lecture 11 p3: psychological challenges Flashcards
Understanding and Stigma
● Understanding Through Labels
● Content Validity and Common Understanding
● Comorbidity Challenges
● Treatment Dilemma in Comorbidity
● Psychologists’ Competitiveness
● Labeling and Stigma
● Negative Consequences of Labeling
● Stigmatization in Mental Health
● Social Perception Disparities
● Societal Attitudes
Understanding Through Labels
○ Labels can aid understanding by providing a framework for one’s experiences.
○ Knowing the label can offer a sense of clarity about the nature of symptoms.
Content Validity and Common Understanding
○ Content validity relies on a shared understanding of psychological terms.
○ Challenges arise when interpretations vary, leading to potential miscommunication.
Comorbidity Challenges
○ Comorbidity introduces complexities in diagnosis.
○ Untangling the causal relationship between disorders becomes challenging.
Treatment Dilemma in Comorbidity
Determining which disorder to address first in comorbidity poses a treatment challenge.
○ Different disorders may require distinct treatment approaches.
Psychologists’ Competitiveness
○ The competitive nature of psychology professionals can impact collaborative efforts.
○ This competitiveness may affect decision-making in complex cases.
Labeling and Stigma
○ Pros of labeling include having a term to describe one’s experiences and access to shared resources.
○ Cons involve potential stigma, pigeonholing, and societal expectations.
Negative Consequences of Labeling
○ Pigeonholing may lead to stereotyped expectations of behavior.
○ Individuals might conform to perceived norms associated with their label.
Stigmatization in Mental Health
○ Mental health issues often face more stigma than physical health problems.
○ Stigmatization can result in blame being assigned to the individual rather than understanding the complexities of mental health.
Social Perception Disparities
○ Disparities exist in how society perceives and treats physical and mental health issues.
○ Mental health challenges may be unfairly attributed to personal failure.
Societal Attitudes
○ Individuals with mental health issues may face dismissive attitudes or moral judgments.
○ Unlike physical health problems, mental health concerns may be perceived as moral failings.
Anxiety Disorder learnings
● Benefits and Challenges of Labels
● Defining Anxiety
● Four Key Components of Anxiety
● Specific Anxiety Disorders
● Specific Phobias
● Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
● Panic Disorder
Benefits and Challenges of Labels
○ Labels provide understanding and access to resources.
○ Negative aspects include potential stigma and societal expectations.
○ Society needs improvement in addressing mental health issues.
Defining Anxiety
Anxiety is a negative mood state characterized by physical tension.
○ Involves feelings, behaviors, and thoughts related to unease and distress
Core characteristic
■ persistent and uncontrollable worry.
Four Key Components of Anxiety
○ Emotional Symptoms
○ Cognitive Symptoms
○ Physical Symptoms
○ Behavioral Symptoms
Emotional Symptoms
■ Tension and apprehension
Cognitive Symptoms
■ Excessive worrying, inability to cope
Physical Symptoms
■ Increased heart rate, muscle tension, autonomic arousal
Behavioral Symptoms
■ Avoidance of feared situations, decreased performance, increased startle response
Specific Anxiety Disorders
Phobias
Agoraphobia
Social Anxiety Disorder
Phobias
■ Strong irrational fears of certain objects or situations.
■ Named “phobias” to denote an intense and irrational fear
example: arachnophobia
Agoraphobia
■ Fear of public places, open spaces, or situations where escape may be difficult.
Social Anxiety Disorder
■ Fear of public places, open spaces, or situations where escape may be difficult.
Specific Phobias
○ Intense irrational fears of certain objects or situations.
○ Examples include arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces).
○ Phobias can be associated with various stimuli or situations.
