Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Psychology > Psychopathology > Flashcards

Psychopathology Flashcards

1
Q

What are the four definitions of abnormality?

A

1) Deviation from social norms
2) Failure to function adequately
3) Statistical infrequency
4) Deviation from ideal mental health

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What is Deviation from social norms?

A
  • Behaviour which goes against the unwritten rules of society or culture
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What is a social norm?

A
  • Standards of acceptable behaviour created by and adhered to by society
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Examples of social norms

A
  • Politeness
  • Not standing too close to someone you just met
  • Wearing clothes in public
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Limitations of deviation from social norms

A
  • Does not always clearly indicate if there if a psychological abnormality
  • someone could just be odd/eccentric
  • E.g: naturists don’t wear any clothes, although they deviate they do not have mental health problems
  • Context must be taken into account
  • E.g: wearing no clothes on the high street is abnormal but on a nudist beach it is acceptable
  • Social norms change over time
  • E.g: Homosexuality was classed as a metal illness until 1990 by the ICD but is no longer considered an abnormality
  • Some cases of deviation from social norms are beneficial
  • E.g: Suffragettes, Martin Luther King, Deviants to Nazi Germany
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Strengths for deviation from social norms

A
  • Distinguishes difference between desirable and non desirable behaviour
  • Protects the public from damaging consequences
  • E.g: It would be disturbing to see someone not wearing any clothes on the high street
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What is failure to function adequately?

A
  • Behaviour which causes an inability to cope with everyday life.
  • It may disrupt work or interpersonal relationships
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What are the seven criteria for failure to function adequately?

A

1) Suffering
2) Unpredictability and loss of control
3) Maladaptiveness
4) Observer discomfort
5) Vividness and unconventionality
6) Irrationality and incomprehensibility
7) Violation of moral and ideal standards

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What is suffering? (FTFA)

A
  • feeling sad, anxious, worried, or scared
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What is unpredictablability and loss of control? (FTFA)

A
  • displaying unexpected behaviour
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What is maladaptiveness? (FTFA)

A
  • behaviour stopping individuals from attaining life goals

- social and occupational goals

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What is observer discomfort? (FTFA)

A
  • behaviours which cause discomfort to others
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What is vividness and unconventionality? (FTFA)

A
  • uncommon behaviour to a certain situation
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What is irrationality and incomprehensibility? (FTFA)

A
  • illogical, unexplainable behaviour
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What is violation of moral and ideal standards? (FTFA)

A
  • behaviour that violates societies ethical standards
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Who suggested the 7 criteria for failure to function adequately?

A

Rosenhan and Seligman (1989)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

How is someone classed as abnormal using the 7 criteria? (FTFA)

A
  • the higher the number of criteria present the more abnormal the person
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Limitations for failure to function adequately

A
  • Abnormality is not always accompanied by dysfunction
  • E.g: psychopaths commit murder and seem normal like Harold Shipman and English doctor who murdered 215 patients in 23 years
  • Suffering from personal distress can be normal
  • E.g: death of a loved one can cause suffering but that doesn’t make anyone abnormal
  • The 7 criteria are difficult to measure and analyse
  • The model is subjective and lacks being scientific
  • Behaviours may cause others discomfort but not personal distress
  • E.g Steven Gough was imprisoned for breaching peace as he insisted on hiking naked
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Strengths for failure to function adequately

A
  • Using the GAF (global assessment of functioning) scale assess accurately the degree of abnormality
  • To see how well the patient is coping in social/occupational life
  • There are many criteria, making it more reliable
  • It can be easily followed by anyone not just psychologists
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What is statically infrequency?

A
  • Behaviour which is statistically rare

- both extremes of normal distribution

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

Example of statistical infrequency

A
  • Average IQ score = 100
  • 65% between 85-115
  • 95% between 70-130
  • 2.5% >130 = abnormal
  • 2.5% <70 = abnormal
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

Limitations of statistical infrequency

A
  • Does not account for statistically rare desirable behaviour
  • E.g: high IQ ( >130) is highly regarded
  • Some psychological disorders are not statistically rare
  • E.g: depression affects 27% of elderly people, although it is common it is a problem
  • Many rare behaviours/characteristics doe not have a bearing in abnormality
  • E.g: left-handedness
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

Strengths of statistical infrequency

A
  • Judgements are objective, scientific and unbiased
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

What is deviation from ideal mental health?

