Term
| There are three main forms of explanation in abnormal psychology. These explanations influence how we approach amelioration (helping a patient) in the following ways: |
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Definition
- Increasing self-esteem/serotonin (person as outcome).
- Supporting self-regulation (person as system).
- Encouraging values-driven action (person as agent). |
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Definition
This is the most prominent type of explanation and is considered in terms of preceding events. Mechanistic explanations have the following features:
- Single versus multiple causes.
- Nomothetic versus ideographic causes.
- Proximal versus distal causes.
- In practice, often ‘risk factors’, or ‘predictors’.(Mc) |
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Definition
| This form of explanation is considered in terms of interacting processes and posits that we are living systems adapting to changing environments (Sy) |
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Definition
| This form of explanation is considered in terms of the organism’s aims and sees humans as active agents, trying to maximise their own wellbeing. (Te) |
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Term
| Sources of information for research come from the following... |
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Definition
-Case studies.
-Self-report data.
-Observational approaches, which include:
--Behaviour from various perspectives in various contexts.
--Psychophysiology.
--Brain structure and function. |
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Term
| Key Principles in Research Design... |
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Definition
1) Forming and testing hypotheses
2) Sampling and generalisation
3) Internal and external validity
4) Criterion and comparison groups |
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Term
1) Forming and testing hypotheses
(Key Principles in Research Design...) |
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Definition
Hypothesis testing is concerned with how a researcher might show that their explanation is any better than anyone else’s. There are two broad classes of question in abnormal psychology:
What are the correlates, predictors, mechanisms or causes of this disorder?
What effect does a given treatment have on this disorder? |
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Term
2) Sampling and generalisation
(Key Principles in Research Design...) |
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Definition
| In this method, a researcher conducts a small sample study and relates it to a broader population. Generalisation refers to the concept of applying findings to a larger group. The more representative the sample is of the population, the better we are able to generalise or extend the findings from our study to the larger group. |
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Term
3) Internal and external validity
(Key Principles in Research Design...) |
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Definition
Internal validity reflects how confident we can be in the results of a particular given study...the extent to which a study is methodologically sound, free of confounds, or other sources of error, and able to be used to draw valid conclusions.
(Hooley et al., 2017, p. 45)
[External validity is] the extent to which we can generalize our findings beyond the study itself....the degree to which research findings from a specific study can be generalized to other samples, contexts or times.
(Hooley et al., 2017, p. 45) |
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Term
4) Criterion and comparison groups
(Key Principles in Research Design...) |
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Definition
| In this method, researchers ask if a feature, mechanism or characteristic is seen in their group of interest versus other groups. Choosing ‘others’ is particularly important; it involves ‘healthy controls’, ‘normal controls’, other mental disorder groups, etc. |
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Definition
| This type of design is about investigating associations between variables and looking for correlations. Here researchers examine statistical significance versus effect size. Prospective strategies provides more confidence about causal path than do retrospective ones. |
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Term
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Definition
| In this type of design, the researcher attempts to control all factors except one (the independent variable) which is manipulated to observe its effect on an outcome (the dependent variable). A prominent example of this is the randomised controlled trial. |
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Term
| In general these viewpoints in abnormal psychology: |
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Definition
- help professionals organise observations
- provide systems of thought
suggest areas of focus. |
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Term
| Major viewpoints in abnormal psychology: |
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Definition
1) Biological
2) Sociocultural
3) Psychosocial |
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Term
| Sociocultural causal factors...? |
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Definition
Sociocultural factors associated with greater risk for various disorders include:
- low socioeconomic status
- unemployment
- being subjected to prejudice and discrimination
- social change and uncertainty. |
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Term
| Psychosocial causal factors...? |
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Definition
Psychosocial factors are those developmental influences that may handicap a person psychologically
A range of factors have been studied, including:
- early deprivation or trauma
- inadequate parenting styles
- marital discord and divorce
- maladaptive peer relationships. |
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Term
| A sufficient cause of a disorder |
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Definition
| A sufficient cause of a disorder is a condition that guarantees the occurrence of a disorder. For example, one current theory hypothesizes that hopelessness (X) is a suf- ficient cause of depression (Y) (Abramson et al., 1995, 1989). Or, more generally, if X occurs, then Y will also occur. |
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Term
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Definition
| Finally, what we study most often in psychopathol- ogy research are contributory causes. A contributory cause is one that increases the probability of a disorder develop- ing but is neither necessary nor sufficient for the disorder to occur. More generally, if X occurs, then the probability of Y occurring increases. |
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Term
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Definition
| . By contrast, other factors operate shortly before the occurrence of the symptoms of a disorder; these would be considered proximal risk factors. Some- times a proximal factor may be a condition that proves too much for a child or adult and triggers the onset of a disorder. A crushing disappointment at school or work or severe difficulties with a school friend or a marital part- ner are examples of more proximal factors that could lead to depression. In other cases, proximal factors might involve biological changes such as damage to certain parts of the left hemisphere of the brain, which can lead to depression. |
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Term
| reinforcing contributory cause |
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Definition
| A reinforcing contributory cause is a condition that tends to maintain maladaptive behavior that is already occurring. |
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Term
| Distal Risk Factor (opposite to Proximal Risk Factor) |
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Definition
| the parent’s death may also serve as a distal risk fac- tor that increases the probability that when the child grows up he or she will become depressed in response to certain stressors. |
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Term
| diathesis–stress models of abnormal behavior |
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Definition
Many mental disorders are believed to develop when someone who has a preexisting vulnerability for that disorder experi- ences a major stressor. Models describing this kind of situa- tion are commonly known as diathesis–stress models of abnormal behaviour
A vulnerability, or diathesis, is a predisposition toward developing a disorder that can derive from biological, psychological, or sociocultural causal factors.
