Abnormal Psychology: Diagnostic Approaches and Research Methods, Exams of Nursing

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(Maymester) questions and answers

5 ways Wakefield explained how mental disorders cannot be defined as - 1. value concept

2. what professionals treat
3. statistical deviance
4. biological disadvantage
5. causes distress or suffering Wakefield's Harmful Dysfunction - disorders must have a mechanism that fails to function normally & cause impairment - hybrid of "value judgement" and "biological disadvantage" DSM-5 definition of mental disorder - - breakdown in functioning

• personal distress or disability (functional impairment)
• atypical or unexpected in terms of culture Widiger definition of mental disorder - 1. dyscontrol - cannot control choices

2. maladaptivity - life suffers due to lack of control

(Maymester) questions and answers

Prevalence - The number or proportion of cases of a particular disease or condition present in a population at a given time. Incidence - The number or rate of new cases of a particular condition during a specific time. For treatment, keep in mind - 1. Prevalence

2. Incidence
3. Course
4. Onset of disorder
5. Prognosis Etiology - the study of the causes of diseases Galenic-Hippocratic Tradition (biological) - - linked abnormality with brain chemical imbalances

• foreshadowed modern views of neurotransmitters

(Maymester) questions and answers

Affiliation (Defense Mechanism) - turning to other for support when presented with conflict - affiliate with others Humor (Defense Mechanism) - the focus of amusing or ironic aspects of conflict/stressor Sublimation (Defense Mechanism) - channeling threatening devices into acceptable outlets (e.g. working out) Displacement (Defense Mechanism) - the transfer of feelings from one target to another that is considered less threatening Intellectualization (Defense Mechanism) - use of excessive reasoning or logic to deal with situations rather than feeling their emotions Reaction Formation (Defense Mechanism) - preventing unacceptable thoughts or behaviors from being expressed by exaggerating opposite thoughts or types of behaviors (e.g. gay conservatives)

(Maymester) questions and answers

Repression (Defense Mechanism) - involuntary blocking of unpleasant feelings and experiences from ones conscious awareness Projection (Defense Mechanisms) - falsely attributing one's own thoughts, feelings, or motives to another 5 stages of psychosexual development (Freud) - 1. Oral Stage - focus on food, mouth pleasure

2. Anal Stage - expulsion or retention of feces
3. Phallic Stage - notice genitals & differences, oedipus/electra complex
4. Latency Stage - nonsexual interest
5. Genital Stage - sexual interest Psychoanalysis therapy goals (Freud) - analyze & resolve conflict cause through catharsis, dream analysis, & free association, restructure personality - less focus on reducing symptoms but finding their cause Transference and Countertransference - - patient talks to therapist as if they are something from their past experience (good)

(Maymester) questions and answers

4. esteem - sense of achievement
5. self-actualization Classical Conditioning (Pavlov & Watson) - pairing neutral stimuli with unconditioned response Operant Conditioning (Thorndike & Skinner) - behaviors shaped by rewards and punishments (Thorndike's Law of Effect) Positive & Negative Reinforcement - + the addition of positive experience

• the removal of a negative experience Positive & Negative Punishment - + the addition of a negative experience
• the removal of a positive experience Shaping behavior - reinforcing successive approximations of desired behaviors Wolpe - systematic desensitization (exposure therapy)

(Maymester) questions and answers

Beck - cognitive therapy Bandura - social learning, cognitive behavior therapy, vicarious learning Perl's Gestalt Therapy - emphasis on body language, questioning patient, pushes to find root of problem Ellis' Rational-Emotive Therapy - high therapist involvement & interpretation of client's words Aspects of Multidimensional Approach to Psychopathology - 1. biological factors

2. behavioral & cognitive factors
3. emotional factors
4. social factors
5. developmental factors Diathesis-stress Model - a diagnostic model that suggests a disorder may develop when an underlying genetic vulnerability (diathesis) is coupled with a particular environment (stress)

(Maymester) questions and answers

Inverse Agonist neurotransmitter - produce effects opposite to those produced by neurotransmitter Serotonin - affects behavior, mood, & cognition

