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Psychopathology Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the first definition of abnormality

A

Statistical infrequency

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2
Q

What is meant by statistical infrequency

A

When an individual has a less than common characteristic, they are seen as abnormal as statistically different.

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3
Q

What is one example of statistical infrequency

A

IQ- normal distribution (seen as typical), abnormal when too high or low (intellectual disability disorder- mental retardation).

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4
Q

What is the second definition of abnormality

A

Deviation from social norms

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5
Q

What is deviation from social norms

A

When a person behaves in a way that we do not expect individuals to behave. Away from societal ‘norm’

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6
Q

Is a ‘norm’ subjective to culture

A

Yes, a norm changes cross culturally. ‘Social norms’ vary, there are some that are widely agreed

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7
Q

What is an example of deviating from social norm

A

Antisocial personality disorder- impulsive and aggressive.

Psychopathic behaviour is abnormal

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8
Q

Statistical infrequency - EVAL

A
  • Used in clinical practice as formal diagnosis. Compare to others
  • Infrequent statistics may be positive, like one having an above average IQ, they aren’t seen as different. So not sufficient enough as a sole diagnostic tool
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9
Q

Deviation from social norms- EVAL

A

-Used in clinical practices, Signs of a disorder can be observed. Value on observing criterion
-But social norms depend on culture, so one cultural group may label someone from another group as abnormal, but it may be normal to them.
Difficult to judge deviation at times

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10
Q

What are the 4 definitions of abnormality

A
  • Statistical infrequency
  • Deviation from social norms
  • Failure to function adequately (Rosehan and Seligman)
  • Deviation from ideal mental health (Jahoda)
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11
Q

What is failure to function adequately?

A

Can no longer cope with every day demands of life.

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12
Q

What is the crate of failing to function adequately and who was it created by?

A

Rosehan and Seligman

  • Person no longer conforms to standard interpersonal rules, for example maintaining personal space
  • Person experiences severe personal distress
  • Behaviour becomes irrational or dangerous to themselves or others
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13
Q

What is deviation from ideal mental health

A

Idea that what being psychologically healthy should look like and not having this is deviating from it

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14
Q

What is the criterion for deviation from ideal mental health and who is it by?

A

Jahoda

  • No symptoms of distress
  • Rational and perceive self accurately
  • Self actualise
  • Can cope w stress
  • Realistic view of the work d
  • Good self esteem and lack guilt
  • Independent from others
  • Successfully work, love and enjoy leisure
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15
Q

Failure to function adequately- EVAL

A
  • Represents a sensible threshold for when people should seek help. Mind UK says 25% of people will have a mental health problem in any year (UK) and may ignore their severe symptoms. This helps them self-assess
  • Easy to label non-standard lifestyles as abnormal. Some may choose to e.g ‘fall off the grid’.
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16
Q

Deviation from ideal mental health -EVAL

A
  • Highly comprehensive list, covers most- checklist to assess self and others and discuss psychological issues
  • Criterion may not be applicable in every culture. Firmly in context of individualist cultures (uk/usa) can even be different to Germany (independence is such higher here). Difficult to apply cross culturally.
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17
Q

What is the definition of a phobia

A

An irrational fear of an object or situation

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18
Q

What are the 3 kind go phobias?

A
  • Specific phobia (an object such as an animal or body)
  • Social anxiety (fear of public)
  • Agoraphobia (being in a public place)
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19
Q

What are the behavioural characteristics of a phobia

A
  • Panic
  • Avoidance (conscious effort to prevent this in their every day life)
  • Endurance (be okay w presence but keep a close eye on)
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20
Q

What are the emotional characteristics of a phobia

A
  • Anxiety
  • Fear
  • Emotional response is unreasonable (more than proportionate of a normal response)
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21
Q

What is anxiety

A

Emotional response of high anxiety, unpleasant state of high arousal

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22
Q

What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?

A
  • Selective attention to the phobic stimulus
  • Irrational beliefs
  • Cognitive distortions (unrealistic and inaccurate perceptions)
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23
Q

Definition of depression

A

A mental disorder characterised by low mood and low energy levels

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24
Q

What are the behavioural characteristics of depression

A
  • Activity levels reduced or increased (psychomotor agitation- struggling to relax)
  • Disruption to sleep and eating behaviour (over or under)
  • Aggression and self harm (physical or emotional)
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25
Q

What are the emotional characteristics of depression

A
  • Lowered mood (‘empty, worthless’)
  • Anger
  • Lowered self-esteem
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26
Q

What are the cognitive characteristics of depression

A
  • Poor concentration
  • Attending to and dwelling on the negative
  • Absolutist thinking (black and white thinking)
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27
Q

Defintion
Behavioural
Emotional
Cognitive … characteristics

A
  • Ways in which a person acts
  • Related to a person’s feelings or mood
  • Refers to the process of ‘knowing’ including thinking, reasoning, remembering, believing
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28
Q

OCD definition

A

A condition characterised by obsessions and/or compulsive behaviour. Obsessions are cognitive whereas compulsions are behavioural

