clinical

Abnormal behavior

Behavior that deviates from the norm and may violate social norms and values, cause distress, or interfere with appropriate functioning.

Supernatural causes

Historical belief that abnormal behavior is caused by supernatural forces such as gods, demons, or magic.

Natural causes

Historical belief that abnormal behavior can be observed and examined and has biological causes.

Trephination

A historical practice of chipping a hole into a person's skull to treat abnormal behavior.

Mental hygiene movement

A historical movement focused on protecting and providing humane treatment for the mentally ill.

Aristotle

Greek philosopher who advocated for the humane treatment of mental patients and emphasized sociocultural influences on thought and behavior.

St vitus dance

A historical phenomenon where people would leap, jump, and dance uncontrollably, believed to be a form of possession.

Hippocrates

Greek physician who pointed to natural causes, such as bodily fluids, as the explanation for abnormal behavior.

Arab world

In the Arab world, treatment of abnormal behavior was humane and emphasized environmental and psychological factors.

Middle-age Europe

In medieval Europe, abnormal behavior was again attributed to supernatural causes, and treatment in asylums was harsh and ineffective.

Plato

Greek philosopher who anticipated modern notions of not being criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder and emphasized sociocultural influences on thought and behavior.

Biological approaches abnormality

focus on factors such as heredity, syndromes, classification, infection, shock therapy, and psychopharmacology.

Somatogenesis

The belief that psychopathology is caused by biological factors.

GPI neurosyphilis

A condition resulting from untreated syphilis infections that can cause symptoms such as mania, dementia, and paralysis.

ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy)

A treatment that uses electricity to induce seizures and minimize mental illness, which has become less harsh and more effective over time.

Agonist

Something that facilitates the production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter.

Antagonist

Something that inhibits or stops the production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter.

Classification

The process of categorizing and organizing phenomena to better identify and understand them.

Assessment

The systematic gathering of information to evaluate a condition, which may include interviews, testing, and observation.

Alternate-form reliability

A measure of reliability that compares two forms of the same test, worded in slightly different ways.

Internal consistency

The degree of reliability within a test, measured by the consistency of responses.

Split-half reliability

A measure of reliability that compares odd and even responses on a test.

Coefficient alpha

A measure of reliability that calculates the average intercorrelations of all items on a test.

Face validity

The extent to which the user of a test believes that the test items resemble the associated characteristics of the concept being tested.

Content validity

The extent to which the content of a test includes representative samples of all presumed related behaviors.

Criterion validity

The evaluation of a test instrument, such as a calculator

Clinical approach

relies on the clinician's personal judgment and experience. prefer to draw on all available data

Biological assessment

Assessment techniques that involve brain imaging techniques such as EEG, CT, MRI, and PET.

Neuropsychological assessments

Assessment techniques that measure cognitive and executive functioning, attention/concentration, memory, motivation, language, visual functioning, somatosensory/olfaction, academic achievement, and personality/emotional functioning.

Psychological assessment

clinical interviews (unstructured incl facilitate rapport/trust, semi includes reliability and rating scales, and structured). assessment of intelligence: IQ, Stanford-Binet, WAIS-IV). personality scales (MMPI, MCMI, PAI), self-reporting.

Behavioral and cognitive assessment

observational techniques, cognitive-behavioral assessment, and self-monitoring.

Comorbidity

The presence of more than one disorder in the same individual.

Phenomenological approach to classification

An approach that emphasizes observed similarities and differences in classifying disorders.

Etiology

The history of the development of symptoms and underlying causes of a disorder.

Prognosis

The future development of a pattern of behaviors associated with a disorder.

Gene-environment interaction

The interaction between genetic predisposition and environmental risk factors in the development of psychopathology.

Resilience

The process of positive adaptation to significant adversity through the interaction of risk and protective factors.

Risk factors

Conditions or events that increase the likelihood of negative mental health outcomes.

Ecological studies of resilience

examine the interaction of risk and protective factors in the context of microsystems and macrosystems.

Intersectionality in research in psychology:

asks what role does inequity play? Don’t operationalize axes of inequity as independent variables.

