Psychological Problems p1 Flashcards
Delusions
Believing something that isn’t true (government are spying on you).
Negative and Positive Factors of Schizophrenia
Negative:
-thoughts or behaviour the individual had before the illness (lowered mood, social withdrawal).
Positive:
-changed behaviour or thoughts (hallucinations/delusions).
Catatonic Behaviour
A group of symptoms that usually involve a lack of movement and communication.
Discrimination
A stigma that has been acted upon (a behavioural issue).
Self-fulfilling prophecy
When someone behaves in a way an assumption about them expects them to behave.
Prevelance
How common something is.
Mental Health as a Continuum
Suggests there are degrees in mental health which we may fluctuate between.
Incidence
Refers to the number of NEW cases.
Stigma
A mark of disgrace with a particular circumstance, quality, or person (a cognitive issue).
Tandoc’s Study sample (depression)
-854 students across four uni courses in journalism from USA were INVITED via email and going to their classes
-736 students actually participated in survey
- 68% (500) female
- 32%(235) male average age 19
-78% (574) white americans
= all used facebook for average 2h
Criticisms of Tandoc’s Study
- reductionist = failed to consider the complex nature of depression, reducing the explanation to an outdated evolutionary view, rather than considering the holistic view that depression can be caused due a wide variety of factors
- social desirability bias = due to self report ,participants could have underplayed their use of social media, level of envy and their experience of depression -> invalid results effecting validity
- culturally biased = well educated journalism students USA -> factors may influence how much facebook is used and how they deal with their feelings
- lack construct validity due to numerical coding = complex behaviour reduced to numbers on a rating scale so may not give a true representation of peoples experiences
- difficult to establish cause and effect = relationship between variables (e.g does facebook use increase envy or does envy draw people to facebook?)
Social Drift Theory (schizophrenia)
Suggests having schizophrenia causes people to become lower class, through disengagement from society which leads to further rejection from society(caught in a downwards spiral, hard to get out).
Daniel et al sample
10 USA schizophrenic patients
- each tested with and without amphetamine (one is placebo)
- given haloperidol 6 weeks prior to stabilize their symptoms
Criticisms of Daniel et al
1) culturally biased
= all from USA and most were white , problematic as schizophrenia rates differ between different ethnicities so ungeneralisable
2) Use of haloperidol to stabilize sample
= could have effected brain activity so becomes an extraneous variable. also harder to establish cause and effect
3) Small sample
- ungeneralisable as not representative
Schizophrenia gender Stats and Symptoms/characteristics
- Equal across genders
- women diagnosed in 30’s
- men diagnosed in 20’s
- 1% prevalence
- Symptoms/characteristics: hallucinations, delusions, catatonic behaviour, disorganised speech
recovery rates of schizophrenia after ten years since diagnosis?
25% fully recover 25% much improved 25% need support 15% hospitalised 10% dead (mainly suicide)
age and ethnicity statistics (schizophrenia)
- schizophrenia is an adult disorder, usually diagnosed before age of 40
- british people of Caribbean and African origin>white people
- Asian origin lower rates than average of diagnosis
hallucinations
the experience of perceiving objects or events that do not have an external source
schizophrenia
a psychotic disorder where people lose their sense of self and reality
neologisms
a new word or phrase of the patients own making often seen in schizophrenia
Tandoc aims
1) To investigate if depression (using social rank theory) could be predicted by FB envy
2) To investigate if FB use can lead to subordinating feelings, which in turn can lead to depression
Tandoc Hypothesis
H1: heavy facebook users feel higher levels of facebook envy than light facebook users (supported)
H2: facebook users with big network of friends tend to feel higher levels of envy than those with small network of friends (not supported)
H3: those who report high envy levels tend to report more symptoms of depression than lower levels of envy (supported)
Tandoc procedure/ how was it measured
Fb use -> rated on a scale 1-5
envy-> rating scales showing how much they agreed with certain statements
depression-> scale called the CES-D
= self report using online surveys. Responses coded into numerical form to be statistically analysed
Tandoc results
H1: supported as results showed heavy facebook users experience stronger feelings of envy
H2: not supported size of facebook user network was not related to envy
H3: supported as those who reported high feelings of envy also reported more symptoms of depression than lower levels of envy (FB was a significant predictor of depression amongst college students)
-FB can LESSEN feelings of depression if it is used positively and does not lead to envy
