Theoretical perspectives (chapter 2) Flashcards
Biological model
Focuses on physical factors accounting for mental illness
Somatic marker hypothesis
Emotions guide decision making by maxamizing good outcomes, minimizing bad outcomes and focusing on what is important
Capgras syndrome
People recognize important person in one’s life but fail to elicit emotional response.
-may believe person is a copy or corrupted or otherwise changed
EEG(electroencephalography)
Measures general brain activity but not a lot of specificity.
CT scan
Judges activity in specific locations via bloodflow
PET scan
Using a radioactive dye, or tracer in the blood which decays in a different rate depending on activity levels in certain brain regions
MRI(Magnetic resonance imaging)
Magnetic pulses generated by oxygen in the blood
fMRI
Looks at changing in blood flow to determine where activity is or is not happening int he brain.
Seratonin
Processing of information, regulation of mood, behaivor and thought processes
Norepenephrine
Regulation of arousal, mood, behaivor and sleep
Dopamine
Influences novelty seeking, pleasure, motivation, coordination, moter movements and sociability
GABA
Regulation of mood, especially anxiety, arousal and behaivor
Acetylcholine
Important in moter behaivor, arousal, attention, reward, learning and behaivor
Glutamate
Influences learning and memory
Biological Model strengths
Provides some answers and clear connections between brain structure and mental illness:
- NT’s
- brain
- genetics
- easier to pinpoint what is causing the problem
- tested empirically
Biological Model weaknesses
• Mutations in genes that are not in your family
-environment
-personal reaction
-amount of help a person is receiving
-lacks information on culture, family, and stress present
(Doesn’t cover the whole picture)
-we don’t really know HOW we just know they are connected
Psychodynamic model/perspective
Focuses on internal personality characteristics and Freudian theory(assumes mental states and behaivors arise from motives and conflicts within a person.)
—causes and purposes of human behaivor are not always obvious but partly unconscious
-people use defense mechanisms to control anxiety
Psychic determinism
The belif that everything we think, feel, and do has meaning and is worth looking into.
Id
Attempts to obtain gratification of wants, needs, impulses and primary process form of thinking
Pleasure principle
The id’s desire to seek pleasure and avoid pain in any way possible
Superego
-blocks the id’s impulses, and is a storehouse of values adopted from environment.
Ego
Mediates between the Id and super ego.
-uses secondary process form of thinking
Reality principle
Seek pleasure and avoid pain in socially acceptable ways
Psychodynamic model strengths
- focuses on childhood and how it can shape your future
- widely accessible
Psychodynamic model weaknesses
- pretty abstract
- difficult to explain
- difficult to measure
- interpretation can be wrong
- no empirical support
- outdated
Humanistic model
-focuses on the belief that people are basically good and strive for growth and fulfillment, personal responsibility, living in the here and now and personal growth.
Abraham Maslow
Believed we work to satisfy basic and higher order needs and established a hiararchy pyramid.
Self actualization
Development of a person’s full potential
Actualized tendency
-we are all born with a motivation to grow into a better person and reach our full potential.
Organismic valuing process
-we select our goals based on internal values of experiences.
Self congruence
Symbolized experiences actual fit your actual experiences and values(who I am and who I want to be).
Existential living
Mindfulness
Organismic trust
Trust ones own experiences and not bound by others’ opinions
Experiential freedom
Assumes responsibility for decisions and behaivor
Humanistic model strengths
- fosters responsibly for patient’s recovery
- avoid dwelling on the past
- much more optimistic outlook for patients
Humanistic model weaknesses
- abstract
- difficult to explain to patients
- lacks scientific support
- can’t be tested
- select group of people who it can be effective for(can’t let a child run a therapy session).
Behavioral perspective/model
Focuses on empiricism, associationist, hedonism and utilitarianism
Empiricism
Knowledge is derived from sense-experience
Associationism
Based on your experiences, the connections in your brains re rewired
Hedonism
Seek pleasure and avoid pain
Utilitarianism
Do what has the maximum benefit
Behaivoral model strengths
-very practical
Behaivoral model weaknesses
- ignores biology
- not considering thoughts or emotions
- severe positive punishment can have lasting implications
Cognitive models
-draws on cognitive concepts to explain how thinking can produce various psychopathology
Schemas
A pattern of thought or behaivor that organizes catagories of information and relationships among them to help understand the world in a rapidly changing environment.
3 dimensions of explanatory style
Internal vs. external
Stable vs. unstable
Global vs. specific
Sociocultural model
-focuses on how an individual’s environment shapes the individual
The biopsychosocial model
-uses biological, psychodynamic, humanistic, behaivoral, cognitive and sociocultural models together as appropriate.
