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PSYC 337 > Chapter 3: Causal Factors and viewpoints > Flashcards

Chapter 3: Causal Factors and viewpoints Flashcards

1
Q

What is a risk factor?

A

-A correlate that occurs before some outcome of interest
-Example: depression is a risk factor for suicide

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2
Q

What is a variable risk factor?

A

-A risk factor that can change within a person
-ex: level of depression can vary within a person

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3
Q

What is a fixed marker?

A

-A risk factor that cannot change within a person
-Race cannot vary within a person, and white race is a marker of increased risk of suicide death

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4
Q

What is a causal risk factor?

A

-A variable risk factor that, when changed, changes the likelihood of the outcome of interest
-If changing X leads to a change in Y, X may be a causal risk factor for Y.

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5
Q

What is ethology?

A

-the study of causation or origination
-causal pattern of leading to the emergence of specific mental health problems

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6
Q

What is a necessary cause?

A

-characteristic that must exist for a disorder to occur
-ex: general paresis is a degenerative brain disorder that cannot develop unless the person has contracted syphilis.
-PSYCHOLOGY DOES NOT HAVE NECESSARY CAUSES

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7
Q

What is sufficient cause?

A

-Condition that guarantees the occurrence of a disorder. If X occurs then Y will also occur

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8
Q

According to a theory what is a sufficient cause for depression?

A

-hopelessness
-Others may be life stresses, unemployment and childbirth.

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9
Q

What is a contributory cause?

A

-Increases the probability of a disorder developing but is neither necessary nor sufficient for the disorder to occur
-If X occurs, then the probability of Y occurring increases.
-Most factors that have been shown to play a possible causal role in the development of mental health problems would be considered contributory causes

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10
Q

What can certain personality traits be a contributory cause for?

A

-depression
-parental or peer rejection
-victim of bullying
-economic hardship

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11
Q

How can negative life events affect a person’s mental health?

A

-It can contribute to the development of mental disorders
-But they may not be necessary or sufficient in themselves.

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12
Q

What are distal risk factors?

A

-Occur early in life but don’t show effects for many years
-ex: loss of a parent in early, or abusive and neglectful parents, may be distal contributory cause predisposing to depression, antisocial behaviors later in life.

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13
Q

What are proximal risk factors?

A

-Occur shortly before the occurrence of symptoms
-ex: crushing academic disappointment or severe relational difficulty, proximal factors for depression
-ex 2: biological changes such as damage to certain parts of the left hemisphere of the brain

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14
Q

What is a reinforcing contributory cause?

A

-Condition/factor that tends to maintain maladaptive behaviour that is already occuring
-ex: when a person is ill, more attention, sympathy and relief from unwanted responsibility which can unintentionally discourage recovery
-ex 2: depressed behavior alienated friend and family, so greater sense of rejection that reinforces depression.

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15
Q

Why is it often difficult to determine what is a cause and what is an effect in behavioural science?

A

-Many interacting causes
-Effects can serve as feedback that in turn influence the causes

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16
Q

What are diathesis-stress models?

A

describe mental disorders that develop when someone with a pre-existing vulnerability for the disorder experiences a major stressor.

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17
Q

What is a diathesis?

A

-vulnerability
-predisposition to develop a disorder from biological, psycho, or socio causal factors

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18
Q

What is a stress?

A

Response of individual to taxing demands

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19
Q

example of diathesis-stress model?

A

-poor performance on an important task is the stressor
-perfectionism is the diathesis
-stronger negative reaction when high perfectionism

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20
Q

What are protective factors?

A

-decreases the likelihood of negative outcomes among those at risk, buffer the negative impact of stress on individuals
-ex: supportive family
-When stressful experiences are health with successfully, they increase confidence and self-esteem
-Adolescents who score high on emotional intelligence are less likely to show negative outcomes following childhood abuse.

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21
Q

What is resilience ?

A

Ability to adapt to very difficult circumstances

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22
Q

What is the biopsychological viewpoint?

A

Biological, psychological, and social factors all interact and play a role in psychopathology and treatment.

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23
Q

What are four categories of biological factors that seem particularly relevant to the development of maladaptive behavior?

A

-genetic vulnerabilities
-brain dysfunction and neural plasticity
-neurotransmitter and hormonal abnormalities in brain and CNS
-Temperament

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24
Q

What is an example with twins that shows that genetic vulnerability can be part of the reason for developing a mental disorder?

A

-MZ twins share the same genetic blueprint but not DZ twins
-There a 50% concordance rate between MZ twins that have schizophrenia and only 16% in DZ twins.
-This shows that genetics have something to do with it but not only because otherwise it would be 100% concordance rate.

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25
Q

What are personality traits and mental disorders influenced by genetically wise?

A

-abnormalities in some of the genes on the chromosomes
-polymorphisms: naturally occurring variations of genes

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26
Q

Vulnerabilities to mental disorders are almost always polygenic. What does polygenic mean?

A

Caused by the action of many genes together in an additive or interactive fashion.

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27
Q

What are genotype-environment correlations?

A

Occurs when the genotype shapes the environmental experiences a child has

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28
Q

What are the three ways in which an individuals’ genotype may shape his or her environment?

A

-passive effect: results from genetic similarities to parents (ex: highly intelligent parents may create a stimulating environment for their child thus interacting in a positive way with child’s genetic endowment for high intelligence)

-Evocative effect: results when the genotype evokes a reaction from the environment (ex: smiley baby will draw more positive responses fro the environment)

-Active effect: results when the child plays more of an active role in shaping the environment (ex: an extraverted child will create a social circle by coming forward to other children)

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29
Q

What do behavior genetics focus on?

A

studying the heritability of mental disorders

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30
Q

What were the three primary methods that have traditionally been used in behavior genetics?

A

-Family history method: examine the incidence of a disorder in the relatives of the index case, to determine whether incidence increases in proportion of the degree of the hereditary relationship.
-Twin method: use of identical and non-identical twins (compare concordance rates)
-Adoption method:

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31
Q

According to the bidirectional view of psychobiological development, what influences the psychobiological development of an individual ?

A

-Environment (physical, social, cultural)
-Behavior
-Neural activity
-Genetic activity
-Individual development

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32
Q

How can the state of neurotransmitter systems influence the behavior?

A

-neurotransmitter imbalances can bring on abnormal behaviour
-Imbalances can be created by:
Excessive production and release of NT substance into the synapse
Dysfunctions in the ways nt are deactivated
Problems with the receptors in the postsynaptic neuron

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33
Q

What 5 nt have been extensively studied in relationship to psychopathology?

A

-Norepinephrine
-Dopamine
-Serotonin
-Glutamate
-Gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA)

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34
Q

What is the master endocrine gland?

A

Pituitary gland

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35
Q

What does the HPA do? (Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis

A

-Release of epinephrine and stress hormone cortisol which provides negative feedback to the hypothalamus and pituitary to finally reduce the release of adrenaline and cortisol
-Malfunctioning of this negative feedback system has been implicated in various forms of psychopathology, including depression and post traumatic stress disorder

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36
Q

What is temperament?

A

-Child’s reactivity and characteristic ways of self-regulation
-Early temperament is basis fro which personality develops

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37
Q

What are the five dimensions of temperament that can be identified?

A

-Fearfulness
-Irritability/ frustration
-Positive affect
-Activity level
-Attentional persistence/effortful control

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38
Q

What are the three important dimensions of adult personality that temperamental characteristics seem to be related to?

A

(1) neuroticism or negative emotionality
(2) extroversion or positive emotionality
(3) constraint (conscientiousness and agreeableness)

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39
Q

What did Sigmund Freud emphasise on with the psychodynamic perspective ?

A

The role of unconscious motives and thoughts in the determination of both normal and abnormal behavior.

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40
Q

What is the Id in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?

A

-source of instinctual drives and is the first structure to appear in infancy
-life instincts: libido
-death instincts: destructive
-Operates on the pleasure principle (selfish and pleasure-oriented behaviour)
-Generates fantasies (primary process thinking)

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41
Q

What is the Ego in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?

A

-Ego: Second part of the personality that develops after the first few months of life
-Meet Id’s demands in a way that ensures the well-being and survival of the individual
-Secondary process thinking
-Ego operates on the reality principle

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42
Q

What is the superego in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?

A

-Third part of the personality that emerges from the ego
-Referred to as the conscience
-Interplay of id and ego, crucial to determining behaviour
-Unresolved conflict between the three lead to mental disorder (intrapsychic conflicts)

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43
Q

What are ego-defence mechanisms?

A

Irrational protective measures that reduce anxiety by helping a person push painful ideas out of consciousness rather than dealing directly with the problem.

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44
Q

Displacement?

A

Discharging feelings of hostility on objects less dangerous than those arousing the feelings. (Taking out your anger on someone else)

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45
Q

Fixation?

A

Attaching oneself in an unreasonable or exaggerated way to some person, or arresting emotional development on a childhood or adolescent level (ex: still depending on mother for basic needs)

46
Q

Projection?

A

Attributing one’s unacceptable motives or characteristics to others. (Louise qui te dit que tu prends jamais de nouvelles lol)

47
Q

Rationalisation?

A

Using contrived explanations to conceal or disguise unworthy motives for one’s behavior.

48
Q

Reaction formation?

A

Preventing the awareness or expression of unacceptable desires by an exaggerated adoption of seemingly opposite behaviour.

49
Q

Regression?

A

Retreating to an earlier developmental level involving less mature behavior and responsibility.

50
Q

Repression?

A

Preventing painful or dangerous thoughts from entering consciousness

51
Q

Sublimation?

A

Channeling frustrated sexual energy into substitutive activities. (ex: sexually frustrated artist paints widely erotic pictures or financially frustrated rappers make songs all about money and power)

52
Q

What did Anna Freud study?

A

Important role of the ego in normal and abnormal development and elaborated the theory of ego defense reactions

53
Q

What are the 5 psychosexual stages of development according to Freud?

A

-Oral stage (0 to 2): sucking for babies is greatest source of gratification
-Anal stage (2 to 3): toilet training. Major source of pleasurable stimulation
-Phallic stage (3 to 5): self-manipulation of genitals
-Latency period (6 to 12): more focused on developing skills and other activities
-Genital stage (after puberty): sexual relations

54
Q

According to Freud, what is important in the psychosexual stages, to ensure a stable sexual behavior ?

A

Appropriate gratification during each stage is important

55
Q

What are the four theories later theorist developed from Freud’s ideas?

A

-Ego psychology
-Object-relations theory
-Interpersonal perspective
-Attachment theory

56
Q

Ego psychology?

A

-Anna Freud
-Ego doesn’t function adequately to control impulse gratification
-Ego does not make adequate use of defence mechanisms when faced with internal conflicts

57
Q

Objects-relations theory?

A

-Focus on individual’s interactions with real and imagined people (eternal and internal objects)
-Relationship people experience with their external and internal objects
-introjection: internalise images of important people into your behavior

58
Q

Interpersonal perspective?

A

-psychopathology is rooted in the unfortunate tendencies we have developed while dealing with our interpersonal environment

59
Q

Attachment theory?

A

-John Bowlby
-emphasise the importance of early experience as laying the foundation for later functioning

60
Q

What was the main impact of the psychoanalytic perspective?

A

-First systematic approach to showing how human psychological processes can result in mental disorders
-Demonstrated that certain abnormal mental phenomena occur in an attempt to cope with difficult problems

61
Q

What are theories and techniques from Freud that are still used today?

A

1) There are psychological factors outside of our conscious awareness that influence our behaviour
2)Early childhood experiences can have an important and lasting impact on the development of both normal and abnormal personality

62
Q

What were two key criticisms of traditional psychoanalytic theory?

A

-Failure to realize the scientific limits of personal reports
-Lack of scientific evidence to support many of its assumptions or its effectiveness

63
Q

What are some criticisms of the Freudian theory in particular?

A

-Overemphasis of the sex drive
-Demeaning view of women
-Pessimistic view of basic human nature
-Exaggeration of the role of unconscious processes
-Failure to consider motives toward personal growth and fulfilment.

64
Q

Who developed an early cognitive-behavioral perspective?

A

Albert Bandura

65
Q

What is the main idea of the behavioral perspective?

A

The only way to have a basis for understanding human behavior is to study directly observed behavior and the stimuli and reinforcing conditions that control it.

66
Q

What is the definition of learning?

A

The modification of behaviour as a consequence of experience.

67
Q

What are the origins of the behavioral view tied to?

A

Classical conditioning

68
Q

What is Pavlov’s experiment?

A

-Dog in a harness with food under his nose
-Food is the unconditioned stimulus and salivation is the unconditioned response
-As stimulus that signals food and eventually elicits salivation is called and conditioned stimulus
-Conditioning has occurred when presentation of the conditioned stimulus alone elicits salivation-which becomes the conditioned response.

69
Q

How do we become conditioned to a stimulus?

A

-Actively acquire info about what CS allows us to predict
-We learn the stimulus-stimulus expectancy
-Classically conditioned responses are typically well maintained over time.

70
Q

How do we unlearn a conditioned response?

A

-Extinction occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented alone and the conditioned response gradually extinguishes.
-Spontaneous response is when the response returns at some future point.

71
Q

What is operant conditioning ?

A

An individual learns how to achieve a desired goal by reinforcement (delivery of a reward/pleasant stimulus)

72
Q

How do we learn from operant conditioning?

A

We learn a response-outcome expectancy: a response will lead to a reward outcome.

73
Q

What is conditioned avoidance response?

A

When a subject has been conditioned to anticipate an aversive event and consistently avoids those situations .

74
Q

What is the concept of generalization in classical and operant conditioning ?

A

-When a response is conditioned to one stimulus or set of stimuli, it can be evoked by other, similar stimuli.
-Discrimination occurs when a person learns to distinguish between similar stimuli and to respond differently to them based on which ones are followed by reinforcement

75
Q

What is observational learning?

A

Learning through observation alone, without directly experiencing an unconditioned stimulus or a reinforcer .

76
Q

What was the impact of the behavioural perspective?

A

-Attempts to explain the acquisition, modification and extinction of nearly all types of behavior.
-Well-known for it’s precision and objectivity, wealth of research
-Demonstrated effectiveness in changing specific behaviour

77
Q

What is maladaptive behaviour a result of in the behavioural perspective?

A

-failure to learn necessary adaptive behaviours or competencies
-learning ineffective or maladaptive responses

78
Q

What are some critics on the behavioural approach?

A

-Focus on specific behaviors
-Misconception that it over-simplifies human behavior

79
Q

What does Albert Bandura stress in the cognitive-behavioural perspective ?

A

-human beings regulate behaviour by internal symbolic processes (thoughts). That is, we learn by internal reinforcement.

80
Q

What does Albert Bandura theorise in his theory of self-efficacy?

A

-Belief that one can achieve desired goals
-Cognitive-behavioural treatments work by improving self-efficacy

81
Q

How does abnormal behaviour occur, according to the cognitive-behavioural perspective?

A

Thoughts and information processing can become distorted and lead to maladaptive emotions and behaviour.

82
Q

What is a schema in the cognitive-behavioural perspective?

A

-Underlying representation of knowledge that guides the current processing of information; often leads to distortions in attention, memory, and comprehension.
-Our schemas about the world around us and about ourselves are our guides

83
Q

What are self-schemas ?

A

-Our views of who we are, what we might become, and what is important to us.
-schemas and self-schemas: vital to our ability to engage in effective and organized behavior.
Although some may be distorted and inaccurate

84
Q

What is the attribution theory? In cognitive-behavioural approach

A

-Attribution: process of assigning causes to things that happen
-Attributional style: characteristic way in which an individual tends to assign causes to bad events or good events.

85
Q

Which attributional style do non-depressed people tend to have ? (cognitive-behavioural approach)

A

Tend to have a self-serving bias in which they are more likely to make internal, stable and global attributions for positive rather than negative events.

86
Q

Who initiated cognitive therapy?

A

Aaron Beck

87
Q

What is the idea of cognitive therapy? Aaron Beck

A

-Underlying cognitions issued to be producing the maladaptive emotions and behavior
-Beck proposed: the way we interpret events and experiences determines our emotional reactions to them.
-A central issue for cognitive therapy is how best to alter distorted and maladaptive cognition, including maladaptive schemas.

88
Q

What was the positive impact of the cognitive-behavioural perspective?

A

Greatly advanced by sophisticated information-processing studies on the effects of emotion on cognition and behavior.

89
Q

What are criticism about the cognitive-behavioural approach ?

A

-Skepticism of traditional behaviourists
-Criticisms have decreased in recent years because more evidence for the efficacy of cognitive-behavioural treatments for various disorders

90
Q

What is the idea in the social perspective?

A
  • To examine the types of social factors that make people vulnerable to disorder
    -Social factors are environmental influences (often unpredictable and uncontrollable negative events) that can negatively affect a person psychologically
91
Q

What are social factors that may have important detrimental effect on a child’s socioemotional development ?

A

-Early deprivation or trauma
-Problems in parenting style
-Marital discord and divorce
-Low socioeconomic status and unemployment
-Maladaptive peer relationships
-Prejudice and discrimination

92
Q

What is an example of early deprivation or trauma?

A

-Institutionalisation
-Most of these children show severe emotional, behavioural, and learning problems.
-Research suggests that some effects are persistent, but some other can be at least partially reversed with intervention.

93
Q

What are two negative effects institutionalised children are at risk for?

A

-disturbed attachment relationships and psychopathology
-Significant reduction in both gray and white matter volume

94
Q

What are negative effects that children victims of parental abuse are subject to?

A

-May be overly aggressive
-May suffer difficulties in linguistic development
-May develop significant problems in behavioural, emotional and social functioning
-May develop significant problems in behavioural, emotional, and social functioning.
-Likely to develop atypical patterns of attachment: disoriented/disorganised style of attachment.

95
Q

How long may negative effects of abuse last?

A

-May endure into adolescence and adulthood
-Significant proportion of abusive parents have been abused themselves
-May improve to some extent when the caring environment improves

96
Q

Who summarised the traumatic effects of being separated from parents as a kid?

A

Bowlby

97
Q

What are the main traumatic effects separation do to children?

A

-short-term or acute effects: significant despair during the separation, detachment from the parents upon reunion.
-After a number of such separations, an insecure attachment may develop
-Can also be longer-term effects of early separation from one or both parents

98
Q

How ca we characterise a parent-child relationship?

A

-Always bidirectional: the behavior of one affects the behavior of the other

99
Q

What effects do parental psychopathology have on children?

A

-Parents with psychopathology will tend to have one or more children who are at heightened risk for developmental difficulties
-Researchers believe that genetic influences cannot account for all of the adverse effects that parental psychopathology can have on children.

100
Q

What are the 4 types of parenting styles?

A

-Authoritative
-Authoritarian
-Permissive/indulgent
-Neglectful/Uninvolved

101
Q

What is authoritative parenting style?

A

-High on warmth
-Moderate on control
-Clear limit and restriction setting
-Children: Tend to be friendly and to show development of general competencies for dealing with others and with their environments.

102
Q

What is authoritarian parenting style?

A

-Low on warmth
-High on control
-Cold and demanding
-Children: conflicted, irritable and moody. More negative outcomes, especially boys, in social and cognitive skills

103
Q

What is permissive/indulgent parenting style?

A

-High on warmth, low on control and discipline
-Children: impulsive and aggressive, spoiled, selfish, impatient, inconsiderate, demanding.

104
Q

What is neglectful/uninvolved parenting style?

A

-Low on warmth
-Low on control
-Children: moody, low self-esteem, conduct problems, problems with peer relationships and with academic performances.

105
Q

What stressors may severe cases of marital discord expose children to?

A

-abuse or neglect
-effects of living with mentally ill parent
-authoritarian or uninvolved parenting
-spousal abuse

106
Q

In what case might the negative effects of marital discord be buffered?

A

One or both parents is warm, prone toggling praise and approval, able to inhibit rejecting behavior toward their children

107
Q

What are the effects of divorce on the parents?

A

-Alot of divorced and separated people in psychiatric patients
-But divorce sometimes benefits some individuals

108
Q

What are the effects of divorce on children?

A

-Long-lasting modestly negative effects
-Effects of divorce more favourable than the effects of remaining in a home with marital discord
-Children living with stepparents: increased risk for physical abuse

109
Q

What are the effects of low socioeconomic status and unemployment in children?

A

-Higher the incidence of mental and physical disorders
-Childre from lower SES: more psycho problems
-Studies found unemployment is associated with enhanced vulnerability to psychopathology.

110
Q

What is an example of maladaptive peer relationship that can strongly impact a child?

A

-Bullying
-Bullies: high level of proactive and reactive aggression
-Most children don’t do anything to discourage bullying
-1/3 of teens who use the internet engage in cyberbullying
-Effects can be: anxiety, school phobia, lower self-esteem, and suicidal thoughts.

111
Q

What are two common types of workplace discrimination?

A

-Access discrimination: members of a certain group are not hired because of their personal characteristics.
-Treatment discrimination: paid less, receive fewer opportunities for promotion.

112
Q

What the effects of prejudice and discrimination?

A

-Increase likelihood of negative health outcomes
-experience or perception of racial discrimination leads to increases in anger and cardiovascular reactivity
-Discrimination increases risk-taking behaviour

PSYC 337 (2 decks)

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