examples of disorders Flashcards
What is social phobia defined as?
an exaggerated fear of one or more situations in which the person is exposed to possible scrutiny by others and fears that they may do something or act in a way that will be humiliating or embarsssing
Discuss how those with social phobias interpret things differently
- increased vigilance of negative facial expressions (Mogg et al 2004 increased attentional bias to angry faces)
- interpret ambiguous social events in a negative way
Generally phobias tend to over exaggerate what?
they tend to over exaggerate the stimuli they are scared of
What are the 4 methods of treatment of phobias?
- Exposure therapy
- Participant modelling and reinforcement
- VR
- Flooding/systematic desensitisation
5 explanations of phobias
- preparedness hypothesis
- maintained by cognitions (more alert/attentive to stimuli)
- temperament/ personality
- previous life experience
- genetics
How can previous life experience affect phobias?
- conditioning
- escapable/ inescapable situations
- post conditioning experience
What is the preparedness hypothesis of phobias?
Seligman said they was an evolutionary bias to fearful stimuli arguing they are beneficial and reasonable
What is OCD and what are its two main components?
- what if disorder
- obsessions (recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses and images which are anxiogenic)
- compulsions (repetitive behaviours or mental acts which are thought to reduce stress of obsessions or are preventative)
What categories do compulsions tend to fit into to?
- counting
- checking
- cleaning
- avoidance
Aetiology of OCD (4)
- behavioural (avoidance learning + conditioning)
- genetics
- abnormal brain functions
- neurochemical differences (SSRIs used)
What abnormal brain functioning do people with OCD have?
difference in brain regions which are involved in motor inhibition and response control
How many subtypes of schizophrenia are there in the DSM 5?
14
What is schizophrenia categorised by? What are the two sub types of symptoms?
Categorised by disordered thought patterns and symptoms can be positive or negative
Some positive symptoms of schizophrenia
- hallucinations
- delusions
- poor impulse control
Negative symptoms of schizophrenia
- flattened emotions
- poor speech
- lack of initiative
- social withdrawal
What is the difference between delusions of persecution and delusions of grandeur and delusions of control?
Delusion of persecution- think others are plotting against us
delusions of grandeur- think we have god like properties and are better than everyone else
delusions of control- someone is being controlled by someone or something else
Schizophrenia is a …. disorder meaning patients display a wide ….
heterogeneous
range of symptoms and behaviour
What is schizotypy?
This is where people display schizophrenic symptoms but not full blown schizophrenia. It is an intermediate pattern of behaviour
Discuss brain size and schizophrenic individuals
Those with schizophrenia have been found to have larger ventricles in the brain and therefore less brain matter than normal people
What is the law of thirds in schizophrenia?
- third of people are institutionalised for life
- third in remission and cured
- third symptomatic and getting worse
6 causes of schizophrenia
- genetics
- environment
- neurochemical (dopamine hypothesis)
- neurological (rain structure)
- neurodevelopmental (when in womb)
- family (high EE and double bind theory)
What is a simple technique used to spot schizophrenia?
- Wisconsin card sorting test
Schizophrenics find it hard to change tactics and alter their behaviour so will find the switching rules in the test hard and score badly. - probability decision making- they will make decisions more impulsively with less information
How is major depression defined?
chronic and persistent unhappiness
What are the diagnostic criteria/ symptoms of major depression?
- depressed/lack of interest for most of day, for most days, for at least 2 weeks
- significant weight loss or gain
- insomnia or hypersomnia
- psychomotor agitation/retardation
- fatigue/loss of energy
- feelings of worthlessness/guilt
- ability to think/concentrate
- recurrent thoughts of death/suicide (ca. 15%)
