Psychapothology Flashcards
What are the 4 definitions of abnormality
- deviation from social norms
- failure to function adequately
- deviation from ideal mental health
- statistical infrequency
What year did jahoda do her study
1958
What was jahodas study
Criteria of ideal mental health
What are the 6 criteria for jahodas ideal mental health
- self attitudes
- personal growth and self actualisation
- intergration
- autonomy
- perception of reality
- mastery of the environment
What is statistical infrequency
Small number of people exhibiting a behaviour that is considered abnormal
What is deviation from social norms
Abnormal behaviour that is different from how we would expect people to act
What is deviation from ideal mental health
People who don’t meet requirements of a set of criteria are considered abnormal
What is failure to function adequately
People are assessed on their ability to cope with every day life
Negatives of statistical infrequency as a definition
Doesn’t take into account that infrequent characteristics can be positive
Positive of statistical infrequency as a definition
Comparing “amounts” of a behaviour or characteristic can help with diagnosis
Positive of deviation from social norms as a definition
Has real world applications of diagnosing antisocial and schzotypical personality disorders
Negative of deviation from social norms as a definition
Different cultures have different expectations of social norms so hard to make accurate diagnosis
Positive of deviation from ideal mental health as a definition
Comprehensive and allows meaningful discussion between professionals
Negative of deviation from ideal mental health as a definition
Ideas of mental health are different in different cultures
Positive of failure to function adequately as a definition
Represents the threshold of when people should ask for help
Negative of failure to function adequatley as a definition
Creates discrimination for those who choose alternative lifestyles (e.g. travellers)
What is a specific phobia
Phobia of object or situation
What is a social phobia
Phobia of social settings involving people
What is agoraphobia
Phobia of being in a public place
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias
- panic
- avoidance
- endurance
What is panic
Range of behaviours from crying, screaming, running
What is avoidance
Prevention of coming into contact with phobic stimulus
What is endurance
Choosing to remain in the presence of the phobic stimulus
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias
- selective attention to the phobic stimulus
- irrational beliefs
- cognitive distortion
What is cognitive distortions
Perception of a person with the phobia may be inaccurate and unrealistic
What is the two process model
We get a phobia through
* acquisition by classical conditioning
* maintenance by operant conditioning
What is acquisition by classical conditioning
Learning to initiate the neutral stimulus with something that already triggers a feared response
What year was the little Albert study
1920
What was the little Albert study
Baby with no anxiety, learnt to associate his pet rat with a loud banging noise and eventually generalised this to similar looking items
What is maintenance by operant conditioning
Reinforces the phobic behaviour through positive and negative reinforcement
Evaluate the two process model
- real world applications in exposure therapy
- doesn’t account for cognitive factors
- shows link between bad experiences and phobias
What approach apposed the two process model
Behavioural
What methods of phobia treatments do behaviourists suggest
- systematic desensitisation
- flooding
What is systematic desensitisation
Patient and psychologist work together to create a hierarchy of feared situations and work from the bottom to be exposed to them all and work up to most feared
What is flooding
Immediately putting the patient in their worse cased scenario for a long period of time with the idea that anxiety will peak and then come down showing there’s nothing to fear
Evaluate systematic desensitisation
- shown to be effective
- can be used for people with learning disabilities
- more expensive and time consuming
Evaluate flooding
- cost effective
- extremely traumatic and can make fear worse rather than solving
What are the 3 characteristics of a phobia
- emotional
- behavioural
- cognitive
What year was ohman et al
1975
What was ohman et als study
Potts presented with stimulus either fear relevant (snakes spiders) or fear irrelevant ( flowers mushrooms) and paired with an uncomfortable electric shock
What did ohman et al find
Less electric shocks needed to condition fear relevant stimulus
What year was worpes study
1960
What was worpes study
Flooding to remove girls phobia of being in car. Driven around for 4 hours until hysteria stopped
What year was solters study
2007
What was solters study
Used flooding for a 5 month old baby who had traumatic stress after 3 day hospital visit where he was allowed full blown emotional response during treatment sessions. Symptoms disappeared in a month
What is depression
Mood disorder where emotions are in appropriate for the current circumstances
What are the 4 DSM-5 categories of depression
- major depressive disorder
- persistent depressive disorder
- disruptive mood deregulation disorder
- premenstrual dysphoric disorder
What is major depressive disorder
Server but often short term depression
What is persistent depressive disorder
Long term or reoccurring depression including sustained major depression
What is disruptive mood deregulation disorder
Childhood temper tantrums
What is premenstrual dysphoric disorder
Disruption to mood prior to and/or during menstruation
How do you get diagnosed with depression
Display at least 5 symptoms from the DSM-5 for at least 2 weeks
