Schizophrenia
Explain the difference between positive and negative symptoms + examples
Positive: add to environment e.g. hallucinations
Negative take a way from 'normal' functioning e.g. avolition
What is the difference between type 1 and type 2 mood disorders?
Type 1: defined by the occurrence of at least one manic or mixed episode.
Type 2: defined by the occurrence of one or more hypomanic episodes and at least one depressive episode.
Describe one of the two measures of OCD.
MOCI:
The MOCI is a short assessment tool that contains 30 items that are scored either 'true' or 'false'. It assesses symptoms relating to checking, washing, slowness and doubting. It takes around 5 minutes to complete and produces scores that range between O and 30.
Y-BOCS
a semistructured interview that takes around 30 minutes to conduct. It also involves a checklist of different obsessions and compulsions, with a ten-item severity scale. The severity scale allows individuals to rate the time they spend on obsessions; how hard the obsessions are to resist and how much distress the obsessions cause.
What is Agoraphobia? provide an example of a situation.
Agoraphobia is characterised by excessive fear or anxiety in response to situations where escape might be difficult or help might not be available, such as using public transport, being in crowds or being outside the home alone.
Describe the K-SAS.
This is an 11 -item self-rated scale that measures impulses, thoughts, feelings and behaviours related to stealing.
The individual taking the assessment is asked to consider the question in relation to the past seven days.
Each item is rated on a point-based scale, typically 0-4 or 0--5 (0 = no symptoms, 4 or 5 = severe, frequent or enduring symptoms), with the highest scores reflecting the greatest severity and duration of symptoms.
Explain a psychological treatment for SZ
CBT - talk therapy to help people recognise irrational thought patterns. Sensky is support study
Describe the BDI.
This 21-item self-report
assesses attitudes and symptoms of depressive disorder
Each item in the inventory consists of at least four statements, and the person taking the test must choose the one statement that best fits how they have been feeling during a recent period of time.
This may be the past week or two weeks, depending on the version of the test that is being used.
Explain the difference between Obsessions and Compulsions. Provide examples of both
Obsessions are unwanted, repetitive thoughts (e.g. of contamination), images (e.g. of violent scenes) or urges (e.g. to stab someone).
Obsessions are intrusive and commonly associated with anxiety. Compulsions are repetitive behaviours (e.g. washing or checking) or mental acts (e.g. repeating words silently) that the individual feels driven to perform, as a response to an obsession.
There are two measures for anxiety and phobias. Identify them BOTH and describe ONE
GAD-7 - screening test, individuals are asked to provide a score between O and 3 for each item; however, in this test the scores refer to the frequency of occurrence of symptoms (0 = not at all, 1 = several days, 2 = more than half the days and 3 = nearly every day).
BIPI- self report, 18 situations covering cognitive, physiological and behavioural responses. They are then asked to rate on a scale of 0- 3 the frequency of each symptom (0 = never, 1 = sometimes, 2 = almost always, 3 = always).
What is a 'feeling state'?
A feeling-state is all the sensations, emotions and thoughts a person experiences in relation to a particular event. It can also include physiological arousal (e.g. increased heart rate, release of adrenaline).
state the two conclusions from Freeman.
1. people assign mental states to VR characters.
2. people are more likely to show persecutory ideation if they show high levels of interpersonal sensitivity or anxiety
What are the ABCDE of REBT?
Activating event (A), examining the Belief (B) about the event, analyzing the resulting Consequences (C), challenging irrational beliefs (D), and forming new, effective beliefs (E)
Dopamine: those with OCD tend to have abnormally high levels of dopamine. Research by Szechtman et al. (1998), shows that if you increase dopamine levels in rats, they will show repetitive movements that reflect the compulsive behaviours of individuals with OCD.
Serotonin: individuals with OCD have lower than normal levels of serotonin in their brains. This research is supported by evidence that shows that anti-depressants that work specifically on increasing levels of serotonin are effective in decreasing OCD symptoms.
Oxytocin: Mixed evidence - Leckman et al. (I 994) found that some forms of OCD were related to oxytocin dysfunction
Explain how both Operant and Classical conditioning can explain Anxiety/phobias.
Classical: An individual may develop a phobia of a harmless stimulus if it is paired with a frightening experience. For example, a person might develop agoraphobia following an assault or mugging (being a victim of robbery) in public.
Operant: Uses negative reinforcement. In terms of a phobia, the avoidance of the phobic stimulus reduces the fear, so it is therefore rewarding, and the avoidant behaviour will be repeated. Leads to maintaining your phobia.
Which schedule of reinforcement is most effective in developing addictive behaviours in individuals?
Unpredictable/no consistent schedule
Provide evidence for the genetic explanation of sz
Gotsemen and shield : likelihood of developing SZ went from 1% to 48% if you have an identical twin with SZ
What did Seligman study and how does it explain mood disorders?
Attributional style -> if a person develops learned helplessness they are more likely to have a negative attributional style. this means that they are more likely to view things as internal, stable and global.
Explain how and why ERP works. You must give an example.
Individuals are exposed to stimuli that provoke their obsessions and the associated distress, while at the same time they are helped to prevent their compulsive behaviours. For example, an individual may be exposed to a door handle, which would elicit obsessions surrounding dirt and germs, along with a strong desire to carry out a compulsion such as handwashing. The individual is helped to not wash their hands but instead to tolerate the anxiety and learn to accept their obsession and become habituated to it (to get used to it). The key thing is to prevent the compulsive behaviour as a response to the obsessive thought. This helps the individual to learn that the uncomfortable feelings will eventually go away even without preforming a compulsive behaviour.
Explain the idea of 'reciprocal inhibition'
Wolpe (1958) introduced the idea of 'reciprocal inhibition', which is the impossibility of feeling two strong and opposing emotions simultaneously. The key to unlearning phobic reactions through systematic desensitisation is to put the fearful feelings associated with a phobic stimulus directly in conflict with feelings of deep relaxation and calm.
Explain the biological explanation for ICD.
When someone with kleptomania steals something, their reward centres are stimulated and release dopamine. When these behaviours become compulsive, however, levels of dopamine in the striatum are reduced. The striatum is an area of the brain that is responsible for reward and behavioural control, and so deficiency in dopamine can lead to the continuation of compulsions and addictions. The person with kleptomania will then increasingly engage in stealing behaviours. This mechanism is otherwise known as 'reward deficiency syndrome
Describe Aneja et al (example study)
Case study for individual with early onset SZ.
started age 10
Evaluate Oruc in terms of free will vs determinism
Determinism: individuals with a family history are more likely to develop a similar disorder so removes factor of free will
free will: findings of Orne et al. suggest only a small genetic susceptibility for females; this indicates there must be other causes of the disorder, which may or may not be genetic in origin.
Provide a quantitative result from Lovell.
Treatment was classed as 'clinically relevant' if the Y-BOCS mean pre-treatment score dropped by two standard deviations or more after treatment.
This was found to be the case in 72% of the patients (77% in the telephone condition and 67% in the face-to-face treatment condition)
Evaluate Chapman and DeLapp in terms of applications to every day life.
Treatment of any phobia is important and will of course improve the quality of life of the patient. But finding a successful treatment for blood phobia is particularly significant due to the importance of attending medical procedures when necessary. Someone with, for example, a phobia of the sea, could, relatively easily, avoid the sea and still live a fulfilling and otherwise healthy life. However, a blood or related phobia could have serious repercussions on the patient's health if they avoid medical interventions.
Evaluate the Cognitive Explanation of ICD using the Individual vs Situational debate
Can be both: Some experiences will be stimulating, rewarding or upsetting (situational influence), but as individuals we each develop our own feeling-states in relation to these, which lead to overall patterns of behaviour.