psychology Flashcards
what is psychological development?
How and why individuals grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives.
Nature (hereditary)
Your genetics, the combination of genes from your biological parents
Nurture (environmental)
Your upbringing, including prenatal, learning environment, sociocultural, physical, emotional
Epigenetics
When the environment affects the expression of genes
characteristics of mental wellbeing
-High levels of functioning
-emotional wellbeing
-Resilience to life’s stressors
-Social wellbeing
Mentally healthy
-high functioning
-manage feelings/emotions
-logic/problem solving
-high self-esteem
-resilience
Mental health problem
- Caused by an event
- irritable
- sleep/food issues
- short term disruptions that affect everyday functioning
Mental Disorder
◦ Three Ds: distress (emotions), dysfunction (everyday coping), deviance (inconsistent with society)
◦ Functioning, coping, relationships
◦ Changes in thoughts, feelings, behaviour
◦ Atypical character
Typical behaviours
patterns of behaviour that are expected of an individual or that conform to standards of what is acceptable for a given situation.
Atypical behaviours
not expected for individual, deviate from the norm, can be harmful/distressing.
Atypical development
When skills, behaviors, abilities fall outside expected range for age.
Cultural Perspectives
Determining what is normal based on culture.
Social Norms
Shared standards/shared belief systems
Statistical rarity:
Deviation from statistical norm
Normality
patterns of behaviour that are typical and expected, conform to standards of what is expected.
Abnormality
behaviours that are unusual, bizarre, atypical out of the ordinary.
Neurotypicality
standard brain functioning
Neurodiversity
The idea that every human has a unique nervous system with a different combination of abilities and needs
Adaptive/maladaptive
whether or not we can adjust to our environment
how many australians does ADHD affect?
Affects about 1 in 20 Australians
Psychologists
- Approx. 6 years of study
- Can diagnose mental illness, but they study behaviour, thoughts, emotional state rather than medicine, so cannot prescribe medication.
- Provide counselling and treatment
Psychiatrists
- Approx. 12 years of study
- Medical doctors who are experts in mental health
- Can prescribe medication and perform medical procedures
Organisations
-Not for profit and government services
-Cheaper alternative to psychologist/psychiatrist
-Exist in remote areas
Support workers
General support to meet goals, make recovery plans, obtain services, perform daily activities.
