Chapter 2 PSYC 2621- Current Paradigms and Integrative Approaches

Paradigm

set of basic assumptions/ general perceptive

A paradigm influences how you:

• How you gather and interpret information

• Rose colored glasses

• conceptualize and study a subject

T/F: a paradigm guides the def, examination, and treatment of mental disorders.

True.

A paradigm injects inevitable biases into the definition and collection of data and may also affect the interpretation of facts

Continuation of somatogenic hyp

Mental disorders caused by aberrant or defective biological (??) processes

Referred to as the medical or disease model

The dominant paradigm in Canada and elsewhere from late 1800s – mid 20th century

What is referred to as the medical/disease model?

Biological paradigm

Behavioural genetics-

study of individual differences in behaviour attributable to differences in

genetic makeup

Genotype

unobservable genetic constitution

Think, Geno from 90 day was always invisible

• The total genetic makeup of an individual

• established at birth. However, it can be viewed as a static entity which it should not be

Phenotype

observable, behavioural characteristics

• Dynamic (i.e., it changes over time)

• Product of an interaction between genotype and environment

What is the total genetic makeup of a person?

Genotype

Formula for genotype?

Genes

What is a mix of a genotype and the environment?

phenotype

Formula for phenotype?

Genes + environment

Various clinical syndromes are disorders of phenotype, not genotype

At most, the genotypes can be inherited.

• This predisposition is known as diathesis

Diathesis

you are vulnerable to something

• inherited

Methods that psychologists use to see predispositions (3)

1. Family methods- if members of a family have a psyc disorder, maybe there is something in their geno that will show this

Siblings share 50% of their genetic contributions

2. Twin method- when the monozygotic rate is higher than the dizygotic rate, the characteristic being studied is said to be heritable

3. Adoptees methods - better than twin method

They are genetic copies, but their environments are different

What is a challenge with the twin method?

Twins (identical/fraternal) are treated as one. Fraternal twins are no more id then regular siblings

Molecular genetics

tries to specify WHAT genes are involved

Review

46 chromosomes (23 pairs)

Allele- any one of several DNA codings that occupy the same position or location on a chromosome

• Gives us our genotypes

Genetic polymorphism

refer to variability among humans

Shows differences in dna that manifest different forms

Entails mutations in a chromosome that can in induced or naturally occurring

Linkage analysis

Method in molecular genetics that is used to study people

Typically study families in which a disorder is heavily concentrated; genetic markers

An example of genetic linkage is..

in young adults, found that a locus on chromosome 9 is associated with enhanced risk for externalizing psychopathology

• We reflect inward, outward would be antisocial disorder

• Chromosome 9 is linked with BP

Gene environment interactions

the notion that a disorder or related symptom are the joint product of a genetic vulnerability and specific environmental experiences or conditions

• If you have the genes, it could come out in the environment

Ex: if you have NO predisposition to schiz, no amount of trauma will result in you being schiz

What is a concern in psyc?

An exclusive focus on genetic factors promotes the notion that illness and mental illness are predetermined.

• Believing that “biology is destiny” could limit the extent to which people try to modify lifestyle and environmental factors that contribute to health and mental health problems (ex: could just way eh its my genetics)

Genetic differences - temperament

Robins, John, Caspi, Moffitt, and Stouthamer-Loeber (1996) analyzed data from 300 adolescent boys ( no females) in the United States and found three types or categories of temperament:

1. The resilient type (authoritative) - cope well with adversity

Adaptive and high functioning

Ex: baby who is ok being passed around to anyone

2. The overcontrolling type (authoritarian, think, they are so restrictive) - prone to stress; overly inhibited

Linked with shyness, loneliness, and moderate self esteem and school performance

3. The undercontrolling type (permissive)- impulsive and can seem out of control at times

Prone to acting out and aggressive behaviours

Associated with externalizing problems, school difficulties, and lower IQ

What temperament type is linked to loneliness and moderate self esteem?

Overcontrolling type

What temperament type is linked to acting out, going head first, risk takers, and being aggressive? (ADHD in boys)

Undercontrolling type

What temperament type is associated with adaptation?

Resilient type

Neuroscience

study of the brain and the NS

NS is comprised of billions of neurons

Parts of a neuron (4): ( think of the arm)

The cell body

Several dendrites

Axon

Terminal buttons

Nerve impulse

- a change in the electric potential of the cell that travels down the axon to the terminal endings

Synapse

tiny paces between terminals so dendrites can communicate

Neurotransmitters

chemical substances that allow a nerve impulse to cross the synapse

Serotonin- related to depression

Gaba …

(SLOW)- low gaba with anxiety

What happens when there is too much communication?

Reuptake- the process where what is left in the synapse is broken down by enzymes and some is pumped back into the presynaptic cell through this process

• Bringing neurotransmitters back in to stop communication

Theories linking neurotransmitters to psychopathology:

A given disorder is caused by (2)

1. either too much or too little of a particular transmitter (e.g., mania results from too much norepinephrine and anxiety disorders from too little GABA) (over/under production)

2. disturbances in the amounts of specific transmitters could result from alterations in the usual processes by which transmitters are deactivated after being released into the synapse (e.g., faulty uptake)

Receptors are at fault in some psychopathologies

If the receptors on the postsynaptic neuron were too numerous or too easily excited, the result would be akin to having too much transmitter released (more/less available than what is needed)

Can reuptake look like overproduction?

yes

Bio approaches to treatment

prevention or treatment of mental disorders should be possible by

altering bodily functioning

some treatments may not be offered

What are some concerns?

Most biological interventions in common use, however, have not been derived from precise knowledge of what causes a given disorder.

• Concern about serious trend of increase in the prescription and use of psychoactive drugs among children and adolescents across several countries including Canada

Reductionism

• think of the term and youll know the answer

• says we are an organism and nothing about you ( how you were raised, you thoughts, etc) matters

• Refers to the view that whatever is being studied can and should be reduced to its most basic elements or constituents.

What is a con to reductionism?

often the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Cognitive Behavioural Paradigm - 2 main perspectives:

The Behavioural (__________) Perspective

The Cognitive Perspective

The Behavioural (__________) Perspective

- views abnormal behaviour as a response LEARNED in the same ways other humans learned it

Classical Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

• Modelling

Classical Conditioning

pavlov and the dog

Contains: Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

Unconditioned response

(UCR)

• Conditioned stimulus (CS)

• Conditioned response (CR)

Extinction

the relearned response

What happens to the CR when the repeated CS is not followed by UCS - fewer and fewer CRs are elicited and the CR gradually disappears

( ex: grad student and the door is a conditioned stimulus, drooling is unconditioned stimulus turned into a conditioned response)

How it changes is what is important

Little albert

bang UC and crying UR. NS furry thing becomes CS with the bang

You relearn a new response

T/F:Two innate fears in people: loud sounds and heights

true

Operant Conditioning

B.F Skinner

Does not matter if it is positive or negative, you are increasing the likelihood of something occurring

Pos: you are adding something good

Neg: you are taking away something bad (seat belt dinging)

Law of Effect

Behaviour that is followed by + consequences will be repeated.

Behaviour that is followed by – consequences will be discouraged.

Positive reinforcement

Strengthening of a tendency to respond by virtue of the presentation of a pleasant event - Positive reinforcer (giving the kid cereal)

Negative reinforcement

Strengthens a response by the removal of aversive events (seat belt dinging)

How is operant conditioning different from classical conditioning?

It is not a reflex it is a contingency

Behaviour therapy

behaviour modification therapy

Relearning something new

Adaptive

ex: baby peter was afraid of bunnies so sarah used operant conditioning to teach him to not be afraid (presenting cookies)

Does the original learning go away with behaviour therapy?

no

Counterconditioning

is relearning achieved by eliciting a new response in the presence of a particular stimulus.

types of behaviour therapy (6)

1. systematic desensitization

2. aversive conditioning

3. modelling

4. becks cognitive therapy

5. relational emotive BT

6. CBT

Systematic Desensitization (Joseph Wolpe)

- Compile a list of feared situations, starting with those that arouse minimal anxiety and progressing to the most frightening.

It is imagined, not a real thing you do

Aversive Conditioning

- A stimulus attractive to the client is paired with an unpleasant event.

Ex: alcoholics

Problem with aversive conditioning?

If you think about it enough, you know it wasn't the real thing to turn you away from it

What can help with that problem?

The garcia affect

Operant Conditioning

ex: time-out

Take away something good to reduce the behaviour

*she will only test us on reinforcers

Modelling (Albert Bandura)

Assertion training

Ex: if someone raised their hand in class and the prof said no, another student likely would not ask a future question

The cognitive perspective

how we structure, make sense of, and relate current experiences to past ones

How do we filter the bombardment of stimuli we experience in any given day?

Schemas or Cognitive sets

New information may fit the schema, but if it does not, the learner reorganizes the schema.

Can mental health develop as a result of info going into schemas?

Yes! Depression can result from the thoughts of hopelessness (schema)

Every new situation they encounter can lead to this schema, unless they stop doing these things

The psychiatrist Aaron Beck

developed a cognitive therapy (CT) for depression based on the idea that a depressed mood is caused by distortions in the way people perceive life experiences (Beck, 1976; Salkovskis, 1996).

Beck’s therapy tries to persuade clients to change their opinions of themselves and the way in which they interpret life events

Tries to persuade people to change their opinions about themselves

Challenges peoples schemas (therapy example)

Beck is about…

HOW it occurs

____ is important to our wellbeing

perception

Relational -emotive BT- Albert Ellis

Sustained emotional reactions are caused by internal sentences that people repeat to themselves.

• Self-statements reflect sometimes unspoken assumptions— Irrational beliefs—about what is necessary to lead a meaningful life. (ex: everyone should like me is an irrational belief)

Thought process of relational emotive therapy

The aim is to eliminate self-defeating beliefs through a rational examination of them

In rational-emotive behaviour, ___ is really important

language

CBT

super effective and gold standard

incorporates theory and research on cognitive and behavioural processes and represents a blend of cognitive and learning principles.

Cognitive restructuring

- is a general term for changing a pattern of thought that is presumed to be causing a disturbed emotion or behaviour.

perception is…

cognitive

Criscisms: (4) of CPT

1. The fact that a treatment based on learning principles is effective in changing behaviour does not mean that the behaviour was itself learned in a similar way.

2. How does observing someone lead to a new behaviour? Cognitive processes must be engaged.

3. Schemas are vague and not well defined; regarded as causing depression, but there is no explanation of what causes the ‘gloomy’ schemas.

4. Unclear differences between behaviour and cognitive influences: importance of behaving in new ways for change to occur

Good things: (3)

1. Integration of two perspectives, i.e., CBT, has shown benefits in psychotherapy

2. Strong evidence of its benefits in improving depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, autism, and schizophrenia

3. CBT can be more effective long-term than antidepressants in treating depression

Freud

psychopathology results from unconscious conflicts in the individual

Structure of the mind (freud): 3 parts:

1. ID - present at birth

Part of the mind that accounts for all the energy needed to run the psyche

Basic urges for food, water, sex, affect

All the things we want and need

2. EGO- primarily conscious

Develops from the ID but also has to deal with reality (SUPEREGO)

Task is to deal with reality

3. SUPEREGO- operates as the conscience ( ex: ik you want to do this thing but we aren't allowed to)

Develops throughout childhood

You learn what is/is not appropriate

Guided by society and what it tells you what is right/wrong

Freud says babies are driven by..

Sexual urges and affection

what does ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO opperate on?

ID- pleasure

• ID seeks immediate gratification and operates according to the pleasure principle

EGO- Reality

• Mediates between the demands of reality (superego) and the immediate gratification (ID)

• Secondary process thinking, operating on the pleasure principle at all times is NOT the most effective way to maintaining life

SUPEREGO - conscience

• Superego is the compromise between…

Id and Ego

• As children discover that impulses (biting or bedwetting) are unacceptable to their parents, they incorporate parental values as their own to enjoy approval and avoid disapproval

types of anxiety (3):

1. Objective anxiety (Ego-reality)

• When one’s life is in jeopardy, one feels objective (realistic) anxiety—danger in the external world.

2. Neurotic anxiety (Id-inner conflict)

• a feeling of fear that is not connected to reality or to any real threat.

3. Moral anxiety (Superego- conscience related)

• not meeting expectations and thereby satisfying the perfection principle.

What is expected of us

Ex: anxiety after a white lie

What are the unconscious strategies used to protect the ego from anxiety? (8)

Repression (which pushes unacceptable impulses and thoughts into the unconscious)

PTSD would not be a disorder if Freud was right with this: PTSD is clear evidence his theory is lacking

Denial (disavowing a traumatic experience and pushing it into the unconscious)

Ex: a fam of 4, one spouse dies and the other goes into denial. They do this because they still need to take care of their young kids

Projection (attributes to external agents characteristics or desires that an individual possesses but cannot accept in his or her conscious awareness)

Putting your feelings onto someone else

Displacement (redirecting emotional responses from a perhaps dangerous object to a substitute)

Ex: mad at your boss but taking it out on your family

Reaction formation (converting one feeling into its opposite)

Regression (retreating to the behavioural patterns of an earlier age)

Rationalization (inventing a reason for an unreasonable action or attitude)

Sublimation (converting sexual or aggressive impulses into socially valued behaviours)

what proves freud is incorrect

repression

Psychoanalytic therapy

Insight therapy to remove earlier repression by facing the childhood conflict, gain insight and resolve it in the adult reality.

Importances of psychoanalytic therapy: (2)

1. Free association

2. Dream analysis

When you are sleeping you cannot defend the unconscious thoughts

• Latent content (symbolic content)

Ex: your teeth falling out is a real sign of..

*manifest content- what is actually happening

Resistances

blocks to free association where the client may suddenly become silent or change the topic.

This is the thing that you need to poke at

Some key components of psychoanalytic therapy: (3)

Transference- projection when you are in a therapeutic relationship

Countertransference- projection AS A THERAPIST in a therapeutic relationship

Interpretation

What comes with Freud's work and his theories?

Bias. Human beings are the ones that are trying to make sense of ex: what the dream was about

Humanistic paradigm

- says humans are good

Focuses on the + of being a human

Dictated by our choice

Main purpose is intervention

Strives to reach self-actualization

Focuses on the cause of problems

Humanistic perspective focuses on ______ as the most important characteristic

Freedom of choice

Self-actualization

sense and fulfillment of potential

Ex: elderly and the plant

We are fulfilled when we feel like we have a purpose

vs Freud- we are dictated by our urges and biology

Carl Rogers

- believes humans have the best perspective of their lives

person centered therapy

Healthy people

Are aware of their behaviour

Innately good and effective

Purposive and goal directed

Carl created conditions that will facilitate ______________ decision-making by the client

independent

Key features of CCT:

Unconditional positive regard

Empathy (two types you can give the client)

Primary empathy- understanding, accepting, and communicating

Advanced empathy- entails an inference, offers something new

is carl wrong?

yes. some humans are born bad

If someone said i want to die of suicide, carl would say…

Yes, it is an effective idea ( you need to validate) but,...

Positive psyc

The emphasis on self-actualization and maximizing potential and the belief that people are innately good in keeping with the current movement toward positive psychology.

Positive psychology:

• promotes a focus on attributes and personal characteristics (e.g., resilience, optimism, hope)

• emphasizes “wellness” and being able to function, as opposed to psychology’s seeming preoccupation with negative outcomes and dysfunction.

• Focus on _____________ factors as opposed to vulnerability factors.