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Abnormal Psychology and Paradigms in Abnormalit1
Abnormal Psychology and Paradigms in Abnormalit1
Abnormal Psychology and Paradigms in Abnormalit1
INTRO
Unusual patterns of behavior , emotions,and thought which may or may not be understood as
precipitating mental disorder
The field abnormal psychology identifies multiple causes of different conditions ,employing diverse
theories from the general field of psychology .
Psychological and biological explanation ,reflecting ,philosophical dualism in regards to mind and
body problem
Studies two types of behavior
Adaptive
Maladaptive
Psychopathology similar term to abnormal psychology commonly used in psychiatry
Rather than distinction between normal and abnormal psychologists focus on the level of distress that
behavior ,thoughts,or emotions might cause
If a behavior is creating problems in a person’s life |is disruptive to other people ,then this would be
abnormal behavior .
In such cases the behavior may require mental health intervention
Defining abnormality
Abnormal behavior occurs infrequently
Creates distress
Affect a person’s ability to function
Socially disruptive
Study understanding, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of psychological disorders
Patterns of behavioral and psychological symptoms that impact multiple areas of life
Mental health professionals use
The manual contains diagnostic codes,information on the prevalence of each disorder ,and diagnostic
criteria
Paradigms in abnormality
What is a paradigm?
INTRO
Emotion
Sociocultural factors
Genetic
Neuroscience
Psychoanalytic
Cognitive behavioral
Diathesis stress
BEHAVIOR GENETICS
Behavior genetics: the study of the degree to which genes and environmental factors influence
behavior.
Genotype: the total genetic makeup of an individual, consisting of inherited genes. The genotype
cannot be observed outwardly.
Phenotype: the totality of observable behavioral characteristics.
The genotype should not be viewed as a static entity. Genetic programs are quite flexible.
The phenotype changes over time and is the product of an interaction between the genotype and the
environment.
MOLECULAR GENETICS
Molecular genetics studies seek to identify particular genes and their functions.
Alleles: different forms of the same gene. The alleles of a gene are found at the same location, or locus,
of a chromosome pair.
Polymorphism: a difference in DNA sequence on a gene that has occurred in a population.
The DNA in genes is transcribed to RNA. In some cases, the RNA is then translated into amino acids,
which then form proteins, and proteins make cells.
Gene expression involves types of DNA called promoters.
These promoters are recognized by particular proteins called transcription factors.
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): differences between people in a single nucleotide in the
DNA sequence of a particular gene.
Copy number variations (CNVs): an abnormal copy of one or more sections of DNAa within the
gene(s).
Can be present in single gene or multiple genes.
When a neuron is approximately stimulated at its cell body or through its dendrites, a nerve impulse
travels down the axon to terminal endings.
Between the terminal endings of the sending axon and the cell membrane of the receiving neuron, there
is a mall gap. The synapse.
Neurotransmitters: chemicals that allow neurons to send a signal across the synapse to another neuron.
As the neurotransmitter flows into the synapse, some of the molecules reach the receiving,
postsynaptic, neuron. Receptors are configured so that only specific neurotransmitters can fit into them.
When a neurotransmitter fits into a receptor site, a message can be sent to the postsynaptic cell.
What happens to the postsynaptic neuron depends on integrating thousands of similar messages.
o Excitatory:
Leading to the creation of a nerve impulse in the postsynaptic cell
o Inhibitory:
Making the postsynaptic cell less likely to create a nerve impulse
Once a presynaptic neuron (sending) has released its neurotransmitter, the last step is for the synapse to
return to its normal state. Not all of the released neurotransmitter has found its way to postsynaptic
receptors. Some of what remains in the synapse is broken down by enzymes, and some is taken back
into the presynaptic cell. → reuptake
Key neurotransmitters:
Dopamine
Serotonin
Norepinephirine
Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
Serotonin and dopamine may be involved in depression, mania, and schizophrenia.
Norepinephrine communicates with the sympathetic nervous system, where it is involved in producing
states of high arousal.
GABA inhibits nerve impulses throughout most areas of the brain and may be involved in the anxiety
disorders.
Neurotransmitters are synthesized in the neuron through a series of metabolic steps, beginning with an
amino acid.
Each reaction along the way to producing an actual neurotransmitter is catalyzed by an enzyme.
Too much or too little of a particular neurotransmitter could result form an error in these metabolic
steps.
Similar disturbances in the amounts of specific transmitters could results from alterations in the usual
processes by which transmitters are deactivated after being released into the synapse.
There is also a possibility that the neurotransmitter receptors are at fault in some disorders.
If they are to numerous or too easily exited.
If a receptor has been activated extensively over time, the cell may retune the sensitivity of the receptor
so that it becomes more difficult to create a nerve impulse.
When a cell has been firing more frequently, this receptor releases second messengers. Helping a
neuron adjust receptor sensitivity when it has been overly active
Agonist: drug that stimulates a particular neurotransmitter’s receptors.
Antagonist: a drug that works on a neurotransmitter’s receptors to dampen the activity of that
neurotransmitter.
Glial cell: not only interact with neurons, but also help to control how neurons work.
The brain is located within the protective coating of the skull and is enveloped with three protective layers of
membranes referred to as meninges.
Viewed from the top, the brain is divided by a midline fissure into two mirror-image cerebral
hemispheres, together they constitute most of the cerebrum.
The connection between the two hemispheres is the corpus callosum.
Gray matter.
The thin outer layers of tightly packed neurons.
