Abnormal Psychology Midterm 1, Exams of Psychology

Abnormal Psychology Midterm 1 Abnormal Psychology Midterm 1

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Abnormal Psychology Midterm 1
psychopathology -
the field concerned with the nature and development of abnormal behaviour
challenges of studying abnormal behaviour -
- few hard and fast answers
- the need to remain objective; subject matter is personal and powerfully affecting, making
objectivity difficult
- you may have to adapt our frames of reference different from those to which you're
accustomed
abnormal behaviour (and 5 elements of abnormal behaviour) -
patterns of emotion, thought and action pathological for one or more of the following
reasons
- statistical infrequency
- out of the blue / unexpected
- norms violation
- disability or dysfunction
- suffering
*hint: use acronym "S-O/U-N-D-S"
normal curve (related to statistical infrequency) and one use in diagnosis -
a.k.a. bell-shaped curve; places the majority of people in the middle as far as any
particular characteristic is concerned; few people fall at either extreme
- abnormal behaviour would fall at the extremes of this curve
- used explicitly in diagnosing mental retardation (IQ under 70)
disability -
impairment in some important area of life because of an abnormality
- applies to some, but not all disorders
clinician -
a health professional authorized to provide services to people suffering from one or
more pathologies
clinical psychologist & requirements -
an individual who has earned a Ph.D degree in psychology or a Psy.D. and whose
training has included an internship in a mental hospital or clinic
- specific requirements differ among various jurisdictions
- upon graduation, the next step is registration which involves further supervision and several
licensing exams
a person must obtain 5 core competencies in order to become a registered psychologist -
1. interpersonal relationships
2. assessment and evaluation (including diagnosis)
3. intervention and consultation
4. research
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Abnormal Psychology Midterm 1

psychopathology - the field concerned with the nature and development of abnormal behaviour challenges of studying abnormal behaviour -

  • few hard and fast answers
  • the need to remain objective; subject matter is personal and powerfully affecting, making objectivity difficult
  • you may have to adapt our frames of reference different from those to which you're accustomed abnormal behaviour (and 5 elements of abnormal behaviour) - patterns of emotion, thought and action pathological for one or more of the following reasons
  • statistical infrequency
  • out of the blue / unexpected
  • norms violation
  • disability or dysfunction
  • suffering *hint: use acronym "S-O/U-N-D-S" normal curve (related to statistical infrequency) and one use in diagnosis - a.k.a. bell-shaped curve; places the majority of people in the middle as far as any particular characteristic is concerned; few people fall at either extreme
  • abnormal behaviour would fall at the extremes of this curve
  • used explicitly in diagnosing mental retardation (IQ under 70) disability - impairment in some important area of life because of an abnormality
  • applies to some, but not all disorders clinician - a health professional authorized to provide services to people suffering from one or more pathologies clinical psychologist & requirements - an individual who has earned a Ph.D degree in psychology or a Psy.D. and whose training has included an internship in a mental hospital or clinic
  • specific requirements differ among various jurisdictions
  • upon graduation, the next step is registration which involves further supervision and several licensing exams a person must obtain 5 core competencies in order to become a registered psychologist -
  1. interpersonal relationships
  2. assessment and evaluation (including diagnosis)
  3. intervention and consultation
  4. research
  1. ethics and standards psychiatrist (how does it differ from a psychologist?) - a physician (MD) who has taken specialized postdoctoral training, called a residency, in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention in mental disorders
  • differ from psychologists in that they prescribe psychoactive drugs psychoanalyst - a therapist who has taken specialized postdoctoral training in psychoanalysis after earning an M.D. or a Ph.D social worker - A mental health professional who holds a master of social work (M.S.W.) degree. counselling psychologist - a doctoral-level mental health professional whose training is similar to that of a clinical psychologist, though usually with less emphasis on research and severe pathology prescriptive authority - the right to prescribe drugs demonology - the doctrine that an evil being, such as the devil, may dwell within a person and control their mind and body exorcism - the casting out of evil spirits by ritualistic chanting or torture
  • to render the body inhabitable to devils trepanning - the making of a surgical opening in a living skull by some instrument
  • way of treating conditions such as epilepsy, headaches, and psychological disorders attributed to demons within the cranium
  • creating an opening through which evil spirits could escape hippocrates and somatogenesis - Hippocrates, often regarded as the father of modern medicine, separated medicine from religion, magic, and superstition; he insisted that serious mental and physical illnesses had natural causes and hence should be treated like other, more common maladies
  • regarded the brain as the organ of consciousness, of intellectual life, and emotion
  • mental illnesses should be treated by physicians rather than priests somatogenesis - the notion that something wrong with the soma, or physical body, disturbs thought and action psychogenesis - the belief that a disturbance has psychological origins hippocrates' classification of mental disorders and 4 humours with diagnoses -

