Psych U4 AOS2 Flashcards
Mental wellbeing
person’s psychological state, including their ability to think, process information and regulate emotions
- indicated by levels of functioning, resilience, and social and emotional wellbeing
Levels of functioning
degree to which an individual can carry out day-to-day tasks in an effective and independent manner
High levels - carry out everyday tasks independently, set goals, adapt to environmental change
Low levels - maladaptive behaviours; the opposite
Resilience
Ability to cope with and manage change and uncertainty, and restore positive functioning
High levels - high self-efficacy, high coping flexibility, optimism and hope
Low levels - enduring feelings of being overwhelmed, unhelpful coping strategies
Link between social and emotional wellbeing
ability to understand and label our emotions enables us to communicate our needs to others
Social and emotional wellbeing
Social wellbeing - ability to form and maintain meaningful bonds with others, and adapt to different social situations
Emotional wellbeing - ability to appropriately regulate emotions, and understand the emotions of others
SEWB
holistic and multi-dimensional framework including all elements of being and thus wellbeing for Ab. & TSI people
Connections included in SEWB framework
- body
- mind and emotions
- family and kinship
- community
- culture
- country
- spirit, spirituality and ancestors
Determinants of wellbeing included in SEWB
Social - circumstances where people grow, live, work, and systems in place to deal with illness
Historical - ongoing influence of past events, policies and trauma on groups of people
Political - policies that shape process of distributing resources and power, and create or reinforce social and health inequities
Internal factors influencing mental wellbeing
- stress response, thought patterns, genetic predispositions
External factors influencing mental wellbeing
- loss of significant relationship, level of education, access to support services
Anxiety
psychological and physiological response that involves feelings of worry or apprehension bout a perceived threat
Differences between stress and anxiety
- stress can involve positive feelings, anxiety typically does not
- anxiety may be due to unknown stim
anxiety is more future oriented
Similarities between stress and anxiety
- small amounts can be adaptive in the short term (motivation)
- people experience both over time
- not always a sign of low MWB
Specific phobia
type of diagnosable anxiety characterised by excessive or disproportionate fear when encountering/anticipating the encounter of a particular stim
Characteristics of specific phobia
- excessive
- feeling of fear is predominant
- distressing
- avoidance of phobic stim
- irrational phobia
- symp. NS dominant
Contributing factors for phobias
Biological - GABA dysfunction, LTP
Psychological - precipitation by CC, perpetuation by OC, cognitive biases
Social - specific environmental triggers, stigma around seeking treatment
Explain the role of OC in the dvpt of a phobia
- OC has a perpetuating role in specific phobia
- Because the consequence stage of OC can negatively reinforce avoidance behaviours to phobic stimuli that prevent someone from becoming anxious, making these behaviour more likely to be repeated in future
Describe the role of LTP in the dvpt. of a phobia
- LTP involves the long lasting strengthening of synaptic connections that are repeatedly coactivated/stimulated
- for phobia, this involves coactivation of neural signals involved in perceiving the phobic stimulus and the neural signals in the stress response…
- which strengthens their associations in learning and memory, contributing to specific phobia
Describe how GABA dysfunction can contribute to a phobic response
- low levels of GABA means inhibitory activations of neurons during the stress response might not be high enough
- this means over-excitation of neural pathways, causing anxiety and a phobic response, as FFF response is more easily activated
Explain how breathing retraining can be used to reduce phobic anxiety.
- phobic reactions involve fast-paced, shallow breathing, sometimes causing hyperventilating and other sympathetic nervous system responses
- Breathing retraining is a method used to teach breathing control techniques such as controlled deep slow breaths (counting etc) which may reduce this physiological arousal
- someone with phobic anxiety can apply this technique to induce physiological relaxation to reduce this anxiety through parasympathetic responses
Describe how benzodiazepines work as short-acting anti-anxiety agents to treat phobias
- people with specific phobias may often have GABA dysfunction…
- Thus BDZ work as GABA agonists by binding to GABA receptor sites on post synaptic neurons to mimic the effects of GABA…
- increasing the effectiveness of GABA…
- allowing it to have its inhibitory effects
- by making the post synaptic neuron less likely to fire, the over-excitation of neurons that cause anxiety is reduced –> temporary relief of stress response
Examples of what the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) framework suggests about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ perspectives of mental wellbeing.
- suggests FN view mental wellbeing holistically –> considers the whole person
- suggests mental wellbeing of FN is intrinsically embedded in community, family and extended kinship networks
- suggests range of factors influence FN social and emotional wellbeing, such as political, cultural, social and historical determinants
Explain how cultural determinants can be considered ‘protective factors’ for the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Protective factors
Biological - adequate health and nutrition, sleep
Psychological - Cognitive behavioural strategies, mindfulness meditation
Social - support from family, friends, community
