psych flashcards

Hugh’s childhood was difficult. His mother had an obsession about germs, insisting on excessive cleanliness. Suggest two different explanations of why Hugh has OCD.

• Hugh could have genetically inherited OCD from his mother,

• as research from Monzani et al. showed that the concordance rate for OCD in MZ twins is 52% and only 21% in DZ twins, indicating that OCD has a strong genetic link.

• Hugh may also have been reinforced into developing a compulsion of cleanliness due to his childhood,

• for example his mother scolding him when he did not keep everything clean.

Outline what is meant by cultural differences.

Culture is a shared set of beliefs and traditions in a group/society, and these beliefs are different across various cultures, meaning research conducted within one group may not be generalizable to another.

Outline one reason why cultural differences could affect the diagnosis of an anxiety disorder.

Cultural differences could mean certain anxieties present differently across cultures, for example there is a specific anxiety disorder in Japan/Korea called Taijin Kyofusho which is similar to the western social anxiety, except Taijin Kyofoshu is social withdrawal due to anxiety that the self is offensive or displeasing to others (rather than the fear of judgement).

Habiba has a phobia of flying insects. She is afraid of the noise they make, and is very scared if one lands on her. Habiba’s therapist recommends that she is treated using systematic desensitization. Suggest how Habiba’s therapist can use systematic desensitization to treat Habiba’s phobia.

• Habiba and her therapist could first create a fear hierarchy, which is a ranking of the least to most distressing stimuli.

• An example of the lowest level could be Habiba looking at a video of a butterfly, and the highest having a bee land on her.

• Habiba could then be taught various relaxation techniques (e.g. breathing exercises). Then she could be exposed to the lowest level of stimuli, in this case a video of a butterfly, and use the relaxation techniques.

• Reciprocal inhibition would help mitigate her fear, as fear and relaxation cannot be felt at the same time.

• Once she has relaxed, she can move on to the next level and continue repeating the process until she is relaxed/doesn’t feel fear even when exposed to the highest level on her fear hierarchy.

Explain one weakness of systematic desensitization.

Systematic desensitization can be difficult and distressing as it requires you to be repeatedly exposed to fear-inducing stimuli. This may lead patients to drop out and therefore make the therapy ineffective.

Describe what psychologists investigating the treatment and management of mood (affective) disorders have discovered about:
• MAOI anti‑depressants
• Ellis’s rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT).

• MAOIs, or monoamine oxidase inhibitors work to reduce mood disorders by increasing the levels of neurotransmitters such as noradrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine.

• The enzyme monoamine oxidase is responsible for breaking down and removing these neurotransmitters, so MAOIs inhibit the enzyme and prevent the breakdown, keeping these neurotransmitters’ levels high.

• Evidence shows that MAOIs are effective but can have numerous bad side effects: dry mouth, diarrhea/constipation, headaches, hypertension and can interact negatively with other medication

• REBT is influenced by the philosophy of stoicism: that we are only affected by our perception of external events rather than the events themselves

• ABC model: activating event, beliefs, consequences, emphasizes that beliefs are the most important

• Goal of the therapy is to change the beliefs by replacing negative, unhelpful thoughts with more rational and constructive thoughts (main technique is disputing where the therapist questions the irrational beliefs)

• Meta-analysis by Lyons and Woods of 70 REBT studies found that those receiving REBT showed sig. improvement compared to control groups

Evaluate what psychologists investigating the treatment and management of mood (affective) disorders have discovered about:

• MAOI anti‑depressants

• Ellis’s rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT)

including a discussion of reductionism versus holism.

• Reductionism v Holism: Both can be reductionist as MAOIs focus on action of neurotransmitters rather than whole person (e.g. their thoughts/cognition). REBT sees dysfunctional thoughts as cause. However, REBT does recognize events themselves are important, and MAOIs focus on multiple neurotransmitters

• Determinism v Free-Will: MAOIs somewhat deterministic as we have no free will over actions/effects of neurotransmitters, but can make active choice to take meds and improve. Negative thoughts may be subconscious/automatic so somewhat deterministic but can actively change thoughts.

• Generalizability: Overall studies show effectiveness, but MAOIs effectiveness and side effects can be varied and make it unsuitable for some. REBT is also generally applicable to everyone but can be expensive and is confrontational in nature.

A university student, Chloe, thinks that she has less chance of becoming ill than other students. She also thinks that she has more chance of living longer than other students. This suggests unrealistic optimism in Chloe’s health beliefs. Suggest two reasons why Chloe may have unrealistic optimism in her heath beliefs.

• Chloe may feel as though she has a higher chance of living longer than other students as she is a girl and won’t be as susceptible to heart attacks as the male students

• This may be because she sees middle-aged men as the ones who are at risk, and she does not fit into that demographic

• Chloe may also feel that she has less chance of becoming ill as she has not experienced illness before

• Research by Weinstein shows that comparative judgements for event with prev. personal experience were higher (so ppts thought it was more likely to happen to them)

Outline what is meant by the debate between individual and situational explanations.

The individual-situation debate refers to the extent to which behaviors can be attributed to either individual/internal factors (e.g. personality type) or external/situational factors (e.g. physical environment)

Explain why one strategy for improving health has a situational explanation.

Fear arousal, such as putting cancerous lungs on cigarette packages to prevent people from smoking, has a situational explanation because it assumes that all people (despite individual characteristics) will react with fear and disgust and therefore be put off from smoking.

Omar is in hospital with chest pain. His practitioner wants to investigate this by assessing Omar’s pain. Suggest two different measures of pain that Omar’s practitioner could use with him.

Omar’s practitioner could use a clinical interview to asked questions regarding his pain, such as “How is the chest-pain affecting your day-to-day life?” and “Is this a re-occurring pain?”. If Omar is a child, the practitioner use the Faces Pain Rating Scale - Revised (FPRS-R) to ask him to point to the face he feels represents his pain is, e.g. the red face for extreme pain.

For one of the measures of pain you suggested in part (a): Explain one weakness of this measure of pain.

Since a clinical interview is a method of self-reporting, Omar may answer questions dishonestly due to social desirability, e.g. lie about how disruptive pain is because he doesn’t want to seem whinny. This may reduce the likelihood of effective treatment as practitioner does not have full picture of symptoms.

Describe what psychologists investigating practitioner diagnosis have discovered about:

• Making a diagnosis (disclosure of information, false positive and false negative diagnosis)

• Presenting a diagnosis

• False positive (type 1) is when doc prescribes them as ill though they are well, false negative (type 2) is when doc prescribes them as well though they are ill.

• False positives and negatives can lead to patient not being given the treatment they need/given unnecessary treatment leading to side effects

• this may occur due to error in disclosure of information,