The cortex is vastly convoluted: gyri (ridges) and sulci (depressions of fissures)
The sculi are used to define different regions of the brain.
Deep fissures divide the cerebral hemispheres into four distinct areas called lobes.
FRONTAL LOBE
In the from of the central sulcus. Reasoning, problem solving, working memory, and emotion
regulation.
PARIETAL LOBE.
Being it and above the lateral sulcus
TEMPORAL LOBE.
OCCIPITAL LOBE.
BASAL GANGLIA:
Help regulate stating and stopping both motor and cognitive activity.
VENTRICLES.
Willed with cerebrospinal fluid. Cerebrospinal fluid circulates through the brain through these
ventricles, which are connected with the spinal cord.
THALAMUS:
BRAIN STEM:
Comprised of the pons and the medulla oblongata. Functions primarily as a neural relay station.
o The pons contains tracts that connect the cerebellum with the spinal cord and with motor areas
of the cerebrum.
o The medulla oblongata serves as the main line of traffic for tracts ascending from the spinal
cord and descending form the higher centers of the brain.
o
o
o CEREBELLUM:
Receives sensory nerves from the vestibular apparatus of the ear and from muscles, tendons, and joints.
The information received and integrated relates to balance, posture, equilibrium, and the smooth
coordination of the body when in motion.
LIMBIC SYSTEM.
Support the visceral and physical expressions of emotion. And the expression of appetite and other
primary drives.
ANTERIOR CINGULATE:
SEPTAL AREA:
Anterior to the thalamus
HIPPOCAMPUS.
HYPOTHALAMUS.
AMYGDALA.
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One of the key influences from behaviorism is the notion that problem behavior is likely to continue if
its is reinforced.
Generally, problem behavior is thought to be reinforced by four possible consequences:
Getting attention
Escaping from tasks
Generating sensory feedback
Gaining access to desirable things or situations
Once the sources of reinforcement has been identified, treatment is then tailored to alter the consequences of the
problem behavior.
Operant techniques have been particularly successful in the treatment of many childhood problems.
Once contingencies shape a behavior, a key goal is to maintain the effect of treatment.
Intermittent reinforcement
Behavioral activation (BA) therapy.
Involves helping a person engage in tasks that provide an opportunity for positive reinforcement.
In vivo: in real-life situations.
COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Cognition: groups together the mental processes of perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, judging, and
reasoning.
Cognitive scientists regard people as active interpreters of a situations.
A person fits new information into a schema.
New information may fit the schema, if not, the person reorganizes the schema to fit the information or
construes the information in such a way as to fit the schema.
Schema
Attention
Implicit memory: the idea that a person can, without being aware of it, be influenced by prior learning.
Brains have developed the capacity to register information for later use if we are not aware of it.
Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) incorporates theory and research on cognitive processes.
Cognitive behavior therapists pay attention to private events and have studied and manipulated these
processes in their attempts to understand and modify overt and covert distributed behavior.
Psychiatrists Aaron Back developed a cognitive therapy for depression based on the idea that depressed
mood is caused by distortions in the way people perceive life experiences.
Beck proposed that the attention, interpretation, and recall of negative and positive information are
biased in depression.
These effects on attention and memory are called information-processing biases.
Beck’s therapy is now adapted for other disorders in addition to depression.
It addresses biases by trying to persuade patients to change their opinions of themselves and the way in
which they interpret life events.
Childhood is unconsidered.
And unanswered where the schema came from in the first place.
Emotion
Socio-cultural factors
Interpersonal factors
Expressive
Typically facial expression
Experiential
How someone reports he or she feels at any given moment or in response to some event
Physiological
Changes in the body
These components are typically coordinated within the individual.
When we consider emotional disturbances in psychopathology, it will be important to consider which
of the emotion components are affected.
Another important consideration is the concept of ideal affect, which is the kinds of emotional states
that a person ideally wants to feel.
Varies depending on cultural factors.
Environmental factors can trigger, exacerbate, or maintain the symptoms that make up the different disorders.
The range variables considered and the ways of studying those variables cover a lot of ground.
Gender
Poverty
Cultural and ethnic factors
Even though there are some cross-cultural similarities in the presence of mental illness across cultures, there are
also a number of profound cultural influences on the symptoms expressed in different disorders, the availability
of treatment, and the willingness to seek treatment.
Object relations theory: stresses the importance of long-standing patterns in close relationship,,
particularly within the family, that are shaped by the ways in which people think and feel.
The ‘object’ refers to another person in most versions of this theory.
ATTACHMENT THEORY.
INTERPERSONAL THERAPY
Interpersonal therapy (IPT): emphasizes the importance of current relationships in a person’s life and
how problems in these relationships can contribute to psychological symptoms.
The therapist fist encourages the patient to identify feelings about his or her relationships and to
express these feelings, and then helps the patient generate solutions to interpersonal problems
In IPT, four interpersonal issues are assessed to examine whether one or more might be impacting
symptoms:
Unresolved grief
Role transitions
Role disputes
Interpersonal or social deficits
The therapist helps the patient understand that psychopathology occurs in a social or relationship
context and that getting a better handle on relationship patterns is necessary to reduce symptoms of
psychopathology.
Possessing the diathesis for a disorder increases a person’s risk of developing it, but does not by any
means guarantee that a disorder will develop.
Stress is meant to account for how a diathesis may be translated into an actual disorder.
Stress generally refers to some noxious or unpleasant environmental stimulus that triggers
psychopathology.