PSYCH 257: Test 1 (Chapters 1-4)

What 3 requirements are needed to qualify behaviour as a psychological disorder

3 D’s

1. Person experiences psychological dysfunction

2. Person experiences personal distress or impairment

3. Behaviour is atypical or not culturally excepted

(key is to look at whether the person is in control of their actions)

Psychological dysfunction

A breakdown in cognitive, emotional, or behavioural functioning (emotions do not function properly)

What is the cause of psychological disorder?

A failure of one or more mechanisms to perform their evolved function and the dysfunction produces harm or distress.

What is the DSM-5?

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; provides a classification system for abnormal behavior.

Prototype

A "typical" profile of a disorder; majority or all of the symptoms that specialists believe make up the illness are present.

Psychopathology

The scientific study of psychological disorders.

In Canada, what is the difference between the labels psychologist and psychotherapist

psychologist conveys information about the training and qualifications of the professional, whereas the label of psychotherapist does not always.

What do experimental and social psychologists focus on?

Investigating the basic determinants of behaviour but do not assess or treat psychological disorders.

What do counseling psychologists focus on?

Study and treat adjustment and vocational issues encountered by relatively healthy individuals

What do clinical psychologists focus on?

Usually concentrate on more severe psychological disorders.

What do psychiatrists focus on?

Study the biology of psychological disorders, make diagnoses and offer treatments.

What do psychiatric social workers focus on?

Develop expertise in collecting information relevant to the social and family situation of the individual with a psychological disorder and treats them.

What do psychiatric nurses focus on?

Specialize in the care and treatment of patients with psychological disorders.

What do marriage and family therapists and mental health counsellors focus on?

Providing clinical services in hospitals or clinics

Scientist-practitioner model

Mental health professionals who apply a scientific approach in one of 3 ways:

1) consumer of science; enhancing the practice

2) evaluator of science; evaluate their treatments effectiveness

3) conducting research

What is the goal of present-day treatment research (4)

1. Treatment optimization & "personalized medicine"

2. Primary prevention

3. Relapse prevention

4. treatment dissemination and access

Clinical description

The unique combination of behaviours, thoughts, and feelings that make up a specific disorder (specifies the disorders difference from normal behaviour)

3 types of questions clinical research uses to inform our understanding of psychological disorders

1. clinical description

2. causation (etiology) and persistance

3. treatment mechanism and outcome

A good clinical description aims to do what? (5)

1. Describe core characteristic features of the disorder

2. Distinguish clinically significant dysfunction from typical experience

3. Describe onset of disorder.

4. Describe course of disorder.

5. Inform an individualized case conceptualization.

Etiology

Cause or source of a disorder and includes biological, psychological, and social dimensions.

Prevalence of a disorder

How many people in the population as a whole have the disorder

Lifetime prevalence

How many people in the population have ever had the disorder.

Incidence of the disorder

Statistics on how many new cases occur during a given period

Persistance of disorder

what factors keep the problem going (maintenance)

Course of a disorder

Pattern of development and change of

a disorder over time.

What are the 3 types of course

1) chronic course - lasts a long time

2) episodic course - disorder comes and goes

ie. recurrent depression: depression episode for about 2 weeks and then once again

3) time-limited course - will improve without treatment in a short period with little or no risk of recurrence.

What are the 2 types of onset

1. Acute onset - begins slowly

2. Insidious onset - develops gradually over an extended period of time

Prognosis

The anticipated course (future development) of a disorder

historically, what are the models discussed in lecture and in class

1. supernatural

2. biological

3. psychological

4. psychoanalytical

5. humanistic

6. behavioural

The supernatural model

Psychopathology and disorders are caused by "evil forces" and demonic possession. These agents, which might be divinities, demons, spirits, magnetic fields, or the moon and the stars

What were the treatments to disorders under the supernatural model

Rest, sleep, and a healthy, happy environment, or exorcisms. If those failed people were subjected to confinement, beatings, and hanging people over a pit of poisonous snakes (fear scares spirits out)

The biological model

Psychopathology and disorders is caused by physical disease

Who is considered the father of modern science and why

Hippocrates; he considered the brain the centre of emotion and cognition and that disorders involving these functions would logically be located in the brain (treatment: vegetarianism, exercise, no alcohol)

What is the humoral theory of disorders?

Galen assumed that normal brain functioning was related to four bodily fluids, or humors: blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm and that disease resulted from too much/little of these humors.

What is general paresis

Syphilis; Symptoms of "madness" originally diagnosed as form of psychosis but later determined to be from bacteria (bacterium) which can be treated with penicillin. (had a consistent course and resulted in death)

Insulin shock therapy

biological ting

used to simulate appetite in psychotic patients not eating and seemed to calm down people

Manfred Sakel, began using higher and higher dosages until, finally, patients convulsed and became temporarily comatose. Those who recovered was thought due to the convulsions

Who was the founding father of modern psychiatry and why?

