Lecture 2 : causes of mental illnesses

Question 1

lecture themes

Answer 1

1. Major Paradigms
2. Psychoanalytic Paradigm
3. Biological Paradigm
4. Behavioural Paradigm
5. Cognitive Paradigm
6. Psychosocial Factors
7. Biopsychosocial Model

Question 2

Paradigm

Answer 2

A viewpoint/set of assumptions about how to understand, study, or treat psychological disorders

Question 3

Major Paradigms

Answer 3

1. Psychoanalytic
2. Biological
3. Learning/Behavioural
4. Cognitive
5. Humanistic/Existential

Question 4

Paradigms: Psychoanalytic

Answer 4

Classical Freudian Theory

Structure of the mind
- Id : Pleasure principle (basic urges for food, water, warmth, sex; present at birth)

• Ego: Reality principle (task is to deal with reality; begins to develop from id after 6 months)
• Superego: Conscience (what is “right” and “wrong”; develops throughout childhood)

Question 5

Defence Mechanisms

Answer 5

Unconscious strategies to protect the ego from distress:

• Repression: pushing unaceptable thoughts to your unconcious
  (ex: cant think about sex, because im religious) - not aware
• Denial:Refusing to accept reality or facts
  (ex: im not moving away even though i am)
• Projection: Attributing one’s own thoughts, feelings, or impulses to others
  (ex: i hate my boss> he hates me )
• Displacement:Redirecting emotions from the original source to a safer target.
  (ex: im angry at my boss, i yell at my mom)
• Rationalization:Justifying behaviors or feelings with logical but false explanations.
  (ex:im breaking up with my boyfriend because he dont pick up his laundry not because i just dont love him anymore)
• Reaction formation:Acting in the opposite way of one’s true feelings.
  ex: i hate her > act super nice around her
• RegressionReverting to behaviors of an earlier stage of development.
  ex: im afraid > suck my thumb
• SublimationChanneling unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable activities.
  ex: i want to punch somene> do boxing

Question 6

Paradigms: Biological

Answer 6

Mental illness is a result of dysfunctional biological processes, such as:

• Biochemistry: abnoramlities in neuro transmitters and hormones
• Behavioural genetics: genetic processes
• Biological insults: demage to biologival processes( ex:malnutrition)
• temperament

Question 7

Temperament

Answer 7

Temperament (expressed in behaviour, personality) is strongly determined by genes

The “Big 5” dimensions of temperament (OCEAN):
* Openness: interested in new ideas and experiences
Conscientiousness:organized,efficent and reliable
* Extraversion: high energy,high sociability

• Agreeableness:compassion and comparate
• Neuroticism: negative effect

Question 8

Neurotransmitters (NTs)

Answer 8

• neutransmitters are capsulated in little vesicles
• are used to comunicate in other cells
• send from tail of a cell to the had of a new cell

Question 9

5 Important NTs in Psychopathology

Answer 9

1. Norepinephrine (NE): arousal(exactatory
2. Gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) it settle down feelings of agression and anxiety (inhibitory)
3. Dopamine (DA) motivations in persute of awards
4. Serotonin (5-HT) involve in regulating mood,appitet,sleep(low levels relates to poor self control and instability
5. Glutamate (GLU) relates to learning an memory

Question 10

Paradigms: Learning/Behavioural

Answer 10

**Behaviour is learned **(normal and abnormal), so psychological disorders are the result of (and can be treated by) learning (behavioural tasks)

2 primary learning (conditioning) processes:
* Classical conditioning
* Operant conditioning

Question 11

Classical Conditioning

Answer 11

Association of unrelated elements due to repeated pairing

Ex. Pavlov’s dogs salivating at the sound of a bell

1. bell (CS) > no salivate
2. meat powder (UCS) > salivation (UCR
3. bell(CS) + meat powde(UCS)r >salivation(UCR)
4. bell (CS) > salivation (CR)

UCS: uncondition stimulus
UCR: uncondition response
CS: conditioned Stimuus
CR: condition response

Question 12

Operant Conditioning

Answer 12

Pleasant consequences = +/- reinforcement

Unpleasant consequences = +/- punishment

• positive reinforcement = added
  ex:did a nice thing > can buy chocolate
  ex: did a bad thing > got punched
• negative reinforce = take away
  ex: did a nice thing > dont go to class
  ex: did a bad thing > took away my chocolate

Question 13

This is based on the Law of Effect:

Answer 13

Behaviour followed by:
* Pleasant consequences > behaviour increases

• Unpleasant consequences > behaviour decreases

Question 14

Mowrer’s Two-Factor Theory

Answer 14

Step 1
Classical conditioning:
the individual responds emotionally to a neutral stimulus

Step 2
Operant conditioning:
the individual learns to avoid the conditioned (previously neutral) stimulus

ex: fear of cat
1- everytime u see a cat someone smacks u (classical conditioning)
2- u learn to avoid being around cat ( u avoid the positive punishment(add the smack)

Question 15

Paradigms: Cognitive

Answer 15

Psychological disorders are the result of cognitive (thinking) errors

The person actively interprets situations, imposing meaning through perception, interpretation, judgment,
memory, and reasoning

Question 16

Schema

Answer 16

Organized network of accumulated knowledge that guides interpretation
of events

negative cognitive schema which leads to depression,anxiety etc(mental illness)

Question 17

when having a negative schema

Answer 17

when in an anbigious situation their first thoughts are related to negative things that will reinforce their mental illnesses

Question 18

Examples of cognitive explanations of specific disorders:

Answer 18

• Depression – Self-fulfilling (pessimistic) prophecies
• Panic – Catastrophizing promotes more fear
• Social anxiety – Jumping to conclusions causes anxiety

Question 19

Psychosocial Factors

Answer 19

Not a paradigm, but still important, as there are links to psychopathology:

Poverty(stressors)
- poor housing
- unsafe conditions
- disrupted social ties

Parental stress
- Parental depression
- Family conflict
- Harsh parenting

Question 20

Psychosocial Factors: Culture

Answer 20

Stereotyping
* Immigration stress
* Discrimination/prejudice

Mental illness stigma
* Approach to mental health
* Presentation of illness
* Limited accessibility of services
-language
-community knowledge

Question 21

Combining Paradigms?

The Biopsychosocial Model

Answer 21

A unified model of understanding psychopathology that includes:

 Biological factors

 Psychological (cognitive/emotional) factors

 Social (and cultural) factors

they can overlap
ex: alchol addiction: they might have genes that are pre-disposed(bio), social (people around him drinks a lot- like friends), feels overwhelmed because of his friends drinking pressure and feel left out which he drinks and keeps drinking when he go out with them

Question 22

Diathesis-Stress Models

Answer 22

Diathesis(Predisposing Cause
or Underlying vulnerability) +
Stress (Precipitating Cause
or Triggering circumstances) =
Disorde

diathesis and stressors can be biological,psychological,social

diathesis or stressor alone does not cause a disorder they have to be together

Question 23

Diathesis-Stress Models

Interactive model

see graph

Answer 23

the amount of diathesis and the degree of the stressor interact with each other that results different levels of the disorder

diathesis x stress= disorder

without genetic vulnerability, stress alone won’t cause the disorder.

Question 24

Additive model

see grapth

Answer 24

diathesis + stressor = disorder

Both genes and stress contribute independently, and even without genetic risk, extreme stress alone can cause a disorder

Question 25

Protective factors:

Answer 25

Influences that modify person’s response

Question 26

# protective factors lead to: **Resilience**

Answer 26

Ability to successfully adapt to very difficult circumstances

Question 27

Diathesis-Stress Example

Answer 27

Gene x Environment interactions Genes – inherited tendencies (diathesis) Environment – tendencies are activated (stress) For example, low levels of 5-HT (genetic) x chronic stressors (environment) can lead to: Eating disorders, depression, substance use, aggression, etc.

Question 28

Gene x Environment Example

Answer 28

Phenylketonuria (PKU) gene * Codes for liver enzyme involved in breaking down phenylalanine (an amino acid found in many foods) Too much dietary intake of phenylalanine > brain damage (resulting in low IQ) Early detection of PKU gene + dietary restriction > no problems (typical IQ) which mean if someone has pku and doesnt do the diet will have a lesser iq

Question 29

Genes

Answer 29

Most disorders are polygenic (multiple genes) Genes create a **vulnerability** for the disorder **not the disorder** There is an interplay between genes and environment

Question 30

Environment

Answer 30

**Environment can override genetic influence** An enriched environment can **turn on or off given genes** Example: Rats and parenting (Francis et al., 1999)

Question 31

Adoption ExperimentAdoption Experiment

Answer 31

* group of rats 1: agressive rats, they had babies that were agressive (genetic based) * group of rats 2:melow rats, had babies that were melow(genetic based) * they gave the agressive babies to melow rats and they grew to be melow * these babies (when older) had melow babies as well

Question 32

Similarly, a deprived environment can:

Answer 32

activate otherwise dormant genes or suppress otherwise expressed genes

Question 33

Gene-Environment Take-Home Points

Answer 33

Many genes contribute to behaviour, emotions, and cognitive processes (each has small effects) In this way, genes restric the influence of the environmental factors we are exposed to Environment can activate or suppress our gene expression (phenotype) **Strong environmental influences can override genetic diatheses**