Normality vs. Abnormality
Stress and Health/ Selye
Lazarus and Folkman
Social, Cultural and Environmental factors
Anxiety disorder: Phobia
100
What are two of the six approaches to classifying 'normal' behaviour?
Any two of the following: socio-cultural, historical, situational, medical, functional and statistical.
100
What is stress?
A state of physiological and psychological arousal produced by internal or external stressors that are perceived by the individual as challenging.
100
What is the name of Lazarus and Folkman's theory?
Transactional Model of stress and coping.
100
What is an example of a social factor that influences stress?
relationships; lack of social skills; lack of support; bullied; discrimination etc.
100
What is a phobia?
an excessive or unreasonable fear directed towards a particular object, situation or event that causes significant distress or interferes with everyday functioning.
200
What is the definition of a mental illness?
a psychological dysfunction that usually involves impairment in coping ability with feeling and behaviours that are atypical and inappropriate within their culture.
200
Describe the role of the fight/flight response in relation to stress.
Part of the autonomic nervous system. Fight/flight is an involuntary reaction resulting in a state of physiological readiness to deal with an sudden and immediate threat by either confronting it or running away. Certain physiological responses are aroused i.e. hormones such as adrenalin and noradrenalin are released, HPA axis may be initiated, heart rate increases.
200
What does primary appraisal refer to?
when we evaluate or judge the significance of the situation as either irrelevant, benign-positive or stressful. If it is stressful, is it of harm/loss, threat or challenge?
200
What does acculturation refer to?
It is a cultural factor that can influence the stress response; adapting the values, customs and language of a new culture.
200
How does Freud suggest we deal with phobias?
Through defense mechanisms.
300
What does the biopsychosocial framework refer to?
A more holistic view of understanding mental health, taking into consideration the three aspects, biological, psychological and social, in terms of health and wellbeing.
300
What is the role of the HPA axis in relation to stress?
Hypothalamus is activated which in turn activates the pituitary gland which releases ACTH. ACTH then travels through the blood stream to the adrenal glands where adrenaline, noradrenalin and cortisol are released. This is the physiological reaction that occurs in response to stress.
300
Why would need to reappraise a stressor? What do we do in this stage?
Reappraise to determine if it warrants further attention. Reappraise the situation while taking into account the coping resources that are available. Then reappraise the coping resources while taking into account the reappraised threat.
300
What were the findings of Callhoun's research in relation to crowding?
Mice that were in a crowded environment were more likely to become aggressive, hyperactive or lethargic, and the mothers began to attack their young. Even cannibalism!
300
What are the four cognitive factors that affect the development/maintenance of a phobia?
Attentional bias, memory bias, interpretive bias and catastrophic thinking.
400
Identify one categorical approach to classifying mental illness. Describe its assumptions and identify one limitation of this approach.
DSM-IV-TR or the ICD-10. Assumes that mental disorders can be diagnosed from specific symptoms reported by the patient or observed by the professional. That thoughts, feelings and behaviour can be categorised. That there are distinct subcategories within each disorder. An all or nothing approach. One limitation- lots of overlap between symptoms can make diagnosis difficult. Stigma and labeling.
400
Identify the differences between eustress and distress.
Eustress is a positive psychological response to a stressor, as indicated by the presence of a positive psychological state like enthusiasm and motivation. Distress is a negative psychological response to a stressor, as indicated by the presence of negative psychological states such as anger, irritability, nervousness etc. Eustress is when stress is considered to be beneficial.
400
What is coping? What are the two types of coping strategies?
Coping refers to the process of constantly changing cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage the demands of a stressor. Problem-focused coping refers to fixing the source of the stress and emotion-focused coping refers to finding strategies to deal with emotional responses to the stress.
400
What is allostasis? What is allostatic load?
the body’s ability to maintain a stable physiological environment by adjusting and changing to meet internal and external demands. Allostatic load is caused by prolonged arousal which causes wear and tear on the body.
400
How does GABA influence phobia development/maintenance?
Naturally occurring neurotransmitters that carry messages between neurons in the brain. Without GABA neural activation could spread like fire throughout the brain causing seizures. Lack of the neurotransmitter GABA might lead to over stimulation and thus heightened anxiety.
500
Describe the dimensional approach in terms of classifying mental disorders. Provide an example of a dimensional approach, one strength and one limitation.
Dimensional approach quantifies individual's symptoms; values are then compared with the statistically 'normal' expected values for each characteristic. Mental disorder is graded in terms of magnitude, degree or severity. An example is the MMPI. One strength is that it takes into account a wide range of factors, OR, more detailed information on each symptom, OR, reduced stigma as a profile is created rather than a label. One limitation is that there is no standard inventory to compare, thus diagnosis is difficult, OR, it is time consuming.
500
Identify the three psychological responses to stress and provide examples.
Behavioural, emotional or cognitive changes. Behavioural changes refer to how a person looks, talks, acts etc. i.e. hand tremors, shaky voice. Emotional changes could be anxious, tense angry etc. Cognitive changes could be influences on mental abilities such as distortion of perception, difficulty concentrating, forgetful etc.
500
Identify two strengths and two limitations of this model.
Strengths: focuses on psychological determinants of the stress response over which we have control; individual has an active role; reappraisal process allows for the fact that things change. Limitations: Difficult to test due to subjective nature; do we even need to appraise something as causing stress for us to have a stress response; may not always be conscious of things that cause us stress.
500
Identify one way of coping with stress and explain it.
One of the following: biofeedback; meditation; relaxation; exercise; social support.
500
Describe CBT from a cognitive component.
aims to assist the client to develop a new understanding that the feared stimuli is not dangerous, so their avoidance and safety behaviours are unnecessary. Identify anxiety related thoughts and cognitive biases. Look at evidence that supports/rejects these biases. Switch from unhelpful irrational thoughts to evidence based rational thoughts.
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