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What are some aspects of the definition of psychological disorders mentioned in the content?
What are some aspects of the definition of psychological disorders mentioned in the content?
According to the content, who is considered the key founder of the Biological Model of psychological disorders?
According to the content, who is considered the key founder of the Biological Model of psychological disorders?
Emil Kraepelin
Psychoanalysis was primarily developed by Sigmund Freud.
Psychoanalysis was primarily developed by Sigmund Freud.
True
______ states that psychological disorders result from biological processes.
______ states that psychological disorders result from biological processes.
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What is self-monitoring in psychology?
What is self-monitoring in psychology?
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What does EEG measure?
What does EEG measure?
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______ is used to measure electrical activity in the head related to the firing of a specific group of neurons.
______ is used to measure electrical activity in the head related to the firing of a specific group of neurons.
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Match the imaging technique with its description:
Match the imaging technique with its description:
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Bipolar I Disorder requires at least one manic episode.
Bipolar I Disorder requires at least one manic episode.
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What is the key characteristic of psychosis?
What is the key characteristic of psychosis?
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Schizophrenia is characterized by cognitive and emotional dysfunctions, delusions, hallucinations, and inappropriate emotions.
Schizophrenia is characterized by cognitive and emotional dysfunctions, delusions, hallucinations, and inappropriate emotions.
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What is the term for a false belief experienced in schizophrenia?
What is the term for a false belief experienced in schizophrenia?
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Schizophrenia is a severe psychological disorder characterized by disorganization in thought, perception, and __________.
Schizophrenia is a severe psychological disorder characterized by disorganization in thought, perception, and __________.
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Match the symptom with the correct psychological description:
Match the symptom with the correct psychological description:
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What is the main objective of clinical assessment?
What is the main objective of clinical assessment?
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What are some types of single-case experimental designs?
What are some types of single-case experimental designs?
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Reliability in assessment refers to how well a measurement is consistent over time.
Reliability in assessment refers to how well a measurement is consistent over time.
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Epidemiology focuses on the study of the incidence, distribution, and consequences of a particular problem in one or more ____________.
Epidemiology focuses on the study of the incidence, distribution, and consequences of a particular problem in one or more ____________.
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Match the following assessment method with its description:
Match the following assessment method with its description:
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Study Notes
Psychological Disorders: Definition and Historical Background
- A psychological disorder is a psychological dysfunction within an individual associated with distress or impairment in functioning and a response that is not typical or culturally expected.
- Aspects of its definition:
- Deviance/Atypical: deviating from the majority, violating social norms, or being statistically infrequent or 'rare'.
- Distress: experiencing emotional distress due to the behavior.
- Dysfunction: not being able to perform in daily life; behavior interferes with daily/social/occupational functioning.
Historical Background of Psychological Disorders
- Ancient cultures believed that spirits controlled aspects of a person's behavior (The Supernatural Model).
- In ancient Greece and Rome, Hippocrates and Galen identified symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, melancholia, hysteria, and mania.
- Middle Ages through the Renaissance: influence of the Roman Catholic Church, abnormal behavior was seen as the work of the devil/witchcraft.
- 14th to 17th century (Renaissance period): Johann Weyer and Paracelsus proposed that the movement of the moon and stars affects people's psychological functioning.
- 16th century: Emergence of asylums.
- 19th century (The Psychological Model): moral therapy characterized by:
- Removal of patients from "warehouse" asylums into specialized facilities.
- More humane method of treatment + positive psychological interventions.
- Use of respect, kindness, religion, and vocation.
Key Figures in the History of Psychological Disorders
- Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926): German psychiatrist who developed a classification system for mental disorders and identified "Dementia praecox" (modern-day schizophrenia).
- Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): developed psychoanalysis, which includes:
- The id, ego, and superego.
- Defense mechanisms (denial, sublimation, projection, rationalization, repression, reaction formation, and displacement).
- Psychosexual stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital).
- Other key figures: Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Aaron Beck.
The Biological Model of Psychological Disorders
- Assumes that psychological disorders result from biological processes.
- Factors that contribute to psychological disorders:
- Genetic/hereditary factors.
