy
Disturbances in sleep, eating, weight, concentration
usually can’t fall or stay asleep, atypical but can happen where you sleep way too much
food doesn’t bring any pleasure, no energy to make food, loss of appetite (usually weight loss)
Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, hopelessness, death and suicide
Moving/talking way slower than usual or being very agitated and can’t sit still
More prevalent in men or women?
How many people have a recurrence?
How many commit suicide?
Incidence rate - 12.7% men, 21.3% women
60% - 70% will have a recurrence
more risk of recurrence if you’re a woman, it started in your teens, and/or it runs in your family
65% never receive treatment
some don’t realize they’re having an episode of depression, can’t afford it, don’t believe in therapy/think they’re weak, stigma
15% commit suicide
Symptoms of bipolar disorder
Characterized by periods of mania alternating with depression
Is bipolar more prevalent in men or women?
Same prevalence
How many people commit suicide in the US every year?
More than 49,000 completions
Gender differences in suicide
Age factors of suicide
Role of alcohol and guns
Women make more attempts (2x-3x more), men have more completions
70% of individuals who attempt suicide have drank before they tried
men use guns way more (hence they have more completions)
having a gun in the home triples the risk of suicide (way more people kill themselves than kill others with guns)
Older men (65+) have the highest rates but has declined over the last 100 years (didn’t want to be a burden on their families but now stuff like medicare exists)
Symptoms of mania
Elevated, Expansive, or Irritable mood
Hyperactivity, Decreased need for sleep, Grandiosity (grand ideas and inflated sense of self)
Racing thoughts, Pressured speech, Reckless behavior
often spending lots of money, driving recklessly, getting in fights, overactive sexual behavior
Schizophrenia and social class
Social drift hypothesis (social selection)
when you develop a serious psych disorder (like schizophrenia) regardless of your social class you will drift to the bottom of the social ladder because you cannot carry on with a normal life
Stress and social class
life is more stressful when you do not have as many economic resources (food and housing insecurity)
Social class and diagnostic labeling
subtle biases when clinicians evaluate people- they think about social class and tend to give someone from a higher economic class a less negative diagnosis if they have schizophrenic symptoms and will diagnose as bipolar
lower socioeconomic status more likely to get the schizophrenia diagnosis
Schizophrenia symptoms
(positive vs negative)
Split between someone’s thoughts, feelings, and actions
Positive symptoms - hallucinations, delusions, incoherent speech
auditory hallucinations most common, but visual can exist
delusions: religious (god is talking to you), feeling like you have special powers (grandiosity), the government is after you (persecutory)
speech: mixing up words, unusual words, speak in rhymes
Negative symptoms - loss of interest, flattened affect, poverty of speech, social withdrawal
loss of speech and loss of interest
no emotional reactions and look blank all the time
problems with attention, memory, executive function
Biological explanations for schizophrenia
Abnormalities in brain function and structure
hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus all different than normal
schizophrenics have more activity in the back of the brain, non-schizophrenics have more activity in front of the brain
Genetics
runs in families, much more common if a parent or grandparent has schizophrenia
Prenatal complications: exposure to the flu in second trimester
Father’s age: older dads more likely to pass on genetic mutations with schizophrenia
Dopamine hypothesis
in subcortical structures there are excess levels of dopamine in the midbrain (leads to positive symptoms) and there are lower levels of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex that are associated with the negative symptoms of schizophrenia
Anxiety disorders
Generalized anxiety disorder
Panic disorder
PTSD
Phobic disorder
Agoraphobia
OCD
Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder
persistent, free floating anxiety about lots of different things
tense, tired, difficulty concentrating and sleeping, inability to sit still
runs in families- heritability coefficient variability smaller than for depression tho
more common in women
Symptoms of panic disorder
Frequent, short lasting panic attacks where the patient feels like they are going to die
