2300 Textbook Midterm

Psychopathology

The field of psych concerned with the nature and development of abnormal behaviour, thoughts and feelings

Challenges with Studying Abnormal Psych

Remaining objective

Abnormal behaviour

Characteristics such as statistical infrequency, violation of norms, personal distress, disability or dysfunction, and unexpectedness

Statistical infrequency

infrequent of general population and outside of normal curve

Violation of norms makes abnormality a

relative concept - can be affected by cultural diversity

Personal Suffering and abnormal behaviour

behaviour is abnormal if it creates distress - BUT not all abnormality causes distress and not all distress is abnormality

Disability

impairment in some area of life - applies to some but not all disorders

Distress and disability are considered abnormal when

anxiety is unexpected response to environmental stressors

Demonology

the idea that an evil being may dwell within a person and control their mind/body

Exorcism

casting out evil spirits

Trepanning

making of a surgical opening in a living skull so evil spirits could escape

Somatogensis

idea that something wrong with the soma (physical body) disturbs thoughts and actions

Hippocrates separated

medicine from religion / magic / superstition - he thought brain was organ of consciousness

Psychogenesis

belief that disturbance has psychological origins

3 Categories of Mental Disorders (Hippocrates)

1. Mania

2. Melancholia

3. Phrentis (brain fever)

Hippocrates' theory (humoral physiology)

human behaviour is affected by body structures/substances and abnormal behaviour is produced by physical imbalance/damage

What marked beginning of dark ages for Western European medicine and treatment of abnormal behaviour

Death of Galen - influence of churches was regained

Persecution of witches

People accused of witchcraft were tortured if they did not confess

Mentally ill were considered

witches

Beginning of 13th century

“lunacy” trials were held to determine sanity

Asylum

refuges established for mentally ill

Bedlam

a hospital for the mentally ill in London

Benjamin Rush

father of American Psychiatry - thought mental disorder was caused by excess of blood to brain - favourite treatment was to withdraw blood or scare it out of them

Phillippe Pinel

primary figure in movement for humanitarian treatment of mentally ill - believed central aspect was restoring patients sense of self-esteem - but this was reserved for upper class

York Retreat (William Turke)

Quiet, religious atmosphere to relax and rest - Benevolent theory

Moral treatment approach

involved sympathetic and attentive treatment - was abandoned in later part of 19th century

What was most common treatment in mental hospitals

drugs - outcomes not favourable

Dorothy Dix

taught Sunday school at prisons and was shocked at poor conditions - later helped fix conditions of mental hospitals

When were mentall ill people admitted into asylums in Canada

as early as 1714

When did psychiatric asylums emerge in Canada

decades following 1840

J.F Lehman - 1840ish

first textbook published in Canada about control and care of mentally ill - recommended harsh treatments

Thomas Sydenham

successful in advocating an empirical approach to classification and diagnosis

Griesinger

insisted that any diagnosis of mental disorder has specific biological cause - somatogenic view

Kraepelin 1883

published textbook of psychiatry with a classification system with biological nature of mental illness

Syndrome

certain group of symptoms

Two Major groups of severe mental diseases (Kraepelin)

1. Dementia praecox (schizophrenia): caused by chemical imbalance

2. Manic-depressive psychosis (bipolar): caused by irregularity in metabolism

General persis

deterioration in mental and physical health

Germ theory of disease (Pasteur)

disease is caused by infection by minute organisms - demonstrated link between syphilis and general perisis

Search for somatogenic causes dominated abnormal psychology until

well into 20th century

Mesmer thought

hysterical disorders were caused by distribution of magnetic fluid in the body

Charcot started with…

somatogenic view, but then had a patient cured by hypnosis and changed views

Cathartic Method (Bruer)

experience of reliving an earlier emotional catastrophe and releasing the emotional tension of the suppressed thoughts - began with study of Anna O

Mental illness = dangers:

Has not been proved - but small correlated between schitzophrenia and violent acts

Incidence of violence is higher for people with mental illness only when

it co-exists with substance abuse/addictions

Who opened CMHA

Clarence Hinks

Heather Stuart developed

preventative intervention for anti-stigma in 2006

Self-Stigma

the tendency to internalize mental health stigma and see oneself as in more negative terms because of a psychological issue

Mental health literacy

the accurate knowledge that a person develops about mental illness and its causes and treatments