proposed to the Society of Friends that is found its own institution; in 1796 the York retreat was established on a country estate, providing mentally ill people with a quiet and religious atmosphere in which to live, work, and rest moral treatment - A therapeutic regimen, introduced by Philippe Pinel during the French Revolution, whereby mentally ill patients were released from their restraints and were treated with compassion and dignity rather than with contempt and denigration.

  • humane treatment
  • restoring self-esteem by letting patients demonstrate self-restraint
  • abandoned in the latter part of the 19th century asylums in Canada: the beginning -
    • institutionalization of people with serious psychological disorders
  • process began with humane intentions as part of a progressive and reformist movement, which attempted to overcome neglect and suffering in the community, jails, penitentiaries, almshouses, poor houses and hosptials asylums in Canada: Dorothy Dix -
    • Jan 21, 1850: she presented a compelling "memorial prayer" on behalf of the mentally ill to the Nova Scotia legislature and requested construction of a public mental hospital
  • emphasis on early detection and treatment
  • appealed to members to consider what it was like to be mentally ill in Canada (put yourself in their shoes) asylums in Canada: J.F. Lehman - wrote the first textbook published in Canada with a focus on the care and control of mentally ill people
  • unfortunately he recommended stringent discipline and harsh treatments asylums in Canada: Hotel-Dieu - the earliest precursor to the 19th century asylums, established in Quebec City in 1714
  • cared for indigents and crippled people in addition to "idiots"
  • using the Roman Catholic Church to care for the mentally ill who ran asylums in Canada? - typically the asylum superintendents were British-trained physicians who modelled the asylums after British forms of structure, treatment, and administration
  • in upper Canada, power rested with the asylum doctor Canada's two-tier medical system - concerns exist today that Canada has developed a 2-tier medical system in which the wealthy have more opportunity for, and easier access to, superior quality care
  • such a system had the force of law in the era of institution building, at least in upper Canada (present day Ontario) the history of the development of institutions for the mentally disordered in Canada can be characterized in terms of 2 distinctive trends: -
    1. with the advent of the asylums, provisions for the mentally ill were separate from provisions for the physically ill, indigents, and criminals
  1. the process was segregated from the wider community - "the institution and the community were two separate and distinct solitudes" the mental hospital in Canada: the 20th century vs today - 20TH CENTURY:
  • results during much of the 20th century were not very positive, especially from a patient's perspective
  • overcrowding
  • unavailability of individual treatment, with the exception of some radical treatments (e.g. lobotomy)
  • drugs became the central means of treatment TODAY:
  • the process of deinstitutionalization has been going on for more than 40 years
  • goal to shift care from psychiatric hospitals into the community
  • many discharged people led lives of poverty in the community, with a significant number included among homeless and prison populations transinstitutionalization & Canadian context - the tendency to reduce the number of people in psychiatric hospitals by transferring them to other institutions
  • increasing the number of people with mental health problems in general hospitals
  • the role of the remaining psychiatric hospitals is providing specialized treatment and rehab services for those whose needs for care are too complex to be handled by the community Emil Kraeplin & his classification system - proposed 2 major groups of severe mental disease:
  1. dementia praecox (an early term for schizophrenia)
  2. manic-depressive psychosis (now called bipolar disorder)
  • no cure, but important to classify general paresis - characterized by steady deterioration of both physical and mental abilities
  • patients suffered from multiple impairments, including delusions of grandeur and progressive paralysis
  • it was established in 1857 that some patients with paresis had earlier had syphilis germ theory of disease (and whose theory was it?) - established in the 1860s and 1870s by Louis Pasteur; the view that disease is caused by infection of the body's minute organisms
  • this theory laid the groundwork for demonstrating the relation between syphilis and general paresis psychogenesis: Franz Anton Mesmer - believed that hysterical disorders were caused by a particular distribution of a universal magnetic fluid in the body
  • he felt that one person could influence the fluid of another to bring about change in the other's behaviour
  • animal magnetism: touch patients with rods that transmit fluid
  • Mesmer is considered one of the earlier practitioners of modern-day hypnotism

the media and mental health stigma - media images of mental illness with a focus on dangerousness, criminality, and unpredictability, and that model negative reactions to people with psychological problems such as fear, rejection, and ridicule, can inhibit help-seeking behaviours, medication adherence and recovery

