Gender and Mental Health Issues - Chapter 15 from The Psychology of Women and Gender

Question 1

One is diagnosed with depression according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) if they exhibit at least five of the following symptoms for at least 2 weeks:

Answer 1

1. Depressed, sad, empty or hopeless mood
2. Loss of interest or pleasure in all or nearly all activities
3. Significant increase or decrease in appetite and/or weight
4. Sleeping too much or too little
5. Psychomotor agitation or retardation
6. Fatigue or loss of energy
7. Feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt
8. Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
9. Thinking about death, suicidal ideation, or even attempting suicide

More women than men are depressed.

Question 2

The ABC Model

Answer 2

A vulnerability-stress model in which the letters stand for three categories of factors that make someone vulnerable to depression: affective, biological, and cognitive

Question 3

Affective/emotional vulnerability

Answer 3

Temperament: Refers to constitutionally based individu differences in reactivity and regulation. It includes emotional traits that appear early in life and predict later behaviors and psychological problems, such as negative emotionality.
Girls display slightly more variability in negative emotionality. The girls with higher negative emotionality are more vulnerable to depression.

Question 4

Biological vulnerabilities

Answer 4

Potential biological factors such as genetics and issues associated with puberty, in addition to epigenetic factors and neurobiological changes.
Those with the s/s genotype had low rates of depression with no maltreatment, but with severe maltreatment they had high rates of depression. The results show a genotype x environment interaction.
Early puberty has often been considered detrimental for cisgender girls. However, regardless of gender, early puberty is a risk factor for depression.

Question 5

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

Answer 5

Increase serotonergic activity in the brain and are effective in treating depression

Question 6

Cognitive vulnerabilities

Answer 6

There are three: Negative cognitive style, rumination, and objectified body consciousness

Question 7

Negative cognitive style

Answer 7

A tendency to attribute negative life events to internal, global, and stable causes.
Internal - conclude that the negative event implies bad things about themselves
Global - believe that whatever caused the negative event is going to generalize to many other areas of their lives.
Stable - believe that whatever caused the negative event is going to continue in their lives and create more negative events in the future.
This is rooted in the hopelessness theory, as people who believes in this mindset will feel hopeless and convinced that there is nothing to be done to stop negative life events from happening

Question 8

Hopelessness theory

Answer 8

A vulnerability-stress theory that a negative cognitive style makes a person vulnerable to depression

Question 9

Rumination

Answer 9

The second type of cognitive vulnerability to depression, which is the tendency to think repetitively about one’s depressed mood or about the causes and consequences of negative life events.

Question 10

Objectified body consciousness

Answer 10

A third type of cognitive vulnerability to depression that contains the body surveillance component

Question 11

Body Surveillance Component

Answer 11

A repetitive self-surveillance to make sure that one’s body conforms to cultural ideals. Research shows that body surveillance predicts later depressive symptoms among adolescents. Girls score higher than boys on body surveillance by age 11, reaffirming the gender difference in depression

Question 12

Feminization of poverty

Answer 12

The increasing trend over time for women to be overrepresented among the poor in the United States.
This pattern is related to factors such as the increased proportion of single-parent households headed by women, the inadequacy of child support payments following divorce, and the lack of decent, affordable child care that would allow these women to work at jobs that could bring them to self-sufficiency.
There’s a link between poverty and mental health problems; therefore, the feminization of poverty has mental health implications for women.

Question 13

Alcohol-use disorder

Answer 13

A psychological disorder characterized by excessive alcohol use and associated failure to fulfill major role obligations (e.g., work, school, home).

Question 14

Substance-use disorder

Answer 14

A psychological disorder characterized by excessive use of a substance (e.g., heroin), an associated failure to fulfill major role obligations (e.g., work, school, home), failure to cut back on use, cravings, and using increasingly greater amounts of the substance over time.

Question 15

Cognitive-behavioral therapy

Answer 15

A system of psychotherapy that combines behavior therapy and restructuring of dysfunctional thought patterns.

Question 16

Prevention of eating disorders

Answer 16

• Programs that just provide education are not effective, nor are single-session workshops
• Multiple sessions that actively involve participants are needed. Effective programs tend to have any or all of the following emphases: promoting self-esteem, stress management skills, healthy weight-control behaviors, and critical analysis of the thin ideal in our culture
• Prevention programs are also most successful if they are targeted at high-risk girls rather than general samples of girls

Question 17

Psychoanalysis

Answer 17

A system of therapy based on Freud’s psychoanalytic theory in which the analyst attempts to bring repressed, unconscious material into consciousness.

Question 18

Family-based therapy (FBT)

Answer 18

Is based in family systems theory, which regards the person with anorexia not as an isolated, disturbed individual, but rather as a person embedded in a complex system that includes their family and society at large.

Question 19

Feminist therapy

Answer 19

A system of therapy informed by feminist theory. Main points include:
1. Gender is a salient variable in the process and outcomes of therapy, but it can be understood only in the context of many other factors in a woman’s life.
2. A person’s experiences must be understood from a sociocultural perspective that includes an analysis of power relationships as well as intrapsychic or individual perspectives
3. A major goal of feminist therapy is personal empowerment and helping people expand their alternatives and choices
4. The therapeutic relationship is mutual and egalitarian (everyone is deemed equal)
5. Therapy focuses on a person’s strengths rather than only on their deficits
6. The qualities of caring and nurturing are valued and honored. Clients are encouraged to nurture themselves and to bond with others in a community of support.

Question 20

Ethnic Validity Model

Answer 20

The values and lifestyles of people of color must be valued.

Question 21

Deficit Hypothesis

Answer 21

Views ethnic cultures other than European American culture to be deficient, must be abandoned and replaced.

Question 22

Difference hypothesis

Answer 22

Acknowledges differences among cultures while at the same time valuing them equally

Question 23

Trans-Affirmative Practice

Answer 23

Care that is respectful, aware, and supportive of the identities and life experiences of transgender and gender nonconforming people.