Psychological Problems p1

Question 1

Delusions

Answer 1

Believing something that isn’t true (government are spying on you).

Question 2

Negative and Positive Factors of Schizophrenia

Answer 2

Negative:
-thoughts or behaviour the individual had before the illness (lowered mood, social withdrawal).
Positive:
-changed behaviour or thoughts (hallucinations/delusions).

Question 3

Catatonic Behaviour

Answer 3

A group of symptoms that usually involve a lack of movement and communication.

Question 4

Discrimination

Answer 4

A stigma that has been acted upon (a behavioural issue).

Question 5

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 5

When someone behaves in a way an assumption about them expects them to behave.

Question 6

Prevelance

Answer 6

How common something is.

Question 7

Mental Health as a Continuum

Answer 7

Suggests there are degrees in mental health which we may fluctuate between.

Question 8

Incidence

Answer 8

Refers to the number of NEW cases.

Question 9

Stigma

Answer 9

A mark of disgrace with a particular circumstance, quality, or person (a cognitive issue).

Question 10

Tandoc’s Study sample (depression)

Answer 10

-854 students across four uni courses in journalism from USA were INVITED via email and going to their classes
-736 students actually participated in survey
- 68% (500) female
- 32%(235) male average age 19
-78% (574) white americans
= all used facebook for average 2h

Question 11

Criticisms of Tandoc’s Study

Answer 11

• reductionist = failed to consider the complex nature of depression, reducing the explanation to an outdated evolutionary view, rather than considering the holistic view that depression can be caused due a wide variety of factors
• social desirability bias = due to self report ,participants could have underplayed their use of social media, level of envy and their experience of depression -> invalid results effecting validity
• culturally biased = well educated journalism students USA -> factors may influence how much facebook is used and how they deal with their feelings
• lack construct validity due to numerical coding = complex behaviour reduced to numbers on a rating scale so may not give a true representation of peoples experiences
• difficult to establish cause and effect = relationship between variables (e.g does facebook use increase envy or does envy draw people to facebook?)

Question 12

Social Drift Theory (schizophrenia)

Answer 12

Suggests having schizophrenia causes people to become lower class, through disengagement from society which leads to further rejection from society(caught in a downwards spiral, hard to get out).

Question 13

Daniel et al sample

Answer 13

10 USA schizophrenic patients

• each tested with and without amphetamine (one is placebo)
• given haloperidol 6 weeks prior to stabilize their symptoms

Question 14

Criticisms of Daniel et al

Answer 14

1) culturally biased
= all from USA and most were white , problematic as schizophrenia rates differ between different ethnicities so ungeneralisable
2) Use of haloperidol to stabilize sample
= could have effected brain activity so becomes an extraneous variable. also harder to establish cause and effect
3) Small sample
- ungeneralisable as not representative

Question 15

Schizophrenia gender Stats and Symptoms/characteristics

Answer 15

• Equal across genders
• women diagnosed in 30’s
• men diagnosed in 20’s
• 1% prevalence
• Symptoms/characteristics: hallucinations, delusions, catatonic behaviour, disorganised speech

Question 16

recovery rates of schizophrenia after ten years since diagnosis?

Answer 16

25% fully recover
25% much improved
25% need support 
15% hospitalised 
10% dead (mainly suicide)

Question 17

age and ethnicity statistics (schizophrenia)

Answer 17

• schizophrenia is an adult disorder, usually diagnosed before age of 40
• british people of Caribbean and African origin>white people
• Asian origin lower rates than average of diagnosis

Question 18

hallucinations

Answer 18

the experience of perceiving objects or events that do not have an external source

Question 19

schizophrenia

Answer 19

a psychotic disorder where people lose their sense of self and reality

Question 20

neologisms

Answer 20

a new word or phrase of the patients own making often seen in schizophrenia

Question 21

Tandoc aims

Answer 21

1) To investigate if depression (using social rank theory) could be predicted by FB envy
2) To investigate if FB use can lead to subordinating feelings, which in turn can lead to depression