Emil Kraepelin; was one of the first to distinguish among various psychological disorders, seeing different ages of onset and course, different presenting symptoms

The psychological model

Psychopathology and disorders is caused by intra-psychic conflicts

Moral therapy

Psychosocial approach of treating institutionalized patients as normally as possible in a reinforced normal social setting (an asylum should be a therapeutic place)

What were the reasons for the decline of morale therapy? (3)

1. Influx of patients and insufficient hospital staff

2. Rise of biological tradition: mental illness was incurable

3. Emergence of other psychological models.

Who was Dorothea Dix?

A school teacher who campaigned endlessly for reform in the treatment of the insane throughout Canada and the United States. (known as the mental hygiene movement)

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalytic assessment and therapy, which emphasizes the exploration of, and insight into, unconscious processes and conflicts (pioneered by Sigmund Freud)

Behaviourism

Explanation of human behaviour, including dysfunction, based on principles of learning and adaptation derived from experimental psychology.

What was Anton Mesmer known for?

He suggested to his patients that their problem was due to an undetectable fluid found in all living organisms called "animal magnetism" that could become blocked (was actually hypnosis); regarded as the father of hypnosis

What happened when Freud teamed up with Josef Breuer and asked patients about their problems while under hypnosis? (3)

1. patients were emotional and came out feeling improved

2. patients gained an understanding of the relationship between their emotional problems and their psychological disorder.

3. Discovered the unconscious mind

hypnosis

a way to access the unconscious

Catharsis

Reliving emotional trauma that has been made unconscious and releasing the accompanying tension.

Insight

A fuller understanding of the relationship between current emotions and earlier events.

What are the 3 major facets of the psychoanalytic model

1) the structure of the mind and clashing personalities

2) the defence mechanisms

3) the stages of early psychosexual development

Define Id, Ego, and Superego

Id: the source of our strong sexual and aggressive energies (positive = libido; negative = Thanatos) and operates according to the pleasure principle (primary process thinking)

Ego: mediates conflicts between id and superego (makes us realistic) and operates according to the reality principle (secondary process)

Superego: represents the moral principles instilled in us by our parents and our culture.

Intrapsychic conflicts

In psychoanalysis, the struggles among the id, ego, and superego.

Of the Id, Ego, and Superego, which ones are conscious and which are unconscious

The id and the superego are almost entirely unconscious. We are fully aware only of the secondary processes of the ego

Defence mechanisms

Unconscious strategies that the ego uses to manage the conflict between the id and the superego (anxiety); can be adaptive or maladaptive (goal is to reduce nonadaptive mechanisms and strengthen adaptive ones)

Denial

Refuses to acknowledge some aspect of objective reality or subjective experience that is apparent to others

Displacement

Transfers a feeling about, or a response to, an object that causes discomfort onto another, usually less threatening, object or person

Projection

Falsely attributes own unacceptable feelings, impulses, or thoughts to another individual or object.

Rationalization

Conceals the true motivations for actions, thoughts, or feelings through elaborate reassuring or self-serving but incorrect explanations

Reaction formation

Substitutes in behaviours, thoughts, or feelings that are the direct opposite of unacceptable ones

Repression

Blocks disturbing wishes, thoughts, or experiences from conscious awareness.

Sublimation

Directs potentially maladaptive feelings or impulses into socially acceptable behavior.

What are the psychosexual stages of development?

1. Oral (0-2y): need of food

2. Phallic (3-6y): genital self-stimulation, development of superego

3. Anal

4. Latency

5. Genital

What is fixation, according to Freud, and what is the result of it

Not receiving appropriate gratification during a specific stage or if a stage left a strong impression, the individuals personality would reflect the stage throughout adulthood.

Neuroses or Neurotic Disorders

The anxiety that resulted from unconscious conflicts, and the implementation of ego defence mechanisms.

According to Anna Freud, how does abnormal behaviour develop

When the ego is deficient in regulating such functions as delaying and controlling impulses, or in marshalling appropriate normal defences to strong internal conflicts.

What was Jung and Adler's theory on self-actualization (basically what is self-actualization)?

By removing barriers to both internal and external growth, the individual would naturally improve and flourish to reach their highest potential.

What is free association

A method of exploring the unconscious in which the person says whatever comes to mind, without censoring

What is dream analysis?

The content of dreams, reflecting the primary process thinking of the id, is systematically related to symbolic aspects of unconscious conflicts.

What is the therapeutic alliance?

The relationship between the therapist and the patient.

What is transference and counter transference

Transference: patients project some of their own personal issues and feelings onto the therapist

Counter: therapists project some of their own personal issues and feelings, often positive, onto the patient.

What is symptom substitution?

Eliminating a phobia or depressive episode without dealing with the underlying conflicts resulting in another set of symptom emerging.

What is psychodynamic psychotherapy?

Focusing instead on relieving suffering associated with psychological disorders, addressing history of trauma, and dealing with issues of attachment.

