Psychopathology: What is Abnormal? - Exam Review

Question 1

Clinical psychology

Answer 1

attempts to identify pathological mental processes and behaviour.

Question 2

How to Distinguish Abnormal from Normal

Answer 2

1. ) Deviation from a statistical/cultural norm
2. ) Societal disruption/observer discomfort
3. ) Emotional distress
4. ) Maladaptiveness of behaviour

Question 3

Deviation from a statistical/cultural norm

Answer 3

• if people normally get sad once a week, but one person gets sad 7 days a week, we would assume this person has depression.
• deviance doesn’t necessarily lead to disturbance, ex: homosexuality.

Question 4

Societal disruption/Observer discomfort

Answer 4

• whether a person’s behaviour causes societal stress or discomfort.
• fails to distinguish people who have a pathology from people who are revolutionary (ex: MLK).

Question 5

Emotional Distress & Maladaptiveness of behaviour

Answer 5

• criteria used in DSM to identify mental illness.

- problematic because its hard to find objective standard of impairment.

Question 6

Mental disorder

Answer 6

syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behaviour.

Question 7

Category model

Answer 7

• a mental disorder is qualitatively distinct from normal psychological functioning.
• individual either has the disorder or does not.
• ex: Ted Bundy.

Question 8

Continuum model

Answer 8

• a mental disorder consists of traits that are at an extreme point along a particular dimension.
• an individual has more or less of a certain trait.

Question 9

Costs of Diagnosis

Answer 9

1. ) Expectation Biases
2. ) Social Stigma
3. ) Potential for mis/over-diagnosis

Question 10

Rosenhan’s Study

Answer 10

• shows that diagnostic labels distort how other people see a patient.
• labels can also produce self-fulfilling prophecies.

Question 11

Job Applicant vs Patient Study

Answer 11

• the label of patient changes the way that a therapist interprets an individuals behaviour.
• therapist rated those labelled as “patients” as less well adjusted.

Question 12

Diagnostic Inflation

Answer 12

• Allen Francis
• argues that the qualification for a disorder is becoming more loose, so more people are being diagnosed.
  ex: ADHD

Question 13

Benefits of Diagnosis

Answer 13

1. ) Validation for patient.
2. ) Allocation and coordination of resources.
3. ) Predicting behaviour of individuals.

Question 14

Evolution of Abnormal Psych

Answer 14

mental illness thought to arise from being possessed by evil spirits.

treatments included:
1.) torture to make body inhabitable.

2. ) scare evil spirits away by hanging person over snake put.
3. ) drill holes in scalp to release demons.

Question 15

Diathesis-Stress Model

Answer 15

A model of mental disorders that recognizes the roles and interactions of both predispositions and environmental or situational factors.

Question 16

Major Depression Facts

Answer 16

• 15-20% of the US population will experience major depression at least once.
• 75% of individuals will experience at lease one more episode.
• women are twice as likely to experience an episode than men.

Question 17

Symptoms of Major Depression - DSM

Answer 17

Must have one of these:
- sad mood or anhedonia.

At least four of these:
- sleep changes, suicide ideation, loss of energy, appetite changes, feelings of worthlessness, etc.

Question 18

DSM-5 Criteria for Major Depression

Answer 18

1. ) Symptoms must have been present during a two-week period.
2. ) Symptoms must produce clinically significant impairment in areas of functioning.
3. ) Symptoms must not be due to the effects of a substance or a medical condition (i.e hypothyroidism).

Question 19

Melancholic Depression

Answer 19

At least one of these:
- anhedonia, lack of mood reactivity.

At least three of these:
- early morning awakening, excessive guilt, worse mood in the morning, appetite loss, etc.

Question 20

Biological Causes of depression

Answer 20

• genetic relatedness (monozygotic twins have 50% chance)

- serotonin dysfunction

Question 21

Serotonin

Answer 21

• plays a role in regulating mood.
• reduced serotonin signalling in raphe nuclei in depressed ppl.
• lower availability of serotonin in synapses between neurons in depressed ppl.

Question 22

5-HTT

Answer 22

• serotonin transporter gene, that affects the re uptake of serotonin.
• influences a persons vulnerability to become highly stressed when exposed to difficult life circumstances.

Question 23

Cognitive Factors

Answer 23

1. ) Attributional reformulation.

2. ) Rumination.

Question 24

Learned helplessness

Answer 24

lack of motivation to avoid unpleasant stimuli after one has failed before to escape similar stimuli.

Question 25

Attributional Reformulation

Answer 25

the explanations we give to stressors is what determines whether we will develop depression.

• depressed people make attributions that are internal, stable, and global.

Question 26

Cognitive Triad

Answer 26

automatic thoughts from depressed people about themselves, the world, and their future.

• negative views about one’s self –> negative views about the world –> negative views about one’s future.

Question 27

Dysfunctional Attitude Scale

Answer 27

measures the intensity of dysfunctional attitudes, a hallmark feature of depression.

ex: I am nothing if a person I love doesn’t love me.

Question 28

Rumination

Answer 28

the tendency to recurrently self-generate negative thoughts about one’s past.

• predisposes people to depression and relapse.

Question 29

Cognitive Therapy

Answer 29

Goal is cognitive restructuring:

1. ) Become more aware of distorted patterns of thinking.
2. ) Challenge distorted patterns of thinking.
3. ) Implement more realistic modes of thinking.

Question 30

Effectiveness of cognitive therapy

Answer 30

• generally equally as effective as SSRIs.

- better at preventing relapse.

Question 31

Subgenual Cingulate

Answer 31

• central area in depression-relevant brain networks.
• rich in serotonin transporters.
• activation is specific to sadness.

Question 32

Subgenual Cingulate has projections to:

Answer 32

• prefrontal cortex (attributions).
• nucleus accumbens (pleasure).
• hypothalamus (hunger, sex, sleep).

Question 33

Deep-brain stimulation (DBS)

Answer 33

electrodes are implanted in the subgenual cingulate, to stimulate overactive brain circuits.

Question 34

Treatment resistant depression

Answer 34

• includes 20% of the depressed population.

- DBS has been shown to relieve depression in many of these patients.

Question 35

Psilocybin

Answer 35

• acts through serotonin neurotransmitter.
• has no affinity for dopamine receptors.
• can help decrease depression in treatment-resistant patients.

Question 36

Results of Rosenhan’s Study

Answer 36

1. ) patients sanity was undetected by any of the doctors or staff.
2. ) normal behaviour was interpreted as being abnormal.
3. ) patients were treated as less than human.

Question 37

Variations of 5-HTT gene

Answer 37

1. ) short/short allele
2. ) short/long allele
3. ) long/long allele

Question 38

Short/short allele

Answer 38

• s/s allele is associated with altered efficiency of serotonin re-uptake.
• people with s/s allele have greater amygdala responses to emotional faces.

Question 39

Forms of Attributional Reformulation

Answer 39

1. ) Internal vs. External
2. ) Stable vs. Unstable –> problem will persist forever vs. temporary slip up.
3. ) Global vs. Specific –> consistent factor vs. context-specific factor.

Question 40

Sternberg Working Memory Task

Answer 40

asses rumination by examining a persons ability to replenish and update WM after negative events are deemed to be no longer relevant to the current task.

Question 41

Steps of Cognitive Therapy

Answer 41

1. ) therapist guides patient in identifying and correction cognitive distortions.
2. ) patients keeps journal and gathers data on their beliefs,