Thus, someone with no diathe- sis will never develop the disorder, no matter how much stress he or she experiences, whereas someone with the diathesis will demonstrate an increasing likelihood of developing the disorder with increasing levels of stress. |
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Term
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Definition
In contrast to risk factors that increase the likelihood of negative outcomes, protective factors decrease the like- lihood of negative outcomes among those at risk (
Note that a protective factor is not simply the absence of a risk factor, but instead is something that actively buffers against the likelihood of a negative out- come among those with some risk factor(s). One impor- tant protective factor in childhood is having a family environment in which at least one parent is warm and supportive, |
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Definition
| Protective factors most often, but not always, lead to resilience—the ability to adapt successfully to even very difficult circumstances. |
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Term
| diathesis– stress models need to be considered in a broad framework of multicausal developmental models. |
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Definition
| In this example, both Tracy and Melinda have identical genetic makeup and therefore the same genetic diathesis for depression. Both had experienced the same distal stressor (death of parents at an early age), and the same proximal stressor (divorce) at age 27. However, Melinda had many protective factors growing up (loving and sup- portive family and adequate resources) that Tracy did not have (lack of a loving and supportive mother and inadequate resources). Thus, Melinda showed resilience in the face of her divorce but Tracy did not. |
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Term
| developmental psychopathology |
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Definition
| developmental psychopathology, which concen- trates on determining what is abnormal at any point in development by comparing and contrasting it with the normal and expected changes that occur in the course of development. For example, an intense fear of the dark in a 3- to 5-year-old child may not be considered abnormal, given that most children have at least one specific fear that they bring into early adolescence. However, an intense fear of the dark that causes considerable distress and avoidance behavior in a high school or college-age student would be considered a phobia. |
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Term
| biopsychosocial viewpoint |
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Definition
| biopsychosocial viewpoint that acknowledges that bio- logical, psychological, and social factors all interact and play a role in psychopathology and treatment. Moreover, the cultural context in which each of these factors plays out influences how we think about behavior, both normal and abnormal. |
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Term
| four categories of biological factors that seem particularly relevant to the development of mal- adaptive behavior: |
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Definition
four categories of biological factors that seem particularly relevant to the development of mal- adaptive behavior:
(1) genetic vulnerabilities,
(2) brain dysfunction and neural plasticity,
(3) neurotransmitter and hormonal abnormalities in the brain or other parts of the central nervous system, and
(4) temperament. |
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Term
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Definition
| vulnerabilities to mental disorders are almost always polygenic, which means they are influenced by multiple genes or by multiple polymorphisms of genes, with any one gene having only very small effects |
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Term
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Definition
| A person’s total genetic endowment is referred to as her or his genotype and, except for identical twins, no two humans ever begin life with the same genetic makeup. The observed structural and functional characteristics that result from an interaction of the genotype and the environ- ment are referred to as a person’s phenotype. |
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Term
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Definition
| behavior genetics, the field that focuses on studying the heritability of mental disorders (as well as other aspects of psychological functioning): (1) the family history method, (2) the twin method, and (3) the adoption method. More recently, two additional methods, linkage studies and asso- ciation studies, have also been developed. |
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Term
| The Family History Method |
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Definition
| The family history (or pedigree) method requires that an investigator observe samples of relatives of each proband or index case (the subject, or carrier, of the trait or disorder in question) to see whether the incidence increases in proportion to the degree of hereditary rela- tionship. In addition, the incidence of the disorder in a normal population is compared (as a control) with its incidence among the relatives of the index cases. The main limitation of this method is that people who are more closely related genetically also tend to share more similar environments, which makes it difficult to disen- tangle genetic and environmental effects. |
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Term
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Definition
The twin method is the second approach used to study genetic influences on abnormal behavior. Identical (monozy- gotic) twins share the same genetic endowment because they develop from a single zygote, or fertilized egg. Thus, if a given disorder or trait were completely heritable, one would expect the concordance rate—the percentage of twins sharing the disorder or trait—to be 100 percent.