Why is psychoanalysis argued as unscientific (3)

1) Unreliable source/ misinterpretation of the situation

2)No consistent form of measurement

3)No way to prove or disprove hypothesis

What is person-centred therapy

A non-directive therapy where participants are seen as able to help themselves, and the therapist acts as a a guide to help them achieve congruence (achieved through a an unconditional positive regard; judgment free zone)

What is classical conditioning?

A type of learning in which a neutral stimulus is paired with a response until it elicits that response (squires information that is emotional in nature)

What is extinction?

The diminishing of a conditioned response (presenting CS without associated event)

What is introspection?

Subjects simply reported on their inner thoughts and feelings after experiencing certain stimul

Who is considered the founder of behaviouralism and why/

John B. Watson; little Albert experiment

e little Albert experiment

When Little Albert was allowed to play with a white rat, he showed no fear. He did show fear when a steel bar was struck behind his back. When Watson paired the rat with a loud noise, Albert cried. Soon afterwards, when the rat was presented but no noise sounded, he cried. Albert also showed fear when presented with a similar stimuli, showing that stimulus generalisation had occurred.

What is systematic desensitization?

A treatment for phobias in which the patient is exposed to progressively more anxiety-provoking stimuli and taught relaxation techniques (called behavioural therapy).

What is B.F. Skinner known for?

The principles of operant conditioning, a type of learning in which behaviour changes as a function of what follows the behaviour; believed you need to positively reinforce desired behaviour

What is shaping?

An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behaviour toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behaviour

e CBT

goal: change negative thinking patterns that uphold maladaptive behaviours

situation/environment (triggers)- negative thoughts and beliefs- negative emotions and maladaptive behaviour patterns

What is the multidimensional integrative approach?

Each influence effects one another making them no longer independent and, as a whole, cause psychological disorders

advantages of multideminsional models of psychopathology

1. view abnormal behaviour as multiply determined

2. emphasize on integrative “system” of influences

3. better represent the scientific data

What are the 5 influences that make up the multidimensional model?

1. Behavioural (conditioned responses)

2. Biological (body's reaction)

3. Emotional and Cognitive (influence of emotion on biology and vice versa; fear and anxiety)

4. Social (effect you have on those around you)

5. Developmental (reactivity)

What is developmental critical period?

When we are more or less reactive to a given situation or influence than at other times

What are genes?

Long molecules of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) at various locations on chromosomes within the cell nucleus.

What is the limitation of genes in expressing our development?

Genes provide boundaries to our development. Exactly where we do within these boundaries depends on environmental influences

How many chromosomes does a normal human cell have

46 (23 pairs); last pair are sex chromosomes

What happens if something is wrong in the ordering of the base pairs on the helix structure of our DNA

The ordering of these base pairs determines how the body develops and works, otherwise we have a defective gene, which may or may not lead to problems.

What is the difference between a dominant and recessive gene?

A dominant gene is one of a pair of genes that determines a particular trait. A recessive gene must be paired with another recessive gene to influence a trait.

What does it mean for a trait to be polygenetic?

The trait in influenced by many genes, each contributing only a tiny effect

What is a genome

An individual's complete set of genes, comprises 20 000 to 25 000 genes

What is the difference between quantitative genetic and Molecular genetic

Quantitative: estimates the effects of genes in explaining individual differences (heritability), without naming a gene responsible.

Molecular: examining the actual structure and functioning of genes

How are genes specialized (expressed)?

Environmental factors, in the form of social and cultural influences, can determine whether genes are on/expressed or off/ not expressed(expression transferred through generations)

e caspi et al study

5 HTT gene and its relation to stress

• 3 forms & findings (probability of having a major depressive episode):

1. Long-long form: doesn't matter the amount of maltreatment; resilient

2. Long-short form: in the middle

3. Short-short form: If they have no maltreatment, they're the same as the other group ; otherwise, they’re twice as susceptible

• At first glance, the Short-short group could be labelled to being more vulnerable to depression compared to the long-long group

• Another interesting fact: short-short people tend to react more to the environment they’re put in while the Long-Long is more resilient, then Short-Short group would do better if they were in an enriching environment than the Long-Long

•  Links back to the diathesis model!

What is the diathesis-stress model?

Suggests that a person may be predisposed for a psychological disorder that remains unexpressed until triggered by stress

explains how mature and nurture interact to produce psychopathology

What is diathesis-stress?

pre-disposed vulnerability; expressed only under certain conditions or in the presence of certain stressors

Susceptibility or tendency to develop a disorder (small vulnerability = more life stress needed)?

what is diathesis

biologically inherted tendency

What is the gene-environment correlation model (or reciprocal gene-environment model)

extension of diathesis-stress model

Hypothesis that people with a genetic predisposition for a disorder may also have a genetic tendency to create environmental risk factors that promote the disorder (your environment can counteract effect)