Test Review Flashcards
Characteristics of “abnormal” behavior
- level of suffering (neither sufficient nor necessary condition for diagnosis
- Maladaptiveness–maladaptive for or toward society
- stat. deviancy–statistically rare, undesireable
- Violation of the standards of society–failing to follow the conventional social and moral rules of their cultural group
- Social discomfort
- Irrationality, unpredictability (can person control their behavior?)
- Dangerousness
DSM-V definition of Mental Disorder
Sarah’s summary
biological, psychological, developmental dysfunctionin indiviudal, clinically significant disturbance in behavior, emotional regulation, cognitive function, associated with distress or disability, biological
Role of culture/society/history plays in defininf what is abnormal
dominant social, economic, religious view have profound impact of what people view as abnormal behavior
Diagnostic system: Pros and Cons
Pros:
- nomenclature (schema, naming for tracking, recording, research, sharing/discussing with other researchers and professionals, etc.)
- Learn more about not just what stuff is but how to treat it
- defines domain/range of problems mental health professionals can address
Cons:
-can lead to stigma, stereotyping, labeling, oversimplification of people
Epidimiology
the branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health.
Emergence of Contemporary views on abnormal behvaior
Four major themes:
- biological discoveries
- development of a classification system for mental disorders
- emergency of psychologicla causation views
- experimental psychologicla research developments
Butcher Chapter 2
History
Prevalence
Number of active cases in population at a given time
Point Prevalence
estimate proportion of actual, active cases of the disorder in a given populaiton at a given point in time
Incidence
number of new cases that occur over a given period of time (typically 1 year)
Comorbidity
presence of 2+ disorders in same person. its especailly high in people who have severe forms of mental disorders
Outpatient Treatment
patient visits mental health practitioner but doesnt have to be admitted to hospital or stay over night
Acute
shortin duration
chronic
long in duration
etiology
causes of disorders
National comorbidity Study
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Most common Indiv mental disorders in US
MDD Alcohol Abuse Phobia Social phobia conduct disorder
Comorbity is high in…
…people who have severe forms of mental disorders
disorders dont occur in a vaccum, build off of each other
recurrence
new occurence of a disorder after a remission of symptom
remission
marked improvement or recovery appearing in the course of a mental illness, may or may not be permanent
relapse
return of symptoms of a disorder after a fairly short period of time
Cause
How do we go about defining and finidng cause? What are necessary, sufficient, contributing causes? Logic? non-specific nature of symtpoms? Butcher’s treatment of “causes”?
risk factors
variables correlated with an abnormal outcome
etiology
causal pattern
necessary cause
condition that must exist for a disorder to occur, (very few in mental disorders)
-low in humans
Sufficient cause
condition that guarantees the occurence of a disorder
-e.g. hopelessness is sufficient cause of depression
-not the same as necessary cause. other things besides hopelessness can cause depression
low in humans
contributory cause
increases probability of disorder but is neither necessary nor sufficient for the disorder to occur. these are what are studied most in psychopathology research
-more common in humans
Distal causal factors
causal factors that occur relatively early in life whose effects may not be felt for many years
Proximal causal factors
other causal factors operate shortly before the occurence of the symptoms of a disorder (e.g. giant loss triggering depression).
Proximal cause now may become distal cause for something else later
Reinforcing contributory cause
condition that tends to maintain maladaptive behavior that is already occuring (ie if someone was sick and got tons of sympathy)
Historical figures, etc. in classifying psychopathology
Emil Kraepelin-helped establish importance to brain pathology in mental disorders
Jones paper
role of culture
non-specificity of symptoms
final conclusions
Diathesis-Stress Model
view of abnormal beahvior as the result of stress operating on an individual who has a biological, psychosocial, sociocultural predisposition to developing a specific disorder
Diathesis
vulnerability/predisposition toward developing a disorder (can be derived from biological, psychological, or sociocultural causal factor)
stress
response or experience of an dividual to demands that he or she perceives as tacing or exceeding his or her personal resources
addtive model
individuals who have a high level of diathesis may need only a small amount of stress before a disorder develops, but those who have a very low level of diathesis may need to experience a large amound of stress for a disorder to develop
interactive model
some amount of diathesis must be present before stress will have any effect (ie somone with diatheiss will never develop the disorder, no matter how much stress they experince and vice versa)
protective factors
influences that modify a person’s repsonse to an environmental stressors, making it less liklely that the person will experience adverse consequences of the stressors
How protective factors work:
normally protective factors operate only to help resisit against the effects of a risk factor rather than provide any beenfits to people without risk. they dont have t be pleasan texperiences (like having to frow thick skin early in life can be a protective factor for more difficult thigns later in life)
Protective factors
must lead to resilience, ability to adapt succesfully to even very difficult circumstances
diathesis-stress models need to beconsidered:
in a broad framework of multicausal developmental models. ie in the course of development a child may acquire a variety of cumulative risk factors that may inreract in determining his or her risk factor for psychopathology
Bipolar I vs Bipolar II
BPI: mania and depression
BPII: hypomania and depression
Crosd-cultural literature on mood disorders
depression in all culturas (studied so far) but how it expresses itself varies greatly bc culturals are different in how emotions conceptualized, expressed
prevalecne rates vary
homosexuality
Removed from DSM in 1973
1950s studies done, could distinguish psych results between gy/straight subjects
social movement and pressure
Paraphilias
paraphilias are only paraphilic disorders if they cause harm/non-consensual
