Unit 4/Part 2: Mental Health Flashcards
What are the approaches to defining normality?
Context: the setting/environment
Historical: point in time
Cultural: dependent on societal norms
Statistical: based on percentage of what most people do
Medical: not normal if symptoms meet set criteria for diagnosis
Functional: considers whether a person can look after self and engage in meaningful activities. Also considers degree of change in individuals behaviour.
Define stigma
A mark of shame, negative stereotypes and fear of something.
Define mental illness.
Serious departure from normal functioning that interferes with thoughts, emotions and behaviour and cause considerable distress. Clinically recognisable set of symptoms that require treatment.
Define mental health problem.
Under stress, some impairment to social, emotional and psychological functioning.
Define mental health.
State of emotional and social wellbeing, with the ability to cope with normal stresses and engage in activities and realise potential.
What’s the difference between mental health and mental illness?
Mental health refers to a state of emotional and social wellbeing and ability to cope with normal stresses and engage productively in life, whereas a mental illness is a serious departure from normal functioning.
What’s the difference between mental illness and mental health problem?
Difference depends on length of time and severity of symptoms; degree in which functioning is impaired and degree of individual change.
What is the biopsychosocial framework?
A holistically approach considering the interaction of biological, psychological and social factors in health (causes and treatment). This model was a move away from the biomedical model which viewed the physical body and psychological factors completely separately. Advantages of this framework is that it considers biological, psychological and social factors influencing health.
What does classification mean and what are the purposes of it?
To categorise things based on a variety of characteristics. Purposes include:
- to provide a common language and improve communication.
- enable diagnosis
- assist research
What are the 2 main approaches to diagnosing mental illness?
Categorical and dimensional
What’s an essential part of the approaches in order to be useful?
They must be valid (enable an accurate diagnosis based on symptoms), reliable (produce the same diagnosis each it’s used with the same set of symptoms) and have high inter-rater reliability (different mental health professionals should diagnose the same client with the same disorder).
Explain the categorical approach to diagnosing a mental illness.
Classifies a persons symptoms in terms of which specific category of mental disorder they best fit. Focus is on diagnosing whether the person has or doesn’t have a disorder. There are 2 main categorical systems; the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Classification of Disorders (ICD).
Explain the DSM.
Published by the American Psychiatric Association and most recent version was published in 2013; up to version 5 currently. It’s purely descriptive, listing symptoms that need to be present for a diagnosis of an illness to be made. It doesn’t identity the causes of the illness or the specific treatment.
Explain the ICD.
Published by WHO and is the international standard of diagnosing and categorising all health problems. It covers both physical and mental illness and is currently up to it’s 11th version. There’s extensive overlap between the ICS and DSM, with most illnesses having virtually identical criteria for diagnosis.
Explain the dimensional approach to diagnosing a mental illness.
Recognises that mental health and mental illness exist on the same continuum with no clear dividing line between them. Individual can complete questionnaires which will rate their psychological and/or behavioural dimensions in different areas. It’s then scored and graphed to create a profile of dimensions. Provides a more personal and detailed description of an individual’s mental condition in a range of areas, and potentially less stigma.
List advantages and disadvantages of categorical approach.
Advantages:
- enables a specific diagnosis
- inform treatment; gives better idea of forms of treatment
- enables clearer communication
Disadvantages:
- increase labelling and stigma
- doesn’t specify causes of mental disorder
- doesn’t convey rich, personalised info
- turning normal human emotions into a disorder.
List advantages and disadvantages of the dimensional approach.
Advantages: - less likely to lead to labelling - less likely to lead to stigma - more rich, personalised info in a range of areas Disadvantages: - no specific diagnosis - communication is more complicated - lack of standardised and widely accepted systems.
In what ways are the categorical and dimensional approaches similar?
- both systems of classification of diagnosing mental illness
- different but both provide common language of communication
- gives people relief and understanding of their illness.
Define eustress and distress.
Eustress refers to a positive psychological response to a perceived stressor. Distress refers to a negative psychological response to a perceived stressor.
Explain the Lazarus and Folkman transactional model of stress and coping.
According to this model stress is regarded as a transaction between the person and the environment where the persons individual interpretation or cognitive appraisal determines how to deal with this situation. Emphasises importance of interaction between individual and environment in assessing whether stressor is threatening, challenging or potentially dangerous.
According to Lazarus and Folkman outline the 2 main stages during cognitive assessment of a situation.
Primary appraisal; initial evaluation process where the person determines whether the event is a threat or a challenge. Significance of a situation can be classified as harm/loss, threat, challenge, neutral/irrelevant/benign.
Secondary appraisal: person considers what options are available to them and how they will respond.
Explain problem focused coping and it’s strategies.
Looks at the causes of stressor from practical perspective and works out ways to deal with the problem. Strategies include:
- taking control
- information seeking
- evaluating pros and cons
Explain emotion focused coping and it’s strategies.
Involves trying to reduce the negative emotional feelings associated with stressor such as embarrassment, fear, anxiety, depression etc. Strategies include:
- meditation
- relaxation
- talking to friends and fam about problems
- denial; pretending event didn’t occur
- ignoring problem in the hope that it will disappear
What are strengths and weaknesses of the Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional model of stress and coping?
Strengths:
- used human objects in developing model
- used a cognitive approach to stress with a focus on how people cope with psychological stressors
- took both mental processes and emotions into account when examining how an individual interprets a situation as stressful or not.
Weaknesses:
- greater focus on psychological factors meant that less emphasis was placed on physiological elements of stress response
- didn’t include cultural, social or environmental factors in looking at how individuals perceive a stressful event.
- response is often unconscious
- primary and secondary appraisal may occur at the same time
What are protective factors defined as?
Social factors that entail a person having a fairly stable life, a good family, a strong friendship network and a good job. This makes the person more likely to perceive stressors with greater resilience.
What is acculturation?
A type of cultural stress where those who have migrated to Australia for example, can feel isolation and loneliness as they may have different beliefs and customs from the majority of those they encounter.
Explain environmental factors of stress.
Refer to the circumstances in our environment that can influence our perception and response to stress. These often have social aspects to them and can include family circumstances, school conditions, employment status etc.
What social factors exacerbate stress?
Examples:
- poor friendship network
- abusive and unsupportive partner or parents
What social factors alleviate stress?
Examples:
- having a supportive friendship network
