Mental Health Flashcards
Define classification
Involves taking a set of symptoms and putting them into categories.
Define diagnosis
Once a set of symptoms have been classified into disorders, we can diagnose the individuals according to where their symptoms classify to.
Define prognosis
Likely outcome.
Define abnormality
Something undesirable and requiring change.
Explain the psychodynamic explanation for mental illness
Mental illness is caused by the unconscious memories, feelings and unresolved conflicts we may have experienced as a child.
Conflicts between the ego, ID and super ego can create anxiety.
Treatments include psychoanalysis in which unconscious memories are brought to the conscious mind.
Explain cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
It is a talking therapy that involves a therapist to use cognitive techniques to change thinking patterns and behavioural techniques to change their overall behaviour.
Explain the cognitive explanation for mental illness
Suggests that mental illness is caused by fault thought processes.
E.g. A person with depression is likely to have more negative thoughts and they select negative information and dwell on it.
Treatments include CBT.
Explain the behaviourist explanation for mental illness
Suggests that mental behaviours and disorders are learnt and then maintained through reinforcement, association or limitation.
Classical conditioning can be used to explain many anxiety disorders. E.g. The case of little Albert
Suggests anxiety disorders can be overcome by flooding and aversion therapy.
What alternatives are he medical model?
- the behaviourists explanation
- the cognitive explanation
- the psychodynamic explanation
What are the possible biological causes of abnormality according o the medical model?
Genetics
Brain abnormality
Chemicals
Environmental factors
Define “myth of the chemical imbalance”
Some psychiatric drugs have often been prescribed due to a chemical imbalance.
Scientists have been testing this theory for over 40 years and there is not one piece of evidence to prove the theory correct.
Strengths and weaknesses of the medical model
Strengths -
Objective
Treatment is quick
Physical treatments to often work
Weaknesses -
Myth of the chemical imbalance
Iatrogenesis
Medicalisation of normal human conditions
Describe the key assumptions of the medical model
Mental illness is a physical condition. It should be considered, classified and diagnosed in the same way that a physical illness would be.
Physical cause = physical cure
Describe phobias
Phobias are a persistent fear of either an object or a situation.
The stimulus will provoke an immediate response similar to a panic attack.
It is only when a fear really disrupts a persons life that it is considered a mental disorder.
What are anxiety disorders?
Anxiety disorders give a continuous feeling of fear and anxiety which which can impose on daily life.
OCD and phobias are an example of anxiety disorders.
Describe schizophrenia
Symptoms are: delusions, hallucinations, disorganised speech/behaviour, social disfunction and having no other explanation for the symptoms e.g. Medication side effects.
Symptoms must have been present for at least 6 months.
It can be treated with drug therapies and people can lead a much more normal life.
What are psychotic disorders?
Psychotic disorders are when a persons psychosis causes a loss of contact with reality. A psychosis is any disorder that causes a person to have hallucinations leading to confusion and disorientation.
They cause a person to become isolated and withdrawn due to them losing their sense of reality.
Describe bipolar
Bipolar is when moods alter between manic episodes and depression.
Symptoms are: inflated self-esteem, decreased need for sleep, more talkative, racing thoughts, distractibility and excessive involvement in activities that have a high potential of negative consequences.
Describe depression
Symptoms are: persistent sadness, loss of interest in activities, fatigue, disturbed sleep, change in appetite, poor concentration, suicidal thoughts, guilt and slowing of movements.
These symptoms then define the degree of the depression, e.g. The more symptoms the more severe the depression.
Symptoms must be present for more than a month and each symptom present for most of everyday.
What are affective disorders?
Affective disorders are disorders that affect your mood e.g. Depression and bipolar.
Affective disorders are when your mood affects your life so badly that you cannot function adequately.
Discuss the validity of diagnostic tools
Ford and widiger found that presenting the same symptoms to a practitioner but changing the gender of the patient resulted in a different diagnosis.
What do the ICD and DSM do?
They are the 2 main approaches to use to categorise disorders. They both contain a set of symptoms that indicate certain disorders.
The DSM is mostly used in the USA and the ICD is used for the rest of the world.
They are both updated to allow for changes in social norms.
Define deviation from idea mental health
Psychologists have a criteria for the ‘ideal’ mental health that they believe to represent what a persons health should be like. If someone doesn’t match this criteria then they could be considered abnormal.
However, not everyone matches the criteria at some points. This makes the definition vague and hard to use to define abnormality.
Define statistical infrequency
Any behaviour that is shown less or more often than the normal amount for that society is considered abnormal.
However, someone may show abnormal behaviour and it may not be an indication that they have a mental disorder. E.g. Someone may be a lot better at someone else in school, this doesn’t mean they have an abnormality, they could just be very smart.
