Psychological Disorders and Treatments Flashcards
psychological disorder
any behavior that is at least partially emotional and severe enough to cause a person to harm themselves or other people, function ineffectively (show maladaptive behaviors), unusual and causes other people discomfort (this one is controversial)
What is abnormal?
not just statistic-Einstein’s IQ was abnormal, but he didn’t have a disorder-drug and alc addiction and ADHD common in pop, high %, but still disorder-ppl coming here from very diff cultures, abnormal behavior here may have been normal in their country, doesn’t mean they have disorder-many disorders recently found to have biological component, brain diff-best ex=schizophrenia-not just psychological
culture-bound disorders
only found in certain cultures
history of psychological disorders-middle ages
- thought ppl with disorders possessed by devil-exorcism, send you away, lock you up, drill hole in skull if you had disorder
- in Muslim cultures (Ottomans), assumed psychological disorders same as phys, had duty to take care of these ppl cuz they were weak
history of psychological disorders-Renaissance
treatments were improved
history of psychological disorders-Salem Witch Trialss
step backwards, ppl with disorders or strange people accused of being witches, killed
history of psychological disorders-Dorothy Addix
mid 1800s-beginning of movement to help people with disorders, put them in treatment center, instead of jail like what was happening
history of psychological disorders-Szask
early 1950s-said no such thing as psychological disorder-what we’re seeing is unusual behaviors that make us uncomfortable-mental illness is a construct we’ve made to not deal with problems society has created-ppl just reacted to bad things in life-fix society, not them, something wrong w society, not them-partly right, but now know biological component, more to it than response to bad events
history of psychological disorders-Rosenhan
in 1973 published startling research on grad students who pretended to hear voices, went to mental institution, diagnosed w schizophrenia, then acted completely normal, told truth except about job-first released after 3 days, last after 2 months-these ppl didn’t have disorder but often diagnosed ppl only saw them as disorder, labeled/looked at all behaviors under than assumption-mental hospitals overcrowded-criticized system, not individual doctors and nurses
history of psychological disorders-deinstitutionalization
1980s-closing big, gov-run hospitals-release ppl back to communities, have programs there to help them, but 2nd part didn’t happen-huge spike in homeless ppl with mental illness-plan to get ppl better care backfired
history of psychological disorders-late 90s to 2000s
big shift to availability of brain imaging devices, better technology to look at blood and genes-figure out where disorders come from, what have in common, how to fix them
Biological Theories to explain psychological disorders
Genetic component, something wrong w brain, chemical imbalance in hormones or neurotransmitters-fix e medicine
Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theories to explain psychological disorders
Don’t see any role for medicine cuz problem is unconscious-unconscious conflicts so disturbing that they’re causing you problems-Freud says sex and aggression, neo-Freudians say social relationships-fix them by finding out what they are and confronting them-treatment=talk therapy to help discover and resolve unconscious conflict
Behaviorist Theories to explain psychological disorders
- Behaviorists care about how you act, not interested in thoughts-said no underlying problem, behavior=the disorder, acting in some inappropriate way-acting that way cuz rewarded for it-phobias=great example, classical conditioning gone wrong
- therapist tried to make those bad connections go extinct
Cognitive Theories to explain psychological disorders
-if have disorder, thinking messed up-maladaptive thinking-interpreting your world incorrectly, misjudging other peoples actions, why things happen to you-become anxious of depressed because deal with this badly-underlying thoughts drive disorder, so much help ppl rethink-can’t always stop initial rxn but make them rethink, override it, be reasonable
Humanist Theories to explain psychological disorders
- Similar ideas to cognitive psychologists, but focus on a couple specific ideas
- incongruence between ideal self and self concept can cause disorder-goal of therapy would be to help resolve that
- did not get enough unconditional pos regard as a child-can cause disorder
- either way, treatment is relying in your free will and desire to improve-focus on what you do well, strengths, how do you take those strengths and expand them to other things
Combinations of Theories to explain psychological disorders: diathesis-stress model
-Nature and nurture-diathesis=nature, come biologically predisposed to have a disorder-stress=nurture, environment may trigger disorder
Combinations of Theories to explain psychological disorders: socioculturalbiological model
