PSY100 Chapter 15

Epigenetics

the study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change (research on epigenetics supports the vulnerability-stress model)

At what times of life do disorders strike?

usually by early adulthood (about 18-30 years of age).

How does biology, specifically genes, influence our feelings of anxiety?

we inherit temperaments from our parents and ancestors and our gene expression can be affected by experience (genetic vulnerability to a disorder can be increased by experience, e.g. a history of child abuse leaves long-term epigenetic marks).

How many Americans currently have a "mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder (excluding developmental and substance use disorders)" or have had one within the past year (according to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health)?

1 in 5

Which three modern perspectives do contemporary psychologists believe are most helpful in explaining the causes of anxiety?

Conditioning, Cognition, and Biology

Although procedures that make people relive or revisit their trauma often sustains the stress response and worsen stress reactions, can other therapies help people with PTSD?

Yes!

obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

a disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions), actions (compulsions), or both. OCD gradually lessens as people get older.

Major depressive disorder

a disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or another medical condition, two or more weeks with five or more symptoms, at least one of which must be either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure

List some risk factors for mental disorders

chronic pain, low socioeconomic status, substance abuse, parental mental illness, child abuse and neglect, trauma experiences, sensory disabilities, low birth weight, medical illness, social incompetence, neurochemical imbalance, etc.

Hoarding Disorder

cluttering one's space with acquired possessions one can't let go

Agoraphobia

fear or avoidance of public situations from which escape might be difficult

Dysfunctional or maladaptive

interfere with normal day-to-day life

Obsessions vs compulsions

obsessions are unwanted thoughts that are so repetitive it may seem they will never go away. Compulsions are responses to those thoughts.

Some people even display posttraumatic growth. What is posttraumatic growth?

positive psychological changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstances and life crises

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

preoccupation with perceived body defects

Anxiety disorders

psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety

What is reinforcement?

reinforcement helps maintain learned fears and anxieties. Anything that enables us to avoid or escape a feared situation can reinforce maladaptive behaviors. For example, abstaining from public speaking can make you feel calmer. Reinforced by feeling calmer, you are likely to repeat that behavior in the future.

Social-cultural influences on psychological disorder production

roles, expectations, and definitions of normality and disorder

What are some criticisms of the DSM?

1. the DSM casts too wide of a net and brings almost any kind of behavior within the compass of psychiatry, 2. criteria is too broad and leads to pathologizing normal behavior, 3. diagnostic labels can be subjective, or even value judgments masquerading as science. I.e. Once we label a person, we view that person differently.

Among children and adolescents with OCD, about how many have the obsession: concern with dirt, germs, or toxins?

40 percent

Among children and adolescents with OCD, about how many have the compulsion: excessive hand washing, bathing, toothbrushing, or grooming?

85 percent

Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia)

A mild form of depression that, more often than not, lasts for two years or more. People with this disorder also display symptoms like, poor self-esteem, problems regulating sleep, reduced energy levels, etc.

Panic disorder

An anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations; often followed by a worry over a possible next attack. After several panic attacks. people may avoid situations where panic might strike. If their fear is intense enough, people develop agoraphobia.

Bipolar disorder vs Major depressive disorder

Bipolar disorder is less common, but it is often more dysfunctional, claiming twice as many lost workdays yearly. Bipolar disorder is a potent predictor of suicide.

Does poverty cause disorders? Or do disorders cause poverty?

Both, though the answer varies with the disorder. For example, schizophrenia leads to poverty and poverty often leads to substance abuse in men and depression in women.

Even a single painful and frightening event may trigger a full-blown phobia, thanks to which two conditioning processes?

Classical conditioning's stimulus generalization and operant conditioning's reinforcement

What is diagnostic classification of psychological disorders useful for in psychiatry and psychology?

It aims to predict a disorder's future course, suggest appropriate treatment, and promote research into its causes.

Which two psychological disorders occur worldwide across all cultures and societies?

Major depressive disorder and schizophrenia

How can fears be relieved through prescription drugs?