PET

Decreased bloodflow and reduced glucose metabolism in frontal regions of cerebral cortex associated with bipolar and unipolar depression.

MRI

Neural circuits involved in cognitive-emotional deficits of depressed individuals, including elevated amygdala activity when rating negative words.

Suicidal ideation

Thoughts and plans of death/suicide.

Suicidal gestures

Behaviors that resemble a suicide attempt but are non life-threatening.

Suicide attempt

Carrying out a suicide plan, which is unsuccessful but with clear intent.

Risk factors for suicide

Being male, Indigenous, untreated mental disorder, low serotonin.

Psychological factors for suicide

Interpersonal model, including high levels of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness leading to suicidal ideation.

Motivational volitional model of suicide

Cognitions of defeat, humiliation, and entrapment in response to stressful life events as motivation for suicide when motivational moderators are high.

Treatment for suicide

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and antidepressants, ketamine (hospitalized), therapy.

Bipolar disorder (CASE)

Symptoms include depression, temper, tearfulness, lack of sleep, inflated self-esteem, grandiosity, excessive involvement in high-risk activities, pressured speech, increased psychomotor agitation, distractibility.

Heritability of bipolar disorder

Very strong genetic contribution, with 1st degree relatives being 7-15 times more likely to have it.

GAD

Extreme worry about future events that cause marked impairment in daily functioning. Diagnosis requires symptoms for 6 months min, and ubiquitous so not specific to one content area.

Fear

Emotion in response to a real or perceived current threat, eliciting fight or flight response.

Panic

Extreme fear even when there is no actual threat (false alarm).

Etiology of GAD

cognitive (avoid physiological arousal by worrying), intolerance for uncertainty (IU), elevated levels of anger, less variability in heart rate during worry-inducing tasks.

Neuroanatomy in anxiety

Neural fear circuits involving the thalamus, amygdala, hypothalamus, midbrain, brain stem, and spinal cord.

GABA

The most pervasive neurotransmitter in the brain, distributed along the neural fear circuit.

Benzodiazepines

Anti-anxiety medication that operates on GABA.

Behavioural causes of anxiety

Classical conditioning, two-factor theory, vicarious learning/modeling, hearing fear-related information.

Cognitive factors of anxiety

Perceptions about the world, future, and oneself.

Interpersonal factors of anxiety

Anxious parents fostering helplessness and uncontrollability, early 'anxious ambivalent' attachment relationship, fear of abandonment.

Barlow's triple vulnerability

Anxiety caused by interplay between biological, psychological, and interpersonal factors.

Barlow's 'alarm theory'

'False alarm' triggered through neural cues from classical conditioning, leading to fear of internal/external stimuli.

Panic disorder

Recurrent and unexpected panic attacks with psychological and physiological symptoms, often comorbid with depression and substance abuse.

Agoraphobia

Anxiety about being in places or situations where escape may be difficult, diagnosed when panic attacks lead to apprehension/worry about having more panic attacks.

Diagnosing agoraphobia

Clinical interview, behavioral measurement, psychophysiological tests, and self-report indices.

Symptom induction test

Inducing panic symptoms to assess severity and develop exposure treatment strategies.

Psychophysiological tests

Monitoring heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, and galvanic skin response during panic attacks.

Etiology of panic attacks

Biological factors rooted in families and psychological factors related to misrepresentations of bodily sensations.

Specific phobia

Fears causing significant disruption to daily life, with excessive and uncontrollable anxiety reactions to exposure.

Specifiers of phobias

Animal type, natural environment type, blood injection-injury type, situational, and other.

Nonassociative model of phobias

Proposes that humans are naturally fearful of certain stimuli due to evolutionary processes.

Biological preparedness model of phobia

People are more likely to fear stimuli that represented threats to our species over the course of evolution.

Disgust sensitivity

Degree to which people are susceptible to being disgusted by stimuli.

Social anxiety disorder

Marked and persistent fear of social or performance-related situations, provoking anxiety and panic attacks.

Performance only social phobia

Fear of specific social situations/activities, diagnosed through interviews and self-reporting.

Etiology of social anxiety disorder

Genetic predisposition, involvement of fear recognition neurostructures, neurotransmitter dysregulation, negative cognition/judgments about self and others, abnormal processing of social information.

Psychosocial factors in social anxiety disorder

Childhood bullying, exposure to parental criticism, overprotection, and control leading to lack of confidence and negative self-perception.

what are the criteria for judging behaviour as “abnormal”?

• depends on how frequently it occurs in the population

• could be defined in terms of whether it violates social norms and values

• presence of distress can indicate it, and experts usually decide

Watson’s view of comorbidity

an empirical basis on which to improve the classification system, ex: having one category to represent both depression and anxiety

a good classification system involves

1) organization of clinical information, provides essentials of patient’s condition

2) shorthand communication, transmits important features and ignores unimportant

3) prediction of natural development

4) treatment recommendations

5) heuristic value, so investigation and clarification of issues related to problem area

6) guidelines for financial support, services needed including caregivers

Brodsky (1996) found

possessing a negative sense of community may have played a positive role in lives of black women and their kids. They avoided perceived risks within environment.

general risk factors, individua

socio-emotional ie. anxiety, social incompetence. cognitive ie. attentional deficits, learning disabilities. biological ie. sensory disabilities or perinatal complications.

General risk factors microsystem

behavioural ie. aggression, delinquency. peers ie. peer rejection, delinquency. families ie. hostile parenting, single-parent status, mental illness in family, dysfunction, child abuse, parental unemployment. schools ie. poor quality, scholastic demoralisation. neighbourhood/community ie. disorganisation or disadvantage.

Risk factors macrosystem

sociopolitical ie systemic discrimination

interactionist explanations for resilience:

Characteristics such as gender, age, and ethnicity can influence interactions between risk factors, protective factors, and mental health outcomes.

cumulative risk/liability:

the number of risk factors experienced by someone has greater proportion of variation in outcomes than the sum of individual risk factors. doesn’t account for developmental delays like language. Increases with adverse emotional events and stresses over childhood.

stress-response model:

multiple risk factors lead to frequent activations of body’s stress-response systems which lead to psychological weathering over time.

Rutter claimed there are mechanisms that can help people cope with adversity and develop positive mental health

• reducing risk impact: alter risk factor or alter exposure to risk

• interrupting unhealthy chain reactions stemming from stressful life events.

• enhancing self-esteem and self-efficacy. offer age-appropriate tasks and rewards

• creating opportunities for personal growth, teach youth social skills and prevent school dropout.

who’s included in the category?

those who’ve been overlooked need representation. Social categories shape experience and improves psychology abilities to theorise ways they structure individual and social life.

what role does this inequality play?

race and gender are structural categories and social processes not just characteristics. Psychologists see people embedded in cultural and historical contexts.

where are there similarities?

find common ground even in those deemed fundamentally different. Encourages researchers to reassess presumptions that categories define homogeneous groups.

Vargas and Huey’s findings (2020):

studies that measured multiple types of intersectional discrimination showed evidence of risk for poorer mental health. Gaps in literature, limiting conclusions drawn.

risk and resilience (Vargas):

Discrimination is a chronic social stressor increasing likelihood of experiencing psychopathology. People habituate to discrimination. Multiple discrimination from 2 sources means greater the risk, though not just additive. Mental health is also an axis of vulnerability to discrimination and disadvantage.

what guides our scientific process?

well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. Makes testable and falsifiable predictions. Theory chose treatment, research tests if treatment works, and theories are refined based on research.

diagnostic issues:

severity and duration distinguish mood fluctuations and mood disorders.

diagnostic issues:

severity and duration distinguish mood fluctuations and mood disorders

MDD

recurrent, episoded between 6-9 months, avg. Last for years sometimes. Most suffer from another comorbid disorder, such as anxiety.

Persistent depressive disorder:

chronic low mood, lasting at least 2 years. Less likely to respond to standard depression treatment than episodic.

Bipolar mood disorders:

mania is a distinct period of elevated, expansive, or irritable mood, lasting at least 1 week with at least 3 symptoms. Hypomania is a severe form of mania but only 4 days of symptoms