Psychological Disorders Flashcards
What is psychopathology?
Problematic patterns of thought, feeling, and Behaviour - literally mean sickness of the mind.
What is labelling theory
labelling those that don’t fit to cultural norms
What is mental health?
A state of emotional wellbeing
What are mental health problems?
The range of emotional and behavioral difficulties people experience through their lives.
What is a mental disorder?
A clinically recognisable set of symptoms and behaviours which usually need treatment
What is neurosis?
issues in living that invoke anxiety or interpersonal conflict - develop with environmental causes
What are personality disorders?
chronic and severe disturbances that alter the capacity to work and to love - develop in childhood - possible genetic vulnerability
What is psychosis?
marked disturbances with contact with reality - genetic origins with environmental experiences
What is aetiology?
origins of psychological disorders and or physiological disturbances
What are the three questions that comprise psychodynamic formulation?
- What does the person desire and fear (relates to dominant motives and conflicts)
- What resources both internal and external does the person have (relates ti ego functioning)
- How does the person experience themselves and others (relates to object relations)
What is ego functioning?
The ability to think clearly, make decisions, and regulate impulses and emotions
What is object relations?
The ability to have meaningful relationships with others and maintain healthy self esteem
How do behavioural and cognitive approaches conceptualise psychopathology?
Understanding of classical and operant conditioning with a cognitive-social perspective.
What is classical conditioning?
neutral stimulus elicits a response after it is paired with a stimulus that automatically elicits a response - We identify a relationship between two stimuli.
What is operant conditioning?
law of effect - learning to operate the environment to produce a response -learning results when an organism associates a response that occurs spontaneously with a particular environmental effect
What is the Cognitive in the Cognitive Behavioral perspective?
Distortions reflect dysfunctional attitude, beliefs and cognitive processes
What is the Behavioral in the Cognitive Behavioral perspective?
Psychological problems arise from conditioned emotional responses
How does the biological approach conceptualise mental disorders?
Neurotransmitter dysfunction
Abnormality of brain structure
Disrupted neural pathway
Genetics
How do psychologists with a systems approach view psychopathology?
Seeks the roots of abnormality in the context of the social group (and families)
What are family homeostatic mechanisms?
the methods used to maintain balance of equilibrium in the family.
How would psychopathology be explained by evolutionary psychologists?
Random variations in genotypes lead to less adaptive phenotypes - interplay between genes and the environment - a random variation that can be weeded out by natural selection - the maladaptive environment
What does the current diagnostic system assume?
That we can distinguish normal from abnormal
How is abnormality reflected?
In discrete symptoms
What is a syndrome
A group of symptoms that fall into clusters (Syndromes)
What is the assumption of syndromes?
They have discrete causes and are to be treated using different therapy’s
What are the diagnostic categories?
Disorders usually first diagnosed in infancy, childhood, or adolescence Substance related disorders Schizophrenia and other related psychotic disorders. Mood disorders Anxiety disorders Somatoform disorders Dissociative disorders Sexual and gender identity disorders Eating disorders Adjustment disorders Personality disorders
What are the five axis that make up the DSM-IV
Axis I - Symptoms that cause distress or significantly impair social or occupational functioning
Axis II Personality and Intellectual disability
Axis III - Medical conditions
Axis IV - Psychosocial and environmental problems
Axis V - Global assessment of functioning
What are the major characteristic’s of ADHD
Inattention, impulsiveness, hyperactivity
What are the major charecteristic’s of Conduct Disorder
persistant violation of rules of society and the rights of others
What is the definition of a substance related disorder?
Continued use of a substance that impairs social and physical functioning
What are the major characteristics of schizophrenia?
Thought - illogical thought systems - loosening of associations
Perception - Presence of hallucinations
Language - Word salad - disconnected ideas
Affect - Emotion often flat or absent
What are positive symptoms?
To much dopamine in the subcortical structures of the basal ganglia and the limbic system.
The presence of something that is not there - not normally present in someone without schizophrenia - often the acute phase.
Delusions, hallucinations
What are negative symptoms?
To little dopamine in the prefrontal cortex -
Signal the absence of function - Normally present in someone without schizophrenia - often the residual phase
Lack of emotion, motivation, complex thought
What is required for a diagnosis of schizophrenia?
At least one positive symptom otherwise negative symptoms can be depression
How many people recover from schizophrenia
only 10% to 20%
Name different subtypes of schizophrenia
Paranoid Disorganized Catatonic Undifferentiated Residual
What are the characteristic’s of Paranoid type?
Delusions or auditory hallucinations focus on persecution
Little or no disorganised speech and behavior or flat affect.
Can present quite normal until they share delusional beliefs.
What are the characteristics of Disorganized type?
Disorganised speech, behavior and inappropriate affect of flat affect
Does not meet catatonic type
Delusions and hallucinations may be present though they will present in a fractured and disorganized way - Different from the structured delusion of paranoid type
What are the characteristics of Catatonic type?
Extreme motor inability or excessive motor activity - peculiar motor movements - mutism
What are the characteristics of Undifferentiated type?
Does not meet the criteria of other subtypes though meets the criteria for main symptoms
What are the characteristics of residual type?
Has at least on episode in the past though no current positive symptoms, only negative
How does the diathesis-stress model explain the causes of schizophrenia?
Genetic predisposition - triggered under stress placing the individual above the threshold for schizophrenia
Those with no predisposition will not get the disorder
What is diathesis?
vulnerability - tendency to suffer from a particular medical condition
What is the dopamine hypothesis?
The brain of the schizophrenic produces to much dopamine
Amphetamine increase the dopamine response causing drug induced psychosis
Anti psychotics decrease dopamine in the brain
What is a mood disorder?
Characterized by disturbances in emotion and mood
What is mania?
An excessive degree of happiness - extreme elevation of mood
What is major depressive disorder?
Uni-polar depression, a long term episode of intense sadness, loss of apatite and difficulty sleeping
What is dysthymia?
A chronic low level depression lasting more than two years with intervals of normal mood that last for around two weeks.
What is the lifetime risk of bi-polar disorder?
1.5%
What is the heritability percentage of depression?
Estimated at 30-40%
What role does serotonin play in depression?
Decreased levels in depression
What are the environmental factors in depression?
Negative life events (Major stressors)
Dysfunctional patterns of thinking (Cognitive Approach)
Distress through faulty interpersonal relationships (Psychodynamic)
What are the four cognitive distortions according to Beck
Self doubt
Ignoring past success
Generalizations that do not fit the ‘data’
Presence of a self doubting question
What does the cognitive view of depression focus on?
Faulty cognition
What does the psychodynamic view of depression focus on?
Motivation - identification with depressed or belittling parent - predisposition to rejection or abandonment.
What is an anxiety disorder?
An elevated state of CNS arousal
Frequent and intense irrational anxiety or apprehension
What is the prevalence of anxiety disorders
10%
Anxiety has a high co-morbidity with what?
Depression
What are the symptoms of phobia?
An irrational fear of an object or situation
What is social phobia?
A fear of being in a public situation
What is panic disorder?
Intense attacks of fear and terror that are not justified by the situation.
What is agorophobia?
A fear of being in places or situations from which it may be difficult to escape
What is obsessive-compulsive disorder?
Obsessive thoughts that lead to anxiety, which is reduced through compulsive actions.
Obsessions are persistent and irrational
Compulsions are intentional behavioral patterns in response to obsession.
What causes OCD?
The neural messages over firing.
What is PTSD?
Anxiety resulting from a truamatic episode - a normal reaction to a abnormal event
What percentage of people who suffer a traumatic event will suffer from PTSD?
10%
When is a person suffering anorexia nervosa
When they are starving themselves from food and when they are 15% below their body weight
What is the pattern of Bullimia?
The binge-purge pattern.
What often accompanies eating disorders?
depressive symptoms.
What is Conversion Disorder
A somotoform disorder where there is loss of function or change in function without a physical problem to explain the condition.
What is Hypochondriasis (health anxiety)
When people believe they are suffering from an illness or ailment with no physical evidence.
What are the central features of dissociative disorder?
Distruptions in consciousness, memory, sense of identity, or perception.
What is dissociation usually in response to?
Overwhelming psychological pain
What is dissociative identity disorder?
The presence of two or more personalities within the same person.
What are dissociative disorders correlated with?
Child abuse
What is a personality disorder?
Chronic and severe disturbance that inhibits and individuals ability to love and work
How prevalent are personality disorders?
10% of general population
How are personality disorders viewed?
As a charecterlogical disturbance that interferes with the ability to engage in normal interpersonal relationships.
What is there a large overlap with in personality disorders?
Symptoms of other personality disorders.
What are the characteristics of paranoid personality disorder?
Distrust and suspicion
What are the characteristics of Schizoid personality disorder?
Detachment from social relationships, restricted range of emotional expression
What are the characteristics of Schizotypal personality disorder?
Acute discomfort in close relationships, cognitive or perceptual distortions, eccentricity.
What are the charecteristics of antisocial personality disorder?
Disregard for and violation of the rights of others
What are the cahrecteristics of borderline personality disorder?
unstable interpersonal relationships, mood swings, manipulativeness
What are the characteristics of histrionic personality disorder?
Excessive emotionality and attention seeking
What are the charecteristic’s of Narcissistic personality disorder?
Grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy
What are the characteristics of Avoidant personality disorder?
Social inhibition and avoidance, feelings of inadequacy and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation.
What are the characteristics of Dependent personality disorder?
Submissive and clinging behavior and excessive need to be taken care of
What are the characteristics of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder?
Preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism and control.
What are the 10 personality disorders?
Paranoid Schizoid Schizotypal Antisocial Borderline Histrionic Narcissistic Avoidant Dependent Obsessive-compulsive