Society, cultural background, and biology all taken into consideration, combination of them can make a person have a disorder-nature and nurture
Combinations of Theories to explain psychological disorders: family systems model
Family is important, esp with kids and teens-what’s going in at home, how parents treat kids, do siblings get along, safe environment or not-fam may be part of the problem, or solution
Etiology
History and causes of a disorder
Psychopathology
A disorder of the mind; a psychological illness
Comorbidity
Overlap of 2 disorders-ex: drug abuse and anxiety disorders
Concordance
Degree than 2 individuals share the same disorder, disease, characteristic-we talked about this w twin studies
Prevalence
How often a disorder occurs in the population
Incidence
Number of new cases diagnosed in a time period-psychologists are interested in disorders where the incidence rates change over time cuz it means something environmental is causing the change in the disorder
Diagnosing and classifying disorders-psychological assessment
Set of tests to help understand an individual and his/her life (i.e. A brief case study)-a complete assessment should include: physical exam, interview w the individual and others in his/her life, observations of the individual in various situations, psych tests (like the ones we’ve already talked about)-from the results of the assessments, therapists she the DSM-5, which gives operational definitions of psychological disorders, and lists symptoms but doesn’t give causes-that’s the therapists job
Criticisms of the DSM-5
- Published in May 2013 after heated debates on many topics, esp autism and personality disorders
- some ppl wonder if the DSM-5 is still needed cuz the rest of the world uses another criteria for diagnosing physical and mental health (the international classification of diseases and their coding system is the one needed for health insurance reimbursement)
- DSM-5 includes those codes to help therapists, doctors, etc.
Neurodevelopment disorders
Disorders that show up early in life-kids-intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD
Neurodevelopment disorders-intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder)
- New term for mental retardation-impairments of general mental abilities that impact adaptive functioning (ability to take care of yourself) in 3 areas/categories: 1) cognitive abilities (school functions/reading, writing, thinking logically, planning ahead/executive functioning), 2) social skills (can you interact appropriately with others), 3) life skills (physically taking care of yourself)-symptoms have to appear in childhood, may be comorbid w autism, anxiety, depression, etc
- the whole goal of diagnosis is to help you and get you better, functioning-diff levels: moderate, severe-matters in how get treated, what treatment, not to make someone feel bad
Neurodevelopment disorders-Autism spectrum disorder
wide range of symptoms cuz whole spectrum-Aspergers doesn’t exist anymore, just part of spectrum0change made cuz confusion in field-ppl diagnosed diff based on place, symptoms-easier to make continuum, see severity of symptoms to say where place on it
Neurodevelopment disorders-Autism spectrum disorder: symptoms
- have to show symptoms in childhood even if not realized until later
- symptoms broken down into 4 broad categories: language development, social development, cognitive development, need for routines
Neurodevelopment disorders-Autism spectrum disorder: symptoms (language development)
- language use impaired in some way-can be mild to severe-almost as if english not first lang, know vocab and grammar but don’t get ironies, expressions, etc-on severe eng, lang use limited, develops late, can’t really speak
- echolalia: can’t control what say, focus on some word/thing-repetition
- a lot of trouble w pronouns-refer to themselves in 3rd person
- also trouble w nonverbal cues-waving, etc-unless mild end
- prognosis and how developed lang are strongly postively correlated-stronger lang is, better prognosis is-cuz need lang for social interaction
Neurodevelopment disorders-Autism spectrum disorder: symptoms (social development)
symptoms range broadly-very mild to very severe-some kids tend to ignore ppl around them, focus instead on things-some kids hypersensitive to touch-have trouble reading faces, picking up on social cues-have trouble moving beyond egocentric thinking-don’t have imaginative play-must try to teach them things most ppl do automatically
Neurodevelopment disorders-Autism spectrum disorder: symptoms (cognitive development)
- how much you learn is super important, cuz helps you learn adaptive living, lang, social cues
- most impacted by spectrum being broadened-IQs range all over the place, some IQs high
Neurodevelopment disorders-Autism spectrum disorder: symptoms (need for routines)
- a lot of people across spectrum don’t like change-important to keep schedule
- quirky patterns
- can get really upset if something changes, like furniture
- do things repetitively to calm them down
- like to watch things that spin, esp. w younger kids