Psychopathology Flashcards
1
Q
What are psychiatric disorders?
A
- disturbance in throught, mood, and/or behavior that impairs function or causes distress
- Diagnosed by behavioral symptoms
2
Q
What is the DSM?
A
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
- Scales based on presence of various amounts of symptoms
- One of the goals is to have objective information
3
Q
Prevalence of psychiatric disorders
A
- more than 1/3 of the US population reported at some point symptoms matching psychiatric disorders
4
Q
Who is at greater risk for developing psychiatric disorders?
A
- Females are at greater risk than males
- 18-25 year olds are at much greater risk than other ages
- people who are mixed-racial have greater prevalence of developing mental illness- often has to do with identity “issues”
5
Q
Social behavior dysfunction in mental illness
A
- hypo- or a-sociality (reduced or lack of healthy social function)
- can included impaired motivation to elicit social interactions (schizoid personality disorder- cold, detached, aloof)
- Social avoidance: social anxiety disorder- find social interactions aversive
- Impaired social cognition: autism spectrum disorders- difficulty understanding others’ emotions and thoughs
6
Q
Psychopathy and sociopathy symptoms
A
- pattern of antisocial behavior and/or attitudes
- disregard for and violation of the rights and feelings of others
- deviates noticeable from expectations of individual’s culture
- pervasive and inflexible
- leads to personal distress or impairment
7
Q
Sociopathy vs psychopathy
A
- Sociopathy- having a sense of morality and a well-developed conscience, but the sense of right and wrong is not that of the parent culture- can show remorse for actions (cannot make a decision of what’s right or wrong in the moment but can reflect back)
- Psychopathy- no empathy or sense of morality, dishonest, manipulativeness- shows no remorse (takes pride in crimes and hurting others)
8
Q
What causes reduced emotional empathy and sets the stage of psychopathy?
A
- amygdala dysfunction
- boys with conduct disorders and psychopathy have both hemispheres of the amygdala reduced in size
someone with a hyper functioning amygdala will have anxiety and intense fear
9
Q
Emotional empathy in healthy people
A
- viewing people experiencing fear, sadness, or pain evokes emotional empathy in healthy people (we experience their emotions)
- activates the amygdala, anterior cingulate, and insula
10
Q
Psychopathy and the reward system
A
- reward/reinfocement system (striatum) dysfunction causes impaired action-outcome (instrumental learning), particularly for punishment
- Research found decreased signal change in the left caudate when recieving rewarding feedback, and increased signal change when recieving punishing feedback (opposite of healthy controls) in people with disruptive behavioral disorder
11
Q
Psychopaths and frontal lobe
A
- Gage: after frontal lobe legion had no inhibitions or desire for appropriate social behavior
- murderers have a largely inactive frontal lobe
12
Q
Schizophrenia morphemes
A
- Schizo- to split
- phren- mind (not personality); thought, mood, affect, and behavior are splintered
- Spectrum of disorders: psychosis= disconnection from reality
13
Q
Schizophrenia prevalence and age of onset
A
- 1-3% of US population
- peak in diagnoses around age 20
14
Q
Schizophrenia positive symptoms
A
- psychosis, including:
- Hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thought and speech, bizarre behaviors
15
Q
Schizophrenia negative symptoms
A
- Emotional dysregulation : lack of emotional expression, reduced facial expression (flat affect), inability to experience pleasure in everyday activities (anhedonia)
- Impaired motivation: reduced conversation (alogia), diminished ability to begin or sustain activities, social withdrawal
