Psychological Disorders Flashcards
Mental Health
A state of emotional and social wellbeing
Mental Health problems (psychopathology)
Problematic patterns of thought, feeling, and behaviour
Include a wide range of emotional, social, and behavioural abnormalities that affect people throughout their lives
Mental Disorder
A clinically recognisable set of symptoms and behaviours
Disrupt wellbeing and impair functioning at home, school/work, socially
Cause distress (in self and/or others)
Usually require treatment to be alleviated (they are the more extreme end of disordered functioning)
Identifying Psychopathology
Each society/culture has a view on what is considered normal or abnormal, and this changes over time
Prevalence rates and illness expressions vary between cultures (and within cultures)
Social context of Psychopathology
Notion of abnormality includes the presumption that wha is and what is not normal can be defined
Labelling theory argued that diagnoses of abnormality are labels
Rosenham (1973) study - pseudo-patients hospitalised for ‘mental illness’
Cultural context of Psychopathology
Cultures differ in the disorders to which their members are vulnerable and the ways they categorise mental illness
Cultural relativity - to correctly diagnose and treat disorder, must consider the unique characteristics of the culture in which a person is raised
Theoretical context of Psychopathology
Psychodynamic theories Cognitive-behavioural approaches Biological approaches Systems theory Evolutionary perspectives
Different conceptualisations of mental illness lead to different treatment approaches
Many psychologists recognise multiple theoretical perspectives add value to understanding nature and origins of mental disorder
Psychodynamic Perspective
Three classes of psychopathology in which ego functioning is central
- -> neuroses: issues in living that involve anxiety (phobias) or interpersonal context - environmental origin
- -> personality disorders: chronic and severe disturbances that alter capacity to work and love - in between environment and genes
- -> psychoses: marked disturbances of contact with reality - genetic vulnerability
Cognitive-behavioural Perspective
Integrates understanding of classical and operant conditioning with cognitive-social perspective
Cognitive: many psychological disorders reflect dysfunctional attitudes, beliefs and cognitive processes
Behavioural: problems arise from conditioned emotional responses (neutral stimulus becomes associated with a negative emotion)
Disorders are learned from prior experience
Biological Perspective
Root of abnormal behaviour lies within the brain
- Neurotransmitter dysfunction
- Abnormality of brain structures
- Disrupted neural pathways (functional and structural connections between brain areas)
- Genetics (predispositions/vulnerabilities to illness)
- Diathesis‐stress model; underlying vulnerability with symptoms appearing under stress
Systems Perspective
Difficulties in with social group
- ->Root of abnormality lies in the context of a social group (and families)
- Each person is a member of a system (social group)
- The group functions as a system and the system parts are interdependent
- What happens in one part of the system influences what happens in others
- ->Family Systems Model:
- An individual’s symptoms are viewed as symptoms of dysfunction in the family systems
- Focus is placed on the ways in which families are organised
- Family roles are the parts individuals play in typical interaction patterns among family members (e.g., a child taking on mediator role between two parents in conflict)
- Family homeostatic mechanisms
- Equilibrium within the family - symptom bearer gets better or someone else has symptoms
Evolutionary Perspective
Provides insight into psychopathology rather than a comprehensive system of understanding and treatment
Suggests that:
- Random variations in genotypes can lead to less adaptive phenotypes
- Less adaptive behaviour may have its roots in behaviour important for survival
- There is an important interplay of genes and environment
Genes weeded out through natural selection
Schizophrenia (positive symptoms)
Excess of behaviour, or the presence of behaviours, that are not usually seen
- -> delusions - false beliefs held without any objective evidence
- -> hallucinations - false sensory perceptions
- -> disorganised speech or behaviour
Can usually be effectively treated with anti-psychotic medication
Schizophrenia (negative symptoms)
Absence/lack of normal behaviour or function
- -> emotional flattening (flat affect - lack of emotion)
- -> apathy (lack of motivation)
- -> social withdrawal
- -> lack of spontaneous movement
- -> alogia - decreased quantity of speech
- -> avolition - lack of drive or motivation
- -> catatonia - abnormal movement or behaviour
Hallucinations
False sensory perception - experienced as real but not based on external stimuli
Internally generated but experienced externally - voices/visuals
