Psychological Disorders and interventions Flashcards
Psychopathology
- Maladaptive, disruptive or uncomfortable patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving
- Disrupted functioning at home, work, and in the person or in others
- Abnormal - deviance, distress and dysfunction
Cultural context of psychopathology
- cant determine prevalence rates, generalisation of assessment, diagnostic approaches and treatments
Mental health literacy - “knowledge” and beliefs about mental disorders which aid in their recognition, management and prevention.
Beyondblue, mental health online
Mental health
a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.” (WHO)
Mental disorder
a clinically recognisable set of symptoms and behaviours which usually need treatment to be alleviates ( a serious departure from normal functioning)
Contemporary approaches to psychpathology
- Biological/medical approach - biopsychosocial model, diathesis- stress model
- Psychological Models - psychodynamic perspective, behavioural perspective, cognitive behavioural perspective
- Biological factors - disorders from an underlying illness that can be diagnosed, treated and cured, these factors cause mental illness
- Psychological processes - wants, needs, emotions, attachment history, etc
- Sociocultural contexts - e.g gender, age, cultural values and traditions
- These influence what is ‘normal’
Classification and diagnostic categiries in DSM
- Bio, psych, socio factors = predispose a disorder
- certain amount of stress = triggers onset of disorder
- Strength of diathesis creates vulnerability
- Weal diathesis = signs of disorder not seen unless stress is prolonged or extreme
- Abnormality is reflected in discrete symptoms
Purpose of classification system
organisation of clinical info, communication and common language, differentiation of disorders, reliable and valid diagnosis, prediction of course natural development, treatment plan or recommendations.
DSM-5 diagnostic system
- DSM-5 = bipolar, depression, anxiety, trauma, stress, dissociative, sleep-wake
- Interrater reliability = high for some disorders and low for others.
- Validity - stronger for some diagnoses than others
- Problems - same symptoms seen in different disorders, bias in diagnosis, not attentive to sociocultural variables and labelling is dehumanising.
Key symptoms of some of the major psychopathological syndromes
Cognitive-behavioural theories - maladative schemas about the self, others and the world influence what we see, how we see it and how we react, reinforcing cycles of behaviours, thoughts and feelings.
Dysthymia
a less severe type of depression
- Symptoms of dysthymia are evident over longer time periods (two years) but are not as debilitating as those of major depression.
Bipolar - characterised of the presence of one or more manic/hypomanic episodes, with major depressive episode occurring between the manic episodes.
Theories of the aetiology of mood disorders
- Depression - biological vulnerability/environmental trigger - genetics, neural transmission - low serotonin, norepinephrine increase depression, effectiveness of drugs that give serotonin.
Shizophrenia spectrum
- Schizophrenia refers to a profound disturbance in human function including: fixed false beliefs, perception, affect, behaviour : unusual mannerisms; lack of movement.
- Symtpoms can be positive - added to normal function (delusions)
- Negative - absense of normal function e.g flat affect.
- Biological bases - developed due to underlying biological vulnerability and stress
- Dopamine hypothesis; schizophrenia reflects elevated levels of dopamine
- Psychological and sociological factors - dysfunctional cognitions; urban living, being an immigrant, exposure to stressful family communication patterns (expressed emotions)
Critiques of classification system
- does not allow there to be unique people
- Stigmatism
- Medical model
- Categorical vs dimensional
- Cultural bias
Variaties of Psychological Treatment -
- psychodynamic
- Client centered/humanistic
- Behavioural and cognitive-behavioural
- Family
- Group Therapy
- Self-help and internet-based treatments
Key principles and techniques of; psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural, humanistic, group and family therapies
- Psychodynamic approach - freud, mental symptoms reflect unconscious conflicts that induce anxiety, insight refers to the situation in which a person comes to understand their unconscious conflicts, therapeutic change requires an alliance (relationship) between the patient and therapist.
- Humanistic approach - insight focused - assumptions that disordered behaviour can be treated by increasign awareness of motivation and needs