W9: Psychopathy + W10 Flashcards
What is psychopathy?
The pattern of thoughts, feelings, or behaviour that DISRUPT a person’s functioning or wellbeing
Abnormal behaviour cannot be solely used to predict psychopathy because some abnormal behaviours don’t hurt a person’s function or well-being.
Difference between mental disorder and mental heath
Mental health: the state of emotional and mental well-being
Mental disorder: clinically recognisable symptoms that cause distress and impair functioning, generally requiring treatment
==> Differs in severity of impact
What is Diathesis stress model
Suggests that there’s a biological or generic predisposition for something but that something doesn’t develop until stressful conditions are applied and then facilitate the expression of that gene
biological perspective on abnormal behaviour
According to the biological perspective of abnormal behaviour, what are the fast acting neurotransmitter, and what are the slow acting neurotransmitter?
Fast-acting neurotransmitter:
- Glutamate: an excitatory neurotransmitter, that promotes things to happen
- GABA: inhibitory neurotransmitter (block or prevent chemical message from being pass along), GABA stops things from happening
Slow - acting neurotransmitter:
- Dopamine is thought to have a role in pleasure, cognitive processing and addiction –> too much dopamine may be linked to poor impulse control
- Serotonin is thought to be responsible for thinking, processing information –> too little serotonin may be associated with anxiety and depression.
- Norepinephrine may plays inn an emergency reactions –> too much norepinephrine may promote anxiety.
What’s HPA?
Hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis.
The central nervous system and the endocrine system interacts through HPA
What can occur if HPA malfunctions?
Malfunctioning in HPA may cause mental disorders, e.g. PTSD
What is the psychodynamic perspective of abnormal behaviour?
It theorizes that psychopathology is on a continuum from well function to very disturbed.
Psychodynamic perspective theorises that well being functioning is influenced by the environment, and then further disturbed by biological in nature.
Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
Proposed that we have ID, Ego and Super-ego.
Born with ID (pleasure), Ego develops not long after to ensure ID functions constructively and non-destructively. Then, Super-Ego develops when individuals understand social rules, which also acts as a way to ensure ID’s compliance.
What is included in the new psychodynamic perspective?
Includes object relations, interpersonal perspective and attachment theory
What’s object relation?
Interactions with real and imaged people could give rise to inner conflicts
e.g. internalisations of strict authority create harsh self-critic - always telling themselves not to do things because they’ve been that it’s wrong. Multiple internalisations can cause intrapsychic conflict –> leads to psychopathy.
What’s interpersonal perspective?
Emphasis on cultural and social forces rather than inner instincts as determinants of behaviour.
What’s attachment theory?
emphasis on the importance of early attachment relationships as laying the foundations for later functioning through life
What does the behavioural perspective of abnormal behaviour most concern about?
It’s mostly concern with observable behaviour and the stimuli; and that reinforcing properties of it can serve as the basis for understanding behaviour.
What’s central to the behavioural perspective?
- Modification of behaviour as a consequence of experience
- Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning
- Instrumental (Operant) Conditioning
What does the Cognitive-Behavioural perspective focus on?
How thoughts on information processing can become distorted and lead to maladaptive emotions and behaviour
