PSYCH 203 FINAL

• Abnormal behaviour vs everyday

  Any behaviour that is distressing and harmful to the self or others- more extreme versions of everyday feelings and behaviours
• DSM-5


  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition. Classification tool for clinicians for mental disorders.
• Characteristics of ADHD

  • Inattention
  • Hyperactivity
  • Impulsivity
• Characteristics of ASD


  • Difficulty in social interaction
  • Repetitive behaviour
  • Challenges with communicating
• Conduct disorder


  Behaviour that violates rights of others and social norms
• Why are ASD and ADHD rates on the rise?

  • Increased awareness and diagnosis
  • Environmental factors, increased prenatal exposure to pollutants
• Early detection and intervention for environmental effects is important for treatments and diagnosis implications
• Biological and environmental factors of ASD

  • Smaller minicolumns
  • Slower developed frontal
• Biological and environmental factors of ADHD

  • Slower developed frontal
  • Less active
  • 0.7 heritability
• 4 characteristics of psychosis in schizophrenia

  • Hallucinations: sensing false stimuli
  • Delusion: false beliefs
  • Disorganised speech and thought
  • Diminished emotional expression and goal oriented behaviour
• Hallucination and delusion are distinct phenomena
• Schizophrenia and neurodegeneration


  Less grey matter during adolescence
• Diagnostic criteria for Major Depressive Disorder


  • Change in appetite
  • Fatigue and restless
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Suicidal thoughts
  • Excessive guilt and low self worth
• Anhedonia

  Loss of pleasure
• Learned helplessness


  Repeated involuntary negative events leading to feeling loss of control
• Learned helplessness causes feeling of no control over any situation, including their own depressive moods
• Rumination


  Repetitive dwelling on negative feelings, causes, and consequences
• Serotonin in depressed vs non-depressed

  Low neurotransmitter serotonin causes depression
• Bipolar disorder


  Alternating between mania and depressive
• Bipolar disorder

  Bridge between both of the psychotic disorders (depression and schizophrenia)
• Mania

  Abnormally and persistent elevated mood and impulsivity
• Anxiety disorders


  Anxiety disproportional to circumstances, strong negative emotion and physical tension in anticipation to danger
• GABA in anxiety


  Inhibitory neurotransmitter that reduces anxiety symptoms, less in anxiety disorder
• Agoraphobia


  Fear of open spaces
• Agoraphobia


  Related to panic disorder, causes panic attacks, intense fear with no real threat
• Obsessions


  Distressed intrusive thoughts
• Compulsions


  Need for repetitive behaviour to reduce stress
• OCD


  Disorder that uses both obsessions and compulsions
• Operant and evolutionary factors of OCD

  • Operant, through reinforcement of compulsions
  • Evolutionary, through survival benefits
• Characteristics of PTSD


  • Re-experiencing traumatic events
  • Avoidance of reminders
• PTSD is the only disorder with a specific cause, trauma
• Biological and learning factors for PTSD


  • Biological, smaller hippocampus, higher cortisol, less benzodiazepine
  • Learning, learned fear responses
• Evidence-based practice (EBP)


  Piece of info integrated into clinical expertise, scientific evidence, and patient values
• Types of mental health professionals

  • Family doctors
  • Psychiatrists
  • Licensed psychologists
  • Counsellors/psychotherapists
• Goal of psychoanalysis

  Help individual become aware of the unconscious motives and conflict negatively affecting their behaviour and to resolve these conflicts
• Techniques in person-centred therapy

  • Empathy
  • Unconditional positivity
  • Reflection to help clients personal growth
• Behavioural therapies


  Changing problematic behaviours through conditioning techniques
• Cognitive restructuring and CBT


  Substituting irrational and self-defeating thought with rational belief
• Classes of medication

  • Antidepressants
  • Antipsychotics
  • Mood stabilisers
  • Anxiolytics
• Other biological treatments

  • Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
  • Psychosurgery
  • Deep brain stimulation