Mood Disorders (Textbook)

Question 1

mood disorders

Answer 1

• disabling disturbances in emotion, from the sadness of depression to the elation and irritability of mania
• very heterogenous (people with same disorder can vary significantly)

Question 2

depression

Answer 2

• an emotional state marked by great sadness and feelings of worthlessness and guilt
• may include other symptoms like loss of pleasure, withdrawal, etc.
• often has paradoxical symptoms
• often results in somatic complaints in children (ie. stomachaches) or memory loss in older adults
• prevalence varies cross-culturally (ie. more common in North America than China)

Question 3

psychologizers

Answer 3

people with depression who emphasize the psychological symptoms

Question 4

mania

Answer 4

an emotional state or mood of intense but unfounded elation accompanied by irritability, hyperactivity, talkativeness, flight of ideas, distractibility, and impractical, grandiose plans

Question 5

2 major mood disorders in DSM-5

Answer 5

• major depressive disorder

- bipolar disorder

Question 6

symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder

Answer 6

• 5 of the following for at least 2 weeks (in addition to depressed mood or loss of interest/pleasure)
• • sleeping difficulties
• • change in activity level (lethargic or agitated)
• • changes in appetite/weight
• • loss of energy
• • negative self-concept
• • difficulty concentrating
• • thoughts of death/suicide

Question 7

why is depression more common in women than men?

Answer 7

• females ruminate/brood more
• females more likely to “silence the self” (keeping their concerns to themselves to preserve relationships)
• objectification theory: being scrutinized by others has a more negative effect on women’s self-esteem than on men’s

Question 8

predictive factors of depression

Answer 8

being female, never married, two or more medical conditions, limits on activity, and reduced contact with family

Question 9

theories of depression:

Answer 9

• psychoanalytic: depression results from negative emotions towards a dead loved one that someone internalizes (introjection) and dependency on others (anaclitic)
• cognitive:
• • Beck: due to negative schemas/views of self, world, and future (negative triad) and dysfunctional attitudes about approval, achievement, etc.
• • cognitive bias: pay more attention to and can better remember negative things
• • learned helplessness: passivity; sense of being unable to control their own lives
• interpersonal: sparse social support networks, elicit negative emotions in others,

Question 10

Beck: 2 things associated with depression

Answer 10

sociotropy (being dependent on others) and autonomy (achievement orientation)

Question 11

Beck: 4 principal cognitive biases of depression

Answer 11

• Arbitrary inference: conclusion drawn without evidence (ie. feeling worthless because it rains the day you’re hosting an outdoor party)
• Selective abstraction: conclusion drawn based on only one element of a situation (ie. feeling like a failure if a group project doesn’t do well)
• Overgeneralization: sweeping conclusion drawn on basis of one event (ie. poor performance on one exam as evidence of stupidity)
• Magnification and minimization: exaggerations in evaluating performance (ie. maximizing negative events or minimizing positive ones)

Question 12

issues with Beck’s theory

Answer 12

• unsure if depressed people truly think in the negative ways he suggests
• directionality -> depressed because of negative thoughts, or negative thoughts because of depression?

Question 13

depressive paradox

Answer 13

feeling helpless yet blaming yourself

Question 14

attributions - depression

Answer 14

people who attribute negative things to be global, stable, and internal more likely to be depressed

Question 15

depressive predictive certainty

Answer 15

if the perceived probability of the future occurrence of negative events becomes certain

Question 16

theories of bipolar disorder

Answer 16

• life stress
• elevated levels of dysfunctional attitudes
• behavioural activation system dysregulation

Question 17

biological theories of mood disorders

Answer 17

• bipolar disorder very heritable (genetic diathesis)
• polygenic (many genes involved)
• serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine may influence mood disorders (low in depression, high in mania)
• overactive HPA axis may play a role (high cortisol)

Question 18

suicide basics

Answer 18

• gender paradox: women have less deaths but more attempts
• Suicidal ideation: thoughts of killing yourself
• Suicide attempts: unsuccessful self-injury attempting to cause death
• Suicide gestures: self-injury with no intent to die
• Suicide: behaviour causing death
• more likely amongst males with low education, psychiatric diagnoses (esp. comorbid), history of assaultsm

Question 19

suicide myths

Answer 19

• people who discuss suicide won’t do it
• suicide is committed without warning
• suicidal people clearly want to die
• motives for suicide are easily established
• all who commit suicide are depressed
• improvement in emotional state means less risk of suicide

Question 20

Durkheim’s sociological theory of suicide

Answer 20

• 3 types:
• • Egoistic suicide: is committed by people who have few ties to family, society, or community
• • Altruistic suicide: a response to societal demands (sacrificing self for good of society)
• • Anomic suicide: due to sudden change in a person’s relationship to society (ie. successful exec who loses all his money)

Question 21

4 suicide risk factors

Answer 21

• Predisposing factors: enduring factors that make a person vulnerable to suicidal behaviour (e.g., psychological disorder, abuse, early loss).
• Precipitating factors: acute factors that create a crisis (e.g., end of a relationship, job loss, loss of stature, rejection, pressure to succeed).
• Contributing factors: increase exposure to predisposing or precipitating factors (e.g., physical illness, sexual identity issues, isolation).
• Protective factors: decrease the risk of suicidal behaviour (e.g., personal resilience, adaptive coping skills, positive future expectations, and perceived social support).

Question 22

suicide theories

Answer 22

• Freud: aggression turned inward
• Baumeister: to escape aversive self-awareness (painful awareness of your shortcomings)
• perfectionism and social disconnection
• Joiner: due to 2 interpersonal constructs - thwarted need to belong and perceived burdensomeness
• Sneidman: suicide is solution to “psychache” -> intense psychological pain
• cognitive: problem-solving deficits, negative cognitive styles, neuroticism, etc.
• physical: brain trauma/CTE

Question 23

Perfectionism Social Disconnection Model (Hewitt)

Answer 23

interpersonal perfectionism (ie. needing to look perfect in front of others) creates a sense of alienation and isolation that amplifies hopelessness and self-loathing of typical perfectionism