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psychology AS > psychopathology > Flashcards

psychopathology Flashcards

1
Q

what are the 4 definitions of abnormality?

A
  • Statistical infrequency
  • Deviation from social norms
  • Failure to function
  • Deviation from ideal mental health
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2
Q

Strengths of Statistical infrequency

A
  • used in clinical practice for diagnosis
  • a way of assessing severity of symptoms
  • increased value for definition
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3
Q

Limitations of Statistical infrequency

A
  • Detrimental terms of labelling
  • Positives to abnormality (high IQ)
  • Cannot be only used for defining abnormality
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4
Q

Strengths of Deviation from social norms

A
  • Anti-social personality is failure to conform to socially accepted behaviour
  • applications to psychiatry
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5
Q

Limitations of Deviation from social norms

A
  • people may label others as abnormal due to cultural differences
  • difficult to judge and apply over different situations
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6
Q

Strengths of Failure to function

A
  • Represents threshold for help needed
  • 25% of people in UK will experience a mental health problem
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7
Q

Limitations of Failure to function

A
  • Socially sensitive concept (some cant access needs to function properly)
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8
Q

Strengths of Deviation from ideal mental health

A
  • Application to Real life / therapy (person centred therapy; humanistic, no judgement, unconditional positive regard)
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9
Q

Limitations of Deviation from ideal mental health

A
  • Unrealistic expectations on how ‘normal people’ feel
  • Culturally bound (some value independence more)
  • Extremely high standards
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10
Q

definition of Statistical Infrequency

A

a way to define something as abnormal by how often we come across it - any usual behaviour is ‘normal’

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11
Q

definition of Deviation from Social Norms

A

when a persons behaviour differs from how a group of people would deem normal - affects their sense of what is acceptable

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12
Q

definition of Failure to Function Properly

A

when someone is so abnormal that they can no longer cope with everyday tasks - basic hygiene, nutrition, maintaining a job, maintaining relationships

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13
Q

what did Rosenhan and Seligman find?

A

additional signs of Failure to Function
- if a person experiences severe personal distress
- if a persons behaviour becomes irrational or dangerous

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14
Q

definition of Deviation from Ideal Mental Health

A

when someone differs from what is considered ideal / normal within society

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15
Q

what did Jahoda find?

A

Good mental health follows a criteria
- No symptoms of distress
- Rational and can perceive ourselves accurately
- We can self actualise
- We can cope with stress
- We have a realistic view on the world
- Good self esteem & lack guilt

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16
Q

what are obsessions in OCD?

A

recurring, distressing thoughts that cause a person mental discomfort (e.g. thoughts of germs all around you)

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17
Q

what are Compulsions in OCD?

A

the behavioural aspect as a result of the obsession that is a response to the obsessions in order to help calm the thoughts (washing hands to rid of germs)

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18
Q

what is the OCD cycle?

A

Anxiety & distress (any distressing emotion) –> Compulsions (any behaviour that is done to make the distress go away) –> Temporary relief (obsessions will come back) –> Obsessions (unwanted thoughts, urges and mental images)

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19
Q

what is a Candidate Gene in OCD?

A

specific genes which create a vulnerability for OCD

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20
Q

what does Poly-Genetic mean in OCD?

A

not a single gene but a combination of genes involved in OCD - (Taylor 230 different genes in OCD)

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21
Q

what is the COMT gene?

A

it regulates production of dopamine

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22
Q

what is the SERT gene?

A

it affects the transmission of serotonin - creating lower levels

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23
Q

what did Lewis observe about the Genetic explaination of OCD?

A

observed people with OCD - 37% of people had parents with OCD - 21% had siblings with OCD

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24
Q

what is a Diathesis-stress model?

A

some genes leave people more vulnerable to developing the disorder - supports nature vs nurture

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25
Q

what is the role of the Frontal Lobe in the Neural explanation for OCD

A
  • responsible for decision making skills / logical thinking
  • some OCD cases have been associated with impaired functioning
26
Q

what is the role of the Parahippocampal Gyrus in the Neural explanation for OCD

A
  • associated with processing unpleasant emotions
  • has been linked with abnormal functioning in OCD
27
Q

what is the Worry Circuit?

