Flashcards Psychology Unit 4 AOS 2

Mental Wellbeing

An individual's psychological state, including their ability to think, process information, and regulate emotions.

Key Features of a Mentally Healthy Individual

High levels of: functioning, resilience, social wellbeing, and emotional wellbeing.

High Levels of Functioning

Being able to interact in society, cope with everyday stressors, and undertake daily tasks.

Adaptive Behaviour

Involves actions that enable one to effectively carry out their typical activities.

Maladaptive Behaviours

Typically associated with low levels of functioning, it interferes with one's ability to carry out their typical activities.

Resilience

The ability to cope with and manage change/uncertainty, enabling us to overcome stressors and recover from challenges presented.

What Do High Levels of Resilience Look Like?

Optimistic/hopeful, able to adapt to change, and seek solutions to problems.

What Do Low Levels of Resilience Look Like?

Lack of hope, experiences of long-lasting feelings of being overwhelmed.

High Levels of Social Wellbeing

Relates to the connections one makes with others, and their ability to get along with them in a community.

High Levels of Emotional Wellbeing

Refers to a strong ability to understand and regulate emotions, and enjoy life despite occasional disappointments.

What Does High Levels of Social Wellbeing Look Like?

A sense of belonging, strong communication skills, appropriately interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds.

What Does High Levels of Emotional Wellbeing Look Like?

Ability to understand, regulate and share emotions, identify emotions in others, and respond appropriately to negative emotions.

The Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) Framework

A framework that includes all element of being, and therefore wellbeing, for ATSI people.

Connection to Body

Feeling strong/healthy, and able to physically participate as fully as possible in life.

Connection to Mind/Emotions

Ability to manage thoughts and feelings.

Connection to Family/Kinship

Connections to family and kinship systems are central to the functioning of ATSI societies.

Connection to Community

A connection to community provides opportunities for people and families to connect with each other, support each other, and work together.

Connection to Culture

Provides a sense of continuity with the past and helps underpin a strong identity.

Connection to Country

Helps underpin identity and a sense of belonging.

Connection to Spirituality/Ancestors

Spirituality provides a sense of purpose and meaning.

Political Determinants

Political policies that shape the process of distributing resources and power to people or communities and creating/reinforcing social and health inequalities. E.g. unresolved issues of land.

Historical Determinants

The ongoing influence of events, policies and trauma on groups of people, e.g. colonisation or past government policies.

Social Determinants

The circumstances in which people grow, live and work, and the systems put in place to deal with illness, e.g. unemployment, socioeconomic status.

How is SEWB Multidimensional?

The framework acknowledges that there are many parts/components/elements that contribute to social and emotional wellbeing.

How is SEWB Holistic?

It reflects an approach to wellbeing that considers the whole person, including their mental, physical, spiritual, and social needs.

Mentally Healthy

Being in a generally positive state of mental wellbeing, having the ability to cope with and manage life's challenges, working productively, and having connections with others.

Mental Health Problem

A problem that negatively affects the way a person thinks, feels, and/or behaves but usually to a lesser extent and of a shorter duration than a mental health disorder.

Mental Health Disorder

A mental health state that involves a combination of thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviours which are usually associated with significant personal distress and impair the ability to function effectively in everyday life.

Key Characteristics of a Mental Health Disorder

- The disorder occurs within the individual and results from internal dysfunction.

- There's clinically diagnosable dysfunction in thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviours.

- Causes personal distress or disability in functioning in everyday life.

- One's actions and reactions are atypical.

- The disorder isn't a result of a personal conflict with society.

Specific Phobia

A persistent, irrational and excessive fear of a particular object or situation.

Stress

A physiological and psychological response to internal/external stressors that are perceived as a challenge to one's ability to cope.

Stressor

Any stimulus that prompts a stress response.

Stress Reaction

Physiological and psychological changes that occur when confronted by a stressor.

Anxiety

Describes a state of physiological arousal associated with feelings of worry or uneasiness about something in the future.

Anxiety Disorder

A group of disorders characterised by chronic feelings of extreme apprehension or distress about the future.

Similarities Between Stress, Anxiety, and Phobia

- All influenced by bio, psycho, and social factors.

- All are accompanied by physiological changes

- May involve the fight-flight response.

Differences Between Stress, Anxiety, and Phobia

Biopsychosocial Model

A holistic way of describing and explaining how biological, psychological, and social factors interact to influence one's mental health.

Internal Factors

Factors from within the individual; biological, psychological.

External Factors

Factors from outside the individual; social.

Biological Factors

Relate to the functioning of one's body, e.g. genetic, immune system, substance use.

Psychological Factors

Refers to the influences that come from mental processes, e.g. thoughts, emotions, coping skills.

Social Factors

Relates to the conditions/environments in which an individual lives and grows, e.g. social support, social stigma, risks of violence.

Biological Contributing Factors to Phobias

GABA dysfunction and long-term potentiation.

GABA Dysfunction

An insufficient transmission or reception of GABA which can increase the anxiety one may feel in response to certain stimuli, thereby leading to the development of a phobia.

Long-Term Potentiation

LTP can strengthen the associate between a phobic stimulus and a fear/anxiety response due to the repeated coactivation of the same neural pathways.

Psychological Contributing Factors to Phobias

Cognitive bias, operant/classical conditioning

Cognitive Bias

A tendency to think in a way that involves error of judgement and faulty decision-making, which causes an individual to view certain stimuli as significantly dangerous.

Memory Bias

An exaggerated recollection of phobic events and information as compared to other information.

Catastrophic Thinking

A tendency to use irrational thinking and assume adverse outcomes will occur.

Classical Conditioning

Fears are typically acquired through classical conditioning.

Classical Conditioning Structure

Before Conditioning: NS elicited no predictable response. The UCS produced fear in response to UCR.

During Conditioning: NS was presented immediately before UCS producing UCR.

After Conditioning: CS alone would produce CR, thus precipitating phobia.

Operant Conditioning

Fears are typically maintained through operant conditioning.

Operant Conditioning Example

Avoidance behaviours lead to a reduced fear response (negative reinforcement) increasing the likelihood of avoidance behaviours continuing, thereby perpetuating her fear of grass.

Social Contributing Factors to Phobias

Specific environmental triggers and stigma around seeking treatment.

Specific Environmental Triggers

Specific phobias can develop after having a negative and traumatic experience with an object/event at some time in the past.

Stigma Around Seeking Treatment

Embarrassment or shame about symptoms, and concerns about being negatively judged by others may discourage people with a phobia from seeking treatment.

Phobic Disorder

When phobias start to cause anxiety/stress and interfere with normal functioning, it is considered a type of anxiety disorder known as a phobic disorder.

Requirements for a Phobic Diagnosis

- Symptoms must be present for 6 months or longer.

- Symptoms must disrupt the person's life or cause serious distress.

4 Categories a Phobia Can Relate To

1. Natural environment (storms)

2. Animals (snakes, spiders)

3. Situations (heights, airplanes)

4. Potential pain or injury (blood, needles)

Biological Evidence-Based Interventions for Specific Phobias

Benzodiazepine agents and breathing retraining.

Benzodiazepine Agents

A type of medication that activates GABA receptors, mimicking the inhibitory response of GABA.

Agonist

A drug that binds to the receptor of a neuron and causes the same action that the neurotransmitter that typically binds to that receptor.

Breathing Retraining

A method used to teach breathing control techniques that may reduce physiological arousal.

Psychological Evidence-Based Interventions for Specific Phobias

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and systematic desensitisation.

CBT

A form of psychotherapy that encourages individuals to substitute dysfunctional cognitions/behaviours with more adaptive ones.

Systematic Desensitisation

A therapeutic technique used to overcome phobias that involves a patient being exposed incrementally to increasingly anxiety-inducing stimuli, combined with the use of relaxation techniques.

Steps of Systematic Desensitisation

1. Teach the patient relaxation strategy.

2. Establish a fear/anxiety hierarchy.

3. Then begin a systematic, graduated pairing of items in the hierarchy with relaxation techniques by working upwards, one level at a time.

4. After repeated associations, the phobic stimulus will instead produce a relaxation response.

Systematic Desensitisation with Reference to Classical Conditioning

1. Psychologist helps establish a fear hierarchy of CS, e.g. least anxiety-inducing [example] to most [example].

2. Psychologist would teach relaxation techniques (UCS), e.g. controlled breathing, to produce a relaxation response (UCR).

3. Psychologist would progressively introduce each item in the fear-hierarchy (CS) while pairing it with the relaxation technique (UCR).

4. After repeated association, CS will now elicit a relaxation response CR.

Social Evidence-Based Interventions for Specific Phobias

Psychoeducation

Psychoeducation

Involves teaching families/supporters of individuals with mental health disorders how to better understand, deal with, and treat their disorder.

Key Components of Psychoeducation

1. Challenging their unrealistic or anxious thoughts.

2. Not encouraging avoidance behaviours.

Protective Factors

Influences that enable an individual to promote and maintain high levels of mental wellbeing.

Biological Protective Factors

Influences that stem from one's brain and/or body that can maintain and promote mental wellbeing.

Biological Protective Factors Examples

- Sleep, e.g. sleep deprivation.

- Adequate hydration and nutrition, e.g. gut-brain-axis.

Psychological Protective Factors

Influences that relate to mental processes that can maintain and promote mental wellbeing.

Cognitive Behavioural Strategies

Techniques that utilise traits of CBT, particularly recognising and changing dysfunctional thought/behavioural patterns.

Mindfulness Meditation

A practice of meditation in which one focuses on their present experience to promote feelings of calm and peace.

Social Protective Factors

Influences that exist in an individual's social environment that can promote and maintain mental wellbeing.

Social Protective Factors Examples

Support from friends, family, and the community.

Determinants of Wellbeing

Factors that influence wellbeing on individual and community levels.

Culture

A key determinant for ATSI people that encompasses a strong sense of identity, values, tradition, and connection between the past, present and future that drives behaviour and beliefs.

Cultural Continuity

Refers to the uninterrupted and ongoing transmission of traditional cultural practices, knowledge, beliefs, language, and ways of life from one generation to the next.

Cultural Continuity as a Protective Factor

- It strengthens cultural identity and acts as a protective factor against mental health.

- Prevents transmission of historical trauma between generations.

- Promotes healing and resilience.

How Colonisation Impacted Cultural Continuity

Colonisation denied many groups cultural practices, leading to loss and forced assimilation into white settlers customs.

Self-Determination

Refers to the ability of ATSI people to freely decide and govern their own political, social, cultural, and economic needs/rights.

How Colonisation Impacted Self-Determination

The deliberate exclusion of ATSI people from decision-making since colonisation resulted in complete lack of self-determination, preventing the practice of political, social, cultural, and economic needs/rights.