Personality and Mental Health Flashcards
(195 cards)
1
Q
What is personality?
A
An individual’s unique and relatively consistent pattern of thinking, feeling and behaving
2
Q
What was the early approach from Hans Eysenck (1916-1997)?
A
Identified 2 primary personality traits, extraversion or introversion and neuroticism
These factors are independent from each other
Argued that biology influences personality
3
Q
Biological approach to personality
A
Inherited predispositions which determine personality
Physiological processes explain differences in personality
4
Q
Genetic influence in personality
A
Monozygotic twins who share 100% of their DNA have been found to have more similar personalities and have a higher correlation between personality traits
5
Q
Epigenetic
A
The influence of environment on gene expression, alters DNA structure
6
Q
Jeffrey Alan Gray (1934-2004)
A
Introverts and extroverts differ in how they respond to emotional stimuli
Introverts are quickly aroused when exposed to external stimuli
Reinforcement sensitivity theory - the human brain has 2 behavioural systems underlying individual differences to reward, punishment and motivation
7
Q
Behavioural approach system (BAS)
A
Seek out impulsive, rewarding behaviour, engage in emotionally intense situations
8
Q
Behavioural inhibition system (BIS)
A
Avoid emotionally intense situations, anxiety
9
Q
What is the frontal lobe important in?
A
Personality, changes in personality, planning behaviour, emotional control and behavioural inhibition
10
Q
How can EEG be used to measure personality
A
By measuring electrical activity on the brains surface
Higher activation in left = higher BAS
Higher activation in right = higher BIS
11
Q
What does inactivation in the left frontal cortex indicate?
A
Depression
12
Q
What does sporadic activation in the left frontal cortex indicate?
A
Bipolar
13
Q
What does activation in the right frontal cortex indicate?
A
Anxiety
14
Q
What is the importance of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)?
A
Essential part of personality Processes emotional information Decision making Assigns value to decisions - internal voice which tells us what to do, right from wrong If OFC is damaged personality changes
15
Q
Who are the significant psychoanalysts?
A
Sigmund Freud (1865-1939) Alfred Adler (1870-1937) Carl Jung (1875-1961) Karen Horney (1885-1952)
16
Q
The Id
A
Seeks release of unconscious and primal needs and desires
Works according to the pleasure principle: immediate gratification
Not concerned with moral or social rules
17
Q
The superego
A
Controls morals/ rule-bound behaviour, including ideals and ethics
It rewards good behaviour and punishes bad
Conflicts with the Id
18
Q
The ego
A
Balances Id’s urges with superego’s constraints
Operates via reality principle: long term gratification
It is logical, rational and resilient
19
Q
Freud’s beliefs on personality
A
Psychosexual development occurs in stages via which personality style and individual differences develop
If sexual or libidinal energy is stuck or fixated at various stages, conflicts can occur and these can leave an imprint on adult personality
20
Q
What are the psychosexual stages?
A
- oral stage (up to 2 years) - focus on oral pleasure
- anal stage (2-3 years) - tension between pleasure from releasing and social pressure to delay
- phallic stage (4-5 years) - focus on genitals, realisation of physical male/female differences, Oedipus/ Electra complex
- latency stage (6 years until puberty) - with key conflicts resolved child suppresses sexuality and channels energy into social and intellectual pursuits
- genital stage (puberty onwards) - sexual and aggressive drives return, seeks pleasure through sexual contact with others, ego and superego now fully developed
21
Q
What were Carl Jung’s opinions on personality?
