module 1 Flashcards
psychological disorder
- psychological dysfunction
- distress/impairment
- deviance from norm
psychological dysfunction
disturbance in cognitive, emotional, and/or behavioral functioning
distress/impairment
- individual experiences personal distress associated with the disorder
- ‘extreme expressions’ of emotions, behaviors and cognitions that impair functioning
approaches to understanding abnormal behaviour
- supernatural tradition
- biological tradition
- psychological tradition
supernatural tradition
- explained deviant behaviour as evil, the moon and stars and used byproducts of religion like sin, demons, etc
supernatural tradition treatment approaches
- exorcisms
- snake pits, confinement, beatings, torture
- hydrotherapy: dunking people in ice water to “rid them of demons”
- trephination: drilling holes in the peoples skulls to allow to “demons” to leave them
biological tradition
- reducing a psychological disorder to a physical, biological cause
- aka biological reductionism
biological tradition - hippocrates
- hippocratic corpus
- abnormal behaviour as a physical disease
- theorized on brain pathology, genetics, family influences as causes of abnormal behavior and psychological disorder
- hysteria caused by a “wandering uterus”
biological tradition - galen
- all diseases, including psychological, were due to an imbalance of four bodily fluids, called humors
- humoral theory
galen - humeral theory
- blood: excess blood causes insomnia and delirium
- black bile: excess causes melancholy
- yellow bil: excess causes someone to be hot tempered
- phlegm: excess causes sluggishness
biological tradition historical treatment approaches
- regulate environment( adjust temperature or humidity)
- rest
- good nutrition
- exercise
- bleeding or bloodletting: cutting open a vein
- induced vomiting
syphilis/general paresis
- advanced symptoms of syphilis resembled psychosis
- subgroup of psychotic individuals steadily deteriorated (general paresis)
- injected patients with blood from soldier with malaria – many recovered because a symptom of malaria is a fever and fevers kill bacteria, aka syphilis bacteria
psychological tradition
- psychoanalytic theory
- sigmund freud discussed accessing the unconscious mind
- the unconscious mind influences our personality and behaviour
- insight and catharsis
structures of the mind (psychological tradition)
- ID: primitive desires, instinct, urges, aggression, sex
- ego: mediator between ID and superego
- superego: morals, maintain order
intrapsychic conflict
ego must come up with defense mechanisms and dealing with stressed caused when there is conflicting ideas between ID and superego
defence mechanisms/coping styles
- denial
- projection
- displacement
- sublimation
projection
misattribute our own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to another individual
displacement
directing your feelings about a person or situation towards a less threatening person or object
sublimation
- directing maladaptive feelings into socially acceptable behavior
- healthiest coping approach according to Freud
psychological tradition/psychoanalysis techniques
- free association
- dream analysis
- interpretation
- transference or countertransference
transference
a patient unconsciously directs feelings or desires that they have toward an important figure in their life (like a parent) onto the therapist
countertransference
- feelings that the client/patient evokes in the therapist
- inexplicable feelings towards and about the client
- e.g. suddenly feeling very annoyed toward a client, using that as insight for the client and yourself
criticisms of psychoanalysis
- unscientific
- hard to falsify/no measurement
- lack of empirical support
- long term/excessively expensive (Sessions 5x/week)
contributions of psychoanalysis
- highlighted importance of unconscious mental processes
- led to other talk therapies
- highlight the importance of therapeutic relationship – although seen as means to an end (transference)
humanistic theory
- self-actualization
- abraham maslow and his hierarchy of needs
self-actualization
- assumption that everyone is capable of reaching their highest potential when given the right circumstances
- core principle of all humanistic therapies
abraham maslow
proposed all humans have basic needs and to reach self-actualization you must progress to the top
carl rogers
- most influential humanist
- developed person-centered therapy, and defined the 3 needs needed by client to self-actualize:
1. unconditional positive regard
2. empathy/empathetic understanding
3. congruence
unconditional positive regard
no matter what you say or do, have done or statements you make, you will always be looked upon favourably and look at you in a positive light
empathy/empathetic understanding
“i want to understand you, tell me more”, communicating till the person feels understood (empathy regulates!!)
congruence
therapist brings no air of superiority, or authority, ad instead presents and acceptable face that is honest and transparent
frederich perls - gestalt therapy
- holistic
- present-focused: focused on current/now
- people are best thought of as whole entities consisting of body, mind and emotions and are best understood from their eyes
- what is blocking pursuit of desires and needs
leslie greenberg - emotion-focused therapy
- emotion-focused therapy
- roots in both person-centred and Gestalt
- well researched
6 principles for working with emotions
- awareness
- expressing emotion
- emotion regulation
- reflecting on emotion
- changing emotion with emotion
- corrective emotional experience
behavioural theory
- pavlov & classical conditioning
- john b. watson & little albert
- b.f. skinner & operant conditioning
criticisms of behavioural theory
- doesn’t account for everything known about psychology
- limited focus on biology, cognitions or lifespan
contributions of behavioural theory
- shifted emphasis towards empirically validated techniques
- foundation for cognitive-behavioural therapy
behavioural therapy techniques
- in vivo: directly facing fear
- imaginal: vividly imagining feared object
- virtual reality: VR to simulate exposure
- introceptive: bringing on physical sensations that are harmless, but feared
3 paces of delivery behaviour therapy techniques
- graded exposure
- systematic desensitization
- flooding
graded exposure
- develop a fear hierarchy/ladder
- continuous exposure that increases in fear level until you are no longer scared
systematic desensitization
training, relaxation, and strategies to help progress up the ladder
flooding
- start at the top of the ladder/hiearchy
- maximum scary scenario
- effective but hard to get people to do it
- e.g. scared of needles, jump in a pit of needles
integrative approach
- psychopathology: product of multiple systems
- supernatural explanations and unscientific methods still present
- all behaviour is impacted by the interaction of psychological, biological and social influences