A
  • Behaviour which fails to meet prescribed criteria for psychological normality
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

What are the six criteria for deviation from ideal mental health.

A

1) Autonomy
2) Perception of reality
3) Personal growth
4) Integration
5) Environmental mastery
6) Self attitudes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

Who suggested the criteria for deviation from ideal mental health?

A
  • Marie Jahoda (1958)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

What is autonomy? (DFIMH)

A
  • Being independent, self-reliant

- Able to make personal decisions

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

What is perception of reality? (DFIMH)

A
  • perceiving the world in a non-distorted fashion
  • objective and realistic view of the world
  • no hallucinations or delusions
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

What is personal growth? (DFIMH)

A
  • self-actualisation and development
  • Reaching full potential
  • Felling fulfilled
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
30
Q

What is integration? (DFIMH)

A
  • Having effective coping strategies

- Being able to manage everyday anxiety-provoking, stressful situations

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
31
Q

What is environmental mastery? (DFIMH)

A
  • being competent in all aspects of life
  • the ability to meet demands of any situation
  • flexibility to adapt to changing life circumstances
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
32
Q

What is self-attitudes? (DFIMH)

A
  • having self-respect, high self-esteem, confidence and positive self-concept
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
33
Q

Limitations of deviation from ideal mental health

A
  • The criteria is abstract, difficult to measure and define
  • They are vague and subjective
  • The model is comprehensive, mental health may not be
  • The criteria is unrealistic and demanding as they may or always be simultaneously seen
  • E.g: self-actualisation is very rare to be constantly experienced
  • There is a cultural bias
  • E.g: collectivist cultures emphasise communal goals (autonomy is undesirable) unlike individualistic cultures
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
34
Q

Strengths for deviation from ideal mental health

A
  • It takes a positive, holistic approach to diagnosis

- It highlights areas of dysfunction to work on and improve

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
35
Q

How is someone classed as abnormal using the 6 criteria? (DFIMH)

A
  • All six criteria should be fulfilled at the same time to be normal
  • more absences means more abnormal
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
36
Q

Behavioural characteristics of phobias

A

1) Panic: crying, running, screaming, freezing, fainting, collapsing or vomiting
2) Endurance: frozen and unable to move
3) Avoidance: evade object (can interfere with everyday life)
4) Disruption of functioning: interference of functioning socially or at work

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
37
Q

Emotional characteristics of phobias

A

1) Fear: persistent, excessive and unreasonable worry and distress
2) Anxiety: terror, uncertainty and apprehension about what will happen

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
38
Q

Cognitive characteristics of phobias

A

1) Irrational: thoughts have no logical sense, resisting rational counter-arguments e.g fear of flying yet flying is the safest form of transport
2) Insight: they know the fear is excessive and unreasonable but cannot stop it
3) Cognitive distortions: have distorted perceptions e.g arachnophobia; may believe spiders are dangerous and deadly but there are no deadly spiders in the UK
4) Selective attention: they become fixated on the phobic object and ignore everything else

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
39
Q

What is the two process model?

A

1) Learning the phobia via classical conditioning or social learning
2) Maintaining the phobia via operant conditions

40
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A
  • Learning through association

- a stimulus produces the same response as another stimulus because they have been constantly presented at the same time

41
Q

What is the classical conditioning experiment?

A
  • Little Albert presented with many animals including a white rat which he played with happily
  • Every time he reached for the white rat they struck a metal bar
  • The loud noise startled him and made him cry
  • Eventually he cried every time he saw the white rat even if the bar wasn’t struck
  • The phobia was then generalised to other fluffy white objects
42
Q

What was the white rat initially in the Little Albert experiment?

A
  • A neutral stimulus (produced no reflexes)
43
Q

What did the white rat become in the Little Albert experiment?

A
  • A conditioned stimulus
44
Q

What was the loud noise made by the metal bar being struck in the Little Albert experiment?

A
  • An unconditioned stimulus
45
Q

What was the reaction to the metal bar being struck in the Little Albert experiment?

A
  • An unconditioned response (produced the reflex of fear and crying)
46
Q

What was the reaction to the white rat after being conditioned in the Little Albert experiment?

A
  • A conditioned response
47
Q

What is the social learning theory?

A
  • Young children observe parents reactions
  • They copy the behaviour
  • E.g: watching them scream after a traumatic experience and imitating the behaviour when in a similar situation
  • Develop the phobia by observational learning
48
Q

Who were the psychologists in the Little Albert experiment?

A
  • Watson and Raynor (1920)
49
Q

What was the study for the social learning theory?

A
  • One monkey in a cage showed a fear response to snakes

- The other monkeys in the cage copied the response and showed a fear response for snakes

50
Q

Who found the evidence for the social learning theory?

A
  • Minneka
51
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A
  • Learning through the consequences of one’s behaviour
    1) Positive reinforcement: behaviour leads to a reward e.g avoidance of phobic object = relief
    2) Negative reinforcement: behaviour stops something unpleasant e.g avoidance = no fear
52
Q

Limitations of classical conditioning

A
  • The study was only conducted once
  • Lacks reliability
  • Cannot be repeated due to ethical concerns
  • Some people have traumatic experiences but do not develop a phobia
  • E.g: in car crash but does not get phobia of cars
  • Some people have phobias despite not having a traumatic experience (doesn’t explain how all phobias develop:
  • E.g: being scared of snakes but never having encountered one
  • 50% of people that have a phobia of dogs never had a bad experience with one
  • Menzies studied people with hydrophobia
  • 2% of them had, had a traumatic experience with water
  • 98% hadn’t
  • how did the phobia develop?
53
Q

Strengths of classical conditioning

A
  • King (1998) reviewed case studies
  • He found that children acquire phobias by traumatic experiences with phobic object
  • E.g: children who got bitten by dogs grew to have a phobia of dogs
54
Q

Strengths of the social learning theory

A
  • It can explain how children and animals have phobias
  • Bandura conducted a piece of research
  • A person acted as if they were in pain when a buzzer sounded
  • participants watched
  • when they were given the chance to hear the buzzer they showed the same response
55
Q

Limitations of the social learning theory

A
  • It cannot explain how adults acquire phobias
56
Q

Limitations of the two process model

A
  • It does not take into account biological factors

- Some people have a genetic vulnerability to phobias

57
Q

Strengths of the two process model

A
  • It takes into account learning and environmental factors
  • There are no labels of mental illness, avoiding the stigma
  • labels can be damaging and difficult to remove
  • The model is positive and shows that phobias can be corrected
58
Q

What is systematic desensitisation?

A
  • Behavioural therapy to reduce phobias by classical conditioning
59
Q

How does systematic desensitisation work?

A
  • It replaces fear and anxiety with a relaxed response
  • It is impossible to experience two opposite emotions simultaneously = reciprocal inhibition
  • if the patient can remain relaxed they are cured by counter-conditioning
60
Q

What are the three steps of systematic desensitisation?

A

1) The hierarchy of fear
2) Relaxation techniques
3) Gradual exposure

61
Q

What is the hierarchy of fear? (SD)

A
  • Situations involving the phobic object are ranked from last to most fearful
  • E.g: seeing a picture, watching a video, being in the same room, being next to you, touching it, holding it
62
Q

What are Relaxation techniques? (SD)

A
  • deep breathing, progressive muscular relaxation (PMR) and the relaxation response
  • PMR: tense up muscles, hold for a few seconds then relax, then relax further
  • During the relaxation response patients sit comfortably, eyes close, relaxing all muscles starting at feet working up the body whiles breathing deeply, meditating and imaging relaxing situations
63
Q

What is gradual exposure? (SD)

A
  • The patient works their way up the hierarchy of fear starting with least fearful
  • They use the relaxation techniques simultaneously
  • when completely comfortable with one stage move onto the next
  • through repeated exposure work through all stages till phobia is eliminated
64
Q

Limitations of systematic desensitisation

A
  • It can be impractical confronting real life phobic situations
  • They are difficult to arrange and control
  • E.g: if someone was scared of sharks
  • It treats symptoms which are the top of the iceberg
  • Underlying cause remains
  • Symptoms will return or symptom substitution will occur when other abnormal behaviour replaces the one removed
65
Q

Strengths of systematic desensitisation

A
  • It’s less traumatic than other therapies like flooding
  • Jones (1924) used SD to eradicate Little Peter’s phobia
  • a white rabbit was brought closer and closer to him each time his anxiety lessened
  • till he developed affection
  • generalised to all fluffy white objects
  • Klosko et al (1990) assessed various therapies for panic disorders
  • 87% were panic free after SD
  • 50% were panic free after medication
  • 36% were panic free after a placebo
  • 33% were panic free after no treatment
  • SD is the most effective
66
Q

What is flooding?

A
  • directly exposing patient to phobic object
  • taught relaxation techniques but no gradual exposure
  • immediate, frightening, extreme situation
  • real or virtual/imagined
67
Q

How does flooding work?

A
  • It stops phobic response immediately
  • no avoidance
  • quickly learn that the phobic object is harmless
  • relaxation can occur due to exhaustion
  • lasts 2-3 hours
68
Q

Limitations of flooding

A
  • less effective for some phobias
  • E.g: social phobia as it has more cognitive aspects so cognitive therapies would be better
  • highly traumatic
  • patients could be unwilling to continue wasting time and money
  • phobia will remain uncured
  • Not suitable for children as it is traumatic
69
Q

Strengths of flooding

A
  • cost effective
  • patients are free of symptoms as soon as possible
  • done much quicker than SD
  • Wolpe (1960) used flooding
  • he removed a phobia of cars by forcing the woman into a car and driving around for 4 hours till hysteria was eradicated
  • Ost (1997) found flooding effective especially when patient continues to self direct exposure outside of therapy
70
Q

How is depression diagnosed?

A
  • At least 5 symptoms present everyday for 2 weeks
  • they must include sadness or loss of interests and pleasure in normal activities
  • Impairment in general functioning not caused by other events
71
Q

Behavioural characteristics of depression

A

1) Shift in energy levels: fatigue, lethargy, high levels of inactivity, some have high amounts of nervous energy, agitated and restless (=psychomotor agitation), pacing, wring hands, tear skin
2) social impairment: less social interactions with friends and family
3) weight changes: significant increase or decrease due to excess increase or decrease in eating
4) poor personal hygiene: showering less, wearing clean clothes less
5) sleep patter disturbance: insomnia or hypersomnia
6) aggression and self harm: irritable, physically or verbally aggressive, impulsive, self harming, cutting, attempting suicide

72
Q

Emotional characteristics of depression

A

1) Loss of enthusiasm: lack of pleasure in daily activities
2) Constant depressed mood: eve present, overwhelming feeling of sadness,hopelessness and emptiness
3) Worthlessness: feelings of reduced worth, guilt, low levels of self-esteem
4) Anger: anger directed towards others or themselves

73
Q

Cognitive characteristics of depression

A

1) Delusions: concerning guilt, punishment, personal inadequacy, disease, or hallucinations that can be auditory, visual, olfactory and haptic
2) Reduced concentration: difficulty paying attention for long periods of time, slower processes, difficulty making decisions
3) Thoughts of death: thoughts about suicide, that the world would be better without them
4) Poor memory: trouble with recall
5) Negative thinking: negative thoughts about the world, negative expectations, self fulfilling prophecy (if you expect something bad, it will happen)
6) Absolutist thinking: use absolutist terms eg: it was a complete disaster rather than it was good but could have been better

74
Q

What are the stages of the cognitive triad?

A

1) Negative thoughts about self: worthless, helpless, critical e.g I am useless and no good at maths
2) Negative thoughts about the world: distress thinking on a larger scale e.g I am useless at everything I do
3) Negative thoughts about the future: bleak e.g I will always be useless at everything, I’ll never improve

75
Q

Who developed the cognitive triad?

A
  • Beck (1960)
76
Q

Limitations of the cognitive triad

A
  • Cause and effect is not clear
  • do negative thoughts cause depression or depression cause negative thoughts
  • could genetics be a cause
  • doesn’t explain how some symptoms might develop
  • doesn’t explain the manic phases experienced by patients with bipolar disorders
77
Q

Strengths for the cognitive triad

A
  • works well combined with the behavioural approach
  • Terry (2000) assessed 65 pregnant women for cognitive vulnerability before and after giving birth
  • Women with a higher vulnerability were more like to suffer from post-partum depression
  • negative thinking can cause depression
78
Q

What are the stages of the ABC model?

