Reading
Questions
- View behaviour and thinking (disordered or not) as arising from the interaction between biological and environmental experiences.
- There has been a consistent move toward viewing the etiology of mental health problems from an integrative perspective.
- Biological, psychological, and socio-cultural factors interact in complex ways to produce psychiatric disorders.
- Single-factor theories are unlikely to explain the etiology of any disorder, and are gradually falling into disuse.
- Theories gain strength not because the evidence supports their predictions but rather because alternative explanations are rejected.
- Recent research emphasizes the importance of the genotype–environment interaction, which describes how features that are inherited interact with the environment to produce behaviour.
- Define neurotransmitters and describe the four ways in which they can influence abnormal behaviour, using examples.
- Biological views propose that brain dysfunction, neurotransmitters, hormonal or peripheral nervous system problems, or genetic errors cause psychological problems.
- Neurotransmitters are chemical substances that carry messages from one neuron to the next. Disturbances in Theoretical Perspectives on Abnormal Behaviour neurotransmitter systems can often result in abnormal behaviour.
- Describe the role of the id, ego, and superego as personality structures and explain how they influence an individual’s defence mechanisms
- Freud and other psychodynamic theorists suggested that behaviour is controlled by unconscious forces.
- Freud discussed three levels of consciousness that determine the accessibility of thoughts and desires: the conscious, which contains information of which we are currently aware; the preconscious, which holds information that is not presently in awareness but can be brought into awareness; and the unconscious, which contains the majority of an individual’s memories and drives that can be raised into awareness only with difficulty or particular techniques.
- The three personality structures of psychodynamic theories include the id, which represents biological or instinctual drives; the ego, which develops to control the desires of the id; and the superego, which is the internalization of the moral standards of society.
- The ego develops defence mechanisms in an attempt to control the desires of the id.
- Freud also described stages of psychosexual development, which indicate points in experience where problems can arise.
Lecture
- The concept of theories in abnormal behaviour
- Characteristics of good theories
- Level of theories
- Single-factor
- Psychodynamic; behavioural; cognitive; biological; humanistic
- Interactionist
- Single-factor
- Testing theories: Test Hypothesis
- Biological Model: What are the 3 structural change to the brain that effect behaviour?
- What is GPI:
- With symptoms of dementia has Brain based damages/shrinkages that can cause impairs in ones normal function
- What is Plasticity
- Environmental events, the person’s response to them, and biological substrates all play a part in causing abnormal functioning
- How can minor changes in brain structure will result in better/no treatment response?
- Brain structure difference will cause response variance in treatments
- What is GPI:
- Biological Model: Define Neurotransmitters & the 4 ways they can influence abnormal behaviour
- Particular transmitter is over- or under-produced in the synapse
- Too many or too few receptors on the dendrites
- An excess or a deficit in the amount of the transmitter-deactivating substance in the synapse
- Re-uptake process may be too rapid or too slow
- Biological Model: What is the role of PNS in abnormal behaviour?
- During stressful situation: Sympathetic system will respond to it, resulting in Anxiety
- The strength and duration of the response from system is related to a person’s propensity to develop psychophysiological disorders
- Biological Model: What are the 3 steps Endocrine system/HPA axis play in abnormal behaviour?
- Activated in response to stressors
- Release of the stress hormone (cortisol) into the bloodstream
- High dose of cortisol will cause overreaction to small stressors (increase in baseline level)
- Biological Model: Describe findings in biological and environmental interactions?
- Twin Studies
- Studies the effects of genes with certain traits
- Can determine statistical correlations do exist in genes for psychological disorders
- Adoption Studies
- Determine the separate effects of genetic and environment
- Dopamine related genes
- Differential susceptibility (sensitivity vs resilience) to home environment depends on dopamine related genes
- Temperament: believed to have a strong basis in biology and genetics (effortful control, negative affectivity, extraversion)
children with particular variants of the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4), the dopamine receptor gene (DRD4), or the MAOA gene tend to be more aggressive than children with different variants of these genes (e.g., Cecil et al., 2018; Conway et al., 2012).
- Twin Studies
- Psychosocial Theories: What are the 3 important theories about psychoanalysis; its validity at current time; and 5 major limitations?
- Structure of the mind
- Psychosexual Stage Model
- Defense Mechanism
- ★ Contrbutions to Modern Field
- Limitations
- Claims are difficult to test empirically
- Biased measures and biased population that he generalized to all population
- Biased methods (Free Association, childhood experiences, and adult Dream Interpretation)
- Childhood sexuality are exaggerated
- Biased implying superiority of men