Final Exam: Psychological Disorders Flashcards
Conceptions of mental illness
- we witness a failure of adaptation to the environment or a failure to function
- individuals are unable to adequately carry out everyday demands of life (e.g. going to school, eating, sleeping well)
Mental Illness vs Mental Health
- Statistical Rarity- only a small % of the population has mental disorders
- subjective distress- produces emotional pain
- impairment- interferes with people’s ability to function in everyday life
- societal disapproval- societal attitudes shapes our views of abnormality (deviations from the norm)- even with education and progress, stigma of mental illness remains
- biological dysfunction- breakdown/failure of physiological systems
Historical Conceptions of Mental Illness: Moral Treatment (17&1800)
- approach to mental illness calling for dignity, kindness and respect for the mentally ill
- no ‘real’ treatments
Historical Conceptions of Mental Illness: 1900s
- advent of talk therapy and effective medications improved the lives of many living with mental disorders
- in 195-s, a drug was developed called chlorpromazine (Thorazine)-> moderately decreases schizophrenia symptoms
Historical Conceptions of Mental Illness: Deinstitutionalization (1960-70
- government policy that focused on releasing hospitalized psychiatric patients into the community and closing mental hospitals
- Mixed results= some individuals lived almost regular lives, but others stopped their prescribed treatments and spiraled downwards (homeless/jail)
Bulimia Nervosa
- culture-bound
- unique to Western cultures (US and Europe
- triggered by sociocultural expectations of the ideal body
Anorexia Nervosa
-more culturally universal- found across time and cultures
Culturally Universal Mental Disorders
-Schizophrenia, alcoholism, antisocial personality disorder
Diagnosis
-helps us describe a problem a person is experiencing
Misconceptions about diagnosis
- psychiatric diagnosis is nothing more than pigeonholing, like sorting people into different boxes
- psychiatric diagnoses are unreliable
- psychiatric diagnoses are invalid
- psychiatric diagnoses stigmatize people
Diagnosis truths:
- psychiatrists actually realize that people differ. they are just similar in one aspect (ppl are more than their diagnosis)
- for major mental disorders, interrater reliability is high (practitioners generally agree with one another when diagnosing the same person)
- A diagnosis is not invalid and will tell us something new and true about the person
- Contrary to labeling theorists’ claims, diagnoses may improve others’ perceptions of the mentally ill (doesn’t stigmatize them)
Rosenhan Study
- Stanford professor
- pseudo patients (n=8)
- hearing voices> admitted to psychiatric hospital
- released after 3 weeks
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
- diagnostic system containing the American Psychiatric Association (APA) criteria for mental disorders
- provides a list of symptoms and a decision rule on how many of these symptoms must be present for a diagnosis (DSM-5)
Biopsychosocial Approach
acknowledges the interplay between biological (hormonal abnormalities), psychological (irrational thoughts), and social influences (interpersonal interactions)
-lists prevalence of mental disorders (% of ppl in population with a given disorder)
DSM-5 Criticism
- some diagnoses may be invalid
0medicalizes normality - reliance on a categorical model of psychopathology
-vulnerable to political and social influences
-high level of comorbidity among diagnoses
comorbidity
co-occurrence of two or more diagnoses within the same person
Anxiety Disorders
- most everyday anxieties generally don’t last long or feel especially uncomfortable
- everyday anxiety is actually adaptive
- sometimes anxiety can spiral out of control and become excessive/chronic
GAD- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- continual feelings of worry, anxiety, physical tension, and irritability
- spend on average 60% of each day worrying, compared with 18% of the general pop
- often experience other anxiety disorders such as panic disorder/phobia
- most prevalent in females and caucasians
Panic Disorder
-repeated and unexpected panic attacks, along with persistent concern about future attacks or a change in behavior to avoid panic attacks
Panic attack
a brief, intense episode of extreme fear characterized by sweating, dizziness, light-headedness, racing heartbeat, and feelings of impending death/losing one mind
-peaks in 10 minutes (some are triggered while some are un-cued
Phobia
- intense fear of an object or situation that is greatly out of proportion to its actual threat (irrational)
- for a fear to be a phobia, it must restrict our lives, create considerable distress or both
- most common of all anxiety disorders
Specific phobia
- intense fear of objects, places, or situations
- e.g. water, insects, animals, elevators
Agoraphobia
