Key Words Flashcards
Classification of mental disorder
The process of organising symptoms into categories based on which symptoms frequently cluster together
Schizophrenia
A severe mental disorder where contact with reality and insight are impaired, an example of psychosis
Positive symptoms of schizophrenia
Atypical symptoms experienced in addition to normal experiences. They include hallucinations and delusions
Hallucinations
A positive symptom of schizophrenia. They are sensory experiences that have either no basis in reality or are distorted perceptions of things that are there.
Delusions
A positive symptom of schizophrenia. They involve beliefs that have no basis in reality, for example a person believes that they are someone else or that they are the victim of a conspiracy
Negative symptoms of schizophrenia
Atypical experiences that represent the loss of a usual experience such as a loss of clear thinking or a loss of motivation
Speech poverty
A negative symptom of schizophrenia. It involves reduced frequency and quality of speech
Avolution
A negative symptom of schizophrenia. It involves loss of motivation to carry out tasks and results in lowered activity levels
Co-morbidity
The occurrence of two disorders or conditions together, for example a person has both schizophrenia and a personality disorder. Where two conditions are frequently diagnosed together it calls into question the validity of classifying the two disorders separately.
Symptom overlap
Occurs when two or more conditions share symptoms. Where conditions share many symptoms this calls into question the validity of classifying the two disorders separately
Genetics
Genes consist of DNA strands. DNA produces ‘instructions’ for general physical features on an organism (such as eye colour, height) and also specific physical features (such as neurotransmitter levels and size of brain structures). These may impact on psychological features (such as intelligence and mental disorder). Genes are transmitted from parents to offspring, i.e. inherited
Neural correlates
Patterns of structure or activity in the brain that occur in conjunction with an experience and may be implicated in the origins of that experience
Dopamine
A neurotransmitter that generally has an excitatory effect and is linked to the sensation of pleasure. Unusually high levels are associated with schizophrenia and unusually low levels are associated with Parkinson’s disease
Family dysfunction
Refers to processes within a family such as poor family communication, cold parenting and high levels of expressed emotion. These may be risk factors for both the development and maintenance of schizophrenia
Cognitive explanations
Explanations that focus on mental processes such as thinking, language and attention
Dysfunctional thought processing
Information processing that does not represent reality accurately and produces undesirable consequences
Antipsychotics
Drugs used to reduce the intensity of symptoms, in particular the positive symptoms, of psychotic disorders like schizophrenia
Typical antipsychotics
The first generation of drugs for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, having been used since the 1950s. They work as dopamine antagonists and include chlorpromazine
Atypical antipsychotics
Drugs for schizophrenia (a psychotic disorder) developed after typical antipsychotics. They typically target a range of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, Examples include clozapine and risperidone
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)
A method for treating mental disorders based on both cognitive and behavioural techniques. From the cognitive viewpoint the therapy aims to deal with thinking such as challenging negative thoughts. The therapy includes behavioural techniques
Family therapy
A psychological therapy carried out with all or some members of a family with the aim of improving the communications within the family and reducing the stress of living as a family
Token economies
A form of behavioural modification, where desirable behaviours are encouraged by the use of selective reinforcement. For example, people are given rewards (tokens) when they engage in socially desirable behaviours. The tokens are secondary reinforcers and can then be exchanged for primary reinforcers - food or privileges.
Interactionist approach
A way to explain the development of behaviour in terms of a range of factors, including both biological and psychological ones. Most importantly such factors don’t simply add together but combine in a way that can’t be predicted by each one separately i.e. they interact
Diathesis-stress model
An interactionist approach to explaining behaviour. For example schizophrenia is explained as the result of both an underlying vulnerability (diathesis) and a trigger (stressor), both of which are necessary for the onset of schizophrenia. In early versions of the diathesis-stress model, vulnerability was genetic and triggers were psychological. Nowadays both genes and trauma are seen as diatheses, and stress can be psychological or biological in nature
