Topic 1 - Psychological Disorders

Question 1

Define psychopathology

Answer 1

Refers to problematic patterns of thought, feeling or behaviour that disrupt an individual’s sense of wellbeing or social or occupational functioning.

Question 2

How does culture impact psychopathology?

Answer 2

• Vulnerability to disorders
• Classifications
• Some disorders are culture specific (e.g. Koro & Amok)
• Different cultures may have different Sx for the same disorders

Question 3

Define labelling theory.

Answer 3

Argues that diagnosis is a way of stigmatising individuals a society considers deviant.

(Hasn’t held up well over time due to cross-cultural recognition of disorders & evidence to suggest some disorders are illnesses in the brain)

Question 4

What did Thomas Szasz propose?

Answer 4

that mental illness is a myth used to make people conform to society’s standards of normality.

Question 5

Define mental health.

Answer 5

Is the capacity of individuals to behave in ways that promote their emotional and social wellbeing.

Question 6

Define mental health problems.

Answer 6

MH problems include the wide range of emotional and behavioural abnormalities that affect people throughout their lives.

Question 7

Define mental disorder.

Answer 7

Implies the existence of a clinically recognisable set of symptoms and behaviours that cause distress to the individual and impair their ability to function as usual.

Question 8

What populations are at high risk of mental disorders in AU?

Answer 8

Kids, adolescents, older people, Aboriginal, TSI, rural, CALD

Question 9

What are the pros & cons of Diagnosis?

Answer 9

Pros: Short-hand, may point toward specific risks & treatments.
Cons: labelling, stigma

Question 10

What are the 3 psychodynamic classes of psychopathology?

Answer 10

1. Neuroses - enduring problems in living that cause distress or dysfunction
2. Personality disorders - chronic, severe disturbances that substantially inhibit the capacity to love and to work.
3. Psychoses - gross disturbances involving a loss of touch with reality.

Question 11

Define psychodynamic formulation. What is it derived from?

Answer 11

A set of hypotheses about the patients personality structure and the meaning of a symptom.

(Derived from info re: functioning, life stress, origins/course of Sx, salient events).

Question 12

What 3 questions does the psychodynamic formulation focus on?

Answer 12

1. What does the patient wish for and fear? → focuses on motives and conflicts
2. What psychological resources does the person have at his disposal → focuses on the adaptive functioning/ ability to function autonomously.
3. How does the pt experience himself and others? → ability to form meaningful relationships & maintain self esteem

Question 13

What is the cognitive-behavioural perspective of psychological disorders?

Answer 13

Clinicians integrate an understanding of classical and operant conditioning with a cognitive-social perspective.

Question 14

What is the behavioural perspective of psychopathology?

Answer 14

• Psychological problems involve conditioned emotional responses in which previously neutral stimulus has become associated with unpleasant emotions
• irrational fears in turn elicit avoidance, which perpetuates them and may lead to secondary problems, such as poor social skills.

Question 15

What do behaviourist clinicians focus on in psychopathology?

Answer 15

Assessing the conditions under which Sx arise & try to discover the stimuli that elicit them.

Question 16

What is the cognitive perspective of psychopathology?

What do clinicians focus on?

Answer 16

Many psychological problems reflect dysfunctional attitudes, beliefs and other cognitive processes, such as a tendency to interpret events negatively.

Clinicians will assess the thoughts that run through a pt’s mind as the Sx arises.

Question 17

What is the biological approach to psychopathology?

What is a central focus?

Answer 17

Looks for roots of mental disorders in the brains circuitry.

• neurotransmitter dysfunction
• abnormalities of brain structures along a pathway that regulates behaviour

Central focus = heritability

Question 18

What is the diathesis-stress model?

Answer 18

Proposes that people with an underlying vulnerability (called a diathesis) may exhibit Sx under stressful circumstances.

Question 19

Define systems approach.

Answer 19

Explains an individual’s behaviour in the context of a social group (e.g. couple, family etc).

Question 20

What is the family systems model?

Answer 20

Views an individual’s Sx as Sx of dysfunction in the family = The real problem lies in the family, not the individual.

Question 21

What are the 3 ways evolutionary psychologists view psychopathology?

Answer 21

1. A random variation likely to be weeded out by natural selection.
2. As the result of broader population pressures that select rates of genes in the population that can be either functional or dysfunctional depending on the other genes an individual inherits
3. As the maladaptive environmental ‘tuning’ of psychological mechanisms that are normally adaptive.

Question 22

Define clinical syndromes.

Answer 22

Constellations of symptoms that tend to occur together.

Question 23

What does the DSM-5 contain?

Answer 23

• Diagnostic criteria
• Prevalence
• Similar disorders

Question 24

What is ADHD?

Answer 24

A disorder characterised by inattention, impulsiveness and hyperactivity inappropriate for the child’s age.

Question 25

What is the rate of ADHD in Aus?

Answer 25

5-7%

Question 26

Aetiology of ADHD?

Answer 26

Genetic & enviro

Question 27

Define schizophrenia.

Answer 27

An umbrella term for a number of psychotic disorders that involve disturbances in nearly every dimension of human psychology - thought, perception, behaviour, language, communication and emotion.

Question 28

Rate of schizophrenia?

Gender?

Answer 28

1-2%

No gender differences

Question 29

What is the diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia?

Answer 29

Delusions, hallucinations, thought/speech disorganised