PSYCH CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY (5)

  1. Coping: alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods

  2. Problem focused coping: trying to alleviate stress by changing stressor how we interact with that stressor

    • When we think stress is a problem to be solved, sense of control over situation

  3. Emotion focused coping: attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring stressor and just focusing on emotional needs related to how we react to the stress

    • We think we do not have control over situation, we use strategies like reaching out to others, mediation, and eating comfort foods

 

Perceived lack of control

  1. Personal control: sense of controlling environment versus feeling helpless

  2. Learned helplessness: the hopelessness and passive resignation humans and other animals learn when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

    • Just giving up even when u can escape, think you can't, overtime learn to be helpless

 

Types of Control

  1. Internal locs control: think and know that we ourselves are more control

    • have more success, independence, less depression, better health

  2. External locus control: thinking that outside forces out of our control, control our fate

    • More stress, anxiety and ptsd

 

  1. Self - control: delay instant gratification and control impulses for greater long-term rewards

  2. Willpower depletion effect: some research says when we use self-control, it becomes weaker and needs to replenish itselt

Effects of lack of control on health:

  • Thinking we have no control makes us vulnerable to illnesses

  • Economic status and longevity connects to lack of personal control that comes with poverty

  • More feeling of control improves health and wellness

  • Too much choice can bring info overload and increase feelings of regret

 

  • Social support vs. social isolation, the support is better for you mentally and physically to increase happiness and health

  1. Feel-good-do-good phenomenon: people most likely to do good when in good mood

  2. Positive psychology: study of human flourishing with goal of promoting strengths and virtues to create well- being, resilience, and positive emotions to help people and communities

    • Studies positive emotions, positive characteristics, and enabling institutions

    • Happinesses is central to human behavior, happy people thinks world is safer, more confident and cooperate more easily

    • Can predict future success in relationships

    • What's right with you in psychology vs. focusing on what's wrong

  3. Subjective well-being: self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life, looking at actually things to identify people's lives, all opiniated, what does happiness mean to you

  4. Relative deprivation: idea that we are worse off them those who we compare ourselves with

  5. Adaptation-level phenomenon: tendency to form judgments based on prior experiences from a defined neutral point or level

    • Happens to bring us down back to neutral, feeling elated and riding the wave but then going back to normal level emotions

  6. Extreme inequality: at some point when you own so much money, it does nothing to promote to your happiness, is socially toxic and can affect happiness levels

  7. Income satiation: the amount of money that can buy happiness or bring you happiness and anything over doesn't really change your emotions

 

Happy people share similarities in nature and nurture

  • Small gene effects/similarities

  • Our experiences balance around a level defined by our experiences

  • Culture influences traits we value

  • National policies that increase prosperity, equity, trust, and freedoms can change individual levels of happiness

 

  1. Broaden and build theory:  positive emotions broaden our awareness overtime builds novel and meaningful skills and resilience that improve well-being

  2. Character strength and virtues: classification system to identify positive traits organized into categories of wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence

  1. Resilience: personal strength that helps cope with stress and recover from trauma or issues

  2. Aerobic exercise: sustained exercise that increase heart and lung fitness also helps alleviate depression and anxiety

  3. Biofeedback: recording amplifying and feeding back information about subtle physiological changes

  4. Mindfulness meditation: being aware of your body awareness and calm yourself and emotions, more receptive and relaxed

  5. Gratitude:  appreciative emotion people experience when they benefit from other's actions or recognize their own good fortune

Faith factor: religious activity can affect health and longevity, correlation not causation though can influence statistics

 

Benefits of exercise:

  • Can boost mood, muscles relaxation, and produce sounder sleep

  • Promote neurogenesis and increase mood lifting neuro transmitters such as endorphins and serotonin

  • Can improve self-image and confidence

  1. Psychological disorder: collection of symptoms marked by a disruption to thoughts, emotions or behaviors that causes distress or suffering

  2. Dysfunctional/maladaptive: interfere with normal daily life

  3. Medical model: look at mental disorders as diseases as a health movement to be diagnosed, with symptoms, treatment, and therapy such as any other illness

  4. Culture-bound: associated with specific cultures

  5. Diathesis- Stress model: assumes that individual genetic predispositions combine with environmental stressors to influence psychological disorder

  6. Epigenetics: how DNA and environment interact

  7. Comorbidity/Co-occurrence: one disorder diagnose is higher risk for another

  8. DSM-5-TR: Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders; most common tool used to describe disorders

  9. Immigrant paradox: immigrants have less risk of mental disorder than their same culture counterparts born in US, ironic

  • View of problem influences how we solve it

  • Philippe Pinel: a reformer who believed in madness as mental caused by stress and being treated poorly, saying must talk to patients and boost their moral to help them, give good conditions

  1. Anxiety disorders: distressing, persistent anxiety by dysfunctional anxiety-reducing behaviors

 

  1. Social Anxiety: become anxious in social situations when people might judge them

 

  1. Maladaptive: not providing adequate or appropriate adjustment to environment or situation, hinder individuals ability to adapt to new or challenging situations

    • Avoidance, passive-aggressiveness, risky decision-making often prevent problem solving/coping strategies, interfere with daily life and well-being

 

  1. Generalized anxiety disorder: person for no reason worries about many things can't control, always tense and uneasy

    • 6 mo. Or more

    • Often women and all more jittery, on edge, sleep deprived

    • Autonomic nervous system

 

  1. Panic disorder: experience of panic attacks, fears next attack, with dread and physical arousal

    • Overwhelm of uncontrollable symptoms

    • Recurrent panic attacks

    • Some ig. Can be associated with culture (ataque de nervios)

    • Smokers more common and more impact

 

  1. Specific phobias: person is terrified of something specific, irrational and avoiding

 

  1. Free floating: not linked to a specific stressor threat

 

  1. Agoraphobia: fear of public situations where might be hard to escape

    • Avoid leaving their homes/safe space

  2. Obsessive-compulsive disorder: unwanted repetitive thought (obsessions), actions (compulsions) or both

 

  1. Hoarding disorder:  cluttering space with things they've gotten and can't part with

 

  1. Intrusive thoughts: thoughts you cannot stop

 

  1. Body dysmorphic disorder: preoccupation with perceived body defects

 

  1. Trichotillomania: hair pulling disorder

 

  1. Posttraumatic stress disorder:  haunting memories, nightmares, hypervigilance, avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for 4 weeks or more after a traumatic experience

 

  1. Trauma and stressor related disorder:  group of disorders in which exposure to a traumatic or stressful event is followed by psychological distress.

 

  1. Survivor resiliency: recovering with healthy functioning

 

In trauma = amygdala circutes a fear response

 

In OCD = anterior cingulate cortex is overactive

  1. Depressive disorders: group of disorders where one endures sad, empty, irritable mood plus physical and cognitive changes affecting person's ability to function

    • Major depressive disorder: person has five/plus symptoms for two or more weeks, in absence of drug use or medical condition, either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure (significant/sudden change)

      • Depressed most of the time

      • Reduced interest/enjoy of things most of time

      • Changes in eating, sleep, energy, more agitated, self-esteem, guilty

      • lethargy

      • Suicidal thought

      • Opposite of mania: frontal lobe is super active, thinking/overthinking, limbic is not active (lack of energy and not getting out of bed)

    • Persistent depressive disorder: have experienced depressed mood more often than not for at least two years

      • Can't focus or make choice

      • Hopeless

      • Poor self-esteem, energy levels, sleep, eating

 

  1. Bipolar disorders: group of disorders where a person alternates between hope

less and lethargy of depression and overexcited mania.

  • Bipolar I Disorder: experience mania for week or more, extreme then plunge into severe depression, sometimes go back and forth called rapid cycling

  • Mania: euphoric, talkative, high energy, really ambitious state, dangerously poor judgement

    • In manic phase, frontal lobe is less active (not thinking just acting and behaving), limbic system is SUPER active (feel everything and energy)

  • Bipolar II Disorder: after this euphoric thing, go between depression and milder hypomania, less severe version of B1

 

 

  1. Social-Cognitive Perspective: explores how people's assumptions and expectations influence what they perceive

 

  1. Rumination: compulsive fretting; overthinking our problems and their causes.

 

  1. Explanatory style: how you view a situation optimistic or pessimistic

DEPRESSION

BIPOLAR

  • Number one mental health need = depression

  • Possibly because of seasons but not a true per say presumption

  • Behaviors and thoughts change; more likely to be negative, inexplicable sadness

  • Widespread and more common in women

    • Because of overthink and continuously staying on a problem

    • comparison

  • Episodes end on own, therapy speeds recovery, can end naturally w/o ever coming back

  • Depression sometimes returns

  • Stress plus negative events cause depression/come before

  • Getting more common as time comes on in teens and young adults

  • Whole body disorder w/

    • genetic predispositions: run in family, if siblings or twins have high chance you will to

    • brain connectivity issues: during this, brain activity slows especially in reward centers

    • biochemical imbalances:

      • low epinephrine = drug that increases arousal and boosts mood

      • Low serotonin = low during depression but after/when fades increases

    • plus the whole emotional stuff

  • Low views of themselves, situation, and future

  • Explanatory style/ whether you see situation pessimistically or optimistically

  • Also happens with self-defeating beliefs and learned helplessness

 

OVERALL

  1. Stressful experiences interpreted through

  2. Brooding negative explanatory style leading to

  3. Depressed state that

  4. Messes with way person acts and things (cognitive and emotionally)

  1. Fuels more stressful experiences and negativity

  1. Schizophrenia spectrum disorder: disorders characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking & speech, disorganized/unusual motor behavior, and negative symptoms (such as poor emotional expression)

 

  • Schizophrenia: characterized by frequent and intense hallucinations and delusions and an inability to abandon such thoughts and perceptions when it’s clear that they are disconnected from reality.

    • Symptoms:

      • Positive = inappropriate behaviors are present/talk in disorganized & deluded ways, show inappropriate laughter, tears, or rage (things that are there that we would not expect to see in a normal person)

      • Negative = inappropriate behaviors are absent/absence of emotion in their voices, expressionless faces, or mute and rigid bodies. (things not there that we would expect to see in a normal person)

        • More in men

      • Hallucinate with voices (hallucinations -= false perceptions)

      • Delusions: disorganized, fragmented thinking distorted by false beliefs

        • Paranoid delusions = think there is a threat

      • Selective attention = giving all focus to unrelated stimuli (tone in voice and not what voice is saying, grooves in wall not etc)

      • Word Salad: Disorganized speech, saying random thoughts jumbled with no connection or ideas

      • Diminished/ inappropriate emotions where laugh at grandma dead or have no apparent feeling, may also struggle reading other people

    • Brain abnormalities:

      • Excess dopamine (dopamine hypothesis)

      • Maybe low frontal lobe brain activity

      • Large activity in core regions such as thalamus and amygdala

      • Enlarged ventricles, shrinkage of cerebral tissue (more shrinkage = more severe) , both inherited genetically

    • Causes: Prenatal?

      • Not the best pregnancies (famine, sickness, things that mess with development and therefor small brain structures)

      • Delivery complications

    • Role of Genetics

      • Twins develop the same genes and prenatal environment so more likely to have similar disorders

      • Genes do play role

      • Epigenetics/ what we are exposed to that triggers gene activation

 

  • schizotypal personality disorder: experience discomfort in close relationships, have distorted thoughts and perceptions, and engage in eccentric behaviors

    • Both have irrational beliefs and unusual behaviors

 

  1. Psychotic Disorders: a group of disorders marked by irrational ideas, distorted perceptions, and a loss of contact with reality. (unable to distinguish between can't mark between internal world and reality

 

  1. Chronic Schizophrenia: symptoms show late adolescence or early adulthood, episodes last longer and recovery periods shorten, more negative symptoms

  2. Acute schizophrenia: start at any age, as response to traumatic event, more likely to recovery, more positive symptoms

  1. issociative Disorders: person's conscious awareness dissociates/separates from painful memories, thoughts, and feelings; discontinuity of normally who they are/do

    • Can lead to fugue state: sudden loss of memory, identity change responding to stressful situation

 

  1. (DID) Dissociative Identity Disorder: two (plus distinct identities - each own voice and mannerisms - control a person's behavior; come from extreme sexual or physical abuse; lowkey controversial because it is hard to prove

    • Seen in shrinkage in brain parts and lower activity in hippocampus (dissociative amnesia)

 

  1. Malingering: faking a condition to avoid responsibility

 

  1. Dissociative Amnesia: memory gaps in people with normal brains

    • Not remembering trauma, people, places, or parts of their identity and life history

 

  1. Personality Disorders: 10 disorders where one endures inner experiences or behavior pattern different from cultural norms and expectations, pervasive and inflexible; Start in adolescence/young adult; Stable over time and cause distress or impairment

    • Cluster A: people = eccentric or odd

      • Paranoid PD

      • Schizoid PD (social detachment)

      • Schizotypal PD (magical thinking)

    • Cluster B: people = dramatic emotional, or erratic

      • Borderline PD (attention getting)

      • Narcissistic PD (self-focused/inflating)

      • Histrionic PD (excessively emotional)

      • Antisocial PD

    • Cluster C: people = anxious or fearful

      • Avoidant PD (fearful sensitivity to rejection)

      • Dependent PD (clingy)

      • Obsessive-Compulsive PD (things must be order, perfect and control)

 

  1. Antisocial Personality Disorder: (usually men) show lack of conscience for wrong doing, may be aggressive and ruthless or clever con artist; not just unsociable

    • Aka sociopaths or psychopaths

    • Socially deficient with less emotional intelligence

    • High risk if bio related to antisocial/unemotional tendencies

    • Genes with this also increase risk of substance use disorder (comorbidity/gene overlap)

    • Show low arousal in nervous system, lower stress hormones,

    • Smaller frontal lobes, less thinking planning, and feeling overall

 

  1. Feeding and Eating Disorders: altered eating of food impairing psychological functioning and health

    • Share commonalities with anxiety disorders

    • High standards of perfection

    • Heretical and cultural/gender influence

  2. Anorexia Nervosa: usually adolescent female maintain starvation diet despite being significantly underweight, inaccurate self-perception and sometimes excessive exercise

 

  1. Bulimia Nervosa: person binge eats then bad weight loss promoting behavior, throwing up, laxative, fasting, excessive exercise

 

  1. Neurodevelopmental Disorders: central nervous system abnormalities (usually in the brain) start in childhood and alter thinking and behavior (as in intellectual limitations or a psychological disorder).

    • Specific Learning Disorders: chronic difficulties perceiving and processing information (dyslexia)

    • Motor Disorders: impair ability to communicate, interact with others, or perform necessary tasks

      • Developmental coordination disorder (extreme slowness and clumsiness)

      • Stereotypic movement disorder (repetitive/unnecessary moves)

      • Tics/Tourette's

    • Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): cognitive and social emotional disorder limitations in communication and social interaction, fixated interests and repetitive behaviors

      • Poor communication in brain's regions less connected/can't work together (front to back)

      • Hard time reading people/inferring

      • Hard time connecting with people

      • More common in boys and systemizes (objective, numerical, linear)

      • Genes and poor prenatal environments

    • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

      • Inattention, distractibility, hyperactivity, impulsivity

      • Causes = genetics and learning disorders combined with defiant temperaments

      • Not associated with boring schools or rigid structure, abnormal brain structures and activity are present

      • Treatments involve both biological and psychological interventions

  1. painful memories, thoughts, and feelings; discontinuity of normally who they are/do

    • Can lead to fugue state: sudden loss of memory, identity change responding to stressful situation

 

  1. (DID) Dissociative Identity Disorder: two (plus distinct identities - each own voice and mannerisms - control a person's behavior; come from extreme sexual or physical abuse; lowkey controversial because it is hard to prove

    • Seen in shrinkage in brain parts and lower activity in hippocampus (dissociative amnesia)

 

  1. Malingering: faking a condition to avoid responsibility

 

  1. Dissociative Amnesia: memory gaps in people with normal brains

    • Not remembering trauma, people, places, or parts of their identity and life history

 

  1. Personality Disorders: 10 disorders where one endures inner experiences or behavior pattern different from cultural norms and expectations, pervasive and inflexible; Start in adolescence/young adult; Stable over time and cause distress or impairment

    • Cluster A: people = eccentric or odd

      • Paranoid PD

      • Schizoid PD (social detachment)

      • Schizotypal PD (magical thinking)

    • Cluster B: people = dramatic emotional, or erratic

      • Borderline PD (attention getting)

      • Narcissistic PD (self-focused/inflating)

      • Histrionic PD (excessively emotional)

      • Antisocial PD

    • Cluster C: people = anxious or fearful

      • Avoidant PD (fearful sensitivity to rejection)

      • Dependent PD (clingy)

      • Obsessive-Compulsive PD (things must be order, perfect and control)

 

  1. Antisocial Personality Disorder: (usually men) show lack of conscience for wrong doing, may be aggressive and ruthless or clever con artist; not just unsociable

    • Aka sociopaths or psychopaths

    • Socially deficient with less emotional intelligence

    • High risk if bio related to antisocial/unemotional tendencies

    • Genes with this also increase risk of substance use disorder (comorbidity/gene overlap)

    • Show low arousal in nervous system, lower stress hormones,

    • Smaller frontal lobes, less thinking planning, and feeling overall

 

  1. Feeding and Eating Disorders: altered eating of food impairing psychological functioning and health

    • Share commonalities with anxiety disorders

    • High standards of perfection

    • Heretical and cultural/gender influence

  2. Anorexia Nervosa: usually adolescent female maintain starvation diet despite being significantly underweight, inaccurate self-perception and sometimes excessive exercise

 

  1. Bulimia Nervosa: person binge eats then bad weight loss promoting behavior, throwing up, laxative, fasting, excessive exercise

 

  1. Neurodevelopmental Disorders: central nervous system abnormalities (usually in the brain) start in childhood and alter thinking and behavior (as in intellectual limitations or a psychological disorder).

    • Specific Learning Disorders: chronic difficulties perceiving and processing information (dyslexia)

    • Motor Disorders: impair ability to communicate, interact with others, or perform necessary tasks

      • Developmental coordination disorder (extreme slowness and clumsiness)

      • Stereotypic movement disorder (repetitive/unnecessary moves)

      • Tics/Tourette's

    • Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): cognitive and social emotional disorder limitations in communication and social interaction, fixated interests and repetitive behaviors

      • Poor communication in brain's regions less connected/can't work together (front to back)

      • Hard time reading people/inferring

      • Hard time connecting with people

      • More common in boys and systemizes (objective, numerical, linear)

      • Genes and poor prenatal environments

    • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

      • Inattention, distractibility, hyperactivity, impulsivity

      • Causes = genetics and learning disorders combined with defiant temperaments

      • Not associated with boring schools or rigid structure, abnormal brain structures and activity are present

      • Treatments involve both biological and psychological interventions

  • Could be like someone brings it up (can I talk to this other part of you) and then start convincing themselves/doing it (actors becoming their roles)

  • Or like how you act different ways with different people (friends vs. boss)

  • Shrinkage in areas with memory and detection of threats

  • Lower activity in hippocampus, brain's memory center

  • Could be a defense against anxiety/coping because this other identity can do unacceptable impulses