A

1) Activating event: an incident in life triggering negative thoughts e.g getting fired / failing
2) Beliefs: Thoughts occurring after the events rational e.g over staffing or irrational e.g they always had it in for me
3) Consequences: Emotions caused by the beliefs; healthy e.g acceptance or unhealthy e.g depression

79
Q

Who developed the ABC model?

A
  • Ellis (1962)
80
Q

Limitations of the ABC model

A
  • cause and effect is not established
  • it’s not clear on what comes first negative thinking or depression
  • genetics and biology is ignored
  • it blames the client
  • situational factors are overlooked e.g family problems
  • only extreme negative thoughts are said to cause depression
  • Zhang (2005) found a gene related to depression
  • It makes it ten times more likely for someone to develop depression
  • gives the client power to change and improve their situation
81
Q

Strengths of the ABC model

A
  • Bates (1999) found that depressed patients who were given negative statements became more depressed
  • negative thinking caused depression
  • effective treatments can be provided by knowing the causes
  • scientific evidence and objective testing
  • improvement for the model and greater testing for the cause
  • adults to develop depression experienced insecure attachments in childhood
  • contributing cause
82
Q

What is a negative schema?

A
  • Cognitive framework that helps organise and interpret information and make sense of new information
  • forms during childhood
  • tendency to adopt pessimistic view of the world
  • by parental/peer rejection or criticism from teachers
83
Q

Examples of negative schemas

A

1) Self blame - responsible for all misfortunes

2) Ineptness - expect failure

84
Q

What is the aim of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?

A
  • to change irrational thoughts to alleviate depression
85
Q

Who developed cognitive behavioural therapy?

A
  • Beck
86
Q

What are the stages of CBT?

A

1) Identify irrational thoughts (thought-catching)
2) Generate a hypothesis to test the validity of the thoughts (patient as scientist)
3) Gather data abound behaviour and incidents and record it in a diary
4) compare the evidence to the hypothesis
5) complete homework tasks between therapy session to test the thoughts in the real world
6) when positive thoughts are reported the therapist praises them (positive reinforcement)

87
Q

How is CBT carried out?

A
  • On their own

- As a group

88
Q

Behavioural characteristics of OCD

A

1) Compulsive behaviours- repetitive, unconcealed e.g praying, counting, hand washing
2) Hinder everyday functioning- not be able to do their job effectively
3) Social impairment- unable to conduct meaningful interpersonal relationships
4) Repetitive- behaviours are a response to obsessive thoughts e.g about dirt so constantly washing hands
5) Avoidance- avoiding triggering situations e.g never emptying bins

89
Q

Emotional characteristics of OCD

A

1) Anxiety and distress- know their behaviour is excessive causing embarrassment and shame, cannot consciously control making them feel distressed
2) Accompanying depression- low mood, lack of enjoyment, compulsive behaviour brings temporary relief
3) Guilt and disgust- irrational guilt over minor issues, disgust against something external e.g dirt or self

90
Q

Cognitive characteristics of OCD

A

1) Obsessions- recurrent, intrusive thoughts/impulses, inappropriate or forbidden, frightening or embarrassing, uncontrollable, unreasonable doubts, impulses or images
2) Recognised as self generated- self invented
3) Realisation of inappropriateness- irrational and cannot consciously control or stop them
4) Attention to bias- focus on anxiety generating stimuli, hyper vigilance
5) Uncontrollable urges- urges to perform acts

91
Q

What are the two genes that cause OCD?

A

1) COMT

2) SERT (serotonin transport gene)

92
Q

What does the COMT gene do?

A
  • regulates production of neurotransmitter dopamine
  • high levels associate with OCD
  • dopamine = drive, motivation and aggression
93
Q

What does the SERT gene do?

A
  • affects transportation of serotonin
  • low levels associated with OCD
  • resulting in low mood and depression symptoms
94
Q

Where is the SERT gene found?

A
  • On chromosome 17

- a mutation in the gene causes OCD

95
Q

What is OCD classed as?

A
  • polygenic: more than one gene is responsible for the disorder
  • approx 230 genes are responsible = candidate genes

Psychology (6 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions