unit 8: psychological health

psychological disorder (or mental illness):

a persistent disruption or disturbance of thought, emotion or behaviour that causes significant distress or impairment in fucntioning

2 ways to classify psychological disorders:

using either the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM) or the international classification of diseases and related health problems (ICD)

diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM):

published by the american psychiatric association, resource text which categorizes disorders based on their primary symptom (ex: depressed mood, anxiety, substance use)

international classification of diseases and related health problems (ICD):

published by the world health organization (WHO), includes not just psychological but also medical illnesses

internalizing disorders:

mental illnesses of mood, anxiety, and disordered eating, in which symptoms are directed inward toward the self; symptoms may include things like low self esteem, social withdrawal, anxiety, restrained eating, acts of nonsuicidal self injury, where symptoms are experienced privately and expresses disturbances largely by self blame and self punishment - higher prevalence rates found in women

externalizing disorders:

antisocial, conduct, substance use, and impulsivity related disorders, in which symptoms are directed outwards toward others; symptoms may include things like aggression, impulsivity, interpersonal manipulation, drug and alcohol abuse, where acts tend to involve either victimizing others or altering one’s consciousness in a manner that impairs judgement or reduces inhibitions against harm - higher prevalence rates found in men

transdiagnostic approach:

an approach that views most psychological disorders as different manifestations of a few core, heritable, underlying dimensions

gender dysphoria (GD):

a disorder consisting of clinically significant distress due to the difference between a persons psychological sense of gender and the gender that others assign them

rumination:

passively and persistently focusing attention on one’s negative mood, its causes and its possible consequences

• women tend to score higher in tendency to ruminate when distressed and rumination correlates with many internalizing disorders

neuroticism:

the tendency to experience high levels of negative emotions

• correlates strongly with internalizing disorders and women cross culturally tend to score higher on this trait

impulsivity:

a personality factor consisting of traits such as sensation seeking, novelty seeking and risk taking

• externalizing disorders correlate with high levels of impulsivity (& low levels of effortful control) and medium effect sizes for sensation seeking and risk taking consistently favour men

effortful control:

the capacity for persistence, focus and impulse control

• large effect sizes that favours women

callous-unemotional (CU) traits:

a personality factor consisting of low levels of empathy, guilt and warmth

• tends to be higher among adolescent boys than girls

prefrontal cortex (PFC):

a brain region involved in impulse control, emotion regulation and planning behaviours; reduced PFC volumes correlated with increased vulnerability to externalizing disorders - PFC develops gradually throughout adolescence in all children and tends to develop more slowly in boys

the gender paradox of suicide:

a pattern in which girls/women more frequently exhibit non fatal suicide behaviour (suicidal ideation, attempts, and self injury) while boys/men more frequently die from suicide

objectification theory:

the theory stating that being socialized within a cultural context that objectifies the female body encourages girls/women to internalize an outsider’s perspective on themselves and engage in self objectification

self objectification:

defining the self in terms of how the body appears to others instead of what the body can do or how the body feels

• self objectification → social comparison → body shame → eating disorders

social comparisons:

comparisons between the self and another person on a specific dimension

ethnic identity:

a psychological sense of connectedness to one’s racial or ethnic group

muscle dysmorphia:

a body image disorder characterized by an obsessive preoccupation with increasing one’s muscularity and maintaining low body fat

male gaze:

a mode of viewing others that is voyeuristic and sexual and that reflects mens patriarchal power over women and other objectified individuals

internalized homophobia:

self directed antigay attitudes held by sexual minority individuals

internalized transphobia:

self directed transphobic attitudes held by transgender individuals

strong black woman schema:

a set of beliefs about black women as being strong, resilient and able to persevere despite oppression; may lead to resisting help seeking behaviours to be aligned with the schema

subjective well being (SWB):

people’s feelings of both short term positive emotions and long term sense of satisfaction, meaning and purpose in life

expansion hypothesis:

refers to the hypothesis that occupying multiple social roles can buffer against distress by giving meaning and social connectedness to the person (ex: sex based labour divisions restrict women to relatively small numbers of home based roles)

according to the transdiagnostic approach mental disorders can be categorized…

as falling under 2 broader dimensions referred to as internalizing or externalizing

3 reasons why women may be more prone to internalizing disorders:

• gender socialization may reinforce rumination as a strategy for coping which may enhance the presence of negative thought patterns

• traditional gendered labour divisions often lead women into socially devalued low prestige occupations

• women are more at risk for sexual violence, rape and sexual aggression and may feel that they do not have control over what happens to them or their body

3 reasons why men may be more prone to externalizing disorders:

• young boys are taught to restrict emotional expressions to that of displays of anger

• boys exhibit higher rates of attentional deficit and impulse control problems than do girls which may result in impulse control issues as adults

• men also appear to be more likely to be diagnosed with disorders related to antisocial personality which may be in part due to the over adoption of masculine gender role ideals like hyper achievement at the expense of others and emotional callousness

who is more prone to eating disorders and why?

women because objectification theory and also in part may arise due to feelings of little control over life events

LGBTQ mental health?

they are diagnosed more frequently with both internalizing and externalizing disorders than heterosexual cisgender people this is due to minority stress theory which can over time predispose one to developing mental illness

factors that predict happiness and subjective well being are the…

same for both genders which is largely a sense of freedom to be who you are in the way that makes the most sense for you as a person - both women and men feel restricted by traditional gender role categorization; people who score highest on authenticity (balance between agency and communion) also score highest in personal mental health and connectedness to others