Psychopathology Flashcards
(100 cards)
1
Q
What is statistical deviation?
A
-Having a less common characteristic than most of the population, using statistic and averages to define abnormality.
2
Q
What is normal distribution?
A
-Uses a bell curve to see where person fits, human characteristics are normally distributed with most clustering in middle and only a minority at extremes.
3
Q
What is intellectual disability disorder?
A
-2% people score below 70 on IQ test, so are “abnormal”= and receive a diagnosis of psychological disorder.
4
Q
What is the average IQ?
A
- Average=100.
- Most range from 85 to 115.
5
Q
What are the strengths of statistical deviation?
A
- Real life application=diagnosing IDD.
- Useful part of clinical assessment=measure of symptom severity.
6
Q
What are the weaknesses of statistical deviation?
A
- Not everyone benefits from being labelled.
- Doesn’t take desirability into account.
- Unusual characteristics can be positive and don’t need treatment.
7
Q
What is deviation from social norms?
A
-Person’s behaviour is abnormal if it violates the unwritten rules about what is acceptable in a particular group.
8
Q
What are the two types of rules?
A
- Explicit; breaking the law=criminal
- Implicit; conventional, unwritten rules=deviant.
9
Q
What is a person’s behaviour like if they deviate from social norms?
A
- Make others feel threatened.
- Incomprehensible to others.
- May be labelled as a psychopath.
10
Q
What is antisocial personality disorder?
A
- Psychopath=impulsive, aggressive and irresponsible.
- Person doesn’t conform to moral standards.
11
Q
How can mental illness be diagnosed?
A
- Psychologists made up DSM to assess whether someone is mentally ill.
- 1968;DSM used homosexuality as psychiatric disorder.
12
Q
What is drapetomania?
A
- Dr Samuel Cartwright believed slaves who tried to flee were mentally ill.
- Cure was to whip them, and cut toes.
- This was done to keep slaves for the economy.
13
Q
What are the strengths of deviation from social norms?
A
- Real-life application; diagnosing APD.
- Useful definition; identify mental illness because we can learn what we expect from people.
14
Q
What are the weaknesses of deviation from social norms?
A
- Risk of abusing human rights=drapetomania.
- Social norms change over time.
- Social norms change within cultures
15
Q
What is failure to function adequately?
A
- Unable to cope with demand of life.
- People are abnormal when they can’t perform tasks like hygiene.
16
Q
When is someone failing to function adequately?
A
- Rosenhan and Seligman proposed signs;
- Maladaptiveness.
- Experience severe distress.
- Can’t maintain eye contact.
17
Q
What is a GAF?
A
-Global assessment of functioning scale, the criteria needed to assess whether someone is functioning adequately.
18
Q
What is the Rosenhan study?
A
- Concluded psychiatrists can’t tell difference between sane and insane people.
- PP told fake name and symptoms to gain access to hospital then stopped them.
- None were detected, and admitted with schizophrenia.
19
Q
What are the strengths of failure to function adequately?
A
- Easy to judge objectively (not influenced)=use lists of behaviours.
- Includes subjective experiences of individual.
20
Q
What are the weaknesses of failure to function adequately?
A
- May not be objectively judged.
- Difficult to decide whether someone is failing to function or just deviating from social norms.
- Different cultures have different norms.
21
Q
What is deviation from ideal mental health?
A
-Ignores the issue of what makes a person abnormal and focuses on what makes them normal.
22
Q
What is Jahoda’s criteria?
A
- Jahoda proposed criteria for optimal living;
- Positive self-attitude. -Resistance to stress. -Accurate perception of reality. -Individual autonomy. -Self-actualisation. -Environmental mastery.
23
Q
What are the strengths of deviation from ideal mental health?
A
- Very comprehensive and covers a broad range of criteria.
- Focuses on positives and what is normal.
- Range of factors in criteria=good tool.
24
Q
What’s the weaknesses of deviation from ideal mental health?
A
- Sets unrealistically high standards=few can achieve full criteria so all seen as abnormal.
- Some ideas are culture bound.
- Difficulty of self-actualisation.
25
What is a phobia?
-An irrational fear of an object or situation.
26
What is behavioural, emotional and cognitive?
- Behavioural; ways in which people act.
- Emotional; ways in which people feel.
- Cognitive; refers to the process of thinking.
27
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?
- Panic.
- Endurance.
- Avoidance.
28
What is panic?
-Phobic panics in response to phobia, includes crying, screaming and running away.
29
What is endurance?
-Phobic remains in presence of phobia but continues to experience high levels of anxiety.
30
What is avoidance?
-Phobic goes to a lot of effort to avoid the phobic stimulus, makes everyday life hard.
31
What are the emotional characteristics of phobias?
- Anxiety.
- Arachnophobia (example).
- Unreasonable emotional response.
32
What is anxiety?
-Unpleasant state of high arousal, prevents sufferer from relaxing.
33
What is arachnophobia?
-Fear of spiders, so person’s anxiety levels will increase when in a place associated with this phobia.
34
What are unreasonable emotional responses?
-Response is irrational in relation to the phobic stimulus.
35
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?
- Selective attention.
- Irrational beliefs.
- Cognitive distortions.
36
What is selective attention?
-If phobic sees stimulus it’s hard to look away, very helpful if phobia is dangerous but unhelpful if it’s irrational.
37
What are irrational beliefs?
-Phobic has irrational thoughts about the phobia.
38
What are cognitive distortions?
-Phobic’s perception of phobia will be exaggerated and distorted, e.g. may see snakes as alien like.
39
What is the two-process model?
- States phobia is acquired and maintained by conditioning.
| - Mowrer suggested the model.
40
How can classical conditioning treat phobias?
-Learning to associate something of which we initially have no fear with something that triggers fear.
41
How can operant conditioning treat phobias?
-Phobias maintained by operant conditioning, when we avoid phobia we avoid fear and reinforces avoidance behaviour and phobia is maintained.
42
What is the Little Albert experiment?
-Watson created phobia in 9-month old baby, shown rat (NS) then began to make loud bang (US) with rat, over time this created fear when rat shown (CS) which produced CR.
43
What are the strengths of the two-process model?
- Therapy based on two process model and successful at treating phobias.
- Model was a big step forward as it went beyond classical conditioning.
44
What are the weaknesses of the two-process model?
- Ethical issues=using child in lab.
- Artificial environment.
- Small sample=lacks validity.
45
What is systematic desensitisation?
- Therapy to gradually reduce phobic anxiety, extinguishes fear by replacing it with relaxation.
- Cannot feel fear and relaxation at the same time.
46
What are the three processes of systematic desensitisation?
- Anxiety hierarchy.
- Relaxation.
- Exposure.
47
What is the anxiety hierarchy?
- List related to phobic stimulus, so therapist may show pictures from least to most scary.
- Client moves to next stage when fully relaxed.
48
What is relaxation?
-Therapist teaches patient to relax as deeply as possible, e.g. breathing techniques or imagining phobic stimulus.
49
What is exposure?
-Patient is exposed to phobic stimulus whilst in a relaxed state.
50
What are the strengths of systematic desensitisation?
- Research shows it’s effective in treatment.
- Appropriate for diverse range of patients.
- Acceptable by patients=low refusal rate.
51
What are the weaknesses of systematic desensitisation?
- May take patient a long time to fully relax when in therapy sessions.
- Symptom substitution=one phobia disappears another may appear.
52
What is flooding?
-Exposing phobic to phobia but without gradual build up, involves immediate exposure to frightening situation.
53
How does flooding work?
-Client will be extremely fearful at first but cannot maintain high level of arousal and panic so fear will subside.
54
What are the strengths of flooding?
-Highly effective=patients free of their phobia fast therefore cheaper.
55
What are the weaknesses of flooding?
- Symptom substitution.
- Unpleasant experience and may be a risk to health.
- Treatment can be traumatic for some.
56
What is OCD?
-Serious anxiety-related condition where person experiences intrusive and obsessive thoughts, followed by urges and compulsions.
57
What are examples of compulsions?
- Behavioural.
| - Washing, checking, hoarding.
58
What are examples of obsessions?
Emotional.
| -Need for symmetry, fear of contamination.
59
What are the behavioural characteristics of OCD?
- Compulsions are repetitive.
- Compulsions reduce anxiety.
- Avoidance.
60
What are the emotional characteristics of OCD?
- Anxiety and distress.
- Guilt and disgust.
- Accompanying depression.
61
What are the cognitive characteristics of OCD?
- Obsessive thoughts.
- Cognitive strategies to deal with obsessions.
- Insight into excessive anxiety.
62
What is the genetic explanation to OCD?
- Genes involved in individual vulnerability to OCD.
- Lewis (1936) suggests OCD runs in family and passed on by genetic vulnerability.
- Stress-diathesis model.
63
What are candidate genes?
- Create vulnerability for OCD.
| - Some are involved in regulating serotonin system.
64
Why is OCD polygenic?
- Not caused by one gene but several.
| - Taylor (2013)=found 230 different genes.
65
What are the different types of OCD?
-Different genes cause OCD in different people due to genetic variations.
66
What are the strengths of genetic explanations?
- Support evidence=twin studies, 68% IT shared OCD compared to 31% N-IT twins.
- Lewis (1936)=37% of OCD patients had parents with OCD.
67
What are the weaknesses of genetic explanations?
- Too many candidate genes=can’t pin down which cause what.
- Environmental risk factor=genes aren’t only factor causing OCD.
- Twin studies flawed=raised in same environment.
68
What are neural explanations?
-Genes associated with OCD affect levels of key neurotransmitters and structures of brain.
69
What is the role of serotonin?
- Regulate mood.
| - If low levels of serotonin=transmission of mood-relevant info can’t take place.
70
What is the decision-making system?
-Some OCD caused by impaired decision making=abnormal functioning of lateral frontal lobes of brain.
71
What are the strengths of neural explanations?
-Some supporting evidence; some antidepressants work on serotonin system=effective and show serotonin plays a part in OCD.
72
What are the weaknesses of neural explanations?
- Serotonin-OCD may be co-morbidity with depression.
| - Not clear what neural mechanisms are involved.
73
What is drug therapy?
-Increase/decrease levels of neurotransmitters in the brain to increase/decrease their activity.
74
What are SSRIs?
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors=antidepressant drugs to reduce OCD symptoms.
- Increase levels of serotonin.
75
How do SSRI’s work?
- SSRIs block the reabsorption (reuptake) of serotonin in the brain, making more serotonin available.
- By synaptic transmission.
76
What is combining SSRI’s with other treatments?
- Drugs often used with CBT.
| - Reduce patient’s emotional symptoms-can engage more in CBT.
77
What are alternatives to SSRI’s?
- Used when SSRI’s aren’t effective after 3 months.
- Tricyclics=e.g. clomipramine=same effect as SSRI’s.
- SNRI’s= reserve for those who don’t respond to SSRI’s.
78
What are the strengths of drug therapy?
- Drugs are cost-effective and non-disruptive=don’t have to engage in CBT.
- Effective at tackling symptoms=70% declined.
79
What are the weaknesses of drug therapy?
- Unreliable evidence for drug treatments=research is biased for drug companies.
- Side effects= blurred vision, loss of sex drive.
- OCD may follow trauma.
80
What are the behavioural characteristics of depression?
- Activity levels lowered.
- Disrupted sleeping and eating.
- Aggression and self harm.
81
What are the emotional characteristics of depression?
- Lowered mood.
- Anger.
- Lowered self-esteem.
82
What are the cognitive characteristics of depression?
- Poor concentration.
- Negativity.
- Absolutist thinking (only worst case scenarios).
83
What are the two cognitive approaches to explaining depression?
- Beck’s cognitive theory.
| - Ellis’ ABC model.
84
What is Beck’s cognitive theory?
- Cognitive approach to explain why some are more vulnerable to depression.
- Three parts to cognitive vulnerability; -FAULTY INFO PROCESSING, NEGATIVE SELF-SCHEMAS and NEGATIVE TRIAD.
85
What is faulty information processing?
-When depressed we focus on negative aspects and blow small problems out of proportion, e.g. won £1 million but last week someone won £10 million, they would focus on that rather than their prize.
86
What are negative self-schemas?
- Self-schema; package of beliefs about ourselves.
| - Negative self-schema;interpret all info about ourselves negatively.
87
What is the negative triad?
- 3 types of negative automatic thinking.
1) Negative view of the world.
2) Negative view of the future.
3) Negative view of self.
88
What are the strengths of Beck’s theory?
- Supporting evidence=depression is associated with negative triad Terry (2000) and 65 pregnant women.
- Practical application of CBT=can be used to treat depression.
89
What are the weaknesses of Beck’s theory?
- Doesn’t explain all aspects of depression=anger and hallucinations.
- Cognitive primacy=other theories see emotion as cause of depression.
90
What is Ellis’ ABC model?
```
-Stated that bad mental health is result of irrational thoughts and depression occurs due to;
Activating event (A) which triggers irrational beliefs (B) and produce a consequence (C).
```
91
What is the A in the ABC model?
- Activating event.
| - Can be a negative event like failing a test.
92
What is the B in the ABC model?
- Beliefs.
| - Identified a range of beliefs,
93
What is the C in the ABC model?
- Consequences.
| - As a result of irrational beliefs.
94
What are the strengths of the ABC model?
- Practical application in CBT=reduce depression by challenging beliefs.
- Supporting evidence=studies with children show if no attachment to parent then more vulnerable.
95
What are the weaknesses of the ABC model?
- Partial explanation=only apply to some kinds of depression.
- Doesn’t explain all aspects of depression=e.g. anger or hallucinations.
96
What is cognitive behaviour therapy?
- Start with assessment of patient’s problems, goals are set.
- Identify irrational thoughts.
- Change irrational thoughts to effective behaviour.
97
What is Beck’s cognitive therapy?
- Negative triad identified + thoughts challenged.
| - Aim to help test reality of patient negative beliefs and set homework, e.g. note down positive event.
98
What is Ellis’ REBT?
- Rational emotional behaviour therapy.
- Dispute and Effect (D&E) added to ABC model.
- Dispute=argument, effect=the change.
99
What are the strengths of CBT?
- Effective=March (2007) shows CBT is as effective as antidepressants.
- Inexpensive=patients can attend regularly and no side effects.
100
What are the weaknesses of CBT?
- May not work for severe cases.
- Committed approach is required for CBT to work.
- Success may be due to patient-therapist relationship not CBT.
