Psychological problems Flashcards
What are the MIND incidence rates per 100 people?
Depression = 2.6
Anxiety = 4.7
Eating disorder = 1.6
How has the incidence changed over time?
2007: 24% of adults had mental health problems.
2014: 37% had mental health problems.
How does income affect the likelihood of mental health problems?
Lower income households more likely to develop mental health problems (27% of men in lower income households compared to 15% in higher income households). Greater social isolation due to city living increases loneliness and is linked to increase depression.
What are the individual effects of mental health problems?
Damage to relationships
Difficulties coping with day to day life
Negative impact on physical well-being
Characteristics of mental health
What are social effects of mental health problems?
Need for more social care
Increased crime rates
Implications for the economy
Describe the psychological explanation for depression.
Faulty thinking - Depression is caused by irrational thinking.
Negative, ‘black and white’ thinking creating feelings of hopelessness.
Negative schemas - Negative self-schemas cause a person to interpret all information about the self negatively.
Attributions - Internal, stable and global negative attributional styles create negative ways of explaining causes of behaviour.
Influence of nuture - Negative attributional styles develop through processes such as learned helplessness.
Evaluate the psychological explanation for depression.
Research support - Seligman found dogs learned to react to challenge by ‘giving up’, supporting learned helplessness.
Real-world application - The cognitive explanation leads to a succesful therapy, getting people to challenge their irrational thinking.
Negative beliefs may be realistic - Alloy and Abramson found that depressed people may be ‘sadder by wiser’.
Describe Aversion therapy
Aversion therapy -
Based on classical conditioning - association between addiction and unpleasant experience is learned.
Treating alcoholism -
Antabuse causes nausea/vomiting.
Just before vomiting, the alcoholic has several alcoholic drinks.
Neutral stimulus (alcohol) associated with unconditioned
response (vomiting) which becomes a conditioned response.
Treating gambling -
Phrases on cards about gambling or non-gambling behaviour.
Electric shock (unconditioned stimulus) given for any gambling-related phrase (neutral stimulus).
Association of gambling behaviours with pain.
Treating smoking -
Rapid smoking in closed room causes nausea.
Nausea associated with smoking.
Evaluate Aversion therapy
Treatment adherence issues - Many addicts drop out before the treatment is completed, so difficult to assess treatment’s effectiveness.
Poor long-term effectiveness - McConaghy et al. found nine years later that aversion therapy was no more effective than a placebo.
A holistic approach - Aversion therapy gets rid of the immediate urge to use the addictive substance and CBT can provide longer-lasting support.
Describe self management programmes
12 step recovery programmes - Individuals organise therapy without professional guidance. Alcohol Anonymous (AA) is an example.
Higher power - Key element is giving control to higher power and letting go.
Admitting and sharing guilt - Members of group and higher power listen to confession to accept sinner.
Lifelong process - Recovery is never complete.
The group offers support in case of relapse.
Self-help groups - Peer sharing and support, may avoid religious element and include local traditions.
Evaluate self-management programmes
Lack of clear evidence - Unclear evidence on effectiveness because doesn’t include people who leave without success.
Individual differences - Dropout rates are high as programme is demanding and requires motivation.
Holistic - Focuses on whole person with social support to cope with emotions.
Describe cultural variations in beliefs about mental health problems.
Hearing voices: Positive experience in e.g. parts of India.
Culture bound syndromes occur in certain cultures.
