Psychopathology Exam 1 Flashcards
what is the textbook definition of a psychological disorder?
(1) psychological dysfunction within in an individual associated with
(2) distress or impairment in functioning and a response that is
(3) not typical or culturally expected
psychological dysfunction
a breakdown in cognitive, emotional, or behvioural functioning
personal distress or impairment
self-explanatory
atypical or not culturally expected
self-explanatory
psychopathology and its 3 categories
the study of psychological disorders
(1) description
(2) causation
(3) treatment
the scientist-practioner
taking a scientific approach (ex: mental health practitioners that do this in their clinical work)
what are the three functions of a scientific-practitioner and describe them
1) consumer of science
2) evaluator of practice: determining effectiveness of practice
3) creator of science: conducting research that leads to new procedures useful in practice
etiololgy
why a disorder begins or what causes it
three historical approaches
(1) supernatural: exorcism
(2) biological: physical care and search for medical cure, specifically drugs
(3) psychological: therapy
psychoanalysis major facets
(1) structure of the mind: id, ego, superego
(2) defence mechanisms
(3) psychosexual stages of development
freud
humanism
positiveness of human nature
behaviourism
greater emphasis on cognitive and social factors involved in learning
Three Main Approaches to Defining Mental Disorders
1) Prototype (Textbook/DSM)
2) Harmful dysfunction (Wakefield)
3) Ignore the question (Cosmides & Tooby)
Prototypical Approach
theres a list of criteria
must be reliable and valid
not always necessary nor sufficient
reliable
2 different psychologists meet w the same person would end up with the same answer
valid
is it really about the thing we’re trying to assess
Wakefield’s harmful dysfunction
A psychological disorder is a harmful dysfunction
(1) A dysfunction is a failure of an internal mechanism to perform naturally selected functions (the explanatory criterion)
(2) The outcome is harmful to the individual from the standpoint of a persons culture
Ignore the Question
Clinicians are concerned about helping people, not fixing disorders, the treatable condition
the treatable condition
1) A characterizable (identifiable) condition. Need to be able to say what this person’s condition is, why are they coming to see me?
2) A valuation that the condition is negative (i.e., harmful, undesirable, unhealthy) and requires change
3) The condition is changeable
multidimensional influens (4)
1) biological
2) behavioural
3) emotional and cognitive
4) social
describe genes
25,000n genes on 23 pairs of chromosomes
made up of nucleotides (A C G T)
code for amino acids to form proteins
monomorphic vs polymorphic
having only one possibility for the trait of a gene (one possible skin colour for a jaguar) vs having many different possibilities for it
quantitative genetics
the study of relative importance in genes and the environment in producing individual differences in behavioural phenotypes
heratibility
molecular genetics
the study of the role of specific genes in creating a phenotype
polygenic effect
one characteristic controlled by two or more genes
epigenetics
the study of changes in inheritance without altering the genes
a mother exposed to stress during pregnancy may have smaller than average daughters and these daughters may have smaller than average daughters even if they are not exposed to stress during pregnancy
diathesis-stress model
vulnerability (gene, temperament, etc) + stressor (death in family, job loss, etc) = disorder
gene-environment correlation
some genes make people more likely to be exposed to a certain environment, and these environments in turn have an effect on behaviour
