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Foundations of Psychology > Psychological Disorders > Flashcards

Psychological Disorders Flashcards

1
Q

What are the three Ds apart of the criteria for disorder?

A
  1. Deviance
  2. Distress
  3. Dysfunction
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2
Q

Describe deviance

A 
Unusual / rare behaviour compared to most
Statistical infrequency
Fail to conform to societal norms
BUT
- rare qualities too
- oppression: unique / unpopular
- norms differ
- some disorders quite common
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3
Q

Describe distress

A

Personal suffering
BUT
- distress about other aspects of life
- some disorders: no distress

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4
Q

Describe dysfunction

A

Significantly impairs ability to function in everyday life
Fail to meet responsibilities such as work, family and social
BUT
- other disruptions
- sometimes maintain functioning

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5
Q

When do behaviours become disorders?

A 
The three Ds are not sufficient alone, need to be considered in combination.
Also need to consider:
- content of behaviour
- sociocultural context
- biological dysfunction
- consequences
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6
Q

What is the DSM-5 (APA, 2013)?

A

Comprehensive diagnostic criteria

  • 20 major classes of disorders (over 300 disorders)
    • polythetic criteria
  • Research base
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7
Q

Why diagnose?

A

Assist treatment planning
Facilitate research
Facilitate communication between professionals
Diagnosis predicts behaviour and treatment response

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8
Q

What are some criticisms of DSM-5?

A

Labelling (probably not valid)
Stigmatising (probably not valid)
Comorbidity (overlapping diagnoses)
Categorical

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9
Q

What other factors should a practitioner be aware of during diagnosis?

A

Personal circumstances (client as an individual)
Medical problems
Social/environmental problems
Overall functioning

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10
Q

What are the major perspectives of psychological disorders?

A 
Biological
Psychodynamic
Cognitive
Behavioural
Humanistic
Sociocultural
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11
Q

What is the premise of the vulnerability-stress model?

A

Each of us has some degree of vulnerability (ranging from very low to very high) for developing a psychological disorder, given sufficient stress.

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12
Q

What does vulnerability entail?

A

Biological - genotype, neurotransmitter irregularity, hormone irregularity, sensitive autonomic NS.
Personality - low self-esteem, extreme pessimism
Social-environmental - poverty, trauma
Cultural - overemphasis on achievement, social conditions

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13
Q

What does stressor entail?

A

An individual who as a genetic predisposition to depression, or who suffered the loss of someone early in life has the capacity to develop a disorder IF they are faced with a stressor that forces them to cope.

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14
Q

What are the four components to an anxiety response?

A
  1. Subjective-emotional (feelings of fear)
  2. Cognitive component (worrisome thoughts)
  3. Physiological responses
  4. Behavioural responses
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15
Q

What are the types of anxiety disorders?

A 
Phobic disorder
Panic disorder
Generalised anxiety disorder
Obsessive compulsive disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
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16
Q

What is agoraphobia?

A

The excessive fear of being outside of home, being in a crowd, or in situations such as using public transport. These situations causes a fear that escape would be impossible if something distressing or embarrassing were to occur.

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17
Q

What is social phobia?

A

The individual fears situations in which they may be negatively perceived/evaluated by others

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18
Q

What are specific phobias?

A

Intense fear of a specific object, situation, or stimulus.

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19
Q

What is panic disorder?

A

Panic attacks occur recurrently and have no apparent environmental stimuli that causes them. Panic attacks can cause psychological distress and behavioural problems. It is often present with agoraphobia.

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20
Q

What is generalised anxiety disorder?

A

Chronic/ongoing state of anxiety and worry that is not attached to specific situations or objects. This disorder can interfere with daily functioning as the individual may struggle to concentrate, make decisions and remember commitments.

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21
Q

What is obsessive compulsive disorder?

A

A disorder in which people feel compelled to act in a rigid, repetitive way to reduce their anxiety or distress. Results in behaviours such as compulsive cleaning, washing checking, hoarding, etc.

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22
Q

What is the difference between an obsession and a compulsion?

A

Obsessions are cognitive: repetitive and unwelcome thoughts or impulses
Compulsions are behavioural responses to these thoughts.

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23
Q

What is post-traumatic stress disorder?

A

Severe disorder that can occur in people who have been exposed to traumatic life events

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24
Q

What are the four clusters of symptoms of PTSD?

A
  1. Intrusion symptoms; intrusive images that force the person to relive the trauma
  2. Persistent avoidance of any reminds of the event
  3. Negative changes in cognition or mood; fear, self-blame, anger, etc.
  4. Changes in arousal and reactivity; sleep disturbance, poor concentration, etc.
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25
Q

What biological factors contribute to the development of anxiety and related disorders?

