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Personality and Mental Health Flashcards

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1
Q

What is personality?

A

An individual’s unique and relatively consistent pattern of thinking, feeling and behaving

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2
Q

What was the early approach from Hans Eysenck (1916-1997)?

A

Identified 2 primary personality traits, extraversion or introversion and neuroticism
These factors are independent from each other
Argued that biology influences personality

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3
Q

Biological approach to personality

A

Inherited predispositions which determine personality

Physiological processes explain differences in personality

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4
Q

Genetic influence in personality

A

Monozygotic twins who share 100% of their DNA have been found to have more similar personalities and have a higher correlation between personality traits

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5
Q

Epigenetic

A

The influence of environment on gene expression, alters DNA structure

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6
Q

Jeffrey Alan Gray (1934-2004)

A

Introverts and extroverts differ in how they respond to emotional stimuli
Introverts are quickly aroused when exposed to external stimuli
Reinforcement sensitivity theory - the human brain has 2 behavioural systems underlying individual differences to reward, punishment and motivation

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7
Q

Behavioural approach system (BAS)

A

Seek out impulsive, rewarding behaviour, engage in emotionally intense situations

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8
Q

Behavioural inhibition system (BIS)

A

Avoid emotionally intense situations, anxiety

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9
Q

What is the frontal lobe important in?

A

Personality, changes in personality, planning behaviour, emotional control and behavioural inhibition

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10
Q

How can EEG be used to measure personality

A

By measuring electrical activity on the brains surface
Higher activation in left = higher BAS
Higher activation in right = higher BIS

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11
Q

What does inactivation in the left frontal cortex indicate?

A

Depression

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12
Q

What does sporadic activation in the left frontal cortex indicate?

A

Bipolar

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13
Q

What does activation in the right frontal cortex indicate?

A

Anxiety

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14
Q

What is the importance of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)?

A 
Essential part of personality 
Processes emotional information 
Decision making 
Assigns value to decisions - internal voice which tells us what to do, right from wrong 
If OFC is damaged personality changes
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15
Q

Who are the significant psychoanalysts?

A 
Sigmund Freud (1865-1939)
Alfred Adler (1870-1937)
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Karen Horney (1885-1952)
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16
Q

The Id

A

Seeks release of unconscious and primal needs and desires
Works according to the pleasure principle: immediate gratification
Not concerned with moral or social rules

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17
Q

The superego

A

Controls morals/ rule-bound behaviour, including ideals and ethics
It rewards good behaviour and punishes bad
Conflicts with the Id

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18
Q

The ego

A

Balances Id’s urges with superego’s constraints
Operates via reality principle: long term gratification
It is logical, rational and resilient

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19
Q

Freud’s beliefs on personality

A

Psychosexual development occurs in stages via which personality style and individual differences develop
If sexual or libidinal energy is stuck or fixated at various stages, conflicts can occur and these can leave an imprint on adult personality

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20
Q

What are the psychosexual stages?

A
  • oral stage (up to 2 years) - focus on oral pleasure
  • anal stage (2-3 years) - tension between pleasure from releasing and social pressure to delay
  • phallic stage (4-5 years) - focus on genitals, realisation of physical male/female differences, Oedipus/ Electra complex
  • latency stage (6 years until puberty) - with key conflicts resolved child suppresses sexuality and channels energy into social and intellectual pursuits
  • genital stage (puberty onwards) - sexual and aggressive drives return, seeks pleasure through sexual contact with others, ego and superego now fully developed
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21
Q

What were Carl Jung’s opinions on personality?

A

Believed Freud over-emphasised sexuality
Embraced a mythological approach and rejected scientific method
Proposed a ‘collective unconscious’
Focused on dual aspects of the personality: private self vs. Persona presented to others
Therapy should help the expression of the unconscious: an ally, not an enemy

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22
Q

Alfred Adler

A

Believed Freud over-emphasised sexuality
People consciously strive to improve their lives
Relationships shape individuals, so does desire to contribute to society
Individuals focus on compensating for painful inferiorities (inferiority complex)
For example child who felt inferior may emphasise toughness as an adult

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23
Q

Karen Horney

A

Culture is primary influence on individuals personality
Personality types relate to strategies to reduce interpersonal anxiety
Women are more likely yo envy men’s status, power and their freedom rather than their penises
Women are socialised into gender roles, not desired to fulfil them by biology or psychology

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24
Q

Humanistic psychology on personality

A

People have an innate tendency towards self-actualisation the motivation to reach one’s potential
Personality is a result of you trying to become your best self
Concerned with more developed and healthier aspects of human behaviour
Emphasis on the present rather than the past or future
Self-reflection and choice are key to development
Focus on goals/ outcomes of behaviour rather than describing individual differences or behavioural mechanisms
Abraham Maslow (1909-1970)
Carl R Rogers (1902-1987)

