L12 - Critical considerations in Psychopathology

Question 1

What is cause and effect in regard to scientific knowledge?

Answer 1

The highest form of scientific knowledge

Question 2

What is a risk factor?

Answer 2

variable/ condition associated with an increased risk/ chance of a disorder/ disease

Question 3

What is a protective factor?

Answer 3

Variable/ condition associated with a lower risk/ chance of disorder, or that reduces the negative impact of a risk factor

Question 4

What’s a correlate?

Answer 4

related/ associated variable

Question 5

What is the ‘third variable’ effect?

Answer 5

2 variables (e.g., risk factor and an outcome) are caused (?) by a third variable

Question 6

What is causality investigated in mental health/ wellbeing?

Answer 6

Experiments - ethical and practical

Longitudinal data can help

Family and sibling designs

Natural experiments, quasi-experimental studies

Question 7

What do quantitative genetics do?

Answer 7

Try to explain why there a differences in a population

Question 8

What are quantitative genetics used for?

Answer 8

Used to separate gene and environmental effects (nature v nurture)

Question 9

what are quantitative genetics based on?

Answer 9

Based on comparing the similarity of family members who share different levels of genes and environment

Question 10

What designs quantitative genetics?

Answer 10

Family studies

Adoption studies

Twin studies

Question 11

How do twin studies work?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What do Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs)?

Answer 12

In most cases the goal is to determine if a specific therapy/ treatment actually makes a positive difference to the people receiving it

Question 13

What is the allocation of RCTs and what are the positives?

Answer 13

Random allocation to various conditions

reduces risk of systematic differences between treatment groups

Helps guard against potential confounding variables

Question 14

Why are RCTs considered the gold standard for research?

Answer 14

Provide a true, reliable assessment of effectiveness when conducted robustly

Question 15

What is labelling?

Answer 15

The process of identifying that an individual meets the eligibility criteria for Special Educational Need (SEN) in general or a specific SEN

Question 16

When is labelling used?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

What are the arguments for labelling?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

What are the arguments against labelling?

Answer 18

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