PSY3PHI - Introduction to Psychological Health and Illness

Mental Illness, Psychological Distress, and Mental Health

  • Mental illness, psychological distress, and mental health are distinct concepts.
  • Mental health conditions develop through complex factors across a lifespan.
  • Mental illness can significantly burden individuals and communities.

Understanding Psychological Health and Illness

  • Psychology has historically focused on treating mental illness and maladaptive behaviors.
  • Medical model influence: Focused on curing mental disorders.
  • Paradigm shifts: Moving towards holistic approaches considering biological, psychological, cultural, and social factors.

Abnormal Behavior

  • Disease Model: Psychology worked with the disease model for over 60 years, from about the late 1800s into the middle part of the 20th century.
  • Positive Psychology: Focuses on human potential and nature, studying happiness, love, hope, and well-being.
  • Abnormal Behavior: Defined by personal distress, psychological dysfunction, deviance from social norms, dangerousness, and costliness to society.

Uni- vs. Multi-Dimensional Models of Abnormality

  • Uni-Dimensional Model: Explains mental disorders with a single factor.
  • Multi-Dimensional Model: Integrates multiple causes of psychopathology.

Models of Abnormality:

  • Biological: Genetics, chemical imbalances, nervous system functioning.
  • Psychological: Learning, personality, stress, cognition, self-efficacy, early life experiences (psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic-existential perspectives).
  • Sociocultural: Gender, religion, race, ethnicity, culture.

Developmental Perspective in Psychiatry

  • Psychiatric disorders manifest and evolve differently across life stages.
  • Different disorders have distinct ages of onset, influenced by genetics and environment.
  • Genetic risk factors can contribute to different disorders depending on the stage of development.

Defining and Classifying Mental Illness

  • Challenges in defining "normal" and "abnormal" behavior.
  • Psychological disorders involve psychological dysfunction that causes distress or impaired functioning and deviates from societal or cultural standards.

Classifying Mental Disorders

  • Classification: Organizes understanding of mental disorders, aiding in understanding cause, prediction, and treatment.
  • Nomenclature: Naming system for mental disorders.
  • Epidemiology: Study of the frequency and causes of diseases in specific populations.
  • Presenting Problem: Specific problem a patient presents with.
  • Clinical Description: Information about thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to the mental disorder.
  • Prevalence: Percentage of people in a population with a mental disorder.
    • Point Prevalence: Proportion at a specific time.
    • Period Prevalence: Proportion during a given period.
    • Lifetime Prevalence: Proportion at any time during their lives.
  • Incidence: Number of new cases in a population over a specific period.
  • Comorbidity: Occurrence of two or more mental disorders simultaneously.
  • Etiology: Cause of the disorder (social, biological, psychological).
  • Course: Pattern of the disorder (acute, chronic, time-limited).
  • Prognosis: Anticipated course of the disorder.
  • Treatment: Procedures to modify abnormal behavior.

Key Terms Related to Mental Disorders

  • Epidemiology: Study of disease frequency and causes in populations.
  • Etiology: Cause of the disorder.
  • Course: Pattern of the disorder (acute, chronic, time-limited).
  • Prevalence: Proportion of a population with a disorder. Types: point, period, and lifetime.
  • Incidence: Number of new cases over a period.
  • Comorbidity: Co-occurrence of multiple disorders.

Classification Systems

  • Provide agreed-upon categories, descriptions, and diagnostic criteria.
  • DSM: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Diagnostic Inflation Post-DSM-5

  • Concerns about expanding diagnostic criteria leading to overdiagnosis.
  • Factors: Lowered diagnostic thresholds, new/reclassified disorders, removal of bereavement exclusion, expansion of ADHD criteria, medicalization of normal experiences.

Individual Determinants of Psychological Health:

  • Individual characteristics, behaviors, and lifestyle factors influencing mental health.
    • Help-seeking behaviors, self-stigma, stress and coping, health-promoting behaviors, biological and psychological factors, communication and social skills.

Social Determinants

  • Community and structural factors influencing mental health.
    • Social inclusion, freedom from violence and discrimination, economic participation/income security.
  • Individual and Social Determinants of Psychological Health: Individual characteristics, behaviors, and lifestyle factors influencing mental health.

Stigma of Psychological Disorders

  • Prejudice and discrimination against individuals with mental illness.
    • Public stigma, label avoidance, self-stigma.
  • Stigma can lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment.