W9: Psychopathy + W10 Flashcards
What is psychopathy?
The pattern of thoughts, feelings, or behaviour that DISRUPT a person’s functioning or wellbeing
Abnormal behaviour cannot be solely used to predict psychopathy because some abnormal behaviours don’t hurt a person’s function or well-being.
Difference between mental disorder and mental heath
Mental health: the state of emotional and mental well-being
Mental disorder: clinically recognisable symptoms that cause distress and impair functioning, generally requiring treatment
==> Differs in severity of impact
What is Diathesis stress model
Suggests that there’s a biological or generic predisposition for something but that something doesn’t develop until stressful conditions are applied and then facilitate the expression of that gene
biological perspective on abnormal behaviour
According to the biological perspective of abnormal behaviour, what are the fast acting neurotransmitter, and what are the slow acting neurotransmitter?
Fast-acting neurotransmitter:
- Glutamate: an excitatory neurotransmitter, that promotes things to happen
- GABA: inhibitory neurotransmitter (block or prevent chemical message from being pass along), GABA stops things from happening
Slow - acting neurotransmitter:
- Dopamine is thought to have a role in pleasure, cognitive processing and addiction –> too much dopamine may be linked to poor impulse control
- Serotonin is thought to be responsible for thinking, processing information –> too little serotonin may be associated with anxiety and depression.
- Norepinephrine may plays inn an emergency reactions –> too much norepinephrine may promote anxiety.
What’s HPA?
Hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis.
The central nervous system and the endocrine system interacts through HPA
What can occur if HPA malfunctions?
Malfunctioning in HPA may cause mental disorders, e.g. PTSD
What is the psychodynamic perspective of abnormal behaviour?
It theorizes that psychopathology is on a continuum from well function to very disturbed.
Psychodynamic perspective theorises that well being functioning is influenced by the environment, and then further disturbed by biological in nature.
Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
Proposed that we have ID, Ego and Super-ego.
Born with ID (pleasure), Ego develops not long after to ensure ID functions constructively and non-destructively. Then, Super-Ego develops when individuals understand social rules, which also acts as a way to ensure ID’s compliance.
What is included in the new psychodynamic perspective?
Includes object relations, interpersonal perspective and attachment theory
What’s object relation?
Interactions with real and imaged people could give rise to inner conflicts
e.g. internalisations of strict authority create harsh self-critic - always telling themselves not to do things because they’ve been that it’s wrong. Multiple internalisations can cause intrapsychic conflict –> leads to psychopathy.
What’s interpersonal perspective?
Emphasis on cultural and social forces rather than inner instincts as determinants of behaviour.
What’s attachment theory?
emphasis on the importance of early attachment relationships as laying the foundations for later functioning through life
What does the behavioural perspective of abnormal behaviour most concern about?
It’s mostly concern with observable behaviour and the stimuli; and that reinforcing properties of it can serve as the basis for understanding behaviour.
What’s central to the behavioural perspective?
- Modification of behaviour as a consequence of experience
- Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning
- Instrumental (Operant) Conditioning
What does the Cognitive-Behavioural perspective focus on?
How thoughts on information processing can become distorted and lead to maladaptive emotions and behaviour
What’s included in the Cognitive Behavioural perspective?
Self-efficacy (belief to achieve desired goals).
Cognitive distortion (exaggerated or irrational thought pattern involved in the onset and perpetuation of psychopathological states)
Attention bias (tendency for people’s perception to be affected by their recurring thoughts at the time)
What is the significance of the Social Perspective?
Highlighted the importance of environment to vulnerability to psychopathology (e.g. prejudice and discrimination, maladaptive peer relationships); and has contributed to the development of programs to improve the social conditions, preventing maladaptive behaviour.
What are the limitations of DSM?
The DSM categorises disorders:
- People rarely fit into neat categories
- People with a diagnosis are not qualitatively different from those without, existing data suggest that psychopathology is dimensional in nature
- Lots of comorbidities
DSM’s Pros
Improved patient care
Improved scientific study of psychopathology
Facilitates communication
Increased knowledge that mental disorders are burdensome
DSM’s Cons
Highly heterogenous disorders
Lots of comordibity
Does not distinguish between normal psychological phenomena and psychopathology
Labelling may cause or add to stigma
Major Depressive Disorder symptoms
Depresssed mood
Loss of interest and pleasure
Weight fluctuations
Insomnia or hypersomnia
Agitation
Fatigue, lethargic
Worthlessness or excessive guilt
Poor concentration, indecisiveness
Recurrent thoughts of deaths
MDD’s specifiers
Severity: mild, moderate, severe, with psychotic features, in partial remission, in full remission
Type: anxious distress, mixed features, melancholic features, seasonal pattern, etc.
How does dysthymia differ from MDD?
Dysthymia differs to MDD; cannot be diagnosed unless:
- Someone has experienced the symptoms for at least 2 years and,
- They can never have experienced an absence of symptoms for at least 2 months
How does Bipolar I differs from Bipolar II?
Differs by duration and severity.
Bipolar I: mania lasts for 7 days, mania (more intense manic symptoms)
Bipolar II: hypomania lasts for 4 days, hypomania (less intense manic symptoms)
Is Bipolar heritable?
Yes.
Family: 1st-degree relatives: 3-15%
Twins: Concordance: MZ: 20-75% (if one twin has it, what’s the chance of the other twin having it), DZ: 0-8%. Heritability is estimated at around 80%
Bipolar relations to neurotransmitter
Norepinephrine: Higher during mania than when depressed
Serotonin: Lowered when depressed
MDD prevalence:
12-month: 4.1%, life time: 9%
MDD treatment
- medication
- cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) - is used to manage emotional stage to make low moods more manageable
- interpersonal therapy
- psychotherapy
Bipolar prevalence
1.8% males, 1.7% females in the lat 12 months life time: 3.6% females, 3.2% males
Bipolar treatment
Medications
- CBT
- Interpersonal therapy
- Psychotherapy
Social Anxiety Disorder highlighted critierion
fear due to afraid of negative evaluation
Social Anxiety Disorder prevalence
12.1% life time. 2nd most prevalent anxiety disorder
Panic Disorder key symptom
the person needs to have panic attacks and afraid of panic attacks to have a panic disorder
Key criterion for GAD
constant worry and anxiety with symptoms involved muscle tension
GAD prevalence
Adults: 2.9 - 3.6%
Adolescents: 0.9%
Empirically supported treatment for anxiety disorder
Specific phobia: Exposure therapy
Social Anxiety Disorder: Cognitive - behavioural therapy
Panic Disorder: Cognitive - behavioural therapy
GAD: Cognitive - behavioural therapy
