Psychopathology

Question 1

What are the two approaches?

Answer 1

Clinical diagnostic

Empirical quantitative

Question 2

Clinical diagnostic approach

Answer 2

Discrete categories defined on the basis of criteria proposed by expects (DSM-V)
Qualitative, used by professionals

Question 3

Empirical quantitative approach

Answer 3

Assessed on a continuous scale, disorders at the extreme end of the distribution, indicates some may be more severe

Question 4

Classification of psychopathologies

Answer 4

Internalising - depression, anxiety

Externalising - conduct problems, ADHD

Question 5

Why are we interested in it?

Answer 5

It is a major public heath issue, 1 in 4 girls, 1 in 8 boys
Very common/prevalent - 10-25% depending on country
Early onset, 75% occur before 25
Chronic - high chance it will come back
Important period for prevention and intervention

Question 6

How do we study nature and nurture?

Answer 6

Not possible to disentangle both but twin and adoption designs help make estimation of which

Question 7

Twin designs

Answer 7

Compare similarity of MZ and DZ twins on a specific trait, allowing us to get a rough estimate of separate genetic and environmental contributions
MZ twins result from 1 fertilised egg, so 100% similar
DZ - 2 eggs, 50% similar

Question 8

What are the components of phenotypic variation

Answer 8

Heritability H2 or A - genes
Shared environment C, c2 - only environmental influences that contribute to similarity of twins
Non shared environment E e2 - only aspect of environment that makes twins different

Question 9

Why we study nature and nurture?

Answer 9

Need to understand origins and cause, to then identify who would be predicted to get it, treatment, prevention and risk reduction interventions

Question 10

What is the equation for phenotypic variation?

Answer 10

P = H2 + C2 + E2

Question 11

How to estimate H?

Answer 11

2(rMZ - rDZ)

Question 12

How to estimate C?

Answer 12

rMZ - h2

Question 13

How to estimate E?

Answer 13

1-rMZ

Question 14

ACE model

Answer 14

ACE all explain the variance in a trait

components can be measured using structural model fitting analyses

Question 15

What disorders are highly heritable?

Answer 15

Bipolar
Schizophrenia
Alzeimers
Cocaine
Anerexia 
Substance use: drugs, cannibis, alcohol
ADHD - 90%

Question 16

What disorders aren’t highly heritable?

Answer 16

Panic disorder
Anxiety
Depression - 30%

Nothing is 100% heritable, always some environmental input

Question 17

What does heterogeneity of psychopathologies refer too

Answer 17

One psychopathology with loads of subtypes

Question 18

Subtypes of anti social behaviour

Answer 18

Some children show callous unemotional traits (lacking guilt, empathy and shallow affect)

Question 19

Study investigating callous unemotional traits

Answer 19

Using ACE, identified AB, CU+ and AB, CU-
Results: AB/CU+ is highly heritable - 80%
AB, CU- isn’t as high, 30% genes, 36% non shared and 34% shared environment

Findings confirmed when children were 12, CU+ leads to negative outcomes, low achievement and peer problems

Question 20

What does comorbidity mean?

Answer 20

2 disorders at the same time

Question 21

What disorders occur at the same time?

Answer 21

Depression and anxiety
ADHD and language, conduct problems
Reading disability and maths disability

Question 22

What does comorbidity suggest?

Answer 22

Common factors between disorders

Question 23

What are the genetic factors that contribute to anxiety and depression?

Answer 23

1, meaning all genetic factors are the same contributing

50% is environment, whether they get the disorder depends on their environment

Question 24

What is genetic variation?

Answer 24

This contributes to individual differences in behaviour traits, human genome is built with 3 billion pairs, 20-25,000 genes. More than 99% of DNA is the same for everyone, only 1% is variable

Question 25

Have they found regions of DNA which vary between people?

Answer 25

No, the search is still in progress

Question 26

What are polygenic traits?

Answer 26

When psychopathologies are influenced by more than one genetic variant
Each genetic variant is additive to the others: more specific genes = higher risk

Question 27

What are psychopathologies?

Answer 27

Polygenic - multiple genes

Multifactorial - environment