psychology final exam pt 2

Mood disorders

Psychological disorders characterized by mood disturbances as their prominent feature.

Depressive Disorders

Includes major depressive disorder and persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia).

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

The most well-known depressive disorder that significantly affects daily functioning.

Diagnostic criteria for MDD

Includes depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, significant weight changes, insomnia or hypersomnia.

Chronicity in MDD

often associated with underlying personality dimensions and the presence of other disorders.

Risk factors for MDD

Includes psychological factors like neuroticism and environmental factors such as adverse childhood experiences.

Comorbidity

The occurrence of MDD alongside other disorders, such as substance-related disorders and OCD.

Attribution theory

Suggests that the way a person interprets failure affects their likelihood of depression.

Persistent Depressive Disorder

Characterized by moderate depressive symptoms lasting for more than two years.

Double depression

Occurs when persistent depressive disorder and major depressive disorder co-occur.

Types of clinician

Includes psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical counselors, and social workers.

Reasons for treatment

Inability to perform daily activities and manage relationships, along with financial costs.

Barriers to treatment

they don’t realize they have a disorder, psychological beliefs, and structural barriers.

Psychodynamic therapy

Based on Freud's psychoanalysis, focusing on childhood conflicts and repressed urges.

Psychodynamic Approach

• attachment (beginning in infancy) 

• Grief (loss of a relationship) 

• Rose disputes (conflicts within a relationship)

• Role transitions (changes in life status) 

Humanistic therapy

Emphasizes personal growth and free will.

Person-centered therapy

Focuses on acceptance, empathy, and genuine responses from therapists.

Cognitive therapy

Targets unhealthy thought patterns leading to mental illness.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

Combines cognitive and behavioral approaches to treatment.

Behaviourism

study of observable, measurable variables and focuses on changing behaviour (actions or cognition (thoughts) to combat mental illness 

Operant conditioning

rewards for positive behaviour and punishments for negative behaviour 

Token economy

rewarding positive behaviour with vouchers

Classical conditioning

exposure therapy, then less repeated exposure to stimulus believed to be threatening -> reduction in threat response

Cognitive-behavioural therapy

• therapists combine behavioural and cognitive orientations into one technique

• most common psychological treatment for depression and anxiety is: problem focused, action oriented, transparent (unlike psychoanalysis) 

Biological treatment

Includes medications, ECT, TMS, and psychosurgery.

Pharmacological treatment

Involves using specific drugs for specific psychological disorders.

Antipsychotic medication

Blocks dopamine receptors and is used to treat schizophrenia.

Anti-anxiety medication

Facilitates GABA neurotransmitter activity, reducing anxiety.

Antidepressant medication

Prevents breakdown of serotonin and dopamine.

Monoamine oxidase inhibitors

Originally used for tuberculosis; they prevent the breakdown of serotonin and dopamine.

Reuptake inhibitors

Prevent neurotransmitters from being reabsorbed, affecting serotonin and norepinephrine.

Physiological interventions

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

• Induces controlled seizures

• Highly effective and safe (in modern times) 

• Not permanent (may need to be repeated)

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

• Produces longer lasting changes to brain chemistry 

Deep brain stimulation (DBS)

• Embedded electrodes produce repetitive brain stimulation

Stress

 the physical and psychological response to internal or external stressors 

Stressors

 specific events or chronic pressures that place demands on a person or threaten their subjective well-being

Health Psychology

the subfield of psychology that examines the relationship between physical health and psychological health

Stress adaptation

• Stress is an evolved response to threat, when we’re stressed out adrenal glands are activated

• Increase in cortisol equals more glucose in the bloodstream

• Increase heart and respiration rate equals to more oxygen in the bloodstream

General adaptation syndrome

Describes the body's response to stress in three phases: alarm, resistance, exhaustion.

Psychological stress and physical illness

There is a high correlation between psychological stress and physical illness.

Stress scales

• Operate by summing points for various stressful life events

• Most well known stress scale: holmes-rahe stress scale

Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale

Asked patients to self-report stressful events, compared their scores on stress scale to their actual medical records, high correlation between stress score and physical illness

Acute stressors

One-time stressful events.

Chronic stress

Continuous or repeated sources of stress.

Glass and Singer (1972)

Placed ppl into a room and asked them to complete different puzzles, one group did so with loud noise they couldn't control, the other group did so with loud noise the could control, the group with loud noise they couldn't control suffered more 

Primary Appraisal

determining whether an event is dangerous/ threatening

Secondary appraisal

determining whether you can handle the stressor 

Coping with Stressors

Techniques such as repressive coping, rational coping, reframing, meditation, relaxation, and exercise.

Repressive coping

Involves avoiding thoughts and situations that remind one of stressors.

Rational Coping

Facing stress and working to overcome it

Rational coping stages

Includes acceptance, exposure, and understanding of stressors.

Reframing

Changing a way one thinks about a stressor

Meditation

this coping strategy involves the absence of thought, or focusing on one unstressful thought, increases the way our brains are structured, increased myelination, and connectivity

Mindfulness meditation

Involves focusing on immediate experiences to increase stress management.

Bioecological models

Examine how internal and external factors affect psychological and physical health.

Biofrenbenners biological model

• Microsystem - daily interactions (family that you live with)

• Mesosystem - interconnections between parts of of the microsystem 

• Exosystem - environments that affect the individual but with which they don't directly interact 

• Macrosystem - the broader cultural context (canadian culture, social media) 

• Chronosystem - the influence of history (cohort effects)

Person-environment transactions

Our personalities affect our environment, which affects our personalities

Diathesis-stress model

Suggests that a person's predisposition for illness interacts with life experiences to increase risk.