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25
Q

Behavioural approach on personality

A

Personality as the result of learning

Observational learning - personality develops as a result of mimicry of others, particularly effective among children

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26
Q

Law of effect (behaviourist)

A

Behaviours are more likely to be repeated if they leads to a satisfying outcome, less likely to be repeated if they lead to unsatisfying consequences

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27
Q

Strengths of behavioural approach

A

Based within empirical research

Explains external influence on personality

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28
Q

Limitations of behavioural approach

A

Tends to view human behaviour as simple

Assumes individuals are blank slates

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29
Q

Social-cognitive theory of personality

A

Reciprocal determinism
External and internal interactions influence personality
Personality is influenced by external factors (rewards, punishments) and internal factors (beliefs, thoughts, expectations)

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30
Q

Cognitive approach to personality

A

Differences in personality are differences in the way people process and store information
Personality due to mental representations and how these are accessed and stored
People react to the same situation differently depending on how they process it

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31
Q

Semantic network model

A

Mental links form between concepts
Ominous properties provide basis for mental link
Shorter pathway between concepts = stronger association in memory

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32
Q

Spreading activation

A

Concept is activation in semantic network, spread in any number of directions, activating other nearby associations in network
Nearby activated concepts inform behaviour
We bring forward information that we associate with certain situation and then this influences our behaviour

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33
Q

Self-schema

A

Cognitive representation of oneself that one uses to organise and process self-relevant information
Consists of important behaviours and concepts
People behave differently due to individual differences in self-schemas
Provide a framework for organising and storing information about our personality

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34
Q

Self-reference effect

A

Easy remembering of self-referent words as they are processed through self-schemas

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35
Q

Trait approach

A

Does not try to explain behaviour
Identifies personality characteristics that can be represented along a continuum
Assumptions - personality characteristics are stable over time

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36
Q

Trait

A

Characterises people according to degree to which they display a particular characteristic

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37
Q

Surface trait

A

Characteristics or attributes that can be inferred from observable behaviour (what behaviours we see)

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38
Q

Source trait

A

Most fundamental aspect of personality; broad, basic traits that are thought to be universal and few in number

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39
Q

Nomothetic approach

A

Describing personality along a finite number of traits

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40
Q

Idiographic approach

A

Identifies any combination of traits that describe an individual, infinite possibilities , may not apply to everyone

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41
Q

Central traits

A

Can easily describe an individuals personality

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42
Q

Secondary traits

A

Preferences, not main predictor of behaviour

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43
Q

Cardinal traits

A

Single dominating trait in personality

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44
Q

Jungian personality traits

A

Personality traits for perceiving the environment and obtaining/ possessing information

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45
Q

Raymond Cattell

A

Used factor analysis to identify personality traits

Proposed 16 personality traits - but was too many

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46
Q

The big five

A 
Established via factor analysis 
Costa and McCrae 
Tested in more than 50 cultures 
Assumed to be biologically influenced 
Traits seem stable over lifetime 
Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism
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47
Q

Lexical approach

A

Examine traits used within language

Traits already embedded in everyday speech

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48
Q

Allport and Odbert (1936)

A

Searched dictionary for words that describe people

4,500 terms remained after they filtered our ones that did not apply

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49
Q

HEXACO model of personality

A 
Adds one factor to the big five 
Honesty-humility 
Emotionality/ neuroticism 
Extraversion 
Agreeableness 
Conscientiousness 
Openness to experience
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50
Q

Minnesota Multiphase Personality inventory (MMPI)

A

Self-report inventory used by clinical psychologists, widely used clinical assessments tool, very long (567 items)

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51
Q

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

A

Measures Jungian types, most widely known personality test, commonly used in business

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52
Q

Eysenck Personality Questionnaire

A

48 items, later reduced to 24 items, probably too many for only 2 factors

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53
Q

Assessing the big five

A

Several scales developed
John and Srivastava (1999) - widely used assessment of the big five, derived from the lexical approach, 44 items, often translated for cross-cultural validation, consistent across most western and European cultures
Ten-item personality inventory (TIPI) - 10 items, 2 questions per trait, short and easy to implement

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54
Q

Whole trait theory

A

Personality is multi faced
We have a distribution of personality states
Personality states depend on context and environment
Standard personality assessments capture an average but not entire distribution of variability in our behaviour

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55
Q

Projective tests

A

Freudian defence mechanism
Access unconscious by providing an ambiguous stimulus
Participants project personalities as they describe the object

