Mental Health and Well being Flashcards
Abnormality
A deviation from the average
Statistical infrequency and social norms
abnormality can be defined through being statistical uncommon and its deviation from social norms
DSM
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychological disorders
Schizophrenia
A mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally
Positive symptoms
An additive change in behaviour or thoughts, such as hallucinations or delusions
Delusions of thought
A belief that is clearly false and indicates an abnormality in the affected person’s content of thought.
Negative symptoms
people appear to withdraw from the world around them, take no interest in everyday social interactions
dopamine hypothesis
Excess of dopamine activity in people with Schizophrenia
Stress-vulnerability model
People genetically vulnerable to Schizophrenia are more prone to stress
Gene-environment interaction model
Vulnerability to stress increases sensitivity to stress, therefore, people raised in stressful environments, such as a dysfunctional family, are more prone to develop psychological disorders
Expressed emotions
A term used to denote the intensity of expression of a range of emotions within the family context.
Bipolar disorder
A mental health illness that causes unusual shifts in mood, ranging from extreme highs (mania) to lows (depression)
Depression
Persistent sadness and lack of interest or pleasure in previously rewarding or enjoyable activities.
Mania
unreasonable euphoria, very intense moods, hyperactivity, and delusions
Helplessness theory
Learned helplessness is the behaviour exhibited by a subject after enduring repeated aversive stimuli beyond their control
Attributional/explanatory style
The ways in which people explain the cause of events within their lives. If someone is exposed to uncontrollable situations with negative outcomes it can lead to a perceived incapability
Beck’s Cognitive Theory of depression
Involves the Cognitive Triad, Schemata, and Faulty information processing/cognitive biases
Cognitive Triad
Negative views of self, negative views of current experiences/ the world, and negative views about the future (self, world, future) –> affect each other
Schemata
A pattern of thought or behaviour that organises categories of information and the relationships among them
Faulty information processing/cognitive biases
Arbitrary inference: drawing unjustified conclusions,
personalisation: assuming that things/comments are directed oneself,
overgeneralisation: seeing things as “always” or “never”
Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)
An inventory of measuring depression through self reported measures, a quantitative assessment of the severity of the depression
Cognitive Therapy (Depression)
Cognitive restructuring of thought patterns, through monitoring, recognition and substitution
The Integrated Motivational-Volitional model of suicidal behaviour
A three phase biopsychosocial framework, that delineates the final common pathway to suicidal behaviour.
The three phrases:
pre-motivational phase -> motivational phase -> volitional phase
Non-suicidal self-injury
self-harm
OCD
Obsessive Compulsive disorder
Recurrent obsessions/ compulsions that are not pleasurable
Trichotillomania
hair-pulling disorder, frequent repeated and irresistible urges to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows or other areas of your body.
Excoriation disorder (dermatillomania)
skin-picking disorder, repeated picking of one’s own skin, which results in areas of swollen or broken skin and causes significant disruption in one’s life
Focused vs automatic
focused - intentional, aware
automatic - subconscious, unaware
Psychodynamic theory
Gain insight into unconscious conflict and resolve conflicts through techniques such as hypnosis, free association and dream analsysis
Client/person centred therapy
therapy that believes that all people have the capacity to grow and this can be facilitated by acceptance from a therapist
Cognitive therapy
Challenging negative dysfunctional thoughts with more positive and realistic thoughts.
Psychosurgery (trephining)
Drilling a hole into a patients head to “let spirits out”
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
Used on people resistant to medication, aim is to emulate epileptic reaction. Does work but cognitive function side effects
Aversion therapy
reduce/avoid a patients undesirable behaviour through conditioning the person to associate the behaviour with an undesirable stimulus.
Exposure therapy
Patient approach stimulus of fear with the aim of reducing the fear -> a systematic desensitisation
Mindfulness
Focussing ones attention and awareness on what’s happening in the present moment through attention and emotion control and self-awareness.
State anxiety
Temporary feelings of anxiety triggered by specific events
Trait anxiety
Stable individual difference in proneness for anxiety. Demonstration of state anxiety in a variety of threat situations.
Test anxiety
Situation specific personality trait
trait-like tendency to appraise performance-evaluative situations as threatening and react with elevated state anxiety
Emotionality
Affective-physiological component of Test Anxiety
Perception of physical arousal; tension, increased heart rate, stomach discomfort
Worry
Cognitive component of Test Anxiety
Self-focused thoughts about failure; worry about negative consequences of threatful (evaluative) situations; perception of cognitive interference
Moderating factors that increase negative relationship between test anxiety and performance
Evaluative settings, speeded timed conditions, negative feedback, difficulty of task
Moderating factors that decrease negative relationship between test anxiety and performance
structured settings, social support, provision of reassurance
Spielberger’s Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI)
designed to measure test anxiety through the measurement of the cognitive component worry and the affective component, emotional distress
questions answered on a 4 point likert scale
Sarason’s Test Anxiety Scale
developed in 1960 and is the most widely used self-report instrument for measuring children’s test anxiety
27 items which are true or false statements
Distal factors for test anxiety (increase the likelihood of a TA response)
Personal factors that affect test anxiety:
Biological predisposition, primary socialisation
Proximal factors for test anxiety (directly associated with TA response)
Situational factors: Social reference group, group reference norms, competitive environment, perceived control
Emotion focused interventions for TA
aim: reduce arousal and other physiological responses through theoretical explanation of anxiety, various relation methods, behavioural learning principles
-> ineffective on their own on cognitive performance
Cognitive Focused Interventions
Reduce the worry and irrational intrusive thoughts in people with test anxiety through understanding triggers, modifying maladaptive cognitions, positive thinking, cognitive modification models and attention focus skills.
-> effective in reducing TA
Study skill interventions
Improve student study and test taking skills in order for them to more effectively study and have less TA, most effective in combination with other interventions
Yerkes-dodson law
a relationship between arousal and performance, law dictates that performance will increase with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point.
Self-Regulatory model of test anxiety based on Self-Referent Executive Function (S-REF) theory
Test anxiety is the result of the interaction between 3 systems: (1) executive self-regulation processes; (2) self-beliefs/self-knowledge; (3) maladaptive interactions
General adaptation to stress (GAS) model
Stress as a response
3 stages of stress: acute response; defensive mechanisms/resistance; exhaustion
Fight or flight response
The body boots up to tackle a threat. The amygdala send a distress signal, the hypothalamus acts as a control centre and send signals around the body to activate the fight or flight response
Stress as a stimulus
Stress caused through stressors. These are demands made by the internal or external environment that upset balance, thus affecting physical and phycological well-being
Stress as a response
Stress as a physiological response to stimuli
Chronic stress
Continuous and repeated stress
Transactional model of stress
Stress is the interaction between the person and the environment. Stress responses are evoked when there is a perceived imbalance between situational demands and personal resources. The stress depends on how the individual appraises the external stressor.
Interaction between primary and secondary appraisal with coping strategies.
Repressive coping
Ignoring/avoiding a stressor to maintain an artificially positive view point -> harmful long term
Rational coping
Facing the stressor and working to overcome it
Three steps:
1. acceptance
2. exposure
3. understanding
Reframing
Finding a new way to think about the stressor that reduces its threat
Health Belief Model
Assumes that health behaviour results from a desire to avoid/recover from and illness and belief that a specific health behaviour will prevent/cure illness
4 constructs:
Perceived susceptibility
Perceived severity
Perceived benefits
Perceived barriers
Theory of Reasoned Action(TRA)
Model that believes our intention is the most powerful factor in influencing our behaviour.
Through Behavioural belief strength and normative beliefs (social pressure), i.e. our perception of what other people will think form out intention.
Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)
Expansion of TRA model
Perceived behavioural control (PBC) overalps with construct of self-efficacy, how well we believe we can perform the behaviour. This is influenced by past experiences and anticipated obstacles. PBC predicts behaviour
Six stages of change
Pre-contemplation
Contemplation
Preparation
Action
Maintenance
Relapse
Perceived behavioural control
The degree to which a person believes that they can perform a given behaviour
Intention-behaviour gap
The failure to translate intentions into actions
Ecological models
There are multiple levels of influence that interact and impact a persons behaviour
Individual - Interpersonal - Organisational - Community - Public Policy
Eustress
“Good stress” which is challenging, exciting, and motivating. It lies within the persons control, within their coping abilities and can lead to improved performance and sense of self-efficacy and mastery
Distress
“Bad stress” which is threatening and unpleasant and leads to a decrease in performance and a negative impact on health and well-being
Primary appraisal
Is the stressor harmful, threatening or challenging in the moment?
Secondary appraisal
Is the stressor within in my coping abilities and how can I deal with the situation to get a positive outcome
Transtheoretical model (stages of change)
Aims to address the intention-behaviour gap.
two stages within health behaviour change:
Motivational stage: intention to perform behaviour
Volitional stage: successful performance of the behaviour