Some antidepressant drugs dampen fear circuit activity and its associated OCD. Fears can also be blunted by giving people drugs as they recall and then rerecord ("reconsolidate") a traumatic experience. Although they don't forget the experience, the associated emotion is largely erased.

In earlier times, people often thought strange behaviors were caused by what?

Strange forces, like the movements of stars, godlike powers, or evil spirits

Immigrant paradox

The surprising fact that immigrants tend to be healthier than U.S. born residents of the same ethnicity (mentally and psychically). This was first evident among Mexican Americans.

What is the value, and what are the dangers, of labeling individuals with disorders?

Therapists and others apply disorder labels to communicate with one another using a common language, and to share concepts during research. Clients may benefit from knowing that they are not the only ones with these symptoms. The dangers of labeling people are that (1) people may begin to act as they have been labeled, and (2) the labels can trigger assumptions that will change people's behavior toward those labeled.

When do obsessions & compulsions become a disorder?

They cross the fine line between normality and disorder when they persistently interfere with everyday living and cause distress.

How does conditioning influence our feelings of anxiety?

Through classical conditioning, our fear responses can become linked with formerly neutral objects and events.

How does the reliability of the DSM-5 categories get assesed?

Through field trials. Reliability is measured by clinician agreement on diagnosis of a psychological disorder.

Did people in earlier times employ harsh methods to "cure" these behaviors?

Yes, brutal ones like genital mutilation, beatings, removal of teeth or lengths of intestines, or transfusions of animal blood. Cruel treatments like these continue in some places to this day.

Does the biopsychosocial approach approach apply to psychological disorders?

Yes, our mental well-being is affected by our genes, brain functioning, inner thoughts and feelings, and the influences of our social and cultural environment.

Do genetically influenced abnormalities in brain structure and biochemistry contribute to many disorders?

Yes.

Epigenetic mark

a chemical regulator of gene activity that may be switched "on" or "off" in response to environmental influence

posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

a disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, hypervigilance, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience. PTSD affects veterans, survivors of accidents, disasters, and violent and sexual assault, etc.

Bipolar disorder

a disorder in which a person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania (formerly called manic-depressive disorder.) People with bipolar disorder bounce from one emotional extreme to the other (week to week, rather than day to day or moment to moment). During extreme mania, people with bipolar disorder are especially risky and impulsive. In milder forms, mania's energy and flood of ideas can fuel creativity.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

a disruption in the normal function of the brain that can be caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head, or penetrating head injury.

Mania

a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state in which dangerously poor judgement is common

What increases vulnerability to mental disorders?

a lot of things, but poverty crosses ethnic and gender lines. In fact, the incidence of serious psychological disorders is 2.5 times higher among those below the poverty line.

Moral treatment

a nineteenth-century approach to treating people with mental dysfunction that emphasized moral guidance and humane and respectful treatment championed by Philippe Pinel.

attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

a psychological disorder marked by extreme inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity

Psychological Disorder

a syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior. Psychological disorders result in thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that are dysfunctional, or maladaptive.

List some protective factors for mental disorders

aerobic exercise, economic independence, effective parenting, high self-esteem, literacy, problem-solving skills, social and work skills, social support from family and friends, community offering empowerment, opportunity, and security, positive parent-child relationships, etc.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal. Anxiety of this kind is free-floating (not linked to a specific stressor or threat). GAD may lead to physical problems, such as high blood pressure. As time passes, however, emotions tend to mellow, and by age 50, GAD becomes fairly rare.

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)

an anxiety disorder involving the extreme and irrational fear of being embarrassed, judged, or scrutinized by others in social situations

Phobia

an anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation. Specific phobias may focus on animals, insects, heights, blood, or close spaces.

Vulnerability-stress model

argues that individual characteristics combine with environmental stressors to increase or decrease the likelihood of developing a psychological disorder

How does biology influence our feelings of anxiety?

biological factors include inherited temperament differences and other gene variations (genetic vulnerability to a disorder can be increased by experience, e.g. a history of child abuse leaves long-term epigenetic marks); experience-altered brain pathways (e.g. traumatic fear-learning experiences can create fear circuits within the amygdala); and outdated, inherited responses that had survival value for our distant ancestors.

Anxiety

both a feeling and cognition—a doubt-laden appraisal of one's safety or social skill

What does depression do, biologically speaking?

depression resembles a sort of psychic hibernation: it slows us down, prompting us, when losing a relationship or blocked from a goal, to conserve energy, reassess our situation, and think about new strategies.

Instead of bipolar disorder, the new DSM-5 now diagnoses some of those who are persistently irritable and who have frequent and recurring behavior outbursts as what?

disruptive mood dysregulation disorder

What is the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project?

established by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, the RDoC aims to bring "the power of modern research approaches in genetics, neuroscience, and behavioral science" to the study of psychological disorders.

Biological influences on psychological disorder production

evolution, individual genes, brain structure and chemistry

How does cognition (thoughts, memories, interpretations, and expectations) influence our feelings of anxiety?

humans, like other animals, learn many of our own fears by observing others. E.g. if you see many other people acting afraid of spiders, then you might learn to be afraid of spiders. Also, anxiety is especially common when people cannot switch off intrusive thoughts and perceive a loss of control and a sense of helplessness.

Can clinicians predict who is likely to do harm (among those with psychological disorders)?

no, clinical prediction of violence is unreliable

Do psychological disorders increase risk of violence?

no, most violent criminals are not mentally ill, and most mentally ill people are not violent. In fact, people with psychological disorders are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators.

What can influence PTSD development?

one factor seems to be the amount of trauma-related emotional distress (the higher the distress, the greater the risk for posttraumatic symptoms). Also some people may have a more sensitive emotion-processing limbic system that floods their bodies with stress hormones. Gender and genes also matter.

How does biology, specifically the brain, influence our feelings of anxiety?

our experiences change our brain, paving new pathways. Traumatic fear-learning experiences can leave tracks in the brain, creating fear circuits within the amygdala. Disorders, like GAD, panic disorder, phobias, OCD and PTSD, reflect a brain danger-detection system gone hyperactive (overarousal)—producing anxiety when no danger exists.

What is stimulus generalization?

stimulus generalization occurs when a person experiences a fearful event and later develops a fear of similar events. For example, if you get viciously bitten by a dog, then for months afterward, you may feel uncomfortable or apprehensive every time you come near another dog.

Psychological influences on psychological disorder production

stress, trauma, learned helplessness, mood-related perceptions and memories

Is OCD more common among teens and young adults or older people?

teens and young adults

DSM-5

the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders. (it's diagnostic criteria and codes are very similar to those in the World Health Organization's "International Classification of Diseases (ICD).")

Many people will display survivor resiliency. What is survivor resiliency?

the ability to recover after severe stress

Medical Model

the concept that diseases, in this case psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital.

What do the few people with psychological disorders who commit violent acts experience?

the few people with psychological disorders who commit violent acts tend to be either those who experience threatening delusions and hallucinated voices that command them to act, who have suffered financial crisis or lost relationship, or who abuse substances.

What are better predictors of violence, rather than psychological disorders?

use of alcohol or drugs, previous violence, and gun availability.

How does biology, specifically natural selection, influence our feelings of anxiety?

we seem biologically prepared to fear threats faced by our ancestors. E.g. 9-month old infants attend more to sounds signaling ancient threats (hissing, thunder) than they do to sounds representing modern dangers (a bomb exploding, breaking glass). It is easy to condition and hard to extinguish fears of such "evolutionarily relevant" stimuli. Just as our phobias focus on dangers faced by our ancestors, our compulsive acts typically exaggerate behaviors that contributed to our species' survival. E.g. grooming had survival value; gone wild, it becomes compulsive hair pulling.

How do you know the difference between a blue mood and a depression-related disorder?

when the sadness creates dysfunction: keeps you from normal functioning