- 1 in 25 people
- fear of being in a place or a situation from which escape is difficult or embarrassing or help is unavailable in the event of a panic attack
- e.g. movie theater, malls, tunnels, bridges
Social Phobia
- marked fear of public appearances in which embarrassment or humiliation is possible
- e.g. public speaking, eating, or performing
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- marked emotional disturbance after experiencing or witnessing a severely stressful event
- life-threatening to oneself or to someone else
- the person’s response must also involve intense fear, helplessness, or horror
PTSD Symptoms
- avoiding reminders of the trauma, sleep loss, anxiety, increased sensitivity to stimuli, nightmares, and flashbacks
- hallmark of the disorder= reliving the traumatic event as if it were happening again
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
marked by repeated and lengthy (>1hour per day) immersion in obsessions, compulsions, or both
Obsessions (OCD)
- persistent ideas, thoughts, or impulses that are unwanted and inappropriate and cause marked distress
- e.g. contamination- germ related or aggression-thoughts of harming others
Compulsions (OCD)
- repetitive behaviors or mental acts performed to reduce or prevent stress
- e.g. repeated checking and hand-washing are common, performing tasks in set ways, counting, tapping objects, repeating a specific phrase or prayer
- compulsions are carried out to reduce anxiety and/or prevent obsessions from manifestation
- related disorders include Tourette’s and body dysmorphic disorder
Learning Models (explanations for anxiety disorders)
- fears arise from learned associations
- through classical conditioning (little Albert), operant conditioning (reinforcement), observing others (parents), or being given information from others (stories that induce fear)
Catastrophic thinking
-Anxious people tend to think about the world in different ways than
non-anxious people.
-anticipating terrible events despite their low probability
Anxiety sensitivity
-Anxious people tend to think about the world in different ways than
non-anxious people.
-negative misinterpretation of minor physical symptoms
Genetic and Biological Influences of Anxiety Disorders
twin studies show that many anxiety disorders (OCD) are genetically influenced.
Mood Disorders
- over 20% of Americans will experience a mood disorder: Depression (MDD), Bipolar (I or II), Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD)
- most prevalent in females
Major Depressive Episode
a state in which a person experiences a lingering depressed mood or diminished interest in pleasurable activities
- symptoms include feeling sadness, hopelessness, worthless or irritability, sleep difficulties, fatigue and loss of E, weight and appetite changes, and thoughts of death/suicide
MDD
- women are twice as likely to be depressed as men
- this difference may be attributed to differences between men and women in economic power, sex hormones, social support, and history of physical/sexual abuse
- depression is recurrent
Life events (Explanations for Major Depressive Disorder)
- stressful events that represent loss or threat of loss are closely tied to depression
- e.g. loss of a close relationship/loss of a carreer
Interpersonal Model (Explanations for Major Depressive Disorder)
-depressed people seek excesssive reassurance which leads them to being disliked and rejected (viscious cycle)
Interpersonal model: Coyne’s Study
- college students speak on the phone with depressed or non-depressed individuals
- the former reported feeling more depressed, anxious, and hostile after the conversation
- they were also more rejecting
Behavioral Model (Explanations for Major Depressive Disorder)
Depressed people have a lack of positive reinforcement, and this leads them to stop engaging in goal setting and achievement-oriented behaviors, as there are no payoff for their efforts
Cognitive Model (Explanations for Major Depressive Disorder)
- depression is caused by negative views of self, the future, and the world
- this worldview develops early in life due to negative experiences
- people with depression put a negative mental spin on their experiences
mild depression
depressive realism (see the world more accurately)
Learned Helplessness
tendency to feel helpless in the face of events we can’t control
Rumination
-focusing on how bad they feel and are endlessly analyzing the causes and consequences of their problems
The role of biology
genes exert a moderate influence on the risk of developing major depression
-innate predisposition in born tendencies
Bipolar Disorder
a condition marked by a history of at least one manic episode
- very genetically influenced, but the onset of an episode is usually a result of a stressful event
-Increased activity in amygdala (associated with emotions), decreased
activity in prefrontal cortex (associated with planning).
Manic Episode
experience marked by dramatically elevated mood, decreased need for sleep, increased energy, inflated self-esteem, increased talkativeness, and irresponsible/risky behavior (judgement is impaired)
Suicide: Facts and Fictions
- major depression and bipolar disorder are associated with a higher risk of suicide than most other disorders
- around 45,000 reported cases of suicide in recent years (underreported)
- previous attempt and a sense of hopelessness are strong risk factors in predicting suicide attempts
Personality Disorders
-condition in which personality traits, appearing first in adolescence, are inflexible, stable, expressed in a wide variety of situations, and lead to distress or impairment
Borderline Personality Disorder
extreme instability in mood, identity, and impulse control
- increased impulsivity and rapidly fluctuating emotions
- will worship a person one day (idealize) and hate them the next day
Psychopathic Personality (Not DSM)
- condition marked by a distinctive set of personality traits including superficial charm, dishonesty, manipulativeness, self-centeredness, guiltlessness, and risk-taking
- overlap with antisocial personality disorder (DSM-5)
Antisocial Personality Disorder
- condition marked by a lengthy history of irresponsible and/or illegal actions
- e.g. mass murderers and sexual offenders
Dissociative disorders
-conditions involving disruptions in consciousness, memory, identity or perception
Dissociative Amnesis
inability to recall important personal information
- most often related to a stressful experience
- can’t be explained by ordinary forgetfulness
- e.g. memory loss of early child abuse
Dissociative Fugue
sudden, unexpected travel away from home or the workplace, accompanied by amnesia, for significant life events
- in some cases they move to another city/country assuming a new identity
- can last for hours or years (very rare condition)
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
-the presence of two or more distinct identities (alters) that recurrently take control of the person’s behavior
Alters (DID)
- each alter has its own role/identity
- if the primary/host personality is shy, one or more of the alters may be outgoing or flamboyant
Post-traumatic model (explanations for DID)
- DID arrises from a history of severe abuse during childhood
- it is believed that the child compartmentalized her identity into alters as a means of coping with intense emotional pain
- in this way, the person can feel as though the abuse happened to someone else
Socio-cognitive model (DID)
expectancies and beliefs from psychotherapy and cultural influences shape and maintain the disorder (it is all made up)
-most DID patients show no signs of the disorder before psychotherapy
Schizophrenia
- the cancer of mental illness
- devastating disorder of thought and emotion associated with a loss of contact with reality
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
- disturbances in thinking, language, emotion, and relationships often confused with DID
Delusions
strongly held, fixed beliefs that have no basis in reality
- are considered psychotic symptoms: because they are a serious distortion of reality
- delusions are usually in the form of persecution
Hallucinations
- sensory perceptions that occur in the absence of an external stimulus
- mostly auditory but can also be tactile or visual
Disorganized Speech
language jumps from topic to topic
-likely a result of thought disorder
Catatonic symptoms
- motor problems
- resistance to comply with simple suggestions, holding the body in rigid postures, or curing up in the fetal position
Explanations for schizophrenia
- family interactions play a role
- criticism, hostility and over-involvement (high expressed emotion families) can induce relapse
- Brain Abnormalities: increased size of ventricles and reduction in gray matter, decreased hemispherical symmetry, decreased activity
- Neurotransmitter differenced: dopamine hypothesis- excess dopamine signaling, likely though dopamine receptors
Genetic findings (explanations for schizophrenia)
-Highly genetic
• As genetic similarity increases (if one or both parents have
it, 15% to 50% likelihood their offspring will develop the
disorder) so does the risk of getting schizophrenia.
Diathesis-stress models (explanations for schizophrenia)
-mental disorders are a joint product of genetic vulnerability (diathesis), and stressors that trigger said vulnerability
