L12 - Critical considerations in Psychopathology Flashcards
What is cause and effect in regard to scientific knowledge?
The highest form of scientific knowledge
What is a risk factor?
variable/ condition associated with an increased risk/ chance of a disorder/ disease
What is a protective factor?
Variable/ condition associated with a lower risk/ chance of disorder, or that reduces the negative impact of a risk factor
What’s a correlate?
related/ associated variable
What is the ‘third variable’ effect?
2 variables (e.g., risk factor and an outcome) are caused (?) by a third variable
What is causality investigated in mental health/ wellbeing?
Experiments - ethical and practical
Longitudinal data can help
Family and sibling designs
Natural experiments, quasi-experimental studies
What do quantitative genetics do?
Try to explain why there a differences in a population
What are quantitative genetics used for?
Used to separate gene and environmental effects (nature v nurture)
what are quantitative genetics based on?
Based on comparing the similarity of family members who share different levels of genes and environment
What designs quantitative genetics?
Family studies
Adoption studies
Twin studies
How do twin studies work?
Largely based in comparisons between MZ and DZ twins
Monozygotic:
Identical, share 100% of their DNA + have shared environment
Dizygotic:
Non-identical, share avg 50% of their DNA + have shared environment
Sources of variation:
A - additive genetic influence C - common (shared environment)
E - specific (non-shared) environment
A correlation for a trait is greater in MZ twins than DZ twins suggests genetic effect
What do Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs)?
In most cases the goal is to determine if a specific therapy/ treatment actually makes a positive difference to the people receiving it
What is the allocation of RCTs and what are the positives?
Random allocation to various conditions
reduces risk of systematic differences between treatment groups
Helps guard against potential confounding variables
Why are RCTs considered the gold standard for research?
Provide a true, reliable assessment of effectiveness when conducted robustly
What is labelling?
The process of identifying that an individual meets the eligibility criteria for Special Educational Need (SEN) in general or a specific SEN
When is labelling used?
Example given was diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Helps parents make sense of their child’s difficulties
Guide parent’s hopes and expectations of their child
Facilitate communication between practitioners
Provision and financing of services
What are the arguments for labelling?
Access to support services:
Financial support
Additional support and targeted interventions in school
May provide child/ family with an explanation for their difficulties (may increase self-esteem)
Helps children understand their differences from other children and embrace them
Families can be comforted by the reassurance of the ‘official’/ ‘expert’ diagnosis
Helps effective research in specific groups could be conducted
knock-on effect on improving provision for children that need support
Regardless of labelling SEN children are likely to display behaviour that is noticed by peers leading to unsuitable labels
What are the arguments against labelling?
Can lead to exclusion from activities/ opportunities
Generalisation can cause other issues to become overlooked
Stigma can create labelling and stereotyping
Labels stay with people during adulthood - isolation, bullying and discrimination
People see the label and not the individual
Misdiagnosis can lead to a person believing they’re not capable of doing things
