Lecture 1

Question 1

What are the global trends in psychology

Answer 1

1. Molecular Genetics
2. Importance of the brain
3. Pharmacology for everyday
4. Purging of theories of personality / Growth of temperament theories
5. Interactive causation
6. Diathesis - Stress Model
7. Continued emergence of cognitive behavior modification and self-help approaches.

Question 2

What are the consequences of Disorder Inflation?

Answer 2

1. Everyone is Mentally Disordered.
2. We equate/bestow words with reality.
3. Granting agencies feverishly adhere to a fatally flawed nomenclature.
4. Ditto for reviewers & editors
5. The understanding of the etiology of differential behaviors is greatly obscured.

Question 3

What predicts violence in the mentally ill

Answer 3

1. High positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions)
2. History of violence
3. Substance abuse

Question 4

Why have rates of autism been dramatically increasing?

Answer 4

1. Diagnostic criteria
2. Increased social awareness/pressure and funding
3. Co-morbidity and Diagnostic Substitution