  • the media can play a strong role as allies in anti-stigma activities and can challenge prejudice and discrimination, project positive human-interest stories that promote understanding and compassion, and encourage help-seeking and self-esteem in the mentally ill mental health literacy - refers to the accurate knowledge that a person develops about mental illness and its causes and treatment
  • more positive and informed attitudes are found among younger people, more educated people, people with training, and those with personal experience
  • different levels of knowledge and understanding for different disorders
  • prevailing view is that mental health is a reflection of biological and genetic causes, but a substantial proportion of people attribute mental health problems to early family experience mental health literacy in Canada -
    • most Canadians see mental health as a medical problem
  • many are cautious about the use of psychiatric medications
  • Canadians prefer a holistic treatment approach but are largely unaware of available treatment options
  • about 90% believe anyone can suffer from a mental health disorder
  • common mental problems, such as anxiety, are viewed more likely to be caused by psychosocial factors whereas mental illnesses such as schizophrenia are viewed as more serious and more likely to be caused by biomedical factors the Romanow Report - engage Canadians in a national dialogue and assess options for long-term, sustainable, universally accessible, publicly funded health care system
  • called for a national, coordinated plan of action for mental illness and mental health
  • stated that the principle of accountability must be added to the Canada Health Act Romanow subsequently expressed frustration because his recommendations had not been implemented evidence-based treatment - treatments and interventions that have been shown to be effective according to controlled experimental research wait times for treatment in Canada -
    • shortest wait times were Ontario, BC, and Manitoba
  • longest wait times were found in Newfoundland & Labrador followed by New Brunswick; no data for PEI which historically tends to have the longest wait times
  • people in Canada continue to wait far too long for necessary treatment help-seeking and perceived need for help -
    • the majority of people who need help do not seek it
  • strongest predictor of help-seeking was psychiatric diagnosis
  • help-seeking was also associated with marital disruption and poverty
  • professional services are underused
  • women are more likely to seek help than men
  • particular need for interventions to encourage service use in young people, particularly young men the decision to consult other people was based on 3 factors -
    1. having a chronic physical condition
  1. having higher levels of distress3. having experienced a traumatic experience in childhood the human costs of deinstitutionalization -
    • homelessness and lack of supported housing
  • jailing of the mentally ill
  • failure to achieve an ideal of community-focused care for people with mental disorders
  • lack of home care
  • insufficient intensive case management
  • too few community-based crisis response systems
  • concerns about community treatment orders homelessness and mental illness - for some, mental illness has contributed to homelessness, while for others, the experience of homelessness has contributed to mental health problems
  • only a proportion of people who are homeless are mentally ill
  • for many, homelessness is a reflection of earlier challenges and earlier vulnerabilities, but we must also allow for the fact that for many, homelessness is simply rooted in misfortune or possibly starting out life in a family dealing with poverty the jailing of mentally ill people -
    • in the US, there are more mentally ill people in jails and prisons than in hospitals
  • around 13% of male and 29% of female inmates have mental health problems at intake Canada's mental health strategy: 6 strategic directions -
    1. promote mental health across the lifespan in homes, schools, and workplaces, and prevent mental illness and suicide wherever possible
  1. foster recovery and well-being for people of all ages living with mental health problems and illness, and uphold their rights
  2. provide access to the right combo of services, treatments, and supports, when and where people need them
  3. reduce disparities in risk factors and access to mental health services, and strengthen the response to the needs of diverse communities and Northerners
  4. work with First Nation, Inuit, and Metis citizens to address their distinct mental health needs, acknowledging their unique circumstances, rights, and cultures
  5. mobilize leadership, improve knowledge, and foster collaboration at all levels paradigm - 4 main types of paradigms -
    1. biological
  • if a genetic predisposition to the disorder studied is present, first-degree relatives of the index cases should have the disorder at a rate higher than the general population index cases / probands - a sample of individuals who bear the diagnosis in question twin method - comparison of twins; compares concordance rate among MZ twins vs DZ twins
  • start with diagnosed cases and then search for the presence of the disorder in the other twin
  • concordance for the disorder should be greater in MZ pairs than in DZ twins
  • when the MZ rate is higher than the DZ rate, the characteristic being studied is said to be heritable equal environment assumption (the twin method) - this assumption would assert that MZ pairs and DZ pairs have equivalent numbers of stressful life experiences monozygotic (MZ) twins - a.k.a. identical twins; twins develop from a single fertilized egg and, typically, they are genetically the same
  • always the same sex
  • differences detected between adult MZ twins could reflect differences in life experiences and the timing of life experiences that influence how genes are expressed throughout life dizygotic (DZ) twins - adoptees method - compares prevalence rate among children of biological parents with a specific form of psychopathology vs the rate found in the general population
  • benefit of eliminating the effects of being raised by disordered parents
  • little practical value because it so rarely can be tested in the study of psychopathology molecular genetics - a highly advanced approach that tries to specify the particular gene or genes involved in the disorder and the precise function of these genes allele - any one of several DNA codings that occupy the same position or location on a chromosome
  • a person's genotype is their set of alleles genetic polymorphism - the variability that occurs among members of the species
  • involves differences in the DNA sequence that can manifest in very different forms among members of the same habitat
  • entails mutations in a chromosome that can be induced or naturally occurring linkage analysis -

a technique in genetic research whereby occurrence of a disorder in a family is evaluated alongside a known genetic marker

  • aims to identify a specific gene responsible for a disorder
  • if the occurrence of a form of psychopathology among relative goes along with the occurrence of another characteristic whose known (the genetic marker), it is concluding that the gene predisposing individuals to psychopathology is on the same chromosome and in a similar location on that chromosome (i.e. it is linked) as the gene controlling the other characteristic
  • researchers in this area often hypothesize gene-environment interactions temperament - constitutionally based differences in reactivity and self-regulation
  • temperament differences are reflected in differences in the style of expressing behaviours identification of 3 temperament styles corresponding to 3 general types of young children (Thomas and Chess) -
    1. the difficult child
  1. the easy child
  2. the hard to warm up child
  • contemporary research has linked these temperament styles with personality traits and tendencies that have clear implications for studying abnormal behaviour
  1. resilient type
  2. overcontrolling type
  3. undercontrolling type resilient personality type - the most adaptive of the personality types found among young children; resilient children tend to become resilient adults who are able to bounce back from adversity
  • high IQ and high self-esteem and school performance overcontrolling personality type - involves a sense of inhibition and anxiety that confers significant risk for subsequent life distress
  • linked with shyness, loneliness, and moderate self-esteem and school performance undercontrolling personality type - undercontrolled children are often impulsive and lack self-control and are prone to engaging in risky behaviours throughout their adolescence and adult periods
  • prone to acting out and aggressive behaviours
  • associated with delinquency and externalizing problems, school conduct difficulties, and lower levels of IQ and school performance a neuron has 4 major parts -
    1. cell body (soma)
  1. several dendrites
  2. one or more axons of various lengths
  3. terminal buttons on the many end branches of the axon nerve impulse - a change in the electric potential of the cell

behaviour therapy - an attempt to change abnormal behaviour, thoughts, and feelings by applying in a clinical context the methods used an the discoveries made by experimental psychologists in their study of both normal and abnormal behaviour