Question 22

Tandoc Hypothesis

Answer 22

H1: heavy facebook users feel higher levels of facebook envy than light facebook users (supported)
H2: facebook users with big network of friends tend to feel higher levels of envy than those with small network of friends (not supported)
H3: those who report high envy levels tend to report more symptoms of depression than lower levels of envy (supported)

Question 23

Tandoc procedure/ how was it measured

Answer 23

Fb use -> rated on a scale 1-5
envy-> rating scales showing how much they agreed with certain statements
depression-> scale called the CES-D
= self report using online surveys. Responses coded into numerical form to be statistically analysed

Question 24

Tandoc results

Answer 24

H1: supported as results showed heavy facebook users experience stronger feelings of envy
H2: not supported size of facebook user network was not related to envy
H3: supported as those who reported high feelings of envy also reported more symptoms of depression than lower levels of envy (FB was a significant predictor of depression amongst college students)

-FB can LESSEN feelings of depression if it is used positively and does not lead to envy

Question 25

Tandoc conclusion

Answer 25

- facebook use on its own does not directly lead to depression - facebook envy can be linked to depression symptoms - surveillance on facebook depression is mediated by facebook envy - when envy is controlled , facebook use can lessen depression - social rank theory is a useful to understand the complex process of depression among college students

Question 26

subordinating meaning (Tandoc)

Answer 26

feeling envious | feeling below someone

Question 27

what would the SRT assume about Tandoc et al study

Answer 27

It would assume that if we get jealous of other people we see on Facebook for being 'better' than us, would lead to depression as we would have suffered a 'loss'. Therefore taking on a lower social rank to 'protect ourselves'

Question 28

Daniel et al aim

Answer 28

To investigate on schizophrenic patients ,if amphetamine had an affect on dopamine levels in the pre-frontal cortex and regional cerebral blood flow during WSCT.

Question 29

Daniel et al method

Answer 29

-Double blind lab experiment (both experimenter and patient unaware whether placebo has been given) - given haloperidol 6 weeks prior to stabilize symptoms - repeated measures - IV = amphetamine or placebo - DV = score of WSCT - five given BAR task first, five given WSCT first (each participate in each) each given amphetamine/placebo - SPECT scan while performing

Question 30

Daniel et al results

Answer 30

- Participants who had amphetamine (more dopamine) performed better on WSCT - no difference in two groups completing BAR test

Question 31

Daniel et al conclusions

Answer 31

1) amphetamine seemed to have had reduced blood flow to brain but still improved performance on cognitive task 2) supports previous research that found dopamine is important in cognitive tasks 3) suggests some problems with schizophrenic and prefrontal cortex may be treated with drugs 4) amphetamine appeared to enhance the ability of the cortex to focus activity in response to WSCT

Question 32

dopamine

Answer 32

A neurotransmitter that helps suppress random brain activity and focus on tasks

Question 33

amphetamine

Answer 33

Increases dopamine activity alongside cognitive tasks which require cognitive processing

Question 34

Daniel et al background

Answer 34

Research focuses on schizophrenia and high dopamine levels however, some research found it may be low dopamine levels that cause the problem prefrontal cortex; Low levels of dopamine/low cognitive activity therefore... If we increase the amount of dopamine in the frontal regions of the brain, these cognitive problems should improve

Question 35

Daniel et al hypothesis

Answer 35

- Problems in the prefrontal cortex may be linked to not enough dopamine sending messages to the next neurotransmitter - if we increase the amount of dopamine in the frontal regions of the brain this should also increase the activity in the prefrontal cortex

Question 36

Characteristics of Schizophrenia

Answer 36

``` catatonic behaviour disorganised speech hallucinations delusions negative symptoms thought disturbances ```

Question 37

Schizophrenia

Answer 37

A psychotic disorder where people lose their sense of self and reality