Syndroms
Clusters of symptoms
Cerebral cortex
-consciousness, memory, attention, and other high order areas of functioning
Frontal lobe
Movement, planning, organization, inhabiting behaivor or responses and decision making
Parietal lobe
-Touch
Temporal lobe
Hearing and memory
Occipital lobe
Vision and tracking movement
Limbic system and what it is composed of
Regulates emotions, impulses, controls thirst, sex and aggression
-composed of the cingulate gurus, septum hippocampus and amygdala
Basal ganglia
Control posture and moter activity
Thalamus and hypothalamus
Relays information between forebrain and lower brain areas
Reticular activating system
Involved in arousal, stress, or tension
Medusa, pons, and cerebellum
Breathing, heartbeat, digestion, and moter cooordination
Unconscious motivation
Hidden realms of emotions, thoughts and behaivors that may also affect motives that drive us to act in certain ways
Primary process form of thinking
The id’s thinking pattern if gratification is not immediate, which involves manufacturing a fantasy or mental image of whatever lessens the tension
Secondary process
The egos thinking pattern of using learning perception and memory, planning judgement and higher orders of thinking to plan a workable strategy
Psychosexual stages of development
- Oral stage (1-6 months)
Mouth is chief means of reaching satisfaction - Anal stage(6 months-3 years)
attention becomes centered on dedication and urination - Phallic stage (3 year- 6 years)
-sexual organs become the prime source of gratification
4.Latency stage (6-12 years)
-lack of overt sexual activity or interest - Genital stage (12 years to adulthood)
-mature expression of sexuality
Fixation
Delayed psychosexual development
Projective hypothesis
An assumption that people project unconscious needs and conflicts into ambiguous stimuli such as inkblots
Free association
-asking a client to say whatever comes to mind during a session
Dream analysis
Dreams are thought to reveal unconscious material becuse ego defenses are lowered during sleep.
Key goal of psychodynamic treatment
-help clients gain insight into their current problems
Insight
-understanding the unconscious determinants of irrational emotions, thoughts, or behaivors that create problems or distress
Interpretation
The method by which unconscious meanings of emotions, thoughts, and behaivor are revealed
Transference
Key phenomenon in psychodynamic therapy that occurs when a client reacts to a therapist as if the latter is an important figure form childhood
-ex. Yelling at a therapist indicating anger at mom
Phenomenological approach
an assumption, in the humanistic model, that ones behaivor is determined by perceptions of oneslf and others
Conditional positive regard
Refers to an environment where others set the conditions or standards for ones life
Unconditional positive regard
Refers to an environment in which a person is fully accepted as they are and allowed to persue their own desires and goals
Client-centered therapy
Relies heavily on unconditional positive regard and empathy
Other-centeredness
Oversensitivity to demands, criticisms, and judgements of others
Existential psychology
-heavily based on the concept of authenticity, or how closely one adheres to ones personality
Non directive
- a concept of humanistic perspective treatment in which the therapist does not adopt a paternalistic or commanding tone for therapy
- form of pretherapy
Cognitive-behaivoral model
-rests not he assumption that learning principles and cognition interact to influence a person’s behavior
Classical conditioning
Learning occurs when a conditioned stimulus is paired with a unconditioned stimulus so further presentations of the conditioned stuimulus result in a conditioned response
Operant conditioning
Based on the principle that behaivors followed by positive or pleasurable consequences will likely be repeated but behaivor that is followed by negative consequences such as punishment will not likely be repeated.
Modeling
Refers to learning by observing and imitating others
Functional analysis
Evaluating antecedents and consequences of behaivor one what preceded and followed certain behaivors
Token economy
-reinforcement system for certain behaivors in which tokens or points are given for positive behaivors and exchanged later for tangible rewards
Cultural syndroms
A culture belief that drives a mental disorder in that culture.
Family systems perspective
Assumes each family has its own rules and organizational structure or hiarchy of authority and decision making
Inflexible families
Families that are overly rigid and do not adapt well to changes within or outside of the family
Enmeshed families
Families are characterized by family members who are over involved int he private lives of other family members-everything is everyone else’s business
Disengaged families
Characterized by family members who operate independently of one another with little parental supervision
Triangular relationships
Situations where parents avoid contacting one another or addressing marital conflicts by keeping their children involved in all conversations and activities
Expressed emotion
The degree to which family interactions are marked by emotional involvement, hostility and criticism