A
Believed Freud over-emphasised sexuality
Embraced a mythological approach and rejected scientific method
Proposed a ‘collective unconscious’
Focused on dual aspects of the personality: private self vs. Persona presented to others
Therapy should help the expression of the unconscious: an ally, not an enemy
22
Q
Alfred Adler
A
Believed Freud over-emphasised sexuality
People consciously strive to improve their lives
Relationships shape individuals, so does desire to contribute to society
Individuals focus on compensating for painful inferiorities (inferiority complex)
For example child who felt inferior may emphasise toughness as an adult
23
Q
Karen Horney
A
Culture is primary influence on individuals personality
Personality types relate to strategies to reduce interpersonal anxiety
Women are more likely yo envy men’s status, power and their freedom rather than their penises
Women are socialised into gender roles, not desired to fulfil them by biology or psychology
24
Q
Humanistic psychology on personality
A
People have an innate tendency towards self-actualisation the motivation to reach one’s potential
Personality is a result of you trying to become your best self
Concerned with more developed and healthier aspects of human behaviour
Emphasis on the present rather than the past or future
Self-reflection and choice are key to development
Focus on goals/ outcomes of behaviour rather than describing individual differences or behavioural mechanisms
Abraham Maslow (1909-1970)
Carl R Rogers (1902-1987)
25
Behavioural approach on personality
Personality as the result of learning
| Observational learning - personality develops as a result of mimicry of others, particularly effective among children
26
Law of effect (behaviourist)
Behaviours are more likely to be repeated if they leads to a satisfying outcome, less likely to be repeated if they lead to unsatisfying consequences
27
Strengths of behavioural approach
Based within empirical research
| Explains external influence on personality
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Limitations of behavioural approach
Tends to view human behaviour as simple
| Assumes individuals are blank slates
29
Social-cognitive theory of personality
Reciprocal determinism
External and internal interactions influence personality
Personality is influenced by external factors (rewards, punishments) and internal factors (beliefs, thoughts, expectations)
30
Cognitive approach to personality
Differences in personality are differences in the way people process and store information
Personality due to mental representations and how these are accessed and stored
People react to the same situation differently depending on how they process it
31
Semantic network model
Mental links form between concepts
Ominous properties provide basis for mental link
Shorter pathway between concepts = stronger association in memory
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Spreading activation
Concept is activation in semantic network, spread in any number of directions, activating other nearby associations in network
Nearby activated concepts inform behaviour
We bring forward information that we associate with certain situation and then this influences our behaviour
33
Self-schema
Cognitive representation of oneself that one uses to organise and process self-relevant information
Consists of important behaviours and concepts
People behave differently due to individual differences in self-schemas
Provide a framework for organising and storing information about our personality
34
Self-reference effect
Easy remembering of self-referent words as they are processed through self-schemas
35
Trait approach
Does not try to explain behaviour
Identifies personality characteristics that can be represented along a continuum
Assumptions - personality characteristics are stable over time
36
Trait
Characterises people according to degree to which they display a particular characteristic
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Surface trait
Characteristics or attributes that can be inferred from observable behaviour (what behaviours we see)
38
Source trait
Most fundamental aspect of personality; broad, basic traits that are thought to be universal and few in number
39
Nomothetic approach
Describing personality along a finite number of traits
40
Idiographic approach
Identifies any combination of traits that describe an individual, infinite possibilities , may not apply to everyone
41
Central traits
Can easily describe an individuals personality
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Secondary traits
Preferences, not main predictor of behaviour
43
Cardinal traits
Single dominating trait in personality
44
Jungian personality traits
Personality traits for perceiving the environment and obtaining/ possessing information
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Raymond Cattell
Used factor analysis to identify personality traits
| Proposed 16 personality traits - but was too many
46
The big five
```
Established via factor analysis
Costa and McCrae
Tested in more than 50 cultures
Assumed to be biologically influenced
Traits seem stable over lifetime
Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism
```
47
Lexical approach
Examine traits used within language
| Traits already embedded in everyday speech
48
Allport and Odbert (1936)
Searched dictionary for words that describe people
| 4,500 terms remained after they filtered our ones that did not apply
49
HEXACO model of personality
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Adds one factor to the big five
Honesty-humility
Emotionality/ neuroticism
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Openness to experience
```
50
Minnesota Multiphase Personality inventory (MMPI)
Self-report inventory used by clinical psychologists, widely used clinical assessments tool, very long (567 items)
51
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Measures Jungian types, most widely known personality test, commonly used in business
52
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire
48 items, later reduced to 24 items, probably too many for only 2 factors
53
Assessing the big five
Several scales developed
John and Srivastava (1999) - widely used assessment of the big five, derived from the lexical approach, 44 items, often translated for cross-cultural validation, consistent across most western and European cultures
Ten-item personality inventory (TIPI) - 10 items, 2 questions per trait, short and easy to implement
54
Whole trait theory
Personality is multi faced
We have a distribution of personality states
Personality states depend on context and environment
Standard personality assessments capture an average but not entire distribution of variability in our behaviour
55
Projective tests
Freudian defence mechanism
Access unconscious by providing an ambiguous stimulus
Participants project personalities as they describe the object
56
Rorschach ink blot test
View series of inkblots and describe what you see
| Manual used for scoring participant responses
57
Thematic apperception test
Create a story about an evocative, ambiguous scene
The person is thought to project their own motives, conflicts and other personality characteristics into the story they create
58
Aetiology
Causal pathway that leads to pathology/ process by which a disorder develops
59
Course
The progression of a disorder over time
60
Incidence
Number of new cases/ characteristic in a specified population, over a specified period of time
61
Cure/ remission
The rate at which the disease/ characteristic ceases to be present in individuals who have previously shown it
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Recurrence
The rate at which the disease/ characteristic occurs again in individuals who have previously shown it
63
Comorbidity
The presence of two or more disorders for a single individual
64
Prevalence
Reported as a percentage
| Different ways to measure and report prevalence depending on the time frame
65
Point prevalence
Proportion of a population with the characteristic at a specific point in time
66
Period prevalence
The proportion with the characteristic at any point during a given time period of interest
67
When we’re asylums introduced?
