DEFINING AND DIAGNOSING MENTAL DISORDERS

Question 1

Distress

Answer 1

comes from three areas of negative emotion:

• fear/anxiety/worry
• depression/grief/sadness
• anger/rage/frustration

Question 2

Dysfunction

Answer 2

• difficult to unable to function in day to day life
• dysfunctional behaviour is situational specific e.g. levels of aggression
• someone might be dysfunctional but not distressed

Question 3

Deviance

Answer 3

normal distribution

- extremes are ‘abnormal’

Question 4

4th= Diagnosis

Answer 4

the process of deciding whether or not someone fits into a diagnostic category

Question 5

Some DSM categories of disorder

Answer 5

-neurodevelopmental
-psychotic
-depressive
anxiety
-sleeping
-personality
-eating

Question 6

The DSM 5 cut off criteria

Answer 6

1. time scale of symptoms
2. number of symptoms shown
3. frequency of symptoms in timescale
4. social and/or occupational impairment
5. qualifying adjectives: ‘often’, ‘very’, ‘excessive’, ‘clinically significant’.

Question 7

Evaluations of getting diagnosis

3+
3-

Answer 7

+provides psychological explanation
+get support from medical
+social support from others

• reduces self-fulfilment
• stigma/labelling
• addiction to therapy/drugs

*APA is heavily funded by pharmaceutical companies since 1980- panel members have financial ties to this industry.

Question 8

General

Answer 8

• individualised summary
• based on assumption that mental health symptoms are meaningful within the context of a person’s life events and experiences

Question 9

elements

Answer 9

1. summary of client’s care problems
2. theoretical linking of symptoms, difficulties, learnt habits, experiences and memories
3. hypothetical explanation on the basis of theory, why difficulties have developed now and in this situation
4. therapeutic plan including an array of possibilities and strategies for change
5. revision and re-formulation of plan over time

Question 10

Paradigms in clinical psychology 
-
Biological/biomedical
-
Theory and interventions

Answer 10

• brain abnormalities
• hormones
• too much or too little neurotransmitters
• egentics
• evolutionary basis
• drug therapy-most common
• ECT
• rarely surgery

Question 11

Paradigms in clinical psychology 
-
Biological/biomedical
-
Evaluations

Answer 11

+based on scientific evidence
+treatment effective/corrective
+respected in field
+suggests now avenues of research

• may not consider the tole of life events/ psychological causes
• treatments produce significant undesirable side effects

Question 12

Paradigms in clinical psychology 
-
Psychodynamic 
-
Theory and interventions

Answer 12

• behaviour is based upon underlying dynamic or psychological forces of which an individual us not aware
• the unconscious - id, ego , superego
• psychosexual development/ developmental stages: success= personal growth/ unsuccessful= fixation leading to psychological abnormality

Question 13

Paradigms in clinical psychology 
-
Psychodynamic 
-
Theory and interventions 
Defence mechanisms

Answer 13

hydraulic model: only a certain amount of tension which can be moved around

• repression- banishing highly threatening sexual or aggressive material from conscience
• fixations- when frustration and anxiety of the next psychosexual stage causes them to stay at the present level
• rationalisation- invention of socially acceptable explanation for how you are behaving

Question 14

Paradigms in clinical psychology 
-
Psychodynamic 
-
Evaluations

Answer 14

+ internal conflict is an important source
+ apply theory and techniques to treat the first and had big impact on the field

• not based on science
• unsupported, difficult ideas to research
• not observable and inaccessible

Question 15

Paradigms in clinical psychology 
-
Behavioural 
-
Theory and interventions

Answer 15

• determines by experiences
• learning
• classical and operant conditioning
• replacing problematic behaviours

Question 16

Paradigms in clinical psychology 
-
Behavioural 
-
Evaluations

Answer 16

+systematic desensitisation is based on classical conditioning
+useful

-did not emphasis the role of cognition

Question 17

Paradigms in clinical psychology 
-
Cognitive  
-
Theories and Interventions

Answer 17

• problematic behaviour patterns of thought and belief
• cognitive triad-depression
• Beck’s cognitive therapy
• CBT

Question 18

Paradigms in clinical psychology 
-
Cognitive
-
Evaluations

Answer 18

+clinically useful and effective
+unique human experiences
+research based
+effective in treating several disorders

• overemphasis on the present
• ignores other factors

Question 19

Paradigms in clinical psychology 
-
Humanistic  
-
Theories and Interventions

Answer 19

• individuals are motivated towards personal growth and self actualisation
• positive sense of self, individual choice/ goals
• influenced anti psychiatry movement
• client entered therapy
• Gestalt theory-awareness

Question 20

Paradigms in clinical psychology 
-
Humanistic
-
Evaluations

Answer 20

+emphasises the individual
+optimistic

• not directly testable
• little research
• unquantifiable concepts
• not much influence