Mental Health - Historical Context, Medical model and Alternatives Flashcards
Historical context - Animism?
.Mental illness caused by evil spirits.
.Treatment = creating holes in skull to release evil spirits.
Historical context - Humourism?
.Body made up of 4 bodily humours; Blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile and Black Bile.
.Illness = imbalance with humours
.Treatment = restoring balance, Diets, Purgatives, Bloodletting and Sexual abstinence.
Historical context - Animalism?
.Illness - Individual losing reason thus no longer distinguishing them from animals.
.Treatment = restore reason, through fear; chaining, scalps shaven, whipped and Bled.
Historical context - What was Rosenhan and Seligman’s 4 definition’s of abnormality?
.Statistical infrequent behaviour
.Failure to function adequately (live a normal life)
.Deviate from societies norms
.Deviation from Ideal mental Health
What is the DSM - 5 ?
.Diagnostic and Statistic Manuel - used for identifying Mental illness in USA.
.22 different categories including, sleeping, eating and OCD.
.For each disorder includes; Diagnostic criteria, gender differences and cultural differences.
Rosenhan study - Background / aim ?
. See if mental hospitals in 60’s could tell sane from insane.
Rosenhan study - Sample ?
Study 1 - 8 Sane participants
Study 2 - 0
Rosenhan study - Procedure ?
Study 1 -
.Send 8 patients to appointments, reported hearing voices.
.went into hospital and stopped Simulating symptoms, all the time writing notes about ward staff and patients.
.Before being released after 7 - 52 days.
Study 2 -
.Told hospital one or more Pseudopatients would be admitted, however none where.
.Staff rated on scale fo 1 - 10 how likely they were to be a Pseudo patient.
Rosenhan study - Results ?
Study 1 -
.Sanity not detected by staff.
.Normal behaviours like not taking, interpreted as sings of mental illness
Study 2 -
.41/ 193 patients judged as pseudopatients by one member of staff, 23, by a psychologist, and 19 by both.
What are the characteristics of an effective disorder eg Depression under DSM - 5 ?
5 or more of these symptoms for 2 weeks -
.Insomnia, Depressed mood, restlessness, Fatigue, suicidal thoughts, lack of concentration.
What are the characteristics of an Psychotic disorder eg Schizophrenia under DSM - 5 ?
2 or more of symptoms for 1 month -
.delusions, Hallucinations, Disorganised speech, Disorganised,
What are the characteristics of an Anxiety disorder eg Phobia under DSM - 5 ?
.Strong persistent irrational fear.
.three phobias; Specific phobia, agoraphobia (open spaces), Social phobia.
What is the Biochemical explanation of mental illness?
.Depression = low serotonin, meaning the messages can’t be transmitted across a synapse.
.Schizofrenia = excess of dopamine
.Treatment - Restoring normal levels of neurotransmitters.
What is the Genetic explanation of mental illness?
.Suggests disorders are carried from parents to children.
.evolutionary theory, further suggests phobias eg of snakes are genetic due to allowing someone to survive longer.
.Treatment = embryo manipulation
What is the Brain abnormality explanation of mental illness?
.Differences in Brain causing mental illness
eg depression; Smaller hippocampal volume
.Treatment = Drug therapy / surgery
Gottesman study - Background / aim ?
To investigate in a large sample the probability of a child getting a disorder if the parents have it.
Gottesman study - Sample ?
.2.5M / Anyone in Denmark / aged 10 - 52
Gottesman study - procedure ?
Created 4 groups of people . -
- Both parents admitted to psychiatric hospital
- One parent admitted to psychiatric hospital
- No parents admitted to psychiatric hospital
- General public with no data available for their parents
Gottesman study - Results ?
Percentage of people admitted to Psychiatric hospital in groups. 1 - Schizofrenia 27.3% / Bipolar 24.9% 2 - Schizofrenia 7% / Bipolar 4.4% 3 - Schizofrenia 0.86% / Bipolar 0.48% 4 - Schizofrenia 1.12% / Bipolar 0.63%
What is the Behaviourist explanation of mental illness?
.Classical conditioning - Neutral stimulus becomes associated with unconditional stimulus that produces eg fear, thus creating fear in the neutral stimulus.
.Operant conditioning - Positive/ negative reinforcement shapes behaviour.
.Social learning theory - Child may copy someone who is already phobic
What Is the cognitive explanation of mental illness?
Negative cognitive triad - assumes mental illness is caused by faulty or irrational thinking process, suggests a person will seek out negative reinforcement of their beliefs.
Faulty cognitions - Negative thoughts/ unrealistic expectations cause and sustain mental disorders.
Unrealistic expectations which when not met cause depression.
Treatments = Change negative thoughts and replace with realistic ones
What is the Humanistic / Pyschodynamic explanation of mental illness?
.Unconscious memories will manifest in our behaviour.
.Conflict between ID Ego and Super Ego, or Ego defence mechanisms can cause mental illness.
Treatment = Bring unconscious conflicts and thoughts to conscious mind to be resolved.
What is the behaviourist application?
.Systematic desensitisation - gradually introducing them to the stimulus while calming them.
.Flooding - introducing the stimulus all at once
.Introducing a sick drug while they drink alcohol so they associate sickness with alcohol.
What is the cognitive application?
Rational emotional therapy - .Identifying the problem eg phobia .Identifying the belief causing this .Consequences .Disputing .Effects