Late 15th century
68
Early 20th century perspectives
Somatogenic - abnormal psychological functioning has physical causes
Psychogenic - abnormal psychological functioning has psychological causes
69
Emil Kraeplin (1856-1926)
Father of modern psychiatry
Established foundations of our classification system
Psychiatry - medical science informed by observation and empirical practices
Opposed inhumane practices
Promoted neuropsychological approach
70
Fear
Response to an immediate threat
71
Anxiety
Worry about future threat
72
Three interrelated anxiety response system
1. Physical system: the brain sends messages to the sympathetic nervous system, which produces the fight/flight/freeze/disappear response and activates important chemicals - trembling, tightness in chest, heavy perspiration, sweaty palms, lightheaded, dry mouth, short of breath, heart racing, nausea
2. Cognitive system: activation often leads to subjective feelings of worry, nervousness, difficulty concentrating, and panic, awareness of bodily sensations, fear of losing control, disturbing thoughts
3. Behavioural system: aggression and/or escape/avoidance, safety seeking, propitiation/placation
73
Genetic risk factors for OCD
* Twin studies suggest heritability/ predisposition
* About 20-40% for phobias, GAD and PTSD
* About 50% for panic disorder
74
Neurobiological risk factors of OCD
* Fear circuit over activity
* Amygdala
* Medial prefrontal cortex deficits
* Neurotransmitters
* Poor functioning of serotonin and GABA
* Higher levels of norepinephrine
* Benzodiazepines work on GABA receptors to enhance effects of GABA
75
Anxiety
a mood state characterised by strong negative emotion, bodily symptoms of tension in anticipation and beliefs related to future danger and misfortune
76
Panic disorder
Repeated, unexpected panic attacks
Begin suddenly without triggers
Usually, last minutes but can last hours
Strong urge to escape situation
For one month must be followed by one or both of:
Persistent fear of subsequent attacks or the feared consequences
Significant maladaptive changes in behaviour
77
Catastrophic misinterpretation of bodily sensations
Panic attacks are precipitated by individuals catastrophically misinterpreting bodily sensations as threatening (Clark, 1986)
Individuals with panic disorder – attend to their bodily sensations more than others, will interpret ambiguous signs as threatening, have panic attacks triggered by the expectancy of an attack
78
Phobia
★ Much of what we know about anxiety disorders comes from research on specific phobias
★ Basis in fear, anxiety is in response to specific threat
★ The sufferer usually knows the fear is irrational
★ An excessive, unreasonable, persistent fear triggered by a specific object or situation
★ Phobic individual will usually develop a set of avoidance responses (negative reinforcement)
★ Fear is driven by a set of dysfunctional beliefs that the sufferer has developed
★ Must affect lifestyle of functioning, or cause significant distress (DSM-5)
79
Social anxiety
Distinguished by a severe and persistent fear of social or performance situations.
People who are socially anxious try to avoid any kind of social situation in which they believe they may behave in an embarrassing way or in which they believe they may be negatively evaluated.
80
Agoraphobia
☞ Fear of open, busy areas, public places
| ☞ Can become housebound for months – years
81
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
High levels of anxiety and worry that are not specific to one object, situation, activity
Anxiety is excessive, difficult to control, accompanied by physical symptoms
Must be accompanied by marked emotional distress or significant impairment in daily functioning
82
Symptoms of OCD
➢ Obsessions – intrusive, recurring thoughts that the individual finds distressing
➢ Compulsions – repetitive or ritualised behaviour patterns or neutralising thought patterns that the individual feels driven to perform
➢ Responsibility for preventing catastrophic outcome
83
OCD obsessions
➢ Recurrent, persistent, unwanted intrusive thought
➢ Thought, urge or mental image
➢ Beyond the person’s ability to control
➢ Generally, cause anxiety or distress
84
OCD compulsions
➢ Excessively repetitive behaviour or mental act
➢ Typically, in response to intrusive thoughts – may partially relieve anxiety through negative
reinforcement
85
OCD treatment approaches
➢ Exposure with response prevention (ERP)
➢ Exposed to situations that provoke obsessive thoughts
➢ Prevent compulsive response from happening
➢ Learn to control anxiety, realise nothing bad happened
86
Major depressive disorder
• Apparently universal disorder however different cultures describe it differently
• WHO estimates 120 million people suffering with it
• Must have major depressive episode in the absence of a history of mania or hypermania
• A major depressive disorder involves:
Change in ability to function
Depressed mood, sadness, feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness
And/ or loss of interest in usually pleasurable activities must be for a period of at
least two weeks
• Costs the average adult suffering 27 days of work lost
• WHO indicate that 5 of the 10 major causes of disability are psychological conditions
87
Learned helplessness - Martin Seligman (1973, 1975)
helplessness is learned and depends on situational factors and experiences, people who develop depression view selves as helpless to change own lives for the better – dogs and electric shock did not escape when they could have
88
Biochemical factors of depression
★ Role of reduced serotonin or noradrenaline?
★ Antidepressants increase levels of serotonin and noradrenaline which is the primary
evidence that they work, however, this increase happens within a few days or even hours of
use, but the therapeutic effects take weeks or months
★ Also, the levels of these chemicals are sometimes normal in people with depression
★ Alternative accounts: reduced number of receptors, differences in sensitivity of these receptors, irregularities in binding to these receptors
89
SSRIs
Similar to tricyclics, specific to reuptake of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT)
90
Tricyclics
Increase levels of norepinephrine and serotonin and block the action of acetylcholine, restoring the balance of these neurotransmitters in the brain
91
MAOIs
Inhibit action of monoamine oxidase (MAO) enzyme that breaks down norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitters in synapse
Not common now – concerns about interactions with certain foods and numerous drug interactions
92
Bipolar Disorder
* A psychological disorder characterised by periods of mania that alternate with periods of depression – mood swings between elation and depression
* First episode either manic or depressive
* Manic episodes last a few weeks, and end more abruptly than depressive episodes
* Prevalence of around 1%, develops around age 20 and is usually chronic
* MDD can include episodes of mania but not of frequency or magnitude to diagnose bipolar
* Many symptoms overlap with other psychiatric disorders
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Types of bipolar disorder
Bipolar I – must have experienced a full manic episode, involves swings between mania and depression
Bipolar II – experienced hypomania episodes and at least one major depressive episode (hypomania is less severe than full mania)
Cyclothymic Disorder – chronic state of cycling between hypomanic and depressive episodes that do not reach diagnostic standard for bipolar disorder
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Cyclothymic Disorder
chronic state of cycling between hypomanic and depressive episodes that do not reach diagnostic standard for bipolar disorder
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Treatment of bipolar
➢ Most treated with a combination of medication and psychological therapy
➢ In the UK, lithium carbonate is the medication most commonly used to treat bipolar disorder
96
Schizophrenia
psychological disorder involves severely distorted beliefs, perceptions, and thought process
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When is schizophrenia diagnosed?
