Casual Factors and Models of Psychopathology

Question 1

What is a Model?

Answer 1

• A set of shared assumptions and concepts.
• An agreement about the main causes of abnormal behavior and how to study it.
• Helps scientists to explain and interpret data.

Question 2

Risk Factor Chart (on computer)

Answer 2

Look at chart

Question 3

Why are casual risk factors so hard to find and isolate?

Answer 3

Bidirectional Relationships (hard to tell what comes first and what comes second; depression and social withdrawal example)

Question 4

What is the Diathesis-Stress Model?

Answer 4

When a vulnerability is combined with a stressor within an environment, which increases the risk of developing a disorder.

Question 5

What is Diathesis?

Answer 5

Vulnerability toward a disorder. (can be biological-genes, psychological, or sociocultural-ethnic groups)

Question 6

Diathesis-Stress Model Graphs (on computer)

Answer 6

Look at the 2 graphs (general and ideal)

Question 7

Neuron and Neurotransmitter illustration (on computer)

Answer 7

Look at the illustration

Question 8

Action Potential illustration (on computer)

Answer 8

Look at illustration

Question 9

What are excitable neurotransmitters?

Answer 9

Neurotransmitters that will create a chain reaction of more neurons firing.

Question 10

What are inhibitory neurotransmitters?

Answer 10

Neurotransmitters that will inhibit the firing of more neurons.

Question 11

Explain Synaptic Transmission:

Answer 11

1. An electrical impulse reaches the ending of a neuron.
2. This stimulates the release of a neurotransmitter.
3. The neurotransmitter travels across the synapse (space between neurons) and comes in contact with the receptors of another neuron.
4. This stimulates electrical impulses in this new neuron.

Question 12

What is the Synaptic Gap?

Answer 12

The space between the terminal button on the axon of a sending neuron (sending neurotransmitter), and the dendrite of a receiving neuron. (receiving the sent neurotransmitter)

Question 13

What is the overall point of an Action Potential?

Answer 13

• To trigger the release of neurotransmitters into the synaptic gap.
• To prepare the neuron to transmit information between neurons and across the brain.

Question 14

Serotonin:

Answer 14

responsible for information processing and learning. Also implicated in mood/anxiety disorders. (depression)

Question 15

Norepinephrine:

Answer 15

responsible for emergency reactions under stress. (fight or flight)

Question 16

Dopamine:

Answer 16

responsible for pleasure or pain. Also implicated in schizophrenia.

Question 17

GABA:

Answer 17

reduces anxiety. (inhibitory neurotransmitter)

Question 18

Glutamate:

Answer 18

excitatory neurotransmitter that can be involved in information processing.

Question 19

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis:

Answer 19

This is important whenever there is stress. This creates a negative feedback loop. (look at the illustration on the computer)

Question 20

Genotype:

Answer 20

What the gene is specifically.

Question 21

Phenotype:

Answer 21

What the gene does/how it manifests.

Question 22

What studies show us that a disorder is heritable, but that does not tell us the specific gene involved?

Answer 22

Family Studies.

Question 23

Passive Effect: (in rGE)

Answer 23

genes can passively be related to our environment. (I.E. environment is also a result of our genes)

Question 24

Evocative Effect: (in rGE)

Answer 24

a child’s genes evoke particular reactions from their social and physical environment.

Question 25

Active Effect: (in rGE)

Answer 25

our genes actively shape our environment.

Question 26

What does rGE stand for?

Answer 26

correlation between Genes and Environment.

Question 27

How can we study Behavioral Genetics?

Answer 27

Through family histories, twin studies, or adoption studies. (this does not tell us about what genes are involved in a particular disorder)

Question 28

What 2 studies can tell us about what genes are involved in a particular disorder?

Answer 28

Linkage studies and Association Studies. (these studies require a large sample size)