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29
Q

What are the behavioural characteristics of OCD

A
  • Compulsions are repetitive
  • Compulsions reduce anxiety
  • Avoidance (trying to keep away from triggers of OCD behaviours)
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30
Q

What are the emotional characteristics of OCD

A
  • Anxiety and distress
  • Accompanying depression (low mood and lack of enjoyment in activities)
  • Guilt and disgust
31
Q

What are the cognitive characteristics of OCD

A
  • Obsessive thoughts (90% have obsessive thoughts)
  • Cognitive coping strategies (to help manage anxiety)
  • Insight into excessive anxiety (they know their thoughts are irrational but anxiety justifies their thoughts and feelings)
32
Q

What is meant by the behaviourist approach to explain phobias

A

A way of explaining phobias in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning

33
Q

Briefly what is meant by the two-process-model

A
  • Acquisition by classical conditioning

- Maintenance by operant conditioning

34
Q

Who proposed the two-process-model

A

Orval Hobart Mowrer

35
Q

What is meant by acquisition by classical conditioning

A

neutral stimulus is paired with unconditional stimulus, causing the neutral stimulus to be associated w it

36
Q

What was the Little Albert case

A

Watson and Rayner, paired a loud, scary sound when a white rat was shown to him. He paired the two together and he was afraid of them. Aswell when white fur objects were shown he was also heavily distressed.

37
Q

What is meant by maintenance by operant conditioning

A

Rewarded behaviour or punished behaviour. Person avoids the phobia to reduce anxiety.

38
Q

The behavioural approach to explaining phobias- EVAL

A
  • Two processes ,ode; is used in real-world application in exposure therapy, explains why people benefit from being directly exposed to a phobia. Avoidance maintains the phobia
  • But does not account for cognitive aspects of phobias, people have irrational thoughts about phobias (no explanation of phobic cognitions)
  • Link between bad experiences and phobias like in the case of Little Albert. De Jongh et al found 73% of people w dental fear had experienced a bad experienced, compared to control no fear at 21%.
  • But not all phobias come from a traumatic experience, for e.g many have snake phobia but little have actually experienced something traumatic w snakes.
39
Q

What are the two kinds of ways of treating phobias in a behavioural approach

A
  • Systematic desensitisation

- Flooding

40
Q

What is the aim of systematic desensitisation

A

Gradually reduce a phobia through the principle of classical conditioning- a new response is learnt. (counterconditioning)

41
Q

What is in systematic desensitisation

A
  • The anxiety hierarchy (list of situations related to phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety)
  • Relaxation techniques, it is impossible to be relaxed and anxious at the same time. Reciprocal inhibition.
  • Exposure, starting from the bottom of the hierarchy slowly working way up
42
Q

What is the aim of flooding

A

Exposing client to phobic stimulus without a gradual build up.

43
Q

How does flooding work

A

No avoidance.- realise that the stimulus is harmless causing extinction. When conditioned stimulus is encountered without unconditioned stimulus the result is that the conditioned stimulus no longer produced (fear)

44
Q

What are the ethical safeguarding issues with flooding

A

Unpleasant experience, so clients must give fully informed consent. Client will often be given an option of SD or flooding

45
Q

The behavioural approach to treating phobias Systematic Desensitisation- EVAL

A
  • SD has evidence for effectiveness irl .Gilroy et al followed 42 people who had a spider phobia w SD in 3 sessions 45 mins. At 3 and 33 months they were much more scared than that of the control group (relaxation without SD) Wechsler et al said that SD is helpful for all phobias.
  • SD can be used on those.w disabilities, they struggle in cognitive and flooding
46
Q

The behavioural approach to treating phobias Flooding- EVAL

A
  • Flooding is highly cost effective. Clinical effectiveness. As little as 1 session- SD may need 10 to achieve the same. So more can be treated
  • But highly unpleasant , provokes high anxiety. Schumer et al said therapists and participants said it is much more stressful than SD- should be some informed consent - also high dropout rates
47
Q

What are the two cognitive approaches to explaining depression

A
  • Beck’s negative triad

- Ellis’s ABC model

48
Q

What are the three cognitions that create vulnerability (regarding depression)

A
  • Faulty information processing (blowing small things out of proportion / attend to the negative aspects)
  • Negative self-schema (people interpret all information about self in a. negative way)
  • The negative triad (negative view of world, self and future)
49
Q

What approach is for treating Phobias, Depression and OCD

A

Phobias - behavioural
Depression - cognitive
OCD - biological

50
Q

What does Ellis think causes good mental health? bad mental health?

A

Good mental health is as a result of rational thinking, defined as a way that allows people to be happy and free of pain. Irrational thoughts cause depression and such.

51
Q

Definition of irrational thoughts by Ellis

A

Not as illogical or unrealistic thoughts, but as thoughts that interfere w us being happy and free from pain

52
Q

What is in Ellis’s ABC model

A

A Activating event
(Focused on situations in which irrational thoughts are triggered by external events- we get depressed when we experience negative events triggering irrational beliefs)
B Beliefs
‘Musturbation’ - we must always succeed
C Consequences
When an activating event triggers irrational; beliefs there are emotional and behavioural consequences

53
Q

What are the two kinds of cognitive therapy for treating depression

A
  • Beck’s cognitive therapy

- Ellis’s rational emotive behaviour therapy

54
Q

What is involved in Beck’s cognitive therapy

A

Identify thoughts about the negative triad.
Once identified must be challenged.
-Helps test clients and their reality
-Set homework

55
Q

What is involved in Ellis’s rational emotive behaviour therapy

A

Extends the ABC model to ABCDE D-dispute E-effect

  • Therapist challenge thoughts and then argue against them (dispute)
  • Challenge irrational belief
  • Empirical argument ;disputing whether there is actual evidence to support negative belief
  • Logical argument ;involves disputing whether the negative thought logically follows from the facts
56
Q

What is behavioural activation

A

As people become depressed they avoid difficult situations, maintaining or worsening their symptoms.
Behavioural activation is to work with depressed individuals to gradually decrease avoidance and isolation. Increase their engagement in activities.

57
Q

What are the two kinds of biological approaches to explaining OCD

A
  • Genetic explanations

- Neural explanations

58
Q

What is the Aubrey Lewis study regarding OCD

A

Observed that his OCD patients had 37% had parents w OCD and 21% siblings w OCD.
OCD runs in the family.

59
Q

What is meant by the diathesis-stress model, genetic explanations

A

Certain genes leave some people more likely to develop a mental disorder but it is not certain. The environment stress can trigger the condition.

60
Q

What is meant by candidate genes

A

Candidate genes are those that make people more vulnerable to OCD, some involved in regulating seratonin e.g gene 5HT1-D beta which implicates the transport of seratonin

61
Q

What is meant by OCD being polygenic

A

OCD isn’t caused by one gene but multiple, combo increasing the vulnerability
Taylor analysed previous studies and found up to 230 genes involved in OCD - often seratonin and dopamine (regulating mood)

62
Q

What is meant by etiologically heterogeneous in terms of OCD

A

OCD varies from person to person, different types of OCD- due to genetic variation

63
Q

What is a neural explanation for OCD

A

-Genes associated w OCD are likely to affect the levels of key neurotransmitters as well as structures of the brain

64
Q

What is the role of seratonin in regards to OCD

A

-It helps to regulate mood
If a person has little seratonin then normal transmission of mood-relevant information does not take place and a person may experience low moods.

65
Q

Decision making systems of OCD neural explanations

A

Abnormal functioning of the lateral (side bits) and frontal lobes of brain meaning impaired decision making.
Frontal lobes responsible for logical thinking and making decisions.
Also abnormal parahippocampal gyrus, associated w processing unpleasant emotions

66
Q

The biological approach to explaining OCD Genetic explanation- EVAL

A
  • Strong evidence of OCD being genetic. Nestadt et al reviewed twin studies, found 68% of MZ (identical) shared OCD. 31% DZ (non identical). Research found that a person w a family member w OCD is 4x more likely to develop
  • Not just genetic- also environmental triggers. Cromer et al found that over half her OCD patients had a traumatic event in their lifetime
67
Q

The biological approach to explaining OCD Neural explanation- EVAL

A
  • Antidepressants work on seratonin and this helps w OCD symptoms. Also OCD symptoms are part of other biological illnesses like Parkinsons disease (degenerative brain disorder)
  • Seratonin may not be alone to OCD, but also depression. People w OCD often depression (co-morbidity) Maybe seratonin is decreased in OCD because they have depression not bc of OCD
68
Q

What is the aim of drug therapy

A

For mental disorders, aims to decrease/increase levels of activity of specific neurotransmitters. Like seratonin in OCD

69
Q

How are SSRIs effective

A

Prevents breakdown and reabsorption, SSRIs increase amount of seratonin in the synapse stimulating the postsynaptic neuron. This compensates whatever seratonin is defected through OCD.

70
Q

What do SSRI’s stand for

A

Selective seratonin reuptake inhibitor

71
Q

Typical dose of SSRI

A

Typical dose of fluoxetine is 20mg , can be increased. Capsule or liquid. Takes 3-4 months for it to work.

72
Q

What should be combined w SSRIs for effective treatment

A

CBT is often used to treat OCD. People can engage better due to their drugs reducing their symptoms.

73
Q

Alternatives to SSRIs

A
  • Tricyclics (acts of various systems like seratonin) more severe and for people not responding to SSRIs
  • SNRIs also increase levels of noradrenaline
74
Q

The biological approach to treating OCD- EVAL

A
  • SSRIs reduce symptoms and improve quality of life for OCD. Soomro et al reviewed 17 studies comparing SSRIs to placebos. All showed significantly better outcomes for SSRIs. Typically reduce symptoms for 70%- other 30% helped by other drugs or therapy
  • Skapinkais et al found Cognitive and behaviour therapies were better than SSRIs as a form of treatment
  • It is cost effective and doesn’t disrupt daily life
  • May have serious side effects. Small amount will have no benefit, blurred vision, loss of sex drive. Quite distressing, short term. 1/10 people fertile dysfunction and weight gain. 1/100 have heart problem and become more aggressive. So perhaps have a reduced quality of life.

Psychology (12 decks)

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