when someone has more two or more of characteristic symptoms – at least one symptom must be delusions, hallucinations, or disorganised speech, diagnosed with or without catatonia (movement issues)
→ Multilevel process for diagnosing schizophrenia
→ Symptoms (positive/negative)
→ Reduction in functioning
→ Symptoms exist for 6 months, 1 month of positive symptoms
→ Have to rule out symptoms of other disorders as symptoms can overlap with other disorders
98
Positive schizophrenia symptoms
Delusions (false beliefs) – can lead to dangerous behaviours
Hallucinations (false perceptions) – can be indistinguishable from reality
Disorganised thought process, speech and behaviour
99
Negative schizophrenia symptoms
Deficits in behavioural or emotional functioning
Symptoms can occur in combination
Flat affect – don’t really express emotions
Alogia (reduced speech) – passive, do not respond to world around, monotone
Avolition (lack if follow through) – don’t really plan ahead or think to the future
100
Biological features of schizophrenia:
Abnormal brain structures – 50% of people with schizophrenia show some types of brain abnormality
Most consistent finding – enlargement of the ventricles
Loss of grey matter and lower volume of the brain
Issues with neurotransmitters
101
Default mode network
* Parts of brain active under wakeful rest (daydreaming)
| * Normally, we switch between this and executive functioning
102
Personality disorder
a pattern of deviating behaviour
inflexible – leads to distress
varying criteria of characteristics
often less severe than other clinical disorders but can often overlap
103
General personality disorder
• In DSM-5 – 10 broad criteria
• What you may be diagnosed with if there is nothing else but you have deviating behaviour
that negatively effects your life
104
Emotional and genetic influences of personality disorders
Emotional/sexual abuse, neglect – 73% of individuals report prior abuse and 82% reported childhood neglect
Childhood maltreatment – particularly common among individuals with borderline personality disorder
Genetic heritability estimates around 50%
105
What are the 3 clusters of personality disorders?
− Cluster A: Odd or eccentric disorders
− Cluster B: dramatic, emotional or erratic disorders
− Cluster C: anxious or fearful disorders
106
Eccentric personality disorders:
→ Paranoid personality disorder – pervasive distrust and suspiciousness, prevalence rates: 4.4%-2.3%
→ Schizoid personality disorder – pervasive pattern of detachment, one of the least studied disorders, prevalence rates 3.1%-4.9%
→ Schizotypal personality disorder – odd behaviour and cognitive distortions, prevalence rates 3.3%, initially presumed to have schizophrenia
107
Emotional personality disorders:
→ Problematic patterns of social interactions
→ Dramatic and impulsive behaviour
→ Antisocial personality disorder – detachment and moral insanity, psychopathy, impulsive,
individual must be at least 18, before 15 is child conduct disorder, prevalence rate around
3%, often associated with violence
→ Borderline personality disorder – instability in mood, self-harm prevalent (75%), splitting –
either ‘all good’ or ‘all bad’, need for attention
→ Histrionic personality disorder – extreme attention seeking behaviour, excessively dramatic and make up stories to draw attention, uncomfortable if not centre of attention
→ Narcissistic personality disorder – need for admiration, sense of entitlement, ignoring needs for others
108
Anxious personality disorders:
→ Avoidant personality disorder – pervasive pattern of social inhibition, fear of criticism, prevalence between 2.3%-5.1%
→ Dependent personality disorder – pervasive pattern of being submissive, difficulties making everyday decisions, relies on reassurance from others, prevalence 0.4%-0.6%
→ Obsessive-Compulsive personality disorder – preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, prevalence 2.4%-7.8%
109
Cognitive Behavioural therapy (CBT)
➢ Evidence based CBT interventions exist for a variety of psychological difficulties
➢ CBT has a broad evidence-base and is recommended as first-line treatment in NICE clinical guidelines for a variety of difficulties
➢ Time-limited, structured therapy
➢ Aims to understand and address processes which contribute to maintenance of someone’s difficulties
➢ Treatment driven by patient goals and a joint understanding of difficulties (formulation)
110
Psychoeducation
look through literature together and figure out what works for that person
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Cognitive restructuring
identifying and challenging unhelpful/ irrational thoughts to remedy cognitive distortions
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Thought records
identifying and challenging negative automatic thoughts
113
Behavioural activation
supports individuals to increase participation in activities that will be intrinsically rewarding
114
Behavioural experiments
pragmatically testing beliefs/ predictions/ perceived function and/ or consequences of behaviour
115
Dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT)
Developed to help individuals experiencing intense emotions and difficulties consistent with personality disorders
116
Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)
Conceptualises psychological problems understood as being maintained through interpersonal difficulties and aims to address symptoms by improving interpersonal functioning
117
Strengths of biological approach
Provides a genetic account as source of individual variability, empirically supported neural indicators of personality
118
Limitations of biological approach
Assumption that biology is primary driver of personality
| Assessing personality via biology is not the easiest route
119
Cross sectional studies
Data recorded once
120
Longitudinal studies
Data recorded multiple times, track changes in personality over time
121
Experimental studies
Manipulation of variables to establish cause and effect
122
Meta-analysis
Summarises multiple studies
123
Broad personality constructs
Extraversion, neuroticism, mood or anxiety disorder etc.