- Epigenetics: ways in which the environment can change gene expression, which can be passed down to later generations.
- Biological scarring.
- Brain malfunctioning or structural abnormalities.
- Viral infection theory.
Research Methods in Psychopathology
- The scientist-practitioner model: mental health professionals are consumers of science, evaluators of science, and creators of science.
- Questions driving the science of psychopathology:
- What are the presentations of different disorders?
- What leads to the development of a psychological disorder (etiology)?
- How do we treat disorders effectively?
- How can we prevent the development of psychological disorders?
Basic Components of Research
- Starts with a hypothesis or educated guess.
- Research design: a method to test hypotheses, including independent and dependent variables.
- Considerations in research design:
- Internal validity: the extent to which you can be confident that the independent variable is causing the dependent variable to change.
- External validity: how well the results relate to things outside your study.
Sta5s5cal Versus Clinical Significance
- Sta5s5cal significance: the probability of obtaining the observed effect by chance is small.
- Clinical significance: whether or not the difference was meaningful for those affected.
Research at the Cellular Level
- The nervous system consists of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and peripheral nervous system (somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system).
- The neuron: neurotransmitters, dendrites, soma, axon, and synapse.
- The brain stem, thalamus, hypothalamus, and limbic system.
- Neurohormones and neurotransmitters: chemical substances that relay electrical signals between neurons.
Gene5cs Research
- Phenotypes (observable characteristics) vs. genotypes (unique genetic makeup).
- Endophenotypes: genetic mechanisms that contribute to the underlying problems causing symptoms among people with psychological disorders.
Behavioral Gene5cs
- Approaches to the study of behavior that do not examine genes directly, but infer the action of genes and environment.
- Family studies: examining behavioral patterns or emotional traits in the context of the family.
- Adoption studies: identifying adoptees who have a particular behavioral pattern or psychological disorder and attempting to locate first-degree relatives who were raised in different family settings.
Research at the Individual and Group Levels
- Studying individual cases: case study method and single-case experimental designs.
- Research at the group level: correlational research, experimental research, and studying behavior over time.
- Studying behavior across cultures: cross-cultural research and epidemiology.Here are the study notes for the text:
- Assessment and Diagnosis of Psychological Disorders*
-
Information Gathering: gather information on patient's current and past interpersonal and social history, including family makeup
- Structured, Unstructured, or Semi-structured interviews
- Example: Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders (SCID)
- Psychological Tests*
-
Projec5ve Tests: has roots in psychoanalytic tradition
- Clients presented with ambiguous test stimuli and asked to make interpretations
- Require high degree of inference in scoring and interpretation
-
Objec5ve Tests: roots in empirical tradition
- Require minimal clinical inference in scoring and interpretation
- Examples: paper and pencil questionnaires, including tests of specific psychological symptoms and personality tests
- Measures of specific psychological symptoms: Sample Self Report Psychological Scale; Beck Depression Inventory
- Personality tests: self-report questionnaires that assess personal traits; Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
- Intelligence tests: Intelligence Quotient; average IQ is 15, standard deviation is 15
- Examples: Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV, 7-16 years)
- Neuropsychological Tests*
- Measure abilities in areas such as receptive and expressive language, attention and concentration, memory, motor skills, perceptual abilities, and learning and abstraction
- Goal: detect impairment in cognitive/motor/perceptual functioning using simple and complex tasks that measure skills in various domains
- Examples: Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery, Trail Making Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test
- Behavioral Assessments*
-
Func5onal Analysis: identify causal links between behavior and environment; has basis in behaviorist tradition
- "ABC" Model of Functional Analysis
- Antecedents: Thoughts?Emotions?, Environmental triggers (people, places?), Other vulnerability factors?
- Behavior: Frequency?Duration?Intensity?
- Consequences: what follows from the behavior? reactions from others? immediate and after effects?
- "ABC" Model of Functional Analysis
- Self-Monitoring: patient records and observes their own behavior
- Behavioral Observation: measurement of behavior by a trained observer
- Behavioral Avoidance Tests: strategies used to assess avoidance behavior
- Psychophysiological Assessments*
- Electroencephalography (EEG): measuring electrical activity in the head related to the firing of a specific group of neurons reveals brain wave activity
- Electrodermal Activity (EDA): measuring skin conductance
- Biofeedback: levels of physiological responding, such as blood pressure readings, are fed back to the patient (provided on a continuous basis) by meters or gauges so that the patient can try to regulate these responses.
- Neuroimaging and Brain Structure*
-
Imaging Brain Structure:
- Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT or CT scan): utilizes X-rays – relatively noninvasive and has proved useful in identifying and locating abnormalities in the structure or shape of the brain
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): utilizes strong magnetic fields (better resolution than CT scan): allows the computer to view the brain in layers, which enables precise examination of the structure
-
Images of Brain Functioning:
- Functional MRI (fMRI): allow researchers to see the immediate response of the brain to a brief event, such as seeing a new face
- Positron Emission Tomography (PET Scan): when parts of the brain become active, blood, oxygen, or glucose rushes to these areas of the brain, creating "hot spots" picked up by detectors – we can learn what parts of the brain are working and what parts are not### Other Psycho5c Disorders
- Brief psycho5c disorder: sudden onset of psycho5c symptoms that lasts for less than a month.
- Schizophreniform disorder: similar to schizophrenia, but symptoms last between 1 to 6 months, with less severity.
- Schizoaffective disorder: a combination of schizophrenia and a mood disorder, such as a major depressive episode, a manic episode, or a mixed episode.
- Delusional disorder: a persistent belief that is contrary to reality, without other characteristics of schizophrenia, and presence of non-bizarre delusions.
- Shared psycho5c disorder: two people sharing a delusional belief due to a close relationship with a delusional individual.
E5ology
- Biological:
- Neurotransmitters: dopamine hypothesis suggests that excessive or deficient stimulation of specific dopamine receptors may play a role.
- Genetics: neuroanatomy (structural and functional abnormalities in the brain).
- Gene-environment interaction:
- Twin studies: 48% chance of having schizophrenia if one has an identical twin with schizophrenia, and 17% chance if one has a fraternal twin with schizophrenia.
- Family studies: having a relative with schizophrenia increases the chance of having the same disorder.
- The role of gene-environment interaction (e.g., Finland study).
E5ology (continued)
- Biological:
- Viral theories and prenatal stressors: fetal exposure to viral infection, pregnancy complications, and delivery complications.
- Synaptic pruning: a process in which weaker synaptic contacts in the brain are eliminated and stronger connections strengthened.
- Is schizophrenia a single disease entity?:
- May be a group of 8 distinct disorders, each related to changes in specific clusters of genes (Arnedo et al., 2014).
- Particular sets of symptoms are matched by distinct genetic profiles.
Stress and Family Influences
- Family influences:
- Role of a “schizophrenogenic mother”?: a mother whose cold, dominant, and rejecting nature was thought to cause schizophrenia in her children.
- Expressed emotion (EE): describes a family’s emotional involvement and critical attitudes.
- People with schizophrenia living in high EE family are 3.7 times more likely to experience relapse compared to people living in low EE family.
Treatment of Schizophrenia
- Pharmacological:
- Antipsychotics: a class of medications that block dopamine receptors.
- Typical and atypical antipsychotics.
- Common side effect of typical antipsychotics: tardive dyskinesia.
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS):
- Goal: provide stimulation to a targeted area of the cerebral cortex to change brain activity.
- Decreases the frequency of hallucinations (temporarily).
- Does not reduce delusions.
Psychosocial Treatment
- Psychoeducation: both patient and family members are educated about the disorder.
- Social skills training.
- Independent Living Skills Program (UCLA).
- Vocational rehabilitation.
- CBT (used to reduce psychotic symptoms).
- Cognitive remediation therapy.
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT):
- Incorporates principles of mindfulness and acceptance to increase psychological flexibility.
- Effective in reducing rate of rehospitalization and reducing “believability” of psychotic symptoms among patients with schizophrenia (Bach & Hayes, 2002).
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Description
Introduction to psychological disorders, historical and modern perspectives, and definition of psychological dysfunctions. Learn about deviance, distress, and impairment in functioning.
