Lecture 1 'Introduction' Flashcards
Abnormal psychology is the scientific study of behaviour with what four main objectives?
- Describe
- Explain
- Predict
- Manage
What is a key difference between the relativist and the absolutist views?
Relativist = symptoms and causes vary across cultures
Absolutist = a disorder is caused by the same biological factors
List some elements of abnormality (9 options)
- personal suffering
- maladaptiveness
- irrationality and incomprehensibility
- unpredictability and loss of control
- level of emotional distress
- interference in daily functioning
- vividness and unconventionality (deviations from the developmental/societal/cultural norm
- observer discomfort
- violation of moral and ideal standards
What are the main focuses of the DSM-5?
Symptoms / scientific basis of disorders:
- Clinical presentation
- Etiology (causes)
- Developmental stage
- Functional impairment
Mental disorders involve one or all of the following: ___?
- present distress
- disability (impairment in functioning)
- significant risk of suffering/pain/death/disability/loss of freedom
Thomas Szasz believes mental illness is a myth. What was the example he gave to show that labelling can be misused?
What two things does he believe results from clinical labelling?
Drapetomonia = the mental illness label given to black slave escapees (example of racist psychology)
Stigma + discrimination
What is epidemiology?
The study of the frequency and distribution of disorders within a population
In epidemiology, describe what an ‘incidence’ is?
the number of NEW cases of a disorder that appear in a population within a specific time period
In epidemiology, describe what ‘prevalence’ is? What is the difference between it and ‘life-time prevalence’?
the total number of ACTIVE cases in a given population during a specific time period
Life-time prevalence = the proportion of the population affected AT SOME POINT during their lives
What is comorbidity?
Having more than one condition
According to Australian statistics, ____ suffer mental disorders during their lifetime.
1/4
Mental disorders are the _____ most significant impact to the economy
second (after cardiovascular conditions)
Hippocrates classified mental disorders into what three categories?
- Mania
- Melancholia
- Phrenitis (brain fever)
What was the view toward mental disorders in the Middle Ages?
Supernatural view - abnormal behaviour = the work of witchcraft/the devil
People were persecuted
What were the attitudes towards mental illness in the Renaissance period?
More humane view, alternative views to demonology (e.g. Paracelsus believed stars affect the brain);
First Asylums; ‘treatment’ = confinement, torture, crazy medical procedures
Who was the first physician to specialize in the treatment of mental illness?
Weyer, (Renaissance)
List Philippe Pinel’s Classification System:
- Melancholia
- Mania
- Mania + delirium
- Dementia
- Idiotism
Somatic treatments for mental illness came about when
They discovered Syphilis had an underlying biological cause which gave them an idea that maybe mental illnesses do too.
What are the two Kraepelin and the German Classifiers?
- Dementia praecox (schizophrenia)
2. Manic depressive pscyhosis
What four things did Freud and Breuer discover in their studies of histeria?
- Psychological factors affect behaviour
- Talking treatment more effective than harsh physical punishment and moral treatments
- Behaviour influenced through thoughts, impulses and wishes (unconscious)
- Non-psychotic disorders are worthy of treatment
According to the Biopsychosocial Framework, abnormal behaviour reflects a combination of what four factors?
- Biological,
- Psychological,
- Social
- Environmental
The current view of mental illness suggests we adopt what kind of approach?
A scientist-practitioner approach
- consider the context in which the behaviour occurs
- holistic/multidisciplinary approach to the development and treatment of abnormal behaviour
What is a symptom?
a manifestation of pathological condition - subjective + objective complaints
What is a syndrome?
a group of symptoms that occur together that constitute a recognisable condition
What are five purposes for using classification?
- Enables clinicians to diagnose a person’s problem as a disorder
- Information retrieval
- Facilitates research
- Facilitates communication
- Facilitates treatment selection (sometimes)
What is the main problem of classification? Why is this a big problem?
Categorical instead of dimensional approach
- Loss of information
- Ignores differences
- Labelling controversy (shape perceptions / cause prejudicial treatment / can foster self-fulfilling prophecy)
What is a criticism of diagnostic practice? Give an example what implications this may have
Uses a distinct entity instead of a continuum approach
E.g. Diagnosing a child as ADHD (instead of just restless) has implications for the parents, teachers, and anybody else involved etc.
What is diagnotistic bias? What experiment demonstrated this effect?
Expectations regarding a client’s sex, race and SES
- Rosenhan’s psuedo-patients who feigned symptoms to gain admission in mental institutes - the same mental institutes later identified actual patients as ‘pseudopatients’ - which highlights the importance of CONTEXT of the behaviour presented.
What is clinical assessment?
The process of gathering information important to DIAGNOSE
PLAN TREATMENT and
PREDICT FUTURE COURSE
of a disorder
What is an essential component of clinical assessment? What is done from there
Clinical interview; augmented with various other assessments to test hypotheses > form a diagnostic formulation > judge WHY the disorder is present > judge treatment
What are three shortcomings of intelligence tests?
- Factors unrelated to intelligence can influence performance
- Cultural bias
- The tests measure only what psychologists consider intelligence to be
