U4AOS2A - Defining Mental Wellbeing Flashcards
1
Q
Define mental wellbeing
A
- State of (contextual) emotional and social health in which individuals can…
- Cope with the normal stresses of life
- Work productively
- Contribute to their community
- Can at anytime be eroded by risk factors or enhanced by protective factors
- Factors that can help…
- Ability to function and contribute
- Social and emotional wellbeing
- Ability to cope with setbacks
- Self efficacy
2
Q
Describe levels of functioning
A
-
Degree to which an individual can complete day-to-day tasks in an independent and effective manner
- Setting goals
- Development
- Meeting demands of everyday life
- ⬆️ - Live alone, pay bills
- ⬇️ - Lack of engagement in self care
3
Q
How can levels of functioning be used to consider mental wellbeing?
A
- If an individual can complete everyday tasks in an independent and effective manner…
- It can be concluded that they are highly likely to be mentally healthy
4
Q
What is adaptive behaviour?
A
- Any behaviour that enables one to adjust to their environment appropriately and effectively
5
Q
What is maladaptive behaviour?
A
- Any behaviour that is counterproductive - Interferes with one’s ability to adjust to their environment
- Reduced ability to do everyday things
- Most people have done at some point but → Persistent maladaptive behaviour is associated with a low level of overall functioning
AKA Dysfunctional Behaviour
6
Q
What is resilience?
A
- Ability to cope and manage change and uncertainty
- Recover quickly from setbacks and manage stress
- ‘Bounce back’
- Restore positive functioning
- Reason for difference in perspective with each individual
-
Adjust to or overcome adversity
- Individuals tend to have good social support systems
- Not a fixed ability → Something that is learnt and built through relationships and experiences
- ⬆️ → Linked to greater life satisfaction and happiness - Bad mark = Reach out to teacher for advice
- ⬇️ → School absence to avoid
7
Q
How can resilience be used to consider mental wellbeing?
A
- An individual is likely to possess high levels of mental health if they are able to cope with change
8
Q
What is social wellbeing?
A
- Ability for an individual to form and maintain meaningful bonds with others → Adapt to different social situations
- Feeling connected, reciprocated, valued and desired
- ⬆️ → Reciprocation in friendships - Same energy
- ⬇️ → Disengagement (no checking up on friends)
9
Q
What is emotional wellbeing?
A
- Ability for an individual to appropriately control and express their own emotions in an adaptive way → Also understand emotions of others
- Feeling balanced
- Experiencing normal range of emotions
- Coping strategies (!)
- Responding appropriately
- ⬆️ → Emotions seen clearly
- ⬇️ → Reactions blown out of proportion or apathy
10
Q
Describe characteristics of a mentally healthy person
A
- Can form and maintain positive relationships with others
- Able to deal (or cope) with normal stressors in everyday life
- Reason logically and think clearly
- Manage and control their feelings and emotions without extreme highs or lows
- Experience pleasure and enjoyment in day-to-day activities
- Use their abilities to achieve goals and realise their potential
11
Q
What is the Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) framework?
A
- Approach to understanding all elements of being for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
-
Multidimensional and holistic
- Many components
- Wellbeing of individual + their family and community (collectivist)
- Change throughout a persons lifespan → Varies according to needs of different age groups
12
Q
What are the different SEWB framework dimensions?
A
- Connection to…
- Culture → Most important
- Country
- Spirituality and Ancestors
- Body
- Mind and Emotions
- Family and Kinship
- Community
Interrelated and overlap
13
Q
Describe the Connection to: Body (1) and Mind (1)
What they are, what disrupts them and what restores them
Domains of SEWB
A
-
Body
- Normal biological markers of physical health → Diet and exercise
- ❌ Disruptions → Smoking, diseases
- ✅ Restoration → Sports, hunting and gathering
-
Mind
- Beyond mental health → Recognise importance of positive emotions, self-confidence
- ❌ Disruptions → Threats to safety, cultural trauma & racism
- ✅ Restoration → Accessing supports, education, recognition of human rights
Speak only about the domains that are required from the question
14
Q
Describe the Connection to: Family/Kinship (1) and Community (1)
What they are, what disrupts them and what restores them
Domains of SEWB
A
-
Family/Kinship
- Importance of family and group relations → Caring and reciprocating, respect for Elders and heritage
- ❌ Disruption → Removal of children from families
- ✅ Restoration → Connecting w/ family history, spending time w/ Elders & developing healthy relationships with significant others
-
Community
- Community cohesion
- ❌ Disruptions → Lateral violence (individuals feel oppressed/ displaced), family feuding
- ✅ Restoration → Self-determination, utilising community for engagement and support
Speak only about the domains that are required from the question
15
Q
Describe the Connection to: Culture (1- EKI), Country (1) and Ancestors/ Spirituality (1)
What they are, what disrupts them and what restores them
Domains of SEWB
A
-
Culture
- Expression → Yarning, ceremony, art, storytelling
- Knowledge → Language, norms, morals
- Identity → Pride, belonging, values
- ❌ Disruptions → Cultural genocide and clash
- ✅ Restoration → Learning and involvement in cultural EKI
-
Country
- Deep experience of belonging to Country → Traditional and spiritual
- ❌ Disruption → Dispossession of land
- ✅ Restoration → Returning to land to heal
-
Ancestors/Spirituality
- Knowledge and belief systems, the Dreaming, value of wisdom and hope
- ❌ Disruption → Impact of mission life and assimilation (Aboriginals expected to live like White Australians)
- ✅ Restoration → Coexisting w/ Christianity, acceptance and mindfulness (peace and balance)
Speak only about the domains that are required from the question
16
Q
What are the determinants in the SEWB framework?
A
-
Cultural (most important)
- More detail in last chapter
-
Social
- Circumstances in which people grow, live and work
- Socioeconomic status
- Racial discrimination
-
Historical
- Ongoing influence of events, policies and trauma on groups of people
- Colonisation → Impacts
- Past government policies
-
Political
- Policies that shape the process of distributing resources and power → Ones that create/ reinforce social and health inequalities
- Land issues
- Rights of self-determination and sovereignty
Concurrent and cumulative impact on wellbeing
17
Q
What are similarities between SEWB and the western approach for mental wellbeing?
A
- Determinants + Protective and Risk factors are similar
- Both are related to the concept of self efficacy → Resilience
- Varies from each person
- Based off of experiences
- Both include social, emotional, physical and spiritual elements
18
Q
What are differences between SEWB and the western approach for mental wellbeing?
A
- Focus
- SEWB - Mental wellbeing in the context of the individual in a collective sense (community, ancestors)
- Western - Selective focus on the individual and where they lie on the continuum
- Elements
- SEWB - Has kinship and more cultural involvement + Connection to Country
19
Q
What is the mental wellbeing continuum?
A
- Tool used to track flunctuating mental wellbeing
- Influenced by external and internal factors
- ⬇️ - Distressed and unable to meet the demands of environment for long periods
- ⬆️ - Functioning independently and coping with everyday demands
20
Q
How is mental health similar to physical?
A
- Both vary on continuum
- Ever-changing
- Constantly shifting depending on current life events
21
Q
What is a mental health disorder?
A
- Something that can interfere with a person’s…
- Thoughts
- Emotions
- Perceptions
- Behaviours
- Disrupts normal function
- Examples
- Mood - Depression, Bipolar
- Anxiety - OCD, Phobias
- Schizophrenia
- Dissociative identity disorder
22
Q
What criteria does a psychologist use to diagnose mental illness?
A
-
Serious and prolonged
- 4 weeks and beyond
- Inability to function/ cope independently (low levels of functioning)
- Examples
- Inability to carry out social relationships
-
Changes to thoughts/feelings/behaviours
- Lack of interest/apathy
- Changes are atypical
23
Q
What are the advantages of a mental health continuum?
A
- Decreased stigma
- Increased ability to see if functioning has improved
- Increased ability to see if treatment is helping
- ★ Allows for early signs of mental health problems to be identified
24
Q
What are the disadvantages of a mental health continuum?
A
- Unclear where intervention/ treatment is necessary
25
Q
What are internal factors?
A
- Influences that originate inside or within a person
-
Biological → Physiologically based or determined influences ★ Often out of control
- Genes, sex, neurotransmitter imbalance
-
Psychological → Influences involved with mental processes
- Interacting with other, perceptions, how we learn
-
Biological → Physiologically based or determined influences ★ Often out of control
26
Q
What are external factors?
A
- Originate outside a person
- School & work
- Support available from others
- Socioeconomic status
27
Q
Describe the relationship between internal and external factors
A
-
Affect and are affected by one another
- Internal factors combine with others in addition to external
- Creates individual differences in mental wellbeing
- Certain factors may have more or less influence on an individual’s mental wellbeing at a given time
- Event A would normally not have a large impact but if in conjunction with Event B → Person may be more mentally affected
28
Q
What is anxiety?
A
- State of psychological and physiological arousal
- Feelings of apprehension (worry) or uneasiness that something is wrong or something unpleasant is about to happen
- Intense physiological responses → Body mobilising to prepare
- Breathlessness
- Sweating
- Dizziness
- Psychological responses
- Feelings of losing control
- Impending doom, dread
- Future-orientated response
-
Generally unhelpful to performance or functioning → Likely to negatively impact mental wellbeing (especially if persisting over a longer period)
- Can be helpful if short lived
- Source is possibly unknown
29
Q
How is fear different from anxiety?
A
- Fear is…
- Appropriate, present-oriented and short-lived response
- Anxiety is…
- Often inappropriate and disproportional (if prolonged)
- Future-oriented
30
Q
When is it appropriate to experience anxiety?
A
-
Short-term anxiety is adaptive
- Must be brief and temporary to have benefit
- Mild-moderate anxiety makes us more alert → Improve ability to cope
- Just before a presentation
- Unexpected test
31
Q
When does anxiety become damaging?
A
- Severe or exaggerated and does not subside → Counterproductive and disabling
- Reduce ability to…
- Concentrate
- Learn
- Perform motor tasks
-
Prolonged period → Indicate anxiety disorder
- Significantly interferes with daily life
- Stops them from doing what they want to do
- E.g Phobia (is anxiety disorder)
32
Q
What are specific phobias?
A
- Type of anxiety disorder
-
Persistent, irrational and intense fear of a particular object or event
- Animals
- Situations
- Blood/injections/injuries
- Natural environments
- Fear response typically out of proportion to danger posed by phobic stimulus
- Can be evoked through thoughts of the object/ situation
- Compelling desire to avoid phobic stimulus at all costs
- Diagnosis should only be made if the fear has persisted for 6 months (DSMM)
Specific, Out of proportion, Avoidance
33
Q
What happens when one is exposed to a phobic stimulus?
A
- Either directly or via thoughts
-
Involuntary anxiety response similar to a stress response
- Heart and blood pressure
- Sweating
- Shortness of breath
- Dizziness
- TLDR - FFF response, panic attacks
- Experiencing intense fear → Individual likely to go to great lengths to avoid the stimulus
- Can interrupt daily functioning and cause overwhelming anxiety
34
Q
What is stress?
(Repeat for deck)
A
- Psychobiological response produced by internal and external factors
35
Q
How is fear different from phobias?
A
- Fear is…
- Appropriate response to situation at hand
- Can be any stimulus that provokes a response
- Adaptive and functional
- Phobias are…
- An extreme or irrational aversion to a specific stimulus
- Maladaptive and dysfunctional
36
Q
Why is a continuum useful for representing stress, anxiety and phobia?
A
- They vary in degrees in individuals at any point in time
- A continuum does not require fixed dividing lines or margins between categories
37
Q
Can stress, anxiety and phobia be mapped on the same continuum?
A
- Although they share characteristics they are different concepts that vary respectively
- More appropriately mapped on their own continuums
38
Q
What do stress, anxiety and phobia have in common?
A
- Initiate physiological response → Fight-flight-freeze
