Week 4: Lecture Notes: Attachment and Bipolar Disorders

Flashcards covering the origins and styles of attachment theory and the diagnostic criteria, causal factors, and treatments for Bipolar disorders.

Attachment

An enduring emotional bond characterised by a tendency to seek and maintain proximity to a specific figure, particularly when under stress.

Lorenz (1935)

A researcher who studied geese and found that imprinting occurs independent of food, fulfilling more than simply physical needs.

Harlow’s monkeys experiment

A 1950s study using rhesus monkeys that challenged the view that attachment is based on physical needs (food), emphasizing emotional needs instead.

Secure base

A concept by John Bowlby where children use familiar adults as a foundation from which to explore the environment.

Internal Working Models

Mental representations of the self and others developed from early caregiver experiences that perpetuate early attachment experiences into the future.

Strange Situation Paradigm

A naturalistic experiment developed by Mary Ainsworth with children aged $1-2$ years old used to infer and measure individual differences in attachment quality.

Secure infant attachment

A style where the child shows distress when the mother leaves, avoids strangers when alone, but is positive and happy upon the mother's return; found in approximately $70\%$ of infants.

Anxious Ambivalent infant attachment

A style where the child is intensely distressed by separation, avoids the stranger, and approaches the mother upon return but resists contact; found in approximately $15\%$ of infants.

A style where the child shows no sign of distress during separation, plays normally with a stranger, and shows little interest when the mother returns; found in approximately $15\%$ of infants.

Preoccupied adult attachment

An adult attachment style characterized by a negative view of self and a positive view of others; individuals are dependent on close relationships and see themselves as unlovable.

Dismissive-Avoidant adult attachment

An adult attachment style characterized by a positive view of self and a negative view of others; individuals defensively avoid close relationships but have low distress due to their sense of self-worth.

Fearful-Avoidant adult attachment

An adult attachment style characterized by negative views of both self and others; individuals avoid relationships and view themselves as unlovable and unworthy of care.

Working alliance

The relationship between a client and therapist, including bond, rapport, and agreement, which serves as a strong predictor of clinical outcome.

Manic Episode

A distinct period of elevated or irritable mood and increased energy lasting at least $1$ week, often involving inflated self-esteem or grandiosity.

Mixed Episode

A condition where symptoms of both manic and major depressive episodes occur for at least $1$ week, either intermixed or alternating rapidly.

Hypomanic Episode

A period of abnormally elevated or irritable mood and increased energy lasting at least 4 consecutive days, without causing marked impairment or requiring hospitalisation.

Bipolar I Disorder

A disorder distinguished from MDD by the presence of at least one full-blown manic episode, often alternating with periods of depression.

Bipolar II Disorder

A disorder characterized by alternating periods of major depression and hypomania, but never a full-blown manic episode.

Cyclothymic Disorder

A chronic condition lasting at least $2$ years involving numerous periods of hypomanic symptoms and mild/moderate depressive symptoms that do not meet full episode criteria.

Negative attributional style

A psychological factor where individuals interpret negative events as being caused by stable, internal, and global factors.

Lithium

A mood stabiliser considered the gold standard for long-term treatment of Bipolar disorder and for reducing suicide risk.

IPSRT

Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy, a treatment used for Bipolar disorders focused on the impact of interpersonal relationships and social rhythms.