Mental health literacy is mostly found in

younger, educated, and those with personal experience

Canadians have good understanding of

depression - less of anxiety - less of schitzophrenia

1/10 Canadians 15+ reported symptoms during

previous 12 months

Province w Best Mental Health

Newfoundland and Labrador

2 Key Recommendations for Transforming Canada’s Mental Health Transition Fund

1. Mental Health Commission of Canada - Pave way for national action plan (improve policies, education, stigma…)

2. Mental Health Transition Fund - So federal government can make time-limited investments to cover transition costs

Evidence-based treatment

supported by enough controlled data

Wait times for treatments (2015)

19.5 weeks - too long

Community psychologists

go out to seek problems - focus on prevention

Paradigm

a set of basic assumptions that outline the particular universe of scientific inquiry

Biological paradigm of abnormal behaviour

mental disorders are caused by aberrant biological processes

When was biological paradigm dominant in Canada

1800s to middle of 20th century

Hereditary predisposes a person to have increased risk of

schizophrenia

Depression is from (bio)

chemical imbalances in brain

Anxiety (bio)

from defect in autonomic NS that makes one aroused easily

Dementia (bio)

from impairment of brain structure

Behaviour genetics

the study of individual differences in behaviour attributed in part to differences in genetic make up

Genotype

total genetic makeup of an individual

Phenotype

totality of persons observable, behavioural characteristics like anxiety

4 Basic Methods used by Behaviour Genetics to Determine whether a Predisposition for Psychopathology in Inherited

1. Comparison of members of a family

2. Comparison of pairs of twins

3. Investigation of adoptees

4. Linkage analysis

Index cases / probands

the people in investigations that have the diagnosis in question

Similarity in diagnosis between twins is higher in

MZ than DZ

Investigation of adoptees is beneficial because

it eliminates the effects of being raised by same/disordered parents

Molecular genetics

tries to specify the particular genes involved with functions

Genetic polymorphism

variability that occurs among members of of the species

Linkage analysis

a method used in molecular genetics to study people

Gene-environment interactions

a disorder or related symptoms are the joint product of genetic vulnerability and specific environmental experiences or conditions.

Temperament

constitutionally based differences in reactivity and self-regulation - expressed in behaviours

3 Temperament Styles Corresponding to 3 General Types of Young Children (Thomas and Chess)

1. The difficult child

2. The easy child

3. The hard-to-warm-up child (more reserved)

3 Types of Categories of Personality in Children (Robins)

1. Resilient - copes well, high SE and IQ

2. Overcontrolled - overly inhibited and prone to distress - shy, lonely, moderate SE and IQ

3. Under controlled - act out, aggressive

Neuroscience

study of the brain and the NS

Nerve impulse

change in the electric potential of the cell

Neurotransmitters

chemical substance that allows nerve impulse to cross synapse

Norepinephrine

produces high arousal and is involved in anxiety

Biological approach to treatment

prevention or treatment should be possible by altering bodily function

Deep brain stimulation

treatment of disorders through low electrical impulses through brain

Reductionism

the view that what is being studied can and should be reduced to its most basic elements

Behaviour perspective on abnormal behaviour:

view abnormal behaviour as responses learned in the same way other human behaviour is learned

Behaviourism

focuses on observable behaviour rather than on consciousness

Classical conditioning

elicits natural responses to unnatural stimuli 

Extinction

when the conditioned response disappears

Operant conditioning

when behaviors are modified through the association of stimuli with reinforcement or punishment

Discriminative stimulus

refers to external events that in effect tell an organism if it performs a certain event, a certain consequence will follow

Modelling

learning by watching and imitating others

Behaviour therapy

applied procedure based on clinical and operant conditioining to alter clinical problems

3 Theoretical Approaches in Behaviour therapy

1. Modelling

2. Counterconditioning and exposure

3. Operant conditioning

Counterconditioning

relearning done by eliciting a new response in the presence of a particular stimulus (form of systematic desensitization)

Aversive conditioning

another form of counter conditioning in which a stimulus attractive to the client is paired with an unpleasant event to make the stimulus less attractive

Cognition

the mental processes of perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, judging and reasoning

Cognitive paradigm

focuses on how people structure their experiences, make sense of them, and relate their current experiences to past experiences, that have been stored in memory

Schema

network of accumulated knowledge

Beck’s Cognitive Therapy

developed cognitive therapy based on idea that depressed mood is caused by distortions in the way people perceive life experiences

Goal of Beck Therapy

to alter negative schemas, dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes