MENTAL HEALTH Flashcards
Mental Health
state of emotional and social wellbeing in which individuals can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and contribute to their community
Resilience
an individuals ability to adapt to stress and cope with setbacks and adversity
can be enhanced by diet and sleep, cognitive behavioural strategies, support from family and friends
Mental Health Problem
a disruption to an individual’s usual level of social and emotional wellbeing including when their abilities are negatively affected
Mental illness
a mental disorder that affects one or more functions of the mind, may interfere with thoughts, emotion, perception and behaviours
Mental health continuum
everyone has some level of mental health all of the time, and this may change at any time. You can be mentally healthy with a mental illness.
HEALTHY (normal functioning), REACTING (signs of stress), INJURED (periods of sadness and anxiety), ILL (severe functioning impairment)
Health
a state of complete mental, physical and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
Characteristics of mentally healthy people
high levels of functioning, social wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, resilence
Ethical Implications of mental health research
Must have voluntary participation and informed consent. Psychologically vulnerable people must not participate. Sufferers may also lack the capacity to understand the procedure and may lack ability to provide informed consent. Using a placebo may cause participants to show improvement without taking the medication = deceiving. Participants must be debriefed.
What are predisposing risk factors
increase vulnerability to developing a mental health problem.
eg. genetic vulnerability, physical illness, poor self efficacy, neglect abuse and trauma, disorganised attachment, environmental exposure before birth, temperament, hormone imbalance, poverty
What are precipitating risk factors
trigger the onset of a mental health problem
eg. substance use or misuse, confronting news, life event stress, losing a job, loss of a significant relationship, trauma,
What are perpetuating risk factors
maintain the psychological problem and inhibit recovery
e.g poor response to medication, substance use or misuse, rumination (obsessing about undesirable thoughts, feelings or life events), impaired reasoning and memory, avoidance behaviour, stigma, lack of support
What are protective factors
have a positive effect on the health of an individual
e.g resilience, positive social group, satisfying job, suitable accomodation, good sleep, exercise
Biopsychosocial model
an approach that proposes that health and illness outcomes are determined by the interaction and contribution of biological, psychological and social factors
Biological risk factors
genetic vulnerability, poor response to medication, poor sleep, substance use/misuse, cannabis and schizophrenia
Psychological risk factors
rumination- overthinking or obsessing about situations, impaired memory and reasoning, stress response, poor self efficacy- belief in our ability to suceed, loss
Social risk factors
disorganised attachment- leads to an avoidant personality and struggles with relationships, loss of a significant relationship- loss of social connections can be devestating, stigma, lack of support, poverty
Cumulative risk
sufferers of mental disorders commonly experience multiple risk factors
Systematic desensitisation
- teach breathing technique
- fear hierarchy
- pair breathing and fear stimulus
Anxiety
worry or uneasiness in response to an unclear or ambiguous threat
Stress
psychological or physiological state of tension or arousal
Phobia
persistent, irrational and intense fear of a specific object, activity or situation
Types of phobias
ANIMAL
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
BLOOD/INJECTION/INJURY
SITUATIONAL TYPE
Biological factors for phobia
Low GABA - lower inhibitory effect - increased stress response
Stress response- activates the sympathetic nervous system for increased stress responses to stimuli
LTP- association of fear with a specific stimulus repeatedly results in learning
Psychological factors for phobia
Classical conditioning- neutral stimulus will become associated with negative emotions
Operant conditioning- avoidance acts as a reinforcer, making the behaviour more likely to be repeated
Memory and cognitive bias- negative info may be recalled more readily than positive, memories can also be different or more threatening when recalled
Catastrophic thinking- predicting an unrealistic or irrational outcome of a situation
