Introductions Flashcards
List approaches throughout history to identify psychopathology
- Supernatural and religious
- Biological approaches
- Psychological approaches
- Physiological approaches
- Sociocultural bias towards medication
Describe the supernatural and religious approach
Possession, structured religious ideas e.g. committing sins and being punished, exorcisms; the devil
Describe the biological approach
Has a basis in humours and anatomy
Describe psychological approaches
Started around the 1800s, asylums began to be thought of an inhumane, trying to work with people to see common symptoms, Freud started to think about psychological issues
Describe physiological approaches
This approach merged knowledge of anatomical structure with understanding of physiological functioning
What is the medical model?
Suggests that when someone has a disease, established treatments for the disease will help it remediate
What are the cons of using the medical model?
- there is not one clear causal pathway
- doesn’t tell us when disorders are serious enough for treatment
- most mental disorders are multi factorial
- many disorders appear to be normal aspects of human experience, just at extreme levels or rigid patterns
What are the pros of using the medical model?
Much of our research and classification has come from it and it can be good to help clients manage and cope with their symptoms
Describe the diathesis-stress approach
View that mental disorder onset is explained by both diathesis and stressors
Define diathesis
Things that render an individual vulnerable to development of a mental disorder; could be genetics, early childhood experiences, personality etc
Define stress (as in diathesis-stress)
Environmental triggers promoting the onset of a mental disorder e.g bereavement, work etc
Describe the biopsychosocial model
Considers the biological, psychological and social factors associated with client difficulties
List some biological examples of the biopsychosocial model
High blood pressure, cancer, brain injury, neurotransmitter function
List some psychological examples of the biopsychosocial model
Personality traits, cognitive functioning, attachment style
List some social examples of the biopsychosocial model
Romantic relationships, workplace satisfaction, identification as cultural minority
List the four case formulation factors in order
- predisposing
- precipitating
- perpetuating
- protective
Describe predisposing factors
Those that render the client vulnerable to experiencing a mental disorder; underlying issues that make them more at risk
Describe precipitating factors
Likely to have triggered initial or current onset of disorder e.g. breakup
Describe perpetuating factors
Those acting to MAINTAIN client distress and impairment; things keeping the problem going
Describe protective factors
Those contributing to strength and resilience
What is clinical assessment?
The process of evaluating and measuring the client’s issues so you can understand the problem and how to help
What are the purposes of clinical assessment?
- To understand the individual
- To predict behaviour
- To plan treatment
- To evaluate treatment outcome
List the domains of assessment
- Clinical interview
- Physical exam
- Mental status exam
- Behavioural assessment and observations
- Psychological testing
What kind of information is obtained through a demographic interview?
- demographics
- medical history
- family history
- educational and vocational history
- psychological history
What is the mental status exam?
A comprehensive set of questions and observations to systematically assess the mental state of a client
List the 8 sets of questions to address in the MSE
- Appearance and behaviour
- Mood and affect
- Speech and language
- Thought form and content
- Sensory and perceptual abnormalities
- Cognitive functioning
- Judgement and insight
- Risk
What kind of things does ‘appearance and behaviour address’?
How the client looks, how they smell ‘malodorous’
What does ‘mood and affect’ address?
Mood: what the client reports
Affect: external signs of it
What does ‘speech and language’ address?
Is their language rapid? Does it make sense? Is it pressured?
What does ‘thought form and content’ address?
If someone isn’t making much sense, their thought form probably isn’t
What does ‘cognitive functioning’ address?
Similar to thought form, with a tone of intelligence
What does ‘judgement and insight’ address?
Can the client make healthy or adaptive decisions? Do they have logical reasons for their decisions?
List some features of behavioural assessment
- focus on the present
- direct and minimally inferential
- target behaviours identified and observed
- focus on antecedents
- either formal or informal
List some types of psychological tests
- projective tests
- self report measures of personality
- intelligence tests
- neuropsychological tests
- psychophysiological assessments
What is the aim of the DSM
To classify different forms of mental disorders and allow patients to be diagnosed by meeting criteria
Advantages of the DSM
- organisation of knowledge
- clearer standard of communication between professionals
- allows research into defined categories
- name recognition promotes knowledge
- facilitates legal and social comprehension of diagnoses
Disadvantages of the DSM
- a-theoretical in terms of cause
- stigma from labelling
- not everyone fits into a category
- comorbidity more common than not
- variability within diagnoses
- influenced by social and political context
- assumes clinical expertise
List the myths about mental disorders
- more violent
- permanent
- adults only
- normal people don’t get them
What are the three ways of defining normality?
- sociocultural
- statistical
- biological
What is the DSM definition of abnormality?
Behavioural, psychological or biological dysfunction that are unexpected in their cultural context and associated with present distress and impairment in functioning, or increased risk of suffering, death, pain or impairment
What are some common problems underlying abnormality?
- poor decision making
- lack of impulse control of self discipline
- inability to delay gratification
- difficulty regulating emotional states
- intolerance of uncertainty
How is the DSM used?
- clinicians trained to recognise symptoms
- develop clinical expertise to distinguish abnormal functioning
- use DSM to diagnose
- judge whether diagnosis is helpful
- understand validity of diagnosis