For most of the disorders we will discuss, concor- dance rates are indeed much lower for nonidentical twins than for identical twins. |
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Term
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Definition
| The adoption method, the third method used to study genetic influences, capitalizes on the fact that adoption cre- ates a situation in which individuals who do not share a com- mon family environment are nonetheless genetically related. In one variation on this method, the biological parents of indi- viduals who have a given disorder (and who were adopted away shortly after birth) are compared with the biological parents of individuals without the disorder (who also were adopted away shortly after birth) to determine their rates of disorder. I |
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Term
| “shared” and “nonshared” environmental influences. |
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Definition
| Shared environmental influences are those that would make children in a family more similar, whether the influence occurs within the family (e.g., family discord and poverty) or in the environment (e.g., two high- quality schools, with one twin going to each). Nonshared environmental influences are those in which the children in a family differ. These would include unique experiences at school and also some unique features of upbringing in the home, such as a parent treating one child in a qualitatively different way from another |
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Term
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Definition
| Linkage analysis studies of mental disorders capitalize on several currently known locations on chromosomes of genes for other inherited physical characteristics or biological processes (such as eye color or blood group). For example, researchers might conduct a large family pedigree study on schizophrenia, looking at all known relatives of a person with schizophrenia going back several generations. At the same time, however, they might also keep track of something like the eye color of each individual (as well as which DSM diag- noses they have). Eye color might be chosen because it has a known genetic marker located on a particular chromosome. If the researchers found that the familial patterns for schizo- phrenia in one family pedigree (a sample of all relatives) were closely linked to the familial patterns for eye color in the same pedigree, they could infer that a gene affecting schizophrenia might be located very nearby on the chromosome that con- tains the known genetic marker for eye color. In other words, in this case one would expect all members of a particular family pedigree with schizophrenia to have the same eye color (e.g., blue), even though all members of a different fam- ily pedigree with schizophrenia might have brown eyes. |
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Term
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Definition
| Association studies start with two large groups of individuals, one group with and one group without a given disorder. Researchers then compare the frequencies in these two groups of certain genetic markers that are known to be located on particular chromosomes (such as eye color or blood group). |
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Term
| Linkage Analysis and Association Studies |
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Definition
| For most mental disorders that are known to be influenced polygenically, association studies are more promising than linkage studies for identifying small effects of any particular gene. |
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Term
| developmental systems approach |
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Definition
| developmental systems approach (Masten, 2006; Spencer et al., 2009), which acknowledges that genet- ics influences neural activity, which in turn influences behavior, which in turn influences the environment, but also that these influences are bidirectional. Thus, Figure 3.4 illustrates this first direction of influence but also shows how various aspects of our environment (physical, social, and cultural) also influence our behavior, which in turn affects our neural activity, and this in turn can even influ- ence genetic activity |
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Term
| five different kinds of neurotransmit- ters have been most extensively studied in relationship to psychopathology: |
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Definition
| (1) norepinephrine, (2) dopamine, (3) serotonin, (4) glutamate, and (5) gamma aminobutyric acid (known as GABA; |
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Term
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Definition
| Temperament refers to a child’s reactivity and characteristic ways of self-regulation, which is believed to be biologically programmed. |
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Term
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Definition
Learning—the modification of behavior as a conse- quence of experience—is the central theme of the behav- ioral approach. Because most human behavior is learned, the behaviorists addressed the question of how learning occurs. Behaviorists focus on the effects of environmental conditions (stimuli) on the acquisition, modification, and possible elimination of various types of response patterns, both adaptive and maladaptive.
1) Classical Conditioning
2) Operant Conditioning |
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Term
Operant Conditioning
(Behaviourism) |
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Definition
If sufficiently motivated for that outcome (e.g., being hungry), the person will make the response that he or she has learned produces the outcome (e.g., opening the refrigerator).
In operant (or instrumental) conditioning, an individual learns how to achieve a desired goal. The goal in question may be to obtain some- thing that is rewarding or to escape from something that is unpleasant. Essential here is the concept of reinforcement, which refers either to the delivery of a reward or pleasant stimulus, or to the removal of or escape from an aversive stimulus. New responses are learned and tend to recur if they are reinforced. |
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Term
| Generalization and discrimination (Operant and classical conditioning) |
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Definition
| In both classical and instrumental conditioning, when a response is conditioned to one stimulus or set of stimuli, it can be evoked by other, similar stimuli; this process is called generalization. A person who fears bees, for example, may generalize that fear to all flying insects. A process comple- mentary to generalization is discrimination, which occurs when a person learns to distinguish between similar stim- uli and to respond differently to them based on which ones are followed by reinforcement. For example, because red strawberries taste good and green ones do not, a condi- tioned discrimination will occur if a person has experience with both. |
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Term
| Observational Learning (Behavioural Perspective) |
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Definition
| Human and nonhuman primates are also capable of observational learning—that is, learning through observation alone, without directly experiencing an unconditioned stimulus (for classical con- ditioning) or a reinforcement (for instrumental condition- ing). For instance, children can acquire new fears by simply observing a parent or peer behaving fearfully with some object or situation that the child did not initially fear. In this case, they experience the fear of the parent or peer vicariously, and that fear becomes attached to the formerly neutral object |
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Term
| Self-efficacy (Cognitive Therapy) |
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Definition
| Bandura (1974) went so far as to say that human beings have “a capacity for self-direction” (p. 861). Bandura later developed a theory of self-efficacy, the belief that one can achieve desired goals (1986, 1997). He posited that cognitive-behavioral treatments work in large part by improving self-efficacy. |
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Term
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Definition
A schema is an underlying rep- resentation of knowledge that guides the current process- ing of information and often leads to distortions in attention, memory, and comprehension. People develop different schemas based on their temperament, abilities, and experiences
Our self-schemas include our views on who we are, what we might become, and what is important to us. Other aspects of our self-schemas concern our notions of the various roles we occupy or might occupy in our social environment such as “woman,” “man,” “student,” “parent,” “physician,” “American,” and so on. Most people have clear ideas about at least some of their own personal attributes and less clear ideas about other attributes |
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Term
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Definition
| Attribution is simply the process of assigning causes to things that happen. We may attribute behavior to external events such as rewards or punishments (“He did it for the money”), or we may assume that the causes are internal and derive from traits within ourselves or others (“He did it because he is so generous”). Causal attributions help us explain our own or other people’s behaviors and make it possible to predict what we or others are likely to do in the future. A student who fails a test may attribute the failure to a lack of intelligence (a personal trait) or to ambiguous test questions or unclear directions (environmental causes). |
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Term
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Definition
| Social factors are environmental influences—often unpredictable and uncontrollable negative events—that can negatively affect a person psy- chologically, making him or her less resourceful in coping with events. We will focus on several different types of social factors that can each have important detrimental effects on a child’s socioemotional development: (1) early deprivation or trauma, (2) problems in parenting style, (3) marital discord and divorce, (4) low socioeconomic sta- tus and unemployment, (5) maladaptive peer relation- ships, and (6) prejudice and discrimination |
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Term
| Early maltreatment and why some people fair better |
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Definition
| It is important to remember that maltreated children— whether the maltreatment comes from abuse or from deprivation—can improve to at least some extent when the caregiving environment improves (Cicchetti & Toth, 1995a; Emery & Laumann-Billings, 1998). Moreover, there are always a range of effects, and those children who are least likely to show these negative outcomes tend to have one or more protective factors such as a good relationship with some adult during childhood, a higher IQ, positive school experiences, or physical attractiveness. |
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Term
| Parenting Styles: Warmth and Control |
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Definition
| Four types of parenting styles have been identified that seem to be related to different developmental outcomes for children: (1) author- itative, (2) authoritarian, (3) permissive/indulgent, and (4) neglectful/uninvolved. These styles vary in the degree of parental warmth (amount of support, encouragement, and affection versus shame, rejection, and hostility) and in the degree of parental control (extent of discipline and monitoring versus leaving the children largely unsupervised |
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