  • a.k.a. behaviour modification
  • in its initial form, this therapy applied principles based on classical and operant conditioning to other clinical problems assertiveness training - therapist role-plays assertive vs aggressive behaviour (modelling) counterconditioning - relearning achieved by eliciting a new response in the presence of a particular stimulus (classical conditioning)
  • a response to a given stimulus can be eliminated by eliciting a new response in the presence of that stimulus systematic desensitization - inducing a relaxed state while imaging an anxiety provoking situation (classical conditioning)
  • developed by Joseph Wolpe
  • this technique is useful for treating psychological problems in which anxiety is the principle difficulty aversive conditioning - a stimulus attractive to the client is paired with an unpleasant event, such as a drug that produces nausea, in the hope of endowing it with negative properties (classical conditioning) token economy - tokens are given to patients for good behaviour (operant conditioning)
  • making positive reinforcers contingent on behaviour is used to increase the frequency of desirable behaviour cognition - cognitive paradigm - focuses on how people structure their experiences, how they make sense of them, and how they relate their current experiences to past ones that have been stored in memory
  • cognitive psychologists regard the learner as an active interpreter of a situation, with the learner's past knowledge imposing a perceptual funnel on the experience (schema) schema - a.k.a. cognitive set; an organized network of already accumulated knowledge
  • new info may fit the schema, but if it doesn't, the learner reorganizes the schema to fit the info or construes the info in such a way as to fit the schema Aaron Beck's cognitive therapy - tries to persuade participants to change their opinions of themselves and the way in which they interpret life events
  • alter negative schemas and dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes; emphasis on replacing these thoughts with more adaptive thought
  • Beck attributed depression to an automatic misprocessing of information irrational beliefs - sustained emotional reactions caused by internal sentences that people repeat to themselves which sometimes reflect unspoken assumptions about what is necessary to lead a meaningful life
  • Albert Ellis rational-emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) - aims to eliminate self-defeating beliefs through rational examination of them
  • Ellis proposes that when people interpret what is happening around them, sometimes these interpretations cause emotional turmoil, and the therapist's attention should be focused on these beliefs rather than on historical causes, or indeed, on overt behaviour clinical implementation of rational-emotive behavioural therapy (REBT) -
    • having persuaded the client that their emotional problems will benefit from rational examination, the therapist proceeds to teach the person to substitute for irrational self- statements and internal dialogue meant to ease the emotional turmoil
  • once a client verbalizes a different belief or self statement during a therapy session, it must be made part of everyday thinking; provide clients with homework
  • both cognitive and behavioural cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) - incorporates theory and research on cognitive and behavioural processes and represents a blend of cognitive and learning principles
  • clients pay attention to private events - thoughts, perceptions, judgements, self-statements, and even tacit (unconscious) assumptions - and have studied and manipulated these processes in attempt to understand and modify overt and covert disturbed behaviour cognitive restructuring - a general term for changing a pattern of thought that is presumed to be causing a disturbed emotion or behaviour
  • this restructuring is implemented in several ways by CBT therapists psychoanalytic or psycho-dynamic paradigm - psychopathology results from unconscious conflicts in the individual
  • sigmund freud id - present at birth and is the part of the mid that accounts for all the energy needed to run the psyche; comprised of the basic urges for food, water, elimination, warmth, affection, and sex
  • pleasure principle & seeks immediate gratification
  • when the id is not satisfied, tension is produced, and the id strives to eliminate this tension primary process thinking - generating images - in essence, fantasies - of what is desired, to obtain some short-term satisfaction

projection - attributes to external agents, characteristics or desires that an individual possesses but cannot accept in their conscious awareness displacement - redirecting emotional responses from a perhaps dangerous object to a substitute reaction formation - converting one's feelings into its opposite (e.g. hate to love) regression - retreating to a behaviour pattern characteristic of an earlier stage of development rationalization - sublimation - converting sexual or aggressive impulses into socially valued behaviours, especially creative activity psychotherapy - a social interaction in which a trained professional tries to help another person, the client or patient, behave and feel differently

  • little general agreement about what really constitutes psychotherapy insight therapies - assume that behaviour, emotions, and thoughts become disordered because people do not understand what motivates them, especially when their needs and drives conflict; these therapies try to help people discover why they behave, think, and feel as they do
  • premise that greater awareness of motivations will yield greater control over and subsequent improvement in thought, emotion and behaviour free association - the client reclines on a couch, facing away from the analyst, and is encouraged to give free reign to their thoughts, verbalizing whatever comes to mind without the censoring that is done in everyday life
  • there often arise blocks to free association
  • resistances are noted by the analyst as they are assumed to signal a sensitive or ego- threatening area dream analysis - an analytic technique based on the idea that repressed material is disguised and dreams take on heavy symbolic content (referred to as the latent content of the dream) transference - the venting of the client's emotions, whether positive or negative, by treating the psychoanalyst as the symbolic representation of someone important in the past
  • through careful observation of these transferred attitudes, the therapist can gain insight into the childhood origin of repressed conflicts

countertransference - the analyst's feelings toward the client; analysts must be aware of their own feelings so that they can see the client clearly

  • thus psychoanalysis of the analyst-in-training is typically part of their training ego analysis - places greater emphasis on a person's ability to control the environment and to select the time and the means for satisfying instinctual drives, contending that the individual is as much ego as id
  • focuses more on the person's current living conditions than freud did brief therapy and several common elements of all brief therapies - shorter form of psychoanalysis developed to meet the expectations of the many clients who prefer therapy to be fairly short term and targeted to specific problems in their everyday lives
  • assessment tends to be rapid and early
  • made clear right away that therapy will be limited
  • goals are concrete and focused
  • directed toward present life circumstances and client behaviour
  • development of transference not encouraged
  • understanding that psychotherapy does not cure, but helps individuals learn to deal better with life's inevitable stressors contemporary psychoanalytic thought - involves 5 predominant conceptual approaches identified by Lerner:
  1. modern structural theory
  2. self-psychology
  3. object relations theory
  4. interpersonal-relational 5 attachment theory interpersonal therapy (IPT) - the therapist concentrates on the client's current interpersonal difficulties and discusses with the client better way of relating to to others
  • empirically supported in treating depression
  • combine empathetic listening with suggestions for behavioural changes, as well as how to implement them
  • roots in psychoanalysis, but much different from traditional
  • appears to depend on client attributes Freud's ongoing influence is most evident in the following 3 commonly held assumptions -
    1. childhood experiences help shape adult personality
  1. there are unconscious influences on behaviour
  2. people use defence mechanisms to control anxiety or stress humanistic therapies - insight therapies that emphasize the individual's subjective experiences, free will, and ever-present ability to decide on a new life course
  • the main influence of humanistic paradigms is intervention

familial factors that influence mental health -

  • parenting styles
  • parental marital discord
  • parental mental illness
  • childhood adverse experiences and maladaptive family functioning 3 parenting styles -
  1. authoritarian - parents tend to be restrictive, punitive, and overcontrolling
  • children respond to perceived harshness of parents with externalizing and internalizing problems
  • poorer intellectual and social development
  1. permissive - parents show little involvement and may seem disinterested with their children
  • associated with externalizing and internalizing problems
  1. authoritative - parents use discipline in conjunction with reason and warmth
  • associated with best child outcomes cumulative risk - the effect of being exposed to multiple risk factors how can peers and the broader social environment effect mental health - research on the role of peer influences on psychopathology tends to emphasize 2 elements:
  1. peer status
  • children who are popular tend to be better adjusted, with higher self-esteem
  • 6th grade peer status predicted anxiety and depression 30 years later for women, but not men
  • effects influenced by rejection sensitivity
  1. peer victimization
  • linked with loneliness and depression cultural diversity and minority mental health - the differences that exist in an area or region due to the heterogeneity and varying backgrounds of the members of that region
  • consideration of group characteristics is important and part of a specialty called minority mental health multicultural counselling and therapy - Treatments with interventions that have been modified to address issues, beliefs, and dialogues that characterize people from various cultures. mental health implications of diversity in Canada -
  • mental health practitioners must be aware of Canada's cultural diversity
  • clinicians must respect the dignity and worth of each client regardless of cultural background
  • greater availability of clinicians of different cultures would possibly better meet the needs of clients with values different from those of the majority culture healthy immigrant effect -

a Statistics Canada report indicated that immigrants had comparatively lower rates of depression and alcohol dependence than Canadian-born members of the population, unrelated to language proficiency in English or French, employment status, or sense of belonging diathesis-stress paradigm - links biological, psychological and environmental factors and focuses on the interaction between a predisposition to a disease - the diathesis - and the environment or life disturbances - the stress

  • possessing the diathesis for a disorder increases a person's risk of developing it but does not guarantee that the disorder will develop; it is the stress that accounts for how a diathesis may be translated into an actual disorder
  • BOTH diathesis and stress are necessary for the development of disorders differential susceptability - the tendency for the same factor to act as a vulnerability factor when experiencing stress and and negative outcome experiences but also act as a protective factor when experiencing favourable conditions
  • e.g. interpersonal sensitivity is a risk factor when being criticized but a resilience factor when being praised biopsychosocial paradigm - suggests that all normal and abnormal behaviour is caused by an interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors, and each of these factors are conceptualized as different levels of analysis or subsystems within the paradigm
  • explanations for causes of disorders typically involve complex interactions among many of these factors
  • the actual variables and the degree of influence of the variables from different domains typically differ from disorder to disorder risk factors - factors that interact to make people more vulnerable to developing certain disorders
  • often, disorders reflect a complex interplay of multiple risk factors resilience - protection from risk factors, or the ability to bounce back in the face of adversity
  • can occur within the individual but can also reside in the community reliability - consistency of measurement inter-rater reliability - measures the degree to which 2 independent observers of judges agree
  • 2 clinician agree on the diagnosis of the client test-retest reliability - measures the extent to which people being observed twice or taking the same test twice, perhaps several weeks or months apart, receive similar scores alternate form reliability - the extent to which scores on the two forms of the test are consistent