Psychological Problems

Unipolar depression

A mood disorder that creates feelings of sadness and lacking motivation to do everyday activities

Symptoms of unipolar depression

Persistent sadness
Fatigue
Loss of motivation
Poor appetite
Suicidal thoughts
Guilt

Mild Depression

4 symptoms displayed
FInd symptoms upsettting but life continues normally.

Moderate Depression

5 or 6 symptoms displayed
Serious problems doing daily activities like going to school or work

Severe Depression

7 or more symptoms displayed
Feelings of worthlessness
Suicidal thoughts
Self harm
Loss of self esteem

Changes in depression over time:

-Less diagnosis of depression in the 1940s than in the 1980s (10 times less likely)
-More awareness of depression nowadays
-More stressful lives nowadays than before

How depression affects individuals

-Inability to function socially
-Feeling low and down most of the time
-Not working

How depression affects society

-Not going to work can cause issues in the companies that individuals work for.
-Expensive medicine (healthcare) to treat depression will increase if depression becomes more common over time.

How can genetics explain depression?

-Depression can be inherited from our parents and other people in our family.

What is genetic predisposition?

Tendency to become depressed as a result of our genes

Strengths for Genetic explanation (DEPRESSION)

-Lots of research evidence from studying families.
-Helpful for explaining depression in terms of inheritance

Weaknesses for Genetic Explanation (DEPRESSION)

Reductionist approach- fails to look at other factors which may explain why people develop depression
Deterministic- saying that if you have the gene, you're likely to become depressed

What was Beck's Cognitive Triad?

-Three negative thought patterns that circulated so much that negativity self-schemas are produced.
-Negative View of the World leads to Negative View About Yourself leads to Negative View on the Future.

What was Ellis ABC Model?

Activating event: Some negative event in life
Beliefs: if that event is rational or irrational
Consequence: Positive or Negative emotional response

Three stages that cause development of negative thought processes.

Strengths of the Cognitive Theory for Depression

-Applied to CBT to treat patients with Depression
-Takes into account external factors for depression

Weaknesses of the Cognitive Theory for Depression

-Some depression may be more complex than just thought processes
-Difficult to evaluate irrational thought as a symptom of depression.

Anti Depressants

-Offered to patients with moderate or severe depression, mild patients if CBT is unsuccessful.
-Contains serotonin and noradrenaline
-Helps patients with long lasting symptoms.

Strengths to Drug Therapy for Depression

-Provides ease for patients to seek other therapies for their illness.
-Evidence to support

Weaknesses to Drug Therapy for Depression

-Can cause unpleasant side effects like drowsiness, nausea and dizziness.
-Improve symptoms but doesn't treat the disorder.
-Higher risk of relapse.

What is CBT?

Therapy that changes the way depressive patients think and provide help for how they can improve their behaviour

How does CBT help?

1. Identify irrational thoughts that cause negative thought processes
2. Challenge these thought processes.
3.More rational thoughts means they get better
4. Better symptoms means better lifestyle.

Strengths to CBT for Depression

-Long term benefits
-Patients learn to control their own symptoms

Weakness to CBT for Depression

-Motivation to seek CBT is required which may be difficult.
-Ethical issues to assume patient's thoughts are wrong.
-Adding the psychologist's input into their problem is unethical.

Addiction

When people need to have or do something, in order to live their lives normally.

Withdrawal

Unpleasant physical and psychological symptoms if someone stops or dissatisfies their addiction

Symptoms of Dependence Disorders

Difficulty withdrawing
Replacing fun activities for the substance use
Increase the amount of substance to enjoy life
Physical withdrawing symptoms like shaking, vomiting etc.

Symptoms of Behavioural Addiction

Ignore arguments that suggest activity is unhealthy
More time doing the activity that other things they used to enjoy
Reducing the activity is very difficult

How has addiction changed over time?

-The definition has changed from substance missuse to stuff like internet addictions
-Drugs become cheaper to get nowadays so more substance abuse.

How addiction affects individuals

-More times spent on their addictions, less time spent on maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
-More criminal behaviours to fund their addictions.

How addiction affects society

-Companies will be affected if addicts don't work.
-Higher costs to rehabilitate addicts and treat them.

