behavior disorders exam 1: terms

(T/F) Distress is never normal.

False, it is normal in some situations.

When does dysfunctional distress occur?

When a person is much more distressed than others would be

What are the two criteria a disorder must meet to be considered “impairing”?

• persuasive

• Significant

What is the accepted definition of psychological disorder?

Behavioral, psychological, or biological dysfunctions that are unexpected in their cultural context and associated with significant distress and/or impairment in functioning, or increased risk of suffering, death, pain, or impairment

Why is culture important to consider when it comes to behavior?

“Normalcy” is relative and in some cultures one behavior may be considered normal and in others it may not be (for instance, thinking you are talking to god)

Define psychopathology.

The scientific study of psychological dysfunction

What are the three categories that make up the study of psychological disorders?

1. Clinical description

2. Causation (etiology)

3. Treatment and outcomes

What are the three things a scientist practitioner MUST be able to do?

1. Consume science.

2. Evaluate science.

3. Create science.

What does it mean for a scientist practitioner to be a consumer of science?

They stay up to date on new research, new practices, new treatments, etc.

What does it mean for a scientist practitioner to be an evaluator of science?

They determine the effectiveness and validity of different practices, treatments, research papers, etc.

What does it mean to be a creator of science?

Conduct new research that leads to new procedures and useful practice

What is included in a clinical description?

• symptoms

• Age of onset

• Rarity

• How to know it when you see it

What is the etiology of a disorder?

The risk factors that contribute to the development and the maintenance of a disorder

• causation

Clinical description is also referred to as the _____ _____.

Presenting problem

What does a clinical description aim to distinguish?

Clinically significant dysfunction from the common human experience

Define prevalence.

The number of cases of a specific disorder within a given time frame

Define incidence.

The number of NEW cases of a disorder within a given time frame.

Define acute onset.

Sudden or quick

What are the two types of onsets of a disorder?

1. Acute

2. Gradual

What is an episodic disorder?

One that may come and go

• example: depression and mania

What is a chronic course disorder?

One that will not go away without treatment once you have it

What are the two types of prognosis?

• good

• Guarded

Define guarded as a prognosis.

You will not be fine

What are the three types of courses of a disorder?

1. Episodic

2. Time-limited

3. Chronic

Treatment development asks what question?

How can we help alleviate psychological suffering?

What does treatment development typically include in terms of treatment?

pharmacological, psychosocial, and combined treatments

What question does etiology ask?

What contributes to the development and/or maintenance of psychopathology?

How come there is no much research on psychedelics?

It is difficult to find a good control group for them.

What makes a control group a good one?

One that makes it extremely difficult for the patients to tell that they are in the control group (ie. They think they are the ones getting treated)

Why is the follow up part of randomized controlled trials so important?

It allows the researcher to tell if the patients were the same or better once treatment was withdrawn

What is the key part of controlled trails?

Randomization

What is typically true of the total population of patients in controlled trials?

They typically all have the same diagnosis or the same form of a disorder, etc.

Which of the following would be found in the definition of a psychological disorder?

Personal distress

The term psychological dysfunction is best described as ….

A breakdown in cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning

Which educational program typically lasts about five years and prepares the student to conduct research into the causes and treatment of psychological disorders and to diagnose, assess, and treat these disorders?

A Ph.D. program in clinical psychology

Out of all of the various types of mental health professionals, which would be the most likely to have earned a medical degree?

a psychiatrist

Dr. Marcus is conducting a long-term study that involves individuals whose family history puts them at risk of substance use disorders. The research participants were enrolled while in elementary school and undergo psychological evaluations that include assessment for substance use disorders and brain scans every three years. Dr. Marcus plans to look at the associations between various brain-activity patterns and the development of substance use disorder. Into which of the categories of research discussed in your text is this work best placed?

determining the causes of the disorders

If someone lived in the time of the Great Persian Empire from 900 to 600 BCE, how might they account for manifestations of mental disorders like hallucinations or delusions that were otherwise inexplicable?

as the work of evil spirits

Which of the following concepts may potentially underlie the phenomenon of mass hysteria, which occurs when a large-scale outbreak of bizarre and disturbed behavior occurs?

emotion contagion

Which Roman physician took up the theories of Hippocrates and extended them with a theory that normal brain functioning is related to a proper balance of four bodily fluids or humors?

Galen

In the late 1800s, physicians discovered that patients with a condition called general paresis could be cured by engaging in which of the following actions?

injecting the with the blood of a person who had malaria

The use of moral treatment for those with psychological difficulties has been seen throughout history. Who formalized it into a system used to treat patients at the Parisian hospital La Bicêtre?

pinel

Which of the following is true regarding the spread of moral therapy to the United States?

The spread of moral therapy turned asylums from prison-like states to habitable and therapeutic environments.

Which crusader for the moral and humane treatment of mentally ill individuals campaigned tirelessly in an effort that came to be known as the mental-hygiene movement?

dorothea dix

Sigmund Freud is often credited with the discovery of the unconscious mind. Who else was also a key figure in this very important discovery?

Josef Breuer

Imagine that you are walking across campus and you see two people standing in the middle of the quad kissing passionately. The couple continues to kiss, completely oblivious to how uncomfortable they may be making others. According to Freud, the couple is at the whim of which of the following?

the id

Sal is very stressed because they have not paid taxes in several years and know that they owe the government several thousand dollars they do not have. Sal becomes upset every time they think about their debt and decides that they are really refusing to pay taxes to protest the government's foolish spending. Sal is employing the defense mechanism of which of the following?

rationalization

What was the primary emphasis of Heinz Kohut's self-psychology?

The formation of the self-concept and the crucial attributes of the self that allow one to progress toward health

Whose study of classical conditioning proved foundational for what later became the behavioral perspective in psychology?

Ivan Pavlov

Sofía, only 18 months of age, is learning to use the toilet. First, her parents give her smiles and hugs when Sofia walks into the bathroom. Then they give her songs and praise when she points to the potty. When she agrees to sit on the potty seat, her parents sing and dance, making her smile and laugh. Finally, when she begins to actually use the potty, her parents give her some candy that she loves. Sofía is being taught to use the potty through which of the following processes?

shaping

Adolf Meyer asserted that psychological disorders were the result of dysfunctional personalities exposed to biopsychosocial stresses. Which of these factors would be considered a social influence on the development of psychopathology?

Subjection to discrimination because of a personal characteristic like race/ethnicity, sex, age, sexual orientation, or gender identity

Which treatment did Sakel propose for psychosis?

Insulin shock therapy

Three dominant traditions have existed in the past to explain abnormal behavior. What are they?

1. Supernatural

2. Biological

3. Psychological

Explain the supernatural tradition that was used to explain abnormal behavior.

Believed to be caused by demonic possession, witchcraft, sorcery

• deviant behavior as a battle of “good” and “evil”

What treatments were used in the supernatural tradition of abnormal behavior?

exorcism*, torture, religious rituals

What was the competing view that co-existed with supernatural tradition?

“insanity” is caused by emotional stress, not supernatural forces and could be cured with sleep, rest, baths, potions, and a healthy environment

Who was the Father of modern Western medicine?

Hippocrates (460-377 BC)

Who extended Hippocrates’ work?

Galen (129-198 AD)

What three things did we go over that Hippocrates did?

• Mental disorders understood as physical disease

• Hysteria “the wandering uterus”

• Linked abnormality with brain chemical imbalances

Describe Hysteria “the wandering uterus”.

psychological symptoms were a result of the uterus moving around in the body

Which tradition did Hippocrates work fall into?

Biological

What was the Saint Vitus’s Dance/Tarantism and what was it an example of?

• mass hysteria

  • “…whole groups of people were simultaneously compelled to run out in the streets, dance, shout, rave, and jump around in patterns as if they were at a particularly wild party late at night”

What is modern mass hysteria understood as?

Emotion contagion, Mob psychology

Who was Paracelsus and what did he do?

Swiss physician suggested that mental health problems are affected by pull of moon and stars

• Led to the term “lunatic”

Describe the Humoral theory of disorders

Functioning is related to having too much or too little of four key bodily fluids (humors)

What are the four key bodily fluids discussed in the Humoral theory of disorders?

Blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile

What was depression thought to be caused by in the Humoral theory of disorders?

by too much black bile

• “Melancholar” means “black bile” -> “melancholy”

What were the methods of treatment in the Hippocratic-Galenic Humoral theory of disorders

changing environmental conditions (e.g., reducing heat) or bloodletting/vomiting

Who came up with the Humoral theory of disorders?

Hippocrates and Galen when he expanded upon it

What were the methods of treatment for biological tradition?

• insulin shock therapy

• Electric shock

• Crude surgery

• Medication (neuroleptics, minor tranquilizers)

Why was General paresis (late-stage syphilis) so important to the advances of the biological tradition?

It included psychological and behavioral symptoms caused by a bacterium

• Bolstered the view that mental illness = physical illness

Who was the main Psychiatrist who believed mental illness had physical roots?

John P. Grey and the reformers

Who championed biological tradition in the U.S.?

John P. Grey and the reformers

What led to reforms of hospitals to give psychiatric patients better care?

John P. Grey’s work and the belief that mental illness had physical roots

Who was the father of diagnosis and classification?

Emil Kraepelin

What are the positive consequences of the Biological tradition?

• Overall, mental illness understood to have physical roots

• Increased hospitalization

• Improved diagnosis and classification

What were the negative consequences of the biological tradition?

Negative effects: chemical imbalance, overprescription of meds

(T/F) According to the supernatural tradition, mental disorders may be a result of possession or the influence of evil spirits.

True: The supernatural tradition views mental disorders as a matter of “Good” vs. “Evil,” and resulting from supernatural forces like possession or the influence of evil spirits.

(T/F) In the supernatural tradition, treatment usually involved rest and relaxation, coupled with healthy socialization.

False: The supernatural tradition relied on religious rituals such as exorcism and even torture to drive out the evil influences that caused the disorders.

(T/F) According to Kraepelin, mental disorders were the result of imbalances in bodily humors.

False. Kraepelin is associated with the classification of mental disorders while Hippocrates is associated with the idea that mental disorders are the result of humoral imbalances.

(T/F) The syndrome known as general paresis bolstered the idea mental illnesses had a physical cause.

True: General paresis, the late stage of syphilis, has psychological symptoms and is caused by infection with Treponema pallidum. This association bolstered the idea that mental illness has a physical cause.

Why moral therapy declined in use why?

due to the size and composition of the institutionalized population

Describe what was moral therapy was.

Treated institutionalized patients as normally as possible in a setting that encouraged and reinforced normal social interaction

What was the mental hygiene movement focused on?

providing care to everyone who needed it, causing a large influx in patients

What were some aspects of the psychological tradition?

• moral therapy

• Mental hygiene movement

What are the three parts of freud’s structure of the mind?

• superego

• Ego

• I’d

What is the superego?

• conscience driven by moral principles

What is the ego?

Logical and rational thinking driven by reality principal

What is the id?

Illogical, emotional, and irrational thinking driven by the pleasure principal

What are Defense mechanisms?

Ego’s attempt to manage anxiety resulting from id/superego conflict

• Displacement & denial

• Rationalization & reaction formation

• Projection, repression

• sublimation

Define Psychosexual stages of development

Oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages

• Theory: conflicts arise at each stage and must be resolved

Define Ego psychology.

defensive reactions of the ego determine behavior

• did not lead to much

Who discovered ego psychology?

Anna Freud

What is Self-psychology?

focused on the formation of self-concept and the crucial attributes of the self that allow an individual to progress toward health or neurosis*

Who is the founder of self-psychology?

Heinz Kohut

What did Carl Jung do?

rejected focus on sexual drives; emphasized spiritual and religious drives; introduced collective unconscious

What did Alfred Adler do?

focused on feelings of inferiority and the striving for superiority

What is neurosis?

Anxiety and depression; mental disorders not based upon having illusions

What is the psychoanalytic psychotherapy designed to do?

Designed to reveal the nature of unconscious mental processes and conflicts through catharsis* and insight

What are some techniques of psychoanalytic psychotherapy?

free association*, dream analysis*, and analysis of transference*