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Psychology Notes Intro to Social and Developmental Psych (1st year) Notes

Intro To Abnormal Psych Notes

Updated Intro To Abnormal Psych Notes

Intro to Social and Developmental Psych (1st year) Notes

Intro to Social and Developmental Psych (1st year)

Approximately 48 pages

Topics include: social psych, intelligence, developmental psych and abnormal psych. Relevant evidence for each topic is outlined, including methodology and findings. The notes cover a wide span of sub-topics within each larger topics, providing a comprehensive introduction to the topics.

These notes are informative, to the point, and easy to follow. They are drawn from a wide range of sources utilising additional course reading and independent reading....

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Intro to Social and Developmental Psych (1st year) Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

Deviance = behaviours/ thoughts/ emotions deviate from normal

Distress = behaviours/ thoughts/ emotions cause distress

Dysfunction = interference with daily functioning (work/social)

Danger = behaviour posing threat

Early treatments

  • Abnormality caused by evil/magic disease: physical

  • Medical Model: conceptualisation of psych abnormalities as biological disease with symptoms/ causes/ cures

Renaissance

Hospitals asylums

Overflowing virtually prisons: filthy and cruel

19th Century

Pinel: illness should be cared for

Dorothea Dix: demanded better treatments

BUT failed low funds, low recovery, prejudice

Early 20th century:

2 perspectives

Somatogenic = abnormalities physical causes

lobotomies, eugenic sterilizing

Psychogenic = psych causes

Breur: hypnotism

Freud: unconscious roots

Treatment

Psychotropic medications Antipsychotics, antidepressants, antianxiety
Deinstitutionalisation 1955: 600,000 2010: <40,000 ST
Psychotherapy 1/6 USA
Prevention Correcting SES
+ve Psych Enhance +ve feelings eg optimism
Insurance Managed care programs

Gene-Environment Interaction

Having 5-HTT gene not enough to predict depression

Gene and maltreatment depression

Diathesis-stress model: Zubin & Spring

Multi-cause SZ

Stress needed to trigger disposition

focus on prevention (supportive family, high self-esteem)

HPA axis

Early trauma High HPA activity SZ, depression, PTSD

Classification

N USA old classification:

Psychosis = distortion of perception and thoughts that lose grasp of reality

Neurosis = still in touch with reality anxiety

1952: DSM 3 key elements of disorders:

  • Symptoms that involve disturbances in behaviour/ emotions

  • Symptoms that associate with significant distress/ impairment

  • Symptoms that stem for internal dysfunction – biol/ psych

Main DSM-V categories of mental disorders = 22 - >500 disorders

  1. Neurodevelopmental disorders

  2. Schizophrenic spectrum and other psychotic disorders

  3. Bipolar and related disorders

  4. Depressive disorders

  5. Anxiety disorders

  6. Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders

  7. Trauma- and stressor-related disorders

  8. Dissociative disorders

  9. Somatic symptom and related disorders

  10. Feeding and eating disorders

  11. Elimination disorders (eg bed-wetting)

  12. Sleep-wake disorders (eg insomnia)

  13. Sexual dysfunction (eg erectile disorder)

  14. Gender dysphoria

  15. Disruptive, impulse control, and conduction disorders (eg antisocial behaviour)

  16. Substance-related and addictive behaviours

  17. Neurocognitive disorders (eg conditions caused by Alzheimer’s disease)

  18. Personality disorders

  19. Paraphilic disorders (eg inappropriate sexual activity causing stress or harm)

  20. Other mental disorders (residual category)

  21. Medication-induced movement disorders and other adverse effects of medication

  22. Other conditions that may be in the focus of clinical attention (eg related to abuse)

Axis I Displays 1 or more primary disorders
Axis II Mental retardation/personality disorders (difficult to treat)
Axis III General medical condition
Axis IV Psychosocial, environmental problems
Axis V Global assessment of functioning (1-100)

DSM-V changes - adding:

  • Mixed anxiety/ depression

  • Substance use and addictive vs non-sunstance

  • Binge eating

  • OCD separate to anxiety

  • Autism

  • Culturally relative disorders eg ghost sickness in Native America

DSM reliability early = 54%

how much do different psych agree?

Construct validity = accuracy good predictor of future?

Comorbidity = 45% suffer from more than 1 disorder eg depressed patients 73% also GAD

Main ICD-10 categories of mental disorders (WHO, 2004)

1 Organic, including symptomatic, mental disorders Cognitive impairment due to brain disease/injury, eg Alzheimer’s, delirium and organic amnesia
2 Substance abuse Including alcohol, illegal drugs and prescription medicine
3 SZ, schizotypal and delusional disorders Disorders and emotions that are inappropriate or blunted
4 Mood (affective) disorders Individuals may be extremely depressed, abnormally elated, or may alternate between these 2 extremes
5 Neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders Excessive anxiety, extreme and persistent reactions to stress, and alterations in consciousness and identity due to emotional problems, and physical symptoms that have no medical basis
6 Behavioural syndromes assoc with physiological disturbances and physical factors Eating/sleep/sexual disorders
7 Disorders of adult personality and behaviour Long-standing patterns of maladaptive behaviour inc immature and inappropriate stress coping methods or solving problems
8 Mental retardation Impairment of skills which contribute to overall intelligence level
9 Disorders of psych development Disorders with onset in childhood resulting in impairment or delay of language, visual-spatial and motor skills
10 Behavioural and emotional disorders with onset usually in childhood and adolescence Hyperkinetic disorders characterized by an early onset, lack of persistence in activities, and disorganized, ill-regulated and excessive activity
11 Unspecified mental disorder Any disorder which is none of the above

Labelling

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Stigma 70% do not seek treatment

Prevalence = number active cases in a population at a given time eg point, 1 year, lifetime

Incidence = number new cases over a given time (typically 1 year)

Psychodynamic = inner conflict

  • Free association

  • Dream analysis

  • Resistance analysis – clients react to therapist as they did to an earlier person

  • Counter-resistance – therapist may also have misplaced feelings to client

Behavioural therapy = problem focused, not traumatic event

  • Exposure Therapy – systematic desensitisation/ flooding

  • Aversion therapy – punishment: noxious drugs

  • Modelling – imitating therapist

  • Reinforcement – response shaping

  • Token economies

Cognitive = thoughts

Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy: Ellis

  • Restructure maladaptive thoughts

  • Disputes false beliefs

  • Increase self-worth

Beck’s Cognitive Therapy

  • Identify dysfunctional beliefs

  • ...

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