• treated with SSRIs (prozac) Glutamate - excitatory neurotransmitter (exciting) GABA - inhibitory neurotransmitter (calming)
• increase GABA w/ benzodiazepines (valium, xanax) Norepinephrine - increase heart rate, blood pressure (fight or flight reaction)
• beta-blockers reduce anxiety response Dopamine - switch that impacts the effects of other neurotransmitters
• implicated w/ schizophrenia & Parkinson's (low)

(Maymester) questions and answers

Learned helplessness - a condition that occurs after a period of negative consequences where the person begins to believe they have no control Social learning - learning through observing others (modeling) Prepared learning - learning that occurs without extensive training because of an evolved predisposition to the behavior Cognitive science & unconscious in psychopathology - behavior may be impacted without direct knowledge, implicit beliefs Emotional Dysregulation - an inability to control negative emotions in response to stressful life events or feeling too much of an emotion without cause Emotion - short lived state of mind Mood - persistent, enduring state of mind Affect - non-verbal behavior that goes with mood (or mismatches mood)

(Maymester) questions and answers

Medulla - controls heart-rate, blood pressure, and breathing Pons - sleep stages Cerebellum - physical coordination Midbrain - sensory information, reticular activating system (RAS- sleep cycles) Forebrain (cerebral cortex) - sensory, emotional, and cognitive processing 4 lobes of cerebral cortex - frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal Frontal Lobe - thinking, reasoning, & memory Parietal Lobe - touch recognition Occipital Lobe - visual input

(Maymester) questions and answers

Temporal Lobe - recognition of sights, smells, & sounds - long term memory & complex stimuli Limbic System - emotion, motivation, & memory Thalamus (Limbic System) - conveys sensory information to cortex Hypothalamus (Limbic System) - eating, drinking, aggression, sex The somatic branch of the peripheral nervous system - controls voluntary muscle movement The autonomic branch of peripheral nervous system - regulates cardiovascular system & temp, endocrine system & digestion Sympathetic nervous system (autonomic branch) - mobilizes body during stress (fight or flight)

(Maymester) questions and answers

Validity - the extent to which a test captures the construct Content Validity - the extent to which a test measures full conceptualization of a construct Convergent Validity - scores on the measure are related to other measures of the same construct Criterion & Discriminant Validity - is the measure related to other constructs that are thought to be related and not related to those thought to be not related Face Validity - extent to which respondents can tell what the items are measuring, does it appear to test what it is testing Predictive Validity - the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict Construct Validity - the degree to which a test measures a construct at which it is aimed

(Maymester) questions and answers

Clinical interview - A common assessment technique used by clinical psychologists involving a purposeful conversation with clients characterized by questions and answers

• unstructured
• semi structured (allows for more consistent info gained)
• structured (research settings, no deviation) Mental Status Exam - analysis of appearance and behavior, thought processes, mood and affect, intellectual functioning, sensorium Behavioral Assessment and Observation - Directly watching someone - usually for children or severely psychotic b/c cannot give info "problem" = people being observed might act differently if they know they are being watched, but may solve the issue especially with self-observation

(Maymester) questions and answers

Classical (pure) Categorical approach to diagnosis - classification method founded on the assumption of clear-cut differences among disorders, each with a different known cause Dimensional approach to diagnosis - there are many independent dimensions/traits of behavior - disorders exist on a continuum Protypical approach to diagnosis - a mixture of classical & dimensional categorical in terms of yes/no diagnosis, but individual may only exhibit minimum criteria & not all symptoms are present DSM 1 and 2 - both relied on unproven theories of etiology, unreliable DSM 3 and 4 - a-theoretical approach that emphasized clinical description with criterion sets for each disorder, more reliable but less valid DSM-5 - emphasis on understanding symptoms are found in multiple disorders, new dimension measures across disorders

(Maymester) questions and answers

Hypothesis must be - testable and falsifiable (rejectable) Internal Validity (experiement) - the extent to which the independent variable produces change in dependent variable - minimal confounds External Validity (experiment) - the extent to which findings are generalizable to other populations 3 ways to increase internal validity - 1. use of control groups

2. random assignment to groups
3. use of analog models (controlled lab settings) 3 impacts of statistical significance - 1. size effect (correlations, difference in means)
4. level of significance (p-values)
5. sample size