Lecture 20, 21and 22 - Mental Health And Treatment Flashcards
(42 cards)
How are psychological disorders delineated
Recurring lack of control over symptoms that
- deviate from socio-cultural norms
- cause distress
- cause maladaptive responses
- patterns of thoughts, feelings, or behaviour that are deviant, distressful and maladaptive
What is normal
- What most people do/think/feel
- What most people should do/think/feel
- What most people would expect you to do/think/feel
(With context)
How to distinguish psychological disorders
patterns of maladaptive thinking, feeling or acting that create distress and deviate from norms
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Classifications
- Type and number of symptoms
- Aetiology of the symptoms
- Prognosis
Why create Classifications of disorders
- reliability
- verbal shorthand for symptoms
- study cases to improve practice
- help guide treatment choices (predict outcomes of treatment)
- justify payment by insurance providers for treatment
Critiques of diagnosing with the DSM
- border between disorder and normalcy is blurry
- border between different disorders can be blurry
- judgement based by cultural norms
- labels direct how patients view themselves and how others view them
Pros to putting a label on a disorder
- empowerment from understanding what is going on
- acceptance of the unique challenges one faces
- facilitate interactions with others
Cons of putting labels on disorders
- Misconceptions of the self
- misconceptions by others
- labels are complex
- stigma
How are psychological disorders diagnosed?
- pathologies with a cause
- identify the most probable aetiology of the symptoms of the disorder
- exclusionary diagnoses
Challenges of nonprofessional attempts at diagnosis
- over-reliance in online content
- personal cost
- barrier to seeking professional help
- societal cost
- hard to take an independent and objective look at one’s self or the people we care about
Anxiety disorders
Permanent an irrational fear that causes people to avoid certain situations, people and/or objects
GAD
- apprehension and agitation persistent and uncontrollable
- inability to identify the cause of the anxiety
- activation of the autonomic nervous system
Phobia
Uncontrollable, irrational, intense desire to avoid certain situations, people or objects
Obsessions
Intense, unwanted worries, ideas and images that repeatedly pop up in the mind
Compulsion
Strong feeling that compels the need to carry out an action (doesn’t typically make sense)
Neuroscientific aetiologies for anxiety disorders
- neurotransmitter imbalances
- reduced GABA activity
Psychological aetiologies for anxiety disorders
- Conditioning and learning
- Cognitive appraisal
- Personality
How can operant conditioning help explain anxiety disorders
- helps to explain avoidance behaviour
- negative reinforcement motivating anxious-avoidant responses
- the result is an increase anxious thoughts and behaviour
- maintain anxious responses
How can a cognitive approach help explain anxiety disorders
- anxiety provoking thoughts
- cognitions appear repeatedly and often automatically
- facilitated by bias such as the availability heuristic
- acquired through direct and observational learning
Aspects of depressive disorders
- depressive mood
- loss of interest or pleasure
Neuroscientific aetiologies for depressive disorders
- lowered norepinephrine and serotonin activity
- endocrine system (high levels of cortisol)
Psychological aetiologies for major depressive disorder
- Learned helplessness
- people perceive no control over the rewards and punishments
- responsible for this helpless state - Negative thinking
- cognitive triad
- automatic thoughts
Aspects of substance-use disorders
the need for obtaining a substance and/or its frequent use created dysfunction
When does an unhealthy habit become a disorder
- Loss of control over the use of the substance
- impairment in daily functioning and continued use of substance despite adverse consequence
- physical or emotional adaptation to the drug, such as in the development of tolerance