124
Specific personality constructs
Alcohol use/ smoking
125
Amygdala
Processes emotional stimuli
| Negative emotions - fear, anger and disgust
126
What did Walter Mischel argue about personality?
Personality is not always a reliable predictor of behaviour
Long-term consistency, personality captures ‘average’ behaviour
Our behaviour usually depends what environment we’re in
127
General critiques of humanistic theory
Though the positive focus is very attractive, theory may be too optimistic about human behaviour
Majority of theories are not supported by evidence, based on assumptions – hierarchy of needs
Certain constructs hard to define even by humanists - self-actualisation
128
General critiques of psychodynamic approach
Focus on psychiatric patients: not generalisable to the rest of the population
No clear way of refuting aspects of psychodynamic theory – often not testable or falsifiable
Theories often not based in scientific, empirical research
129
Defence mechanisms
★ Techniques of ego to deal with unwanted thoughts and desires and reduce or avoid anxiety
130
What did Baumeister, Dale and Sommer (1998) find support for?
```
For many (but not all) defence mechanisms
Some ideas correct, some require minor or major revision and others have little support
```
131
Good evidence for reaction formation from Adams, Wright and Lohr (1996)
assessed homophobia and showed men videotapes featuring homosexual intercourse, homophobic men said they were not aroused but physiological measures showed that they were more aroused than others, these participants’ subjective response was the opposite of what their bodies actually indicated
132
Strengths of behavioural approach
Solid foundation in empirical research
Developmental of useful therapeutic procedures
Treatments based on conditioning effective
Most useful approach for certain populations
133
Criticisms of behavioural approach
☹ Narrow in its description of human personality
☹ Does not consider the role of genetics and biology
☹ Humans are more complex than laboratory animals
☹ Reduction to observable behaviours disregards cognition
134
Strengths of cognitive approach
Ideas developed through empirical findings
Extensive investigation in controlled laboratory experiments
Fits well within modern psychology
Therapists from other approaches incorporate aspects of cognitive therapy in their practice
135
Criticisms of cognitive approach
☹ Some concepts are too abstract for empirical research
☹ Not always well implemented within personality research
☹ No single model or theory organise to explain personality
136
What does central executive do?
Coordinates and decides on behaviour
Controls attention, memory and decision making
Conductor of your personality
Your consciousness
137
Operant conditioning
Rewards and punishments
138
Classical conditioning
Associations
139
Social learning theory (Albert Bandura)
We can provide our own reinforcers without direct experience of rewards and punishments
Observe rewards/ punishments from others
Mimic others successful behaviours
140
Mirror neurons
➢ Cells in the brain that activate to mimic others behaviour
➢ Help us learn new behaviours, understand behaviour
➢ Linked to empathy
➢ Also linked to autism
141
Social cognitive theory (Albert Bandura)
✰ Reciprocal determinism
✰ Operant conditioning influences personality
✰ Interacts with observations, morals and beliefs etc.
142
What was the third factor Hans Eysenck proposed
Psychoticism – aggressiveness, coldness, antisocial tendencies, egocentricity, vulnerability to psychotic disorders (e.g. schizophrenia)
143
Beliefs of Walter Mischel (1968)
* Observed behaviour and personality traits correlates weakly
* The situation is the main determinant of behaviour
* Traits are weak predictors of behaviour alone
144
What was the basis of the big 5 and what is the problems with this?
Based on lexical approach which is based on an English dictionary so is biased to English speakers
Personality factors based in Western countries may not apply to everyone
145
Strengths of projective tests
Provide qualitative information about individuals personality
Information can facilitate therapy
146
Limitations of projective tests
☹ Scoring highly subjective
☹ Fails to produce consistent results
☹ Poor at predicting future behaviour
147
Strengths of self-report inventories:
Standardised and use stablished personality traits
| Predict behaviour and employee fit for workplace
148
Limitations of self-report inventories
☹ Participants may fake responses to look better
☹ High number of items leads to loss of interest
☹ Takers not always accurate in self-judgements
☹ No personality test, by itself, is likely to provide a definitive description of any given
individual
149
Barnum effect
when someone believes personality descriptions specifically apply to them while the description applies to mostly everyone
150
How to prevent faking?
```
Correct for social desirability
Behavioural personality tests
Use forced choice response options
Ask for written elaboration
Include warnings that fakers can be caught
```
151
What do diagnostic categories do?
According to British Psychological Association
• Describe patterns of experiences or behaviours that may be causing distress and/ or be seen as difficult to understand
• Imply that these distressing experiences are the symptoms of a medical illness
• This can lead people to think that the main cause for distress is that something has gone wrong in the brain or body
152
Korsakoff’s syndrome
➢ Disturbance in memory caused by alcohol
➢ Ability to learn new information is impaired
➢ Decline in cognitive functioning is not explained by other causes
➢ Vitamin B1 (thiamine deficiency), Wernike’s encephalopathy
153
Problems with the DSM
▪ Over reliance on ‘medical’ model
▪ Categories not dimensions
▪ Some propose categories should have – biological explanation and specific therapy to treat
it, not the case in the DSM 5
▪ People often get more than one diagnosis – shift categories over time
▪ People can have ‘sub-threshold’ problems but experience more important than those who
meet full criteria
▪ Psychiatrists often do not agree on the diagnosis, particularly for common disorders –
depression, anxiety
154
Comorbidity and addiction: Regier et al. (1990)
o In an alcohol use disorder 37% also had a psychiatric disorder
o In a drug use disorder 53% also had a psychiatric disorder
o In a psychiatric disorder 29% also had a substance use disorder
o Overlap between addiction and other disorders could be due to disruption of social and
recreational activities, social or interpersonal problems, hazardous/ risky situations or failure
to fulfil work, school or home obligations
o Chicken or the egg? Does addiction cause the development of other mental disorder or does
mental disorder lead to an addiction or are they independent?
155
Other issues with the DSM-5:
Includes some conditions that are too ‘normal’ to be considered disorders
Uses arbitrary cut-offs
Gender bias
Insufficient sensitivity to cultural diversity
Diagnostic overexpansion
Leaders of mental health organisations boycotted DSM-5
Most vocal critic was Allen Frances argued that DSM-5 will mislabel normal people, promote
diagnostic inflation, encourage inappropriate medication use
Field trial problems – testing of DSM-5 criteria was not very reliable Little input from practitioners
156
Strengths of DSM-5:
```
Emphasis on empirical research
Use of explicit diagnostic criteria
Some inter-clinician reliability
Atheoretical language
Facilitated communication between researchers and clinicians
```
157
Issues with animal models
No single animal model or study can fully emulate humans
Tend to focus on one aspect of a disorder or behaviour
Can only focus on observable symptoms of disorder
The human brain is different to animal brains
158
Animal models can also be used to induce depression in animals
→ Learned helplessness
→ After continued aversity, an organism is no longer motivated to avoid future aversion
→ Used to model depression
→ For example, animals are continuously shocked on one side of the cage and they are unable
to cross to the unelectrified side of cage but once the barrier is removed they do not try to
leave
→ Commonly used to assess effectiveness of antidepressants
159
Anhedonia
inability to feel pleasure, lack of interest in previously rewarding behaviours
160
Strengths of animal models:
Within subject design (limiting number of subjects)
Long-term testing
Greater control over life and environment
More freedom in what experiments can be conducted – genetics, brain stimulation, manipulating trauma and testing elicit drugs
161
Limitations of animal models:
☹ Focus on observable behaviours
☹ Issues with co-morbidity
☹ Limited to one aspect of a clinical disorder
☹ Potential lack of generalisability to humans
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Biological factors of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia and the brain – suppression of default mode network absent, weaker connections between brain areas, hallucinations due to dysfunction of areas
Issues with neurotransmitters – activity of dopamine neurons, dopamine imbalance hypothesis, glutamate linked to psychotic-like symptoms
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Dopamine’s importance
Reward and reinforcement – responsible for feelings of euphoria
Motor movements – implicated in movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease Produced in brainstem, but has projections which affect activity in the cortex (surface of the brain)
Overactivity of dopamine in midbrain regions
Underactivity of dopamine in cortical regions
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Dopamine imbalance hypothesis
Leads to both positive and negative symptoms
Hallucinations/ delusions result of overactivity in midbrain/ brainstem Lack of motivation/ flat affect results of underactivity in cortex
Changes in dopamine activity results in more creative thinking Inability to stop influx of thoughts
Increased information flow resulting in more creative thinking
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Typical antipsychotics
first generation antipsychotic drugs
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What are the side effects of Thorazine and other ‘typical’ antipsychotic drugs
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tardive dyskinesia (movement disorder)– involuntary movement of lower face, limbs, as dopamine is used for motor movements
Weight gain
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What do typical antipsychotics mainly target?
