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
Delusions
A false belief, held firmly, even if the evidence in the face of objective evidence to the contrary
Invasive impact of normal functioning
Characterised by odd content
Coherence and structure of argument is quite distorted
Thought Disorder
Disturbances in the speed or amount of coherence of thinking - excess of speech, lack of speech
Poverty of content - good amount of speech but no meaning - around and around an issue
Flight of ideas - rapid, continuous verbalisation - pressure to speak
Work salad - gibberish e.g. glove –> hand shoe
Tangentiality - never get to the point
Circumstantiality - delay in getting to the point
Phrases of schizophrenia
Premorbid phase - cognitive, motor or social deficits
Prodromal phase - brief, attenuated positive symptoms and/or functional decline
Psychotic phase - florid positive symptoms
Stable phase - negative symptoms, cognitive/social deficits, functional decline
Brain structure
Neuron loss in brain results in reduced brain volume
Enlarged ventricles - on average people with disorder have this
Widespread abnormality in grey and white matter structures
Almost no part of brain that isn’t affected
Neurotransmitters (dopamine hypothesis
Greater release of dopamine
Greater number of dopamine receptor sites
Antipsychotic medications work by blocking dopamine uptake
Amphetamines causes increased dopamine release and psychotic (positive) symptoms
Environmental Risk Factors
Conception, pregnancy, and birth factors
Demographic or familial risk factors
Childhood and adolescent risk factors
Bipolar and Related Disorders
Characterised by disturbance in emotion and mood
Bipolar disorder has alternating periods of mania and depression
Mania - elevated or expansive mood - excessive happiness
Bipolar I - major depression and mania - most severe
Bipolar II - major depression and hypomania - mild stage of mood elevation
Cyclothymia - hypomania and mid depression
Depressive Disorders
Characterised by disturbance in emotion and mood (particularly, negative mood)
Symptoms should be present for at least two weeks
Five symptoms are needed - at least one must be
- -> persistent safe mood
- -> anhedonia - loss of interest or pleasure in activities
Anxiety Disorders
Frequent, intense, and irrational anxiety or apprehension
Phobic Disorder
An irrational fear of an object or situation
Fear out of proportion to any actual danger
Specific phobias
Social phobias
Panic disorder
Intense attacks of fear and terror that are not justified by the situation
Both internal or external triggers may be present