A
  • The Orbital Frontal Cortex converts sensory information into thoughts and actions (notices when something is wrong and sends a ‘worry signal’ to the Thalimus
  • The Thalimus receives the ‘worry signal’ and send signals to the Caudate Nucleus
  • The Caudate Nucleus stops the Thalimus from worrying (in OCD this is thought to be impared and cant supress the signals)
28
Q

How do Twin Studies show the biological explanation for OCD?

A
  • 68% of monozygotic twins shared OCD
  • 31% of dizygotic twins shared OCD
29
Q

what are the limitations of Twin Studies for the biological explaination for OCD?

A
  • may have grown up in a similar environment (more difficult to extract a cause)
  • may not be applicable to non-twins
  • no control over confounding variables
30
Q

How do Antidepressants show the biological explanation for OCD?

A
  • can be explained by faulty serotonin systems which can be overcome by antidepressants
31
Q

what are the limitations of Antidepressants for the biological explaination for OCD?

A
  • they are not permanent
  • there are side effects
  • comorbidity (other factors may be effecting corellation)
32
Q

how to SSRI’s work to treat OCD?

A

it blocks the pre-synaptic terminal and blocks recycling causing Serotonin to have more chance of binding to the receptor site

33
Q

what are strenghts of SSRI’s?

A
  • can be used alongside CBT to treat OCD
  • they can reduce the emotional aspects of OCD
  • after drug treatment clients may engage in more CBT
34
Q

what are some alternatives to SSRI’s?

A
  • Tricyclics (have more severe side effects and only prescribed when SSRI’s dont work)
  • SNRI’s (increased levels of serotonin levels and other neurotransmitters like noradrenaline)
  • Benzodiapines (slow the activity of the CNS making it harder for the neurons to be stimulated - creating relaxation)
35
Q

what are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?

A
  • panic
  • avoidance
  • endurance
36
Q

what are the emotional characteristics of phobias?

A
  • Anxiety
  • Fear
  • Response being unreasonable
36
Q

what are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?

A
  • Selective attention to the stimulus
  • irrational beliefs
  • cognitive distortions
37
Q

what are the behavioural characteristics of depression?

A
  • increase or decrease in activity levels
  • disruption to sleep and eating
  • aggression and self-harm
38
Q

what are the emotional characteristics of depression?

A
  • lowered mood
  • anger
  • lowered self esteem
39
Q

what are the cognitive characteristics of depression?

A
  • poor concentration
  • dwelling on the negative
  • absolutist thinking
40
Q

how does behaviourism explain phobias?

A

The Two Process model
- acquired by classical conditioning
- maintained by operant conditioning

41
Q

strengths of the Two Process model

A

Real World Application
- used in exposure therapy
- explains why being exposed to phobic stimulus is beneficial
- once avoidance is prevented it ceases to be reinforced

Phobias and Traumatic experiences
- Little Albert - Watson and Rayner
- 73% with a fear of Dentists had a traumatic experience - Ad De Jongh

42
Q

limitations of Two Process model

A

Doesnt account for Cognitive aspects
- not just avoidance responses they also have a significant cognitive component

Not all phobias appear following a bad experience
- many people scared of snakes without having seen one

43
Q

behavioural approach to treating phobias

A
  • systematic desensitisation
  • Flooding
44
Q

what is systematic desensitisation?

A

A gradual build up to treat phobias
- First is the anxiety hierarchy (a list of phobic situations the patients find most to least frightening)
- then the therapist teaches the client to relax as it is impossible to be scared and relaxed at the same time (this is reciprocal inhibition)
- Finally the client is exposed to the phobia in increasing doses from the bottom of the hierarchy upwards over a long time

45
Q

what is flooding?

A

it is exposing someone to their phobic stimulus without a gradual build up
- these sessions can take from 2-3 hours
- sometimes only 1 session is enough
- this method is called extinction as the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the conditioned response

46
Q

a strength of systematic desensitisation

A

Gilroy et al
- followed up 42 people who after 3 and 33 months were less fearful than a control group

Accessible to People with Learning Disabilities
- some people with learning disabilities struggle with cognitive therapies

47
Q

a strength of Flooding

A

Cost-effective
- Flooding can work in as little as 1 session compared to around 10 sessions for Systematic Desensitisation

48
Q

a limitation of Flooding

A

Traumatic
- Schumacher et al found participants and therapists rated flooding significantly more stressful than SD
- raises ethical issues for gaining informed consent to cause stress on participants
- increases the dropout rates of the treatments

49
Q

What is Beck’s Negative Triad

A

they believed it was a persons cognitions that made them more vulnerable to depression

Faulty information processing
- depressed people only see the negative aspects of a situation not the positives

Negative self schema
- they have a negative mental framework surrounding themselves

Negative triad
- a negative view of the world
- a negative view of the future
- a negative view of the self

50
Q

Strengths of Beck’s negative triad

A

research support
- Cohen et al tracked the development of 474 adolescents and regularly measured cognitive vulnerability. there was a striking concordance of vulnerabilities predicting later depression

Real world application
- can be applied to screening young adults to identify those most at risk of developing depression
- can be applied CBT

51
Q

limitation of Beck’s Negative Triad

A

partial explanation
- doesn’t explain any further aspects of depression such as feelings of anger or hallucinations and delusions

52
Q

what is Ellis’ ABC model?

A

Ellis thought depression was a result of irrational thought

A - activating event
- we get depressed when we experience negative events and these trigger irrational beliefs

B - beliefs
- Ellis identified a range of irrational beliefs
- the idea that we must always achieve perfection is ‘mustabatory thinking’
- the idea that something is a major disaster if it doesn’t run smoothly is ‘i-can’t-stand-it-itus’

C - Consequences
- when an activating event triggers irrational beliefs there are emotional and behavioural consequences (e.g. depression)

53
Q

strength of Ellis’ ABC Model

A

application to real life
- REBT (rational emotive behavioural therapy) developed by Ellis has the therapist argue with the patient to alter their irrational beliefs

54
Q

limitations of Ellis’ ABC model

A

Endogenous depression
- Ellis’ model only explain reactive depression and not depression that has no traceable ‘activating event’ and therefore is only a partial explanation

Ethical issues
- REBT places most of responsibility onto the patient effectively blaming the depressed person which could be perceived as unethical

55
Q

what is Beck’s cognitive therapy?

A

the idea is to identify automatic thoughts about the world, the self and the future - once identified these thoughts are challenged
clients may also be set homework in order to investigate the reality of their negative beliefs.

56
Q

what are the types of CBT?

A
  • Beck’s cognitive therapy
  • Ellis’ Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy
57
Q

what is Ellis’ Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy?

A

it extends the ABC model to the ABCDE model - the D stands for Dispute and the E for Effect
the intended effect of this is to change the irrational belief and break the link between negative life event and depression through argument
- empirical arguing is disputing whether there is actual evidence to support negative belief
- logical arguing is disputing whether negative beliefs logically follow from facts

58
Q

strength for CBT

A

supporting evidence
- March compared the use of CBT to antidepressants when treating 327 depressed adolescents - he found that 81% of CBT group, 81% of antidepressant group and 86% of the CBT + antidepressant group were significantly improved
- CBT is therefore as effective as antidepressants and is considered more cost effective

59
Q

limitations of CBT

A

suitability for extreme clients
- in some cases depression can be so severe that clients cannot motivate themselves to engage with the cognitive elements.

relapse rates
- although CBT is effective there are some concerns over how long benefits last
- Ali et al assessed 439 CBT clients over a year and found 42% relapsed into depression within 6 months and 53% relapsed within a year

psychology AS (22 decks)

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