Strengths to the Genetic Explanation (ADDICTION)

-Plenty of scientific evidence to support.

Weaknesses to the Genetic Explanation (ADDICTION)

-Reductionist approach, fails to take social factors into account
-No research to find a specific gene that has to do with addiction.

What is Classical Conditioning?

Learning though association
If a substance or activity is associated with positive feelings, the person learns to do it more to get more positivity

What is Operant Conditioning?

learning from the consequences of behavior
-If the thing that is addictive makes them feel good, they'll do it more to feel good

What is social learning theory?

Learning through observation or imitation of models
-family/friends that the person looks up to, if that person is an addict, the person will also wish to do the same.

Strengths to the Learning Theory for Addiction

-Helps the treatment for addiction by knowing how one becomes an addict.
-Considers both nature and nurture
-Helps understand why people relapse more

Weaknesses to the Learning Theory for Addiction

-Disregards most biologicial factors
-Doesn't explain why people try drugs but don't get addicted

Detoxification

When an addict withdraws from the substance they are addicted to

How does Drug Therapy treat addiction?

-Reduce withdrawal symptoms
-Reduce cravings
-Treats other mental health problems that come with addiction.

What is naltraxone?

A type of drug that reduces addictive cravings and prevent relapse

Strengths to Drug Therapy for Addiction

-Helps patients seek other types of therapy like counselling.
-Can help long term treatment

Weaknesses to Drug Therapy for Addiction

-The medication can become a new source of addiction
-No proper evidence that supports the effectiveness of drugs.

How does CBT help addicts?

Recognize triggers for addiction and learn how to control them.

What is functional analysis in terms of CBT?

Identifying triggers for addiction, like people or emotions that cause people to submit to their addictive behaviours.

What is Skills Training in terms of CBT?

-Skills like how to cope with cravings, how to cope with people who pressure them to be addicted and improve motivation to stop addictive behaviour.

Strengths to CBT for Addiction

-Allows patients to build their own skills to fight their own addiction.
-Research supported.

Weaknesses to CBT for Addiction

-Motivation to get better is required.
-Coping skills doesn't equal reducing the problem behaviour.
-Can be only short-term.

Caspi et al. (2003)
Aim

To investigate whether the 5-HTT gene had a connection to depression after stressful events.

How many participants were involved in Caspi?

847

What were three groups that the participants were seperated into? What features did each group distinctively have?

Group 1: Two short alleles
Group 2: One short and one long allele
Group 3: Two long alleles

How did Caspi gather findings?

Through questionnaires, on the stressful life events after their 21st birthday and before their 26th.

What were the results from Caspi et al.?

-Two short alleles of 5-HTT gene showed more depressive symptoms in response to stressful life events.
-Long alleles had less depressive symptoms.

What is the conclusion drawn from Caspi's findings?

-There is a relation between genetics and triggering life events.
-Both nature and nurture work together to increase the likelihood of depression.

Strengths to Caspi's study

Very diverse and large sample.
Helpful for doctors treating Depression, to know more about the biological factors.

Weaknesses to Caspi's study

-Some people being studied may have been more likely to put themselves into stressful live events.
-Data collected was from the participants themselves, which is unreliable.

Young (2007): Aim

To investigate the effect of CBT to treat internet addicts.

How many participants were involved in Young?

114

How was CBT used to treat the participants in Young?

Online CBT
Functional analysis and Skills Training
Questionnaires using Likert-type scale (1-5) to rate their addiction.

When did the researchers for Young use questionnaires?

3rd, 8th, 12th session and 6 months after the sessions

What were some goals that the CBT was trying to achieve for Young's participants?

Relationship function
Sexual Function
Staying off apps
Motivation to stop being online

What were the results to Young's study?

-Mainly improved symptoms after 12 weeks of therapy
-No significant drop in ratings after 6 months of the sessions.

What conclusion can be drawn from Young's results

CBT is an effective treatment for Internet Addiction.

Strengths to Young's study

-Useful knowledge for treating internet addicts
-Quantitative data was reliable (ratings).

Weaknesses to Young's study

-Lying on questionnaires to please the researcher (Not valid info)
-Not clear whether all participants were given the same type of CBT for their type of addiction