SCIENCE OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY Flashcards
(31 cards)
What does psychopathology enhance?
Enhances our understanding of mental health disorders/ difficulties, their impact and underlying causes and mechanism.
What does the systematic study of mental disorders use?
Emphirical methods and scientific principles = scicne
Contributes to the broader knowledge base in psychology and related fields
Whats Emphirical observation?
Gathering information through direct observation or measurement.
Whats the types of study’s an emphirical observation use?
Systematic research methods and data anylsis
Hypothesis formulation and testing
Use/ developmental of theoretical frameworks
Objectivity and replicability
Peer review
Application of scientifc principles in treatment - development of evidence - based practices
What’s the methods they use in psychopathology?
Case studies
Experimental
Correlation
Whats case studies?
In-depth examinations of a single individual, group or phenomenon within its real-life context, often include histories of the experiences of individuals
Advantages of case studies?
- Richness in detail - deep
understanding of the individual or
phenomenon under investigation, - Ability to explore complexities and
nuances, - Real-life contexts (ecological validity)
- Often exploratory and can generate
hypotheses or theories, - Well-suited for investigating rare or
unique cases
Whats the disadvantages of case studies?
- Lack of generalisability -
overemphasis on individual cases - Subjectivity and bias - selection
and interpretation of data - Confounding and lack of
controls; validity concerns - Difficulties in replication
- Time-consuming - extensive
data collection and analysis
What’s experimental?
- Use experiments to study how mental disorders develop and continue over time
- Researchers create controlled experiments to test ideas
- They change one thing (called the independent variable, or IV)
- Then they measure the effect on something else (called the dependent variable
Advantages of experimental?
- Use of control groups, in which participants
have all the same experiences as the group of
main interest in the study, except the key
manipulation, - Participants often randomly assigned to
different conditions (random
assignment/allocation), - For example, an IV could be a specific
therapeutic intervention, and the DV could be
a change (reduction) in symptoms
Whats the disadvantages of experimental?
- Challenging to recruit the right
participants, - Much reliance on self reports,
Several causes/risk factors - requires
multimethod approach, - Ethical considerations: the well-
being of participants needs to
protected, especially when studying
individuals with mental health
concerns
Whats correlational?
- Exploring the relationships between different
variables without manipulating them - Aim to understand the degree of
association/correlation between factors related to
mental health and psychopathological conditions - Examine whether and to what extent changes in one
variable are associated with changes in another - For example, the association between stress levels and anxiety
symptoms
Whats the types of correlations?
Longitudinal correlational studies - tracking individuals
over time to examine how changes in one variable relate to changes in another, temporal associations and potential causal pathways,
Cross-sectional correlational studies: data collected at a single point in time,
- snapshot of the relationships between variables but do not capture the temporal sequence of events
Advantages of correlation?
- Variables of interest can include a wide
range of factors such as symptoms,
behaviours, personality traits, cognitive
processes, life events, genetic factors,
environmental influences etc
Disadvantages of correlational?
- Correlational studies cannot
establish causation; other variables
(confounding variables) may influence
the observed correlations, - Generalisability of correlational
findings is influenced by the
representativeness of the sample
Whats the diagnosis or the identification of mental and behavioural disorders commonly based on which two disorder classification schemes?
DSM - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders 5th edition
(DSM-5-TR)
ICD - International Classification
of Diseases 11th edition
(ICD-11)
Whats diagnostic manuals?
Enable clinicians and researchers to standardise their diagnoses
To diagnose a psychological disorder, a set of criteria must be met
(thresholds)
Can help clinicians make accurate and consistent diagnoses, Can facilitate treatment planning
Can facilitate cross-referencing, enhance communication and
research (e.g., homogeneity in research samples
Whats dimensional appraoches?
Emphasis that mental health exists on a continuum - most people experience variations in behaviour and emotions.
Individual profiles of strengths and weaknesses - quantitative measurement of symptoms or traits
Whats multidimensional psychopathology?
Psychopathology as the multidimensional study of mental health
difficulties
Multifaceted factors contribute to the development and manifestation of difficulties
Biological factors (e.g., genetics, brain chemistry)
Psychological factors (trauma, personality, cognitive processes)
Social and cultural factors (socioeconomic status, family dynamics,
culture
Whats the approaches to psychopathology in biological?
Physiology
Genetic
Biochemical
Whats the approaches to psychopathology in psychological?
Psychodynamic
Behavioural
Cognitive
Humanistic
Whats the approaches in psychopathology in social?
Interperosonal
Family system
Social structural
Whats the vulnerability / diathesis stress model?
Vulnerability + stress = disorder
Whats the things in vulnerability?
- biological factors = genes, disordered brain chemistry
- social factors = maladaptive upbringing chronic stress
- psychological factors = unconscious conflicts, maladaptive cognitions