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56
Q

Rorschach ink blot test

A

View series of inkblots and describe what you see

Manual used for scoring participant responses

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57
Q

Thematic apperception test

A

Create a story about an evocative, ambiguous scene
The person is thought to project their own motives, conflicts and other personality characteristics into the story they create

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58
Q

Aetiology

A

Causal pathway that leads to pathology/ process by which a disorder develops

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59
Q

Course

A

The progression of a disorder over time

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60
Q

Incidence

A

Number of new cases/ characteristic in a specified population, over a specified period of time

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61
Q

Cure/ remission

A

The rate at which the disease/ characteristic ceases to be present in individuals who have previously shown it

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62
Q

Recurrence

A

The rate at which the disease/ characteristic occurs again in individuals who have previously shown it

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63
Q

Comorbidity

A

The presence of two or more disorders for a single individual

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64
Q

Prevalence

A

Reported as a percentage

Different ways to measure and report prevalence depending on the time frame

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65
Q

Point prevalence

A

Proportion of a population with the characteristic at a specific point in time

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66
Q

Period prevalence

A

The proportion with the characteristic at any point during a given time period of interest

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67
Q

When we’re asylums introduced?

A

Late 15th century

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68
Q

Early 20th century perspectives

A

Somatogenic - abnormal psychological functioning has physical causes
Psychogenic - abnormal psychological functioning has psychological causes

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69
Q

Emil Kraeplin (1856-1926)

A

Father of modern psychiatry
Established foundations of our classification system
Psychiatry - medical science informed by observation and empirical practices
Opposed inhumane practices
Promoted neuropsychological approach

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70
Q

Fear

A

Response to an immediate threat

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71
Q

Anxiety

A

Worry about future threat

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72
Q

Three interrelated anxiety response system

A
  1. Physical system: the brain sends messages to the sympathetic nervous system, which produces the fight/flight/freeze/disappear response and activates important chemicals - trembling, tightness in chest, heavy perspiration, sweaty palms, lightheaded, dry mouth, short of breath, heart racing, nausea
  2. Cognitive system: activation often leads to subjective feelings of worry, nervousness, difficulty concentrating, and panic, awareness of bodily sensations, fear of losing control, disturbing thoughts
  3. Behavioural system: aggression and/or escape/avoidance, safety seeking, propitiation/placation
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73
Q

Genetic risk factors for OCD

A
  • Twin studies suggest heritability/ predisposition
  • About 20-40% for phobias, GAD and PTSD
  • About 50% for panic disorder
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74
Q

Neurobiological risk factors of OCD

A
  • Fear circuit over activity
  • Amygdala
  • Medial prefrontal cortex deficits
  • Neurotransmitters
  • Poor functioning of serotonin and GABA
  • Higher levels of norepinephrine
  • Benzodiazepines work on GABA receptors to enhance effects of GABA
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75
Q

Anxiety

A

a mood state characterised by strong negative emotion, bodily symptoms of tension in anticipation and beliefs related to future danger and misfortune

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76
Q

Panic disorder

A

Repeated, unexpected panic attacks
Begin suddenly without triggers
Usually, last minutes but can last hours
Strong urge to escape situation
For one month must be followed by one or both of:
Persistent fear of subsequent attacks or the feared consequences
Significant maladaptive changes in behaviour

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77
Q

Catastrophic misinterpretation of bodily sensations

A

Panic attacks are precipitated by individuals catastrophically misinterpreting bodily sensations as threatening (Clark, 1986)
Individuals with panic disorder – attend to their bodily sensations more than others, will interpret ambiguous signs as threatening, have panic attacks triggered by the expectancy of an attack

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78
Q

Phobia

A

★ Much of what we know about anxiety disorders comes from research on specific phobias
★ Basis in fear, anxiety is in response to specific threat
★ The sufferer usually knows the fear is irrational
★ An excessive, unreasonable, persistent fear triggered by a specific object or situation
★ Phobic individual will usually develop a set of avoidance responses (negative reinforcement)
★ Fear is driven by a set of dysfunctional beliefs that the sufferer has developed
★ Must affect lifestyle of functioning, or cause significant distress (DSM-5)

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79
Q

Social anxiety

A

Distinguished by a severe and persistent fear of social or performance situations.
People who are socially anxious try to avoid any kind of social situation in which they believe they may behave in an embarrassing way or in which they believe they may be negatively evaluated.

80
Q

Agoraphobia

A

☞ Fear of open, busy areas, public places

☞ Can become housebound for months – years

81
Q

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

A

High levels of anxiety and worry that are not specific to one object, situation, activity
Anxiety is excessive, difficult to control, accompanied by physical symptoms
Must be accompanied by marked emotional distress or significant impairment in daily functioning

82
Q

Symptoms of OCD

A

➢ Obsessions – intrusive, recurring thoughts that the individual finds distressing
➢ Compulsions – repetitive or ritualised behaviour patterns or neutralising thought patterns that the individual feels driven to perform
➢ Responsibility for preventing catastrophic outcome

83
Q

OCD obsessions

A

➢ Recurrent, persistent, unwanted intrusive thought
➢ Thought, urge or mental image
➢ Beyond the person’s ability to control
➢ Generally, cause anxiety or distress

84
Q

OCD compulsions

A

➢ Excessively repetitive behaviour or mental act
➢ Typically, in response to intrusive thoughts – may partially relieve anxiety through negative
reinforcement

85
Q

OCD treatment approaches

A

➢ Exposure with response prevention (ERP)
➢ Exposed to situations that provoke obsessive thoughts
➢ Prevent compulsive response from happening
➢ Learn to control anxiety, realise nothing bad happened

86
Q

Major depressive disorder

A

• Apparently universal disorder however different cultures describe it differently
• WHO estimates 120 million people suffering with it
• Must have major depressive episode in the absence of a history of mania or hypermania
• A major depressive disorder involves:
Change in ability to function
Depressed mood, sadness, feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness
And/ or loss of interest in usually pleasurable activities must be for a period of at
least two weeks
• Costs the average adult suffering 27 days of work lost
• WHO indicate that 5 of the 10 major causes of disability are psychological conditions

87
Q

Learned helplessness - Martin Seligman (1973, 1975)

A

helplessness is learned and depends on situational factors and experiences, people who develop depression view selves as helpless to change own lives for the better – dogs and electric shock did not escape when they could have

88
Q

Biochemical factors of depression

A

★ Role of reduced serotonin or noradrenaline?
★ Antidepressants increase levels of serotonin and noradrenaline which is the primary
evidence that they work, however, this increase happens within a few days or even hours of
use, but the therapeutic effects take weeks or months
★ Also, the levels of these chemicals are sometimes normal in people with depression
★ Alternative accounts: reduced number of receptors, differences in sensitivity of these receptors, irregularities in binding to these receptors

89
Q

SSRIs

A

Similar to tricyclics, specific to reuptake of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT)

90
Q

Tricyclics

A

Increase levels of norepinephrine and serotonin and block the action of acetylcholine, restoring the balance of these neurotransmitters in the brain

91
Q

MAOIs

A

Inhibit action of monoamine oxidase (MAO) enzyme that breaks down norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitters in synapse
Not common now – concerns about interactions with certain foods and numerous drug interactions

92
Q

Bipolar Disorder

A
  • A psychological disorder characterised by periods of mania that alternate with periods of depression – mood swings between elation and depression
  • First episode either manic or depressive
  • Manic episodes last a few weeks, and end more abruptly than depressive episodes
  • Prevalence of around 1%, develops around age 20 and is usually chronic
  • MDD can include episodes of mania but not of frequency or magnitude to diagnose bipolar
  • Many symptoms overlap with other psychiatric disorders
93
Q

Types of bipolar disorder

A

Bipolar I – must have experienced a full manic episode, involves swings between mania and depression
Bipolar II – experienced hypomania episodes and at least one major depressive episode (hypomania is less severe than full mania)
Cyclothymic Disorder – chronic state of cycling between hypomanic and depressive episodes that do not reach diagnostic standard for bipolar disorder

94
Q

Cyclothymic Disorder

A

chronic state of cycling between hypomanic and depressive episodes that do not reach diagnostic standard for bipolar disorder

95
Q

Treatment of bipolar

A

➢ Most treated with a combination of medication and psychological therapy
➢ In the UK, lithium carbonate is the medication most commonly used to treat bipolar disorder

96
Q

Schizophrenia

A

psychological disorder involves severely distorted beliefs, perceptions, and thought process

97
Q

When is schizophrenia diagnosed?

A

when someone has more two or more of characteristic symptoms – at least one symptom must be delusions, hallucinations, or disorganised speech, diagnosed with or without catatonia (movement issues)

→ Multilevel process for diagnosing schizophrenia
→ Symptoms (positive/negative)
→ Reduction in functioning
→ Symptoms exist for 6 months, 1 month of positive symptoms
→ Have to rule out symptoms of other disorders as symptoms can overlap with other disorders

98
Q

Positive schizophrenia symptoms

A

Delusions (false beliefs) – can lead to dangerous behaviours
Hallucinations (false perceptions) – can be indistinguishable from reality
Disorganised thought process, speech and behaviour

99
Q

Negative schizophrenia symptoms

A

Deficits in behavioural or emotional functioning
Symptoms can occur in combination
Flat affect – don’t really express emotions
Alogia (reduced speech) – passive, do not respond to world around, monotone
Avolition (lack if follow through) – don’t really plan ahead or think to the future

100
Q

Biological features of schizophrenia:

A

Abnormal brain structures – 50% of people with schizophrenia show some types of brain abnormality
Most consistent finding – enlargement of the ventricles
Loss of grey matter and lower volume of the brain
Issues with neurotransmitters

101
Q

Default mode network

A
  • Parts of brain active under wakeful rest (daydreaming)

* Normally, we switch between this and executive functioning

102
Q

Personality disorder

A

a pattern of deviating behaviour
inflexible – leads to distress
varying criteria of characteristics
often less severe than other clinical disorders but can often overlap

103
Q

General personality disorder

A

• In DSM-5 – 10 broad criteria
• What you may be diagnosed with if there is nothing else but you have deviating behaviour
that negatively effects your life

104
Q

Emotional and genetic influences of personality disorders

A

Emotional/sexual abuse, neglect – 73% of individuals report prior abuse and 82% reported childhood neglect
Childhood maltreatment – particularly common among individuals with borderline personality disorder
Genetic heritability estimates around 50%

105
Q

What are the 3 clusters of personality disorders?

A

− Cluster A: Odd or eccentric disorders
− Cluster B: dramatic, emotional or erratic disorders
− Cluster C: anxious or fearful disorders

106
Q

Eccentric personality disorders:

A

→ Paranoid personality disorder – pervasive distrust and suspiciousness, prevalence rates: 4.4%-2.3%
→ Schizoid personality disorder – pervasive pattern of detachment, one of the least studied disorders, prevalence rates 3.1%-4.9%
→ Schizotypal personality disorder – odd behaviour and cognitive distortions, prevalence rates 3.3%, initially presumed to have schizophrenia

107
Q

Emotional personality disorders:

A

→ Problematic patterns of social interactions
→ Dramatic and impulsive behaviour
→ Antisocial personality disorder – detachment and moral insanity, psychopathy, impulsive,
individual must be at least 18, before 15 is child conduct disorder, prevalence rate around
3%, often associated with violence
→ Borderline personality disorder – instability in mood, self-harm prevalent (75%), splitting –
either ‘all good’ or ‘all bad’, need for attention
→ Histrionic personality disorder – extreme attention seeking behaviour, excessively dramatic and make up stories to draw attention, uncomfortable if not centre of attention
→ Narcissistic personality disorder – need for admiration, sense of entitlement, ignoring needs for others

108
Q

Anxious personality disorders:

A

→ Avoidant personality disorder – pervasive pattern of social inhibition, fear of criticism, prevalence between 2.3%-5.1%
→ Dependent personality disorder – pervasive pattern of being submissive, difficulties making everyday decisions, relies on reassurance from others, prevalence 0.4%-0.6%
→ Obsessive-Compulsive personality disorder – preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, prevalence 2.4%-7.8%

109
Q

Cognitive Behavioural therapy (CBT)

A

➢ Evidence based CBT interventions exist for a variety of psychological difficulties
➢ CBT has a broad evidence-base and is recommended as first-line treatment in NICE clinical guidelines for a variety of difficulties
➢ Time-limited, structured therapy
➢ Aims to understand and address processes which contribute to maintenance of someone’s difficulties
➢ Treatment driven by patient goals and a joint understanding of difficulties (formulation)

110
Q

Psychoeducation

A

look through literature together and figure out what works for that person

111
Q

Cognitive restructuring

A

identifying and challenging unhelpful/ irrational thoughts to remedy cognitive distortions

112
Q

Thought records

A

identifying and challenging negative automatic thoughts

113
Q

Behavioural activation

A

supports individuals to increase participation in activities that will be intrinsically rewarding

114
Q

Behavioural experiments

A

pragmatically testing beliefs/ predictions/ perceived function and/ or consequences of behaviour

115
Q

Dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT)

A

Developed to help individuals experiencing intense emotions and difficulties consistent with personality disorders

116
Q

Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)

A

Conceptualises psychological problems understood as being maintained through interpersonal difficulties and aims to address symptoms by improving interpersonal functioning

117
Q

Strengths of biological approach

A

Provides a genetic account as source of individual variability, empirically supported neural indicators of personality

118
Q

Limitations of biological approach

A

Assumption that biology is primary driver of personality

Assessing personality via biology is not the easiest route

119
Q

Cross sectional studies

A

Data recorded once

120
Q

Longitudinal studies

A

Data recorded multiple times, track changes in personality over time

121
Q

Experimental studies

A

Manipulation of variables to establish cause and effect

122
Q

Meta-analysis

A

Summarises multiple studies

123
Q

Broad personality constructs

A

Extraversion, neuroticism, mood or anxiety disorder etc.

124
Q

Specific personality constructs

A

Alcohol use/ smoking

125
Q

Amygdala

A

Processes emotional stimuli

Negative emotions - fear, anger and disgust

126
Q

What did Walter Mischel argue about personality?

A

Personality is not always a reliable predictor of behaviour
Long-term consistency, personality captures ‘average’ behaviour
Our behaviour usually depends what environment we’re in

127
Q

General critiques of humanistic theory

A

Though the positive focus is very attractive, theory may be too optimistic about human behaviour
Majority of theories are not supported by evidence, based on assumptions – hierarchy of needs
Certain constructs hard to define even by humanists - self-actualisation

128
Q

General critiques of psychodynamic approach

A

Focus on psychiatric patients: not generalisable to the rest of the population
No clear way of refuting aspects of psychodynamic theory – often not testable or falsifiable
Theories often not based in scientific, empirical research

129
Q

Defence mechanisms

A

★ Techniques of ego to deal with unwanted thoughts and desires and reduce or avoid anxiety

130
Q

What did Baumeister, Dale and Sommer (1998) find support for?

A 
For many (but not all) defence mechanisms
Some ideas correct, some require minor or major revision and others have little support
131
Q

Good evidence for reaction formation from Adams, Wright and Lohr (1996)

A

assessed homophobia and showed men videotapes featuring homosexual intercourse, homophobic men said they were not aroused but physiological measures showed that they were more aroused than others, these participants’ subjective response was the opposite of what their bodies actually indicated

132
Q

Strengths of behavioural approach

A

Solid foundation in empirical research
Developmental of useful therapeutic procedures
Treatments based on conditioning effective
Most useful approach for certain populations

133
Q

Criticisms of behavioural approach

A

☹ Narrow in its description of human personality
☹ Does not consider the role of genetics and biology
☹ Humans are more complex than laboratory animals
☹ Reduction to observable behaviours disregards cognition

134
Q

Strengths of cognitive approach

A

Ideas developed through empirical findings
Extensive investigation in controlled laboratory experiments
Fits well within modern psychology
Therapists from other approaches incorporate aspects of cognitive therapy in their practice

135
Q

Criticisms of cognitive approach

A

☹ Some concepts are too abstract for empirical research
☹ Not always well implemented within personality research
☹ No single model or theory organise to explain personality

136
Q

What does central executive do?

A

Coordinates and decides on behaviour
Controls attention, memory and decision making
Conductor of your personality
Your consciousness

137
Q

Operant conditioning

A

Rewards and punishments

138
Q

Classical conditioning

A

Associations

139
Q

Social learning theory (Albert Bandura)

A

We can provide our own reinforcers without direct experience of rewards and punishments
Observe rewards/ punishments from others
Mimic others successful behaviours

140
Q

Mirror neurons

A

➢ Cells in the brain that activate to mimic others behaviour
➢ Help us learn new behaviours, understand behaviour
➢ Linked to empathy
➢ Also linked to autism

141
Q

Social cognitive theory (Albert Bandura)

A

✰ Reciprocal determinism
✰ Operant conditioning influences personality
✰ Interacts with observations, morals and beliefs etc.

142
Q

What was the third factor Hans Eysenck proposed

A

Psychoticism – aggressiveness, coldness, antisocial tendencies, egocentricity, vulnerability to psychotic disorders (e.g. schizophrenia)

143
Q

Beliefs of Walter Mischel (1968)

A
  • Observed behaviour and personality traits correlates weakly
  • The situation is the main determinant of behaviour
  • Traits are weak predictors of behaviour alone
144
Q

What was the basis of the big 5 and what is the problems with this?

A

Based on lexical approach which is based on an English dictionary so is biased to English speakers
Personality factors based in Western countries may not apply to everyone

145
Q

Strengths of projective tests

A

Provide qualitative information about individuals personality
Information can facilitate therapy

146
Q

Limitations of projective tests

A

☹ Scoring highly subjective
☹ Fails to produce consistent results
☹ Poor at predicting future behaviour

147
Q

Strengths of self-report inventories:

A

Standardised and use stablished personality traits

Predict behaviour and employee fit for workplace

148
Q

Limitations of self-report inventories

A

☹ Participants may fake responses to look better
☹ High number of items leads to loss of interest
☹ Takers not always accurate in self-judgements
☹ No personality test, by itself, is likely to provide a definitive description of any given
individual

149
Q

Barnum effect

A

when someone believes personality descriptions specifically apply to them while the description applies to mostly everyone

150
Q

How to prevent faking?

A 
Correct for social desirability
Behavioural personality tests
Use forced choice response options
Ask for written elaboration
Include warnings that fakers can be caught
151
Q

What do diagnostic categories do?

A

According to British Psychological Association
• Describe patterns of experiences or behaviours that may be causing distress and/ or be seen as difficult to understand
• Imply that these distressing experiences are the symptoms of a medical illness
• This can lead people to think that the main cause for distress is that something has gone wrong in the brain or body

152
Q

Korsakoff’s syndrome

A

➢ Disturbance in memory caused by alcohol
➢ Ability to learn new information is impaired
➢ Decline in cognitive functioning is not explained by other causes
➢ Vitamin B1 (thiamine deficiency), Wernike’s encephalopathy

153
Q

Problems with the DSM

A

▪ Over reliance on ‘medical’ model
▪ Categories not dimensions
▪ Some propose categories should have – biological explanation and specific therapy to treat
it, not the case in the DSM 5
▪ People often get more than one diagnosis – shift categories over time
▪ People can have ‘sub-threshold’ problems but experience more important than those who
meet full criteria
▪ Psychiatrists often do not agree on the diagnosis, particularly for common disorders –
depression, anxiety

154
Q

Comorbidity and addiction: Regier et al. (1990)

A

o In an alcohol use disorder 37% also had a psychiatric disorder
o In a drug use disorder 53% also had a psychiatric disorder
o In a psychiatric disorder 29% also had a substance use disorder
o Overlap between addiction and other disorders could be due to disruption of social and
recreational activities, social or interpersonal problems, hazardous/ risky situations or failure
to fulfil work, school or home obligations
o Chicken or the egg? Does addiction cause the development of other mental disorder or does
mental disorder lead to an addiction or are they independent?

155
Q

Other issues with the DSM-5:

A

Includes some conditions that are too ‘normal’ to be considered disorders
Uses arbitrary cut-offs
Gender bias
Insufficient sensitivity to cultural diversity
Diagnostic overexpansion
Leaders of mental health organisations boycotted DSM-5
Most vocal critic was Allen Frances argued that DSM-5 will mislabel normal people, promote
diagnostic inflation, encourage inappropriate medication use
Field trial problems – testing of DSM-5 criteria was not very reliable Little input from practitioners

156
Q

Strengths of DSM-5:

A 
Emphasis on empirical research
Use of explicit diagnostic criteria
Some inter-clinician reliability
Atheoretical language
Facilitated communication between researchers and clinicians
157
Q

Issues with animal models

A

No single animal model or study can fully emulate humans
Tend to focus on one aspect of a disorder or behaviour
Can only focus on observable symptoms of disorder
The human brain is different to animal brains

158
Q

Animal models can also be used to induce depression in animals

A

→ Learned helplessness
→ After continued aversity, an organism is no longer motivated to avoid future aversion
→ Used to model depression
→ For example, animals are continuously shocked on one side of the cage and they are unable
to cross to the unelectrified side of cage but once the barrier is removed they do not try to
leave
→ Commonly used to assess effectiveness of antidepressants

159
Q

Anhedonia

A

inability to feel pleasure, lack of interest in previously rewarding behaviours

160
Q

Strengths of animal models:

A

Within subject design (limiting number of subjects)
Long-term testing
Greater control over life and environment
More freedom in what experiments can be conducted – genetics, brain stimulation, manipulating trauma and testing elicit drugs

161
Q

Limitations of animal models:

A

☹ Focus on observable behaviours
☹ Issues with co-morbidity
☹ Limited to one aspect of a clinical disorder
☹ Potential lack of generalisability to humans

162
Q

Biological factors of schizophrenia

A

Schizophrenia and the brain – suppression of default mode network absent, weaker connections between brain areas, hallucinations due to dysfunction of areas
Issues with neurotransmitters – activity of dopamine neurons, dopamine imbalance hypothesis, glutamate linked to psychotic-like symptoms

163
Q

Dopamine’s importance

A

Reward and reinforcement – responsible for feelings of euphoria
Motor movements – implicated in movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease Produced in brainstem, but has projections which affect activity in the cortex (surface of the brain)
Overactivity of dopamine in midbrain regions
Underactivity of dopamine in cortical regions

164
Q

Dopamine imbalance hypothesis

A

Leads to both positive and negative symptoms
Hallucinations/ delusions result of overactivity in midbrain/ brainstem Lack of motivation/ flat affect results of underactivity in cortex
Changes in dopamine activity results in more creative thinking Inability to stop influx of thoughts
Increased information flow resulting in more creative thinking

165
Q

Typical antipsychotics

A

first generation antipsychotic drugs

166
Q

What are the side effects of Thorazine and other ‘typical’ antipsychotic drugs

A 
tardive dyskinesia (movement disorder)– involuntary movement of lower face, limbs, as dopamine is used for motor movements 
Weight gain
167
Q

What do typical antipsychotics mainly target?

A

Positive symptoms like hallucinations and delusions

168
Q

When we’re atypical antipsychotic drugs introduced

A

Around 1990

169
Q

Advantages of atypical antipsychotic drugs

A

less likely to cause movement-related dopamine side effects, more effective in treating the negative symptoms, target dopamine imbalance, less tardive dyskinesia

170
Q

Disadvantages of atypical antipsychotics

A

weight gain, diabetes, cardiac problems, no greater improvements than with other antipsychotics

171
Q

Issues will all antipsychotic medication

A

do not cure schizophrenia, unwanted side effects

and pattern of hospitalisation, discharge and re hospitalisation

172
Q

Biopsychological framework

A

interactions between genetics (biology), personality (psychology), and environment (social) and their impact on mental health

173
Q

What did George Engel (1913-1999) suggest?

A

suggested mental health should be understood from more than just a biological perspective

174
Q

Glutamate (GLU)

A
  • Excitatory neurotransmitter

* Receptors found on 90% of neurons in brain

175
Q

GABA

A
  • Inhibitory neurotransmitter

* Receptors found on 30% of neurons in the brain

176
Q

Anxiety in the brain

A

➢ Increased activity in the brain
➢ Amygdala, thalamus, hippocampus
➢ Over-excitation caused by excess neurotransmitters: glutamate, epinephrine/
norepinephrine

177
Q

Anxiolytics developed and prescribed to treat anxiety

A

➢ Sedative and calming effects

➢ Usually start to work immediately

178
Q

Barbiturates

A

powerful sedative effects, side effects include reduced respiration, too
powerful so prescription was reduced dramatically in 1950s
For anxiety

179
Q

Benzodiazepines

A

replaced barbiturates, increased effectiveness to inhibit GABA, safer,
commonly prescribed today
For anxiety

180
Q

Safe alternatives to anxiolytics

A

➢ Buspirone (affects serotonin)
➢ Anticonvulsive drugs (affects GABA)
➢ Beta blockers

181
Q

Biological causes for depression

A
  • Potentially due to depletion of serotonin in the brain however, levels of serotonin are often normal in people suffering depression
  • Other neurotransmitters implicated – epinephrine/norepinephrine, dopamine
182
Q

Antidepressants

A
  • Drug developed and prescribed to treat depression
  • Used to help regulate mood
  • Are not always immediately effective, take weeks to see full effects
183
Q

Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)

A

category of neurotransmitters, bind to enzymes to
prevent breakdown of monoamines
For depression

184
Q

Tricyclics

A

inhibit reuptake of norepinephrine and serotonin

For depression

185
Q

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

A

block reuptake of serotonin by transporter,
lead to greater level of serotonin in synapse, side effects include sexual dysfunction and
emotional detachment, discontinuing can lead to hallucinations

186
Q

Serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)

A

block reuptake of serotonin and

norepinephrine, same side effects of SSRIs, used when SSRIs may not be effective

187
Q

Psilocybin

A

acts on serotonin receptors located on GABA neurons, leads to hallucinations
but later have positive effects on mood
Psychedelics as medicine

188
Q

What is used to treat bipolar?

A

Lithium is used to treat – not clear how it works, but can be lethal
Strong biological component so drug therapy is main treatment

189
Q

Repression

A

push threatening material out of consciousness, forceful forgetting, requires constant expense of energy

190
Q

Sublimation

A

channelling impulses into socially acceptable actions, usually rewarding

191
Q

Displacement

A

channelling impulses to nonthreatening objects, displaced impulses do not lead to rewards

192
Q

Denial

A

refusal to accept that certain facts exist

193
Q

Reaction formation

A

acting in a manner opposite to threatening unconscious desires

194
Q

Projection

A

attributing negative thoughts/ emotions to someone else

195
Q

Beta blockers

A

anxiety as sensitivity to engaging ‘fight or flight’, these drugs block receptors for norepinephrine and epinephrine which trigger ‘fight or flight’, block physiology of anxiety, cognition remains mainly unaffected, include propanol, acebutolol and bisoprolol

Psychology Stage 1 (3 decks)

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