A
  • Higher concordance rate in identical twins compared to fraternal.
  • Barlow (2002) suggests that genetic vulnerability includes an over-reactive autonomic system.
  • Over-reactivity of GABA (excites the neural activity in the amygdala which triggers emotional arousal).
  • Low levels of inhibitory GABA could cause anxiety.
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26
Q

What do psychodynamic theories suggest about development of anxiety and related disorders?

A
  • neurotic anxiety (suggested by Freud) occurs when unacceptable impulses threaten to overwhelm the ego’s defences and explode into consciousness or action.
  • compulsion is a way of controlling unacceptable urges.
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27
Q

What is the role of learning in anxiety and related disorders?

A

Fear or phobias can be acquired as a result of a conditioned fear response.
Observational learning explains how people can be afraid of stimuli they haven’t experienced.
Once anxiety is learned, it may be triggered by cues; external (phobic) and internal (panic).
Negative reinforcements are in line with compulsions.

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28
Q

What cognitive factors influence the development of anxiety?

A

Maladaptive thought patterns in anxiety consist of catastrophising about the many ambiguous situations in life, turn them into threats and feel powerless to prevent/stop them.

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29
Q

What is David Clark’s cognitive theory of panic disorder?

A

Panic attacks can be triggered by exaggerated misinterpretations of normal anxiety symptoms. They feel a loss of control due to these symptoms, resulting in more anxiety and panic.

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30
Q

What is Taijin Kyofushu?

A

Japanese disorder in which people are pathologically fearful of offending others by emitting odours, blushing, staring inappropriately or even having a blemish or improper facial expression.
It is linked to the cultural value of interpersonal sensitivity in which people are discouraged from expressing negative emotions.

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31
Q

What is Koro?

A

An anxiety disorder (based in Southeast Asia) in which a man fears that his penis is going to retract into his abdomen and kill him.

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32
Q

What anxiety disorders spawn in Western culture?

A

Anorexia nervosa built off of the phobic component of getting fat has obsessive-compulsive tendencies to prevent the distress caused by gaining weight.

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33
Q

What are somatic symptom disorders?

A

Disorders involving physical complaints or disabilities that suggest a medical problem of which do not have a known biological cause and are not produced voluntarily

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34
Q

What is conversion disorder?

A

A disorder in which serious neurological symptoms, such as paralysis, loss of sensation or blindness, suddenly occur with no biological basis, sometimes the complaint is physically impossible (glove anaesthesia).

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35
Q

What are dissociative disorders?

A

Involve a breakdown of normal personality integration, resulting in significant alterations in memory or identity.

36
Q

What are the three forms of dissociative disorder?

A

Dissociative amnesia
Dissociative fugue
Dissociative identity disorder

37
Q

What is dissociative amnesia?

A

A person responds to a stressful event with extensive but selective memory loss. During this form, contents of memory, such as cognitive, language and motor skills, remain intact. The individual just has trouble with memory.

38
Q

What is dissociative fugue?

A

A more profound dissociative state in which a person loses all sense of personal identity, gives up their life, finds a new location and establishes a new identity. Usually triggered by a highly stressful event or trauma and typically ends when the individual “wakes up”.

39
Q

What is dissociative identity disorder?

A

A disorder in which two or more separate personalities coexist in the same individual. The primary personality is the ‘host’ and appears more frequently than the alters, but each has its own unique set of features and memories.

40
Q

What is the trauma-dissociation theory?

A

The development of new personalities occurs in response to severe stress. Many cases consist of severe abuse and trauma early in life. Putnam (1989) suggests that children disengage from reality by creating an alternate identity to detach themselves from trauma, but this identity remains separate from the host.

41
Q

What is depression?

A

A disorder in which the frequency, intensity and duration of depressive symptoms are out of proportion to the person’s life situation. A negative mood state is the core feature of depression; as depressed individuals are unable to find pleasure in most activities.

42
Q

What is major depression?

A

An intense state of sadness (dysphoria) and/or lack of ability to feel positive emotion that leaves them unable to function effectively in their lives.

43
Q

What is persistent depressive disorder?

A

A less intense form of depression that has less dramatic effects on personal and occupational functioning but continues for a significant amount of time largely unabated.

44
Q

What are the three types of depressive symptoms?

A

Cognitive
Motivational
Somatic

45
Q

Describe cognitive symptoms of depression.

A
  • Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
  • Low self-esteem, beliefs that they are inferior, inadequate and incompetent.
  • Blame themselves for setbacks, await inevitable failure that will be caused by their own inadequacies
  • Pessimism and hopelessness
46
Q

Describe motivational symptoms of depression.

A
  • Inability to get started and to perform behaviours that might produce pleasure or accomplishment.
  • In sever cases, a person’s movement may be slowed down, along with talking and make take excruciating effort.
47
Q

Describe somatic symptoms of depression.

A
  • Loss of appetite, weight loss in moderate and severe depression
  • Weight gain in milder forms of depression (compulsive eating)
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Fatigue, weakness
  • Loss of sexual desire and responsiveness
48
Q

What is bipolar I?

A

Depression alternates with periods of mania. In the period of mania, the individual experiences euphoria and cognitive processes become grandiose. Speech becomes rapid, sleep becomes “unnecessary”, poor judgement, hyperactive, rebellious behaviour.

49
Q

What is bipolar II?

A

Involves hypomanic and depressive episodes. Hypomanic episodes include the same symptoms as manic episodes but are not sever enough to cause social or occupational impairment.

50
Q

What is the prevalence of mood disorders?

A

Difference in prevalence between men and women. Women are twice as likely as men to suffer a depressive disorder.

51
Q

What are some biological causal factors of depressive and bipolar disorders?

A

Identical twins have a concordance rate of about 67% for developing clinical depression.
Biological relatives are more likely to suffer from depression than adopted relatives.

52
Q

What is the BAS and the BIS?

A

The BIS is the behavioural inhibition system (neuroticism) and is involved in pain-avoidance behaviours and generates fear and anxiety.
The BAS is the behavioural activation system (extraversion)and is involved in reward-oriented behaviours.

53
Q

What part does the BAS and BIS play in development of mood disorders?

A

Depression is predicted by high BIS sensitivity and low BAS activity (mania is opposite). Dopamine and serotonin are involved in BAS functioning. Lack of activity in the BAS would indicate depressive symptoms.

54
Q

What is personality-based vulnerability?

A

Freud and Abraham believed that early traumatic losses or rejections create vulnerability for later depression by triggering a grieving and rage process that becomes part of the individual’s personality. Subsequent losses reactivate the original loss and the feelings of distress.

55
Q

What is Aaron Beck’s 1976 theory of cognitive processes involved in depression?

A

Suggested that depressed people hold strong beliefs that they are defective, worthless and inadequate. They believe that everything bad is a result of their inadequacies and that negative things will continue to happen to them.

56
Q

What is the depressive cognitive triad?

A

Involves negative thoughts concerning

  1. The world
  2. Oneself
  3. The future
57
Q

What is the depressive attributional pattern?

A

Attributing successes or other positive events to factors outside the self while attributing negative outcomes to personal factors (which maintains low self-esteem).

58
Q

Describe Gotlib et al.’s 2004 study

A

Showed depressed people pictures of different faces. They were able to detect sad faces at lower exposure and remember them better than people without depression, suggesting that perception and memory has a part in depression, explaining why they are more likely to recall negative memories.

59
Q

What is the learned helplessness theory?

A

That depression occurs when people expect that bad events will occur and that there is nothing they can do to prevent them or cope with them.

60
Q

What part do learning and environmental factors play in depression?

A

Behaviouralists believe that depression is triggered by a loss or a “punishing” event. People stop performing behaviours that were previously reinforcing or rewarding

61
Q

What sociocultural factors affect depression?

A

Prevalence of depressive disorders is much higher in Western nations as feelings of guilt and personal inadequacy dominate.

62
Q

What is schizophrenia?

A

Includes severe disturbances in thinking, speech, perception, emotion and behaviour. Involves a loss of contact with reality as well as bizarre behaviours and experiences.

63
Q

What are some characteristics of schizophrenia?

A
  • Misinterpretation of reality
  • Delusions and false beliefs that are sustained in the face of evidence that denies them
  • Hallucinations (typically auditory but can be visual or tactile)
  • Emotional affect
64
Q

What are the three types of emotional affects in schizophrenia?

A

Blunted affect - manifesting less sadness, joy and anger than most
Flat affect - showing almost no emotions at all
Inappropriate affect - expressing emotions that are socially unacceptable for the situation

65
Q

What are the subtypes of schizophrenia?

A

Paranoid schizophrenia
Disorganised schizophrenia
Catatonic schizophrenia
Undifferentiated schizophrenia

66
Q

Describe paranoid schizophrenia.

A

Most prominent features are delusions of persecution in which people believe that others mean to harm them, and delusions of grandeur in which they are believe they are very important. Suspicion, anxiety and anger can accompany delusions.

67
Q

Describe disorganised schizophrenia

A

Central features are confusion and incoherence, together with severe deterioration of adaptive behaviour (such as personal hygiene, social skills and self-care). Usually unable to function on their own and exhibit inappropriate behaviours.

68
Q

Describe catatonic schizophrenia

A

Characterised by striking motor disturbances ranging from muscular rigidity to random or repetitive movements. Alternate between stupurous states in which they seem oblivious to reality (waxy flexibility) and agitated excitement.

69
Q

Describe undifferentiated schizophrenia

A

A category assigned to people who exhibit some symptoms from other subtypes but do not have enough specific criteria for a diagnosis in those categories.

70
Q

What are two categories of symptoms of schizophrenia?

A

Positive (delusions, hallucinations and disordered speech, thinking)
Negative (an absence of normal reactions, lack of emotional expression, motivation and speech)

71
Q

What factor does genetic predisposition play in schizophrenia?

A

The more closely one is related to a person with schizophrenia, the greater their likelihood of developing the disorder. Twin studies indicate that identical twins have a higher concordance than fraternal twins and children have a higher concordance with biological parents than adoptive parents.

72
Q

What is the neurodegenerative hypothesis?

A

Destruction of neural tissue can cause schizophrenia. Studies indicate that mild to moderate brain atrophy (general loss or deterioration of neurons) is present in the cerebral cortex and limbic system. Atrophy is centred in areas that influence cognitive processes and emotion.

73
Q

What is the dopamine hypothesis?

A

Symptoms of schizophrenia are produced by overactivity of the dopamine system in areas of the brain that regulate emotional expression, motivated behaviour and cognitive functioning. People with schizophrenia have more dopamine receptors than people without schizophrenia.

74
Q

What do psychoanalysts theorise about schizophrenia?

A

It is a retreat from unbearable stress and conflict and an extreme example of regression.

75
Q

What environmental factors account for schizophrenia?

A

Stressful life events play a big role. They seem to interact with biological or personality vulnerabilities - such as emotional over-reactivity.

76
Q

What is the social causation hypothesis?

A

Attributes the higher prevalence of schizophrenia to the higher levels of stress that low-income people experience.

77
Q

What is the social drift hypothesis?

A

Proposes that as people develop schizophrenia, their personal and occupational functioning deteriorates, so that they drift down the socioeconomic ladder.

78
Q

What are personality disorders?

A

Exhibition of unstable, ingrained, inflexible and maladaptive ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.

79
Q

What are the three clusters of personality disorders?

A

Dramatic-impulsive
Anxious-fearful
Odd-eccentric

80
Q

What is antisocial personality disorder?

A

People with APD seem to lack a conscience; they exhibit little anxiety or guilt and tend to be impulsive and unable to delay gratification of needs. They tend to be interpersonally destructive and emotionally harmful individuals.

81
Q

What are the two behavioural clusters involved with psychopathy and how do they impact upon APD?

A

Cluster 1: selfishness, callousness and interpersonal manipulation
Cluster 2: impulsivity, instability and social deviance
A person needs to exhibit both in order to be diagnosed with APD

82
Q

What biological factors impact upon APD?

A

Identical twins have a higher concordance rate for developed APD compared to fraternal
Dysfunction in amygdala and prefrontal cortex (causing impulsiveness and under arousal).

83
Q

What psychological and environmental factors impact upon APD?

A

Psychoanalytic - people lack anxiety and guilt because they did not develop an adequate superego.
Can be caused by observational learning from aggressive family/friends
Poor impulse control could be due to an inability to develop a conditioned fear response

84
Q

What are characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder?

A
  • Overestimate abilities/achievements
  • Arrogant; vain
  • Need for attention, admiration
  • Exaggerated self-importance
  • Extreme sensitivity to criticism
  • Believe they deserve special treatment
  • Lack empathy
  • Interpersonal problems
85
Q

What is borderline personality disorder?

A

Refers to a collection of symptoms characterised primarily by serious instability in behaviour, emotion, identity and interpersonal relationships.
Emotional dysregulation
Impulsive behaviours
Chronic feelings of extreme anger, loneliness and emptiness as well as losses of personal identity.

86
Q

What are some causal factors for borderline personality disorder?

A

Interpersonal strife, sexual and physical abuse, and inconsistent parenting
Biological predisposition
Individuals in societies that are unstable are likely to develop BPD.

Foundations of Psychology (5 decks)

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