Positive symptoms like hallucinations and delusions
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When we’re atypical antipsychotic drugs introduced
Around 1990
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Advantages of atypical antipsychotic drugs
less likely to cause movement-related dopamine side effects, more effective in treating the negative symptoms, target dopamine imbalance, less tardive dyskinesia
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Disadvantages of atypical antipsychotics
weight gain, diabetes, cardiac problems, no greater improvements than with other antipsychotics
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Issues will all antipsychotic medication
do not cure schizophrenia, unwanted side effects
| and pattern of hospitalisation, discharge and re hospitalisation
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Biopsychological framework
interactions between genetics (biology), personality (psychology), and environment (social) and their impact on mental health
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What did George Engel (1913-1999) suggest?
suggested mental health should be understood from more than just a biological perspective
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Glutamate (GLU)
* Excitatory neurotransmitter
| * Receptors found on 90% of neurons in brain
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GABA
* Inhibitory neurotransmitter
| * Receptors found on 30% of neurons in the brain
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Anxiety in the brain
➢ Increased activity in the brain
➢ Amygdala, thalamus, hippocampus
➢ Over-excitation caused by excess neurotransmitters: glutamate, epinephrine/
norepinephrine
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Anxiolytics developed and prescribed to treat anxiety
➢ Sedative and calming effects
| ➢ Usually start to work immediately
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Barbiturates
powerful sedative effects, side effects include reduced respiration, too
powerful so prescription was reduced dramatically in 1950s
For anxiety
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Benzodiazepines
replaced barbiturates, increased effectiveness to inhibit GABA, safer,
commonly prescribed today
For anxiety
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Safe alternatives to anxiolytics
➢ Buspirone (affects serotonin)
➢ Anticonvulsive drugs (affects GABA)
➢ Beta blockers
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Biological causes for depression
* Potentially due to depletion of serotonin in the brain however, levels of serotonin are often normal in people suffering depression
* Other neurotransmitters implicated – epinephrine/norepinephrine, dopamine
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Antidepressants
* Drug developed and prescribed to treat depression
* Used to help regulate mood
* Are not always immediately effective, take weeks to see full effects
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Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)
category of neurotransmitters, bind to enzymes to
prevent breakdown of monoamines
For depression
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Tricyclics
inhibit reuptake of norepinephrine and serotonin
| For depression
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Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
block reuptake of serotonin by transporter,
lead to greater level of serotonin in synapse, side effects include sexual dysfunction and
emotional detachment, discontinuing can lead to hallucinations
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Serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)
block reuptake of serotonin and
| norepinephrine, same side effects of SSRIs, used when SSRIs may not be effective
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Psilocybin
acts on serotonin receptors located on GABA neurons, leads to hallucinations
but later have positive effects on mood
Psychedelics as medicine
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What is used to treat bipolar?
Lithium is used to treat – not clear how it works, but can be lethal
Strong biological component so drug therapy is main treatment
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Repression
push threatening material out of consciousness, forceful forgetting, requires constant expense of energy
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Sublimation
channelling impulses into socially acceptable actions, usually rewarding
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Displacement
channelling impulses to nonthreatening objects, displaced impulses do not lead to rewards
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Denial
refusal to accept that certain facts exist
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Reaction formation
acting in a manner opposite to threatening unconscious desires
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Projection
attributing negative thoughts/ emotions to someone else
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Beta blockers
anxiety as sensitivity to engaging ‘fight or flight’, these drugs block receptors for norepinephrine and epinephrine which trigger ‘fight or flight’, block physiology of anxiety, cognition remains mainly unaffected, include propanol, acebutolol and bisoprolol