What is the cognitive view on treating depression
Need to change the way you think about the problem rather than the problem itself
What year was beck
1967
What was becks view
Depressed people feel the way they do because their thinking is based on negative interpretations
What was becks three causes of depression
- Faulty informational processing
- negative self schemas
- negative triad
What did beck mean by faulty information processing
Depressed people selectively view the negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives, blowing small problems out of proportion
What did beck mean by negative self schemas
Depressed people interpret ideas about themselves in a negative way
Where do negative self schemas come from
- neglect or abuse
- loss of parent in adolescence
- criticism by teachers
What did beck mean by the negative triad
Maladaptive responses make us trapped in cycle of negative thoughts
* negative view of self
* negative view of world
* negative view of future
What year was Ellis’ study
1962
What did Ellis believe
Depression comes from believing irrational ideas and basing their life off of them
How does Ellis think people get depression
A- ctivating event that causes
B- elifes (that are irrational)
C- onsequences
What year was Weissman and beck
1978
What was Weismann and becks aim
Investigate the thought processes of depressed people to establish if they use negative schemas
What was weissman and becks procedure
pps filled out questionnaire if agree or disagree with a statement
Measured thought processes with the Disfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS)
What did weissman and beck find
Depressed pps made more negative assessments than non depressed, when given therapy to challenge negative schemas self ratings improved
what is becks cognitive therapy
challenge clients negative triad by
1) assess severity of condition
2) therapist establish starting point
what would happen in a cognitive therapy session
client talk about how they perceive themselves and the world and therapist replaces these irrational ideas with more realistic ones
what did ellis suggest
rational emotive behavioural therapy
what did ellis do for REBT
identify and dispute patients irrational thoughts as he believed they are the main cause of all emotional differences
what is OCD
disorder characterised by obsession and compulsion with repetitive, intrusive thoughts and anxiety reducing behaviours
what is obsession
persistent thought idea or impulse image that feels intrusive and creates anxiety
what is compulsion
repetitive and rigid behaviour or mental act driving a person to perform in order to reduce anxiety
what does the DSM-5 say the 4 types of OCD are
- ocd
- trichotillomania
- hoarding disorder
- excoriation disorder
what is trichotillomania
compulsive hair pulling
what is hoarding disorder
compulsive gathering of posessions and inability to part with anything regardless of its value
what is excoriation disorder
compulsive skin picking
what are the emotional characteristics of OCD X5
- anxiety
- distress
- depression
- guilt
- discust
what are the behavioural characteristics of OCD X3
- repetitive compulsion
- anxiety reduction compulsions
- avoidance
what are the cognitive characteristics of OCD X3
- obsessive thoughts
- cognitive coping strategies
- awareness of excessive anxiety
what are the genetic explanations of OCD
- predispositions inherited
what year was taylors study on OCD and genetics
2013
what did taylor find about genetical explanations of OCD
*230 genes linked to OCD
* COMT gene reduces dopamine
* SERT gene lowers seretonin levels
what year was nestadts study on genetic explanations of ocd
2010
what did nestadt find about genetical explanations of ocd
twin studies found
* identical twins 68% OCD coordination
* unidentical twins 31% OCD coordinance
what are the neural explanations of OCD
damage to the brain structure can change personality
* too little seretonin and too high dopamine
what does seretonin do
contrabutes to well-being and happiness , helps sleep cycle and digestive system
what does dopamine do
creates feelings of pleasure addiction and motivation
what is the diathesis stress model
idea that a mental disorder when person has a vunerability or disposition combined with stressful life event
what is co-morbidity
where 2 ore more disorders are likely to be present together ( e.g. OCD and depression)
what is a neurotransmitter
brain chemicals relay signals across synapses
what is polygenic
more that one gene contributes to a disorder
what is a neuron
nerve cells that produce and transmit messages through electrical or chemical signals
what does the orbital prefrontal cortex do
sends worry signals to the thalmus
what does the caudate nucleus do
monitor signals
what does the thalmus do
send filtered version of danger back
what is neuroanatomy as a biological explanation of OCD
messages get sent to thalmus and fixated on
what is the hippocampus gyrus
controls unpleasant emotions such as fear
what does the biological approach suggest to treat OCD
drug therapies as assume a chemical imbalance in the brain
what is the COMT gene
dopamine excess
what is the SERT gene
serotonin lack
what are SSRI’S
prevent the re-absorption of serotonin to increase its overall levels
what are tricycilics
older antidepressant that increases serotonin
can have bad side effects
what are SNRI’s
increases serotonin and noradrenaline
what are the evaluation points of drug therapies
- side effects
- cost effective
- ignores trauma
- effective at tackling symptoms
- addictive
what do benzos do
slows CNS enhancing GABA which has a quieting effect on brain
what year was oconnor
1999
what did oconnor look at
effect of the combination of CBT and drugs
patients in all but nothing group had improvements but best when had both
