Abnormal Psych. 703 Midterm
Terms
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- Family Aggregation
- The Clustering of certain traits, behaviors, or disorder within agiven family. Family aggregation may arise because of genetic or environmental similarities
- Abnormal Behavior
- Maladaptive behavior detrimental to an individual and/or a group.
- Comorbidity
- Occurrence of two or more identified disorders in the same psychologically disordered individual.
- Nomenclature
- A formalized naming system; helps structure information.
- DSM definition of mental disorder
-
-Distressing or disabling syndrome in the individual
-Whatever its cause, must currently be considered a manifestation of a behavioral, psychological or biological dysfunction in the individual
-Atheoretical
-Are some alternative diefinitions of mental disorder, particularly Wakefield's idea of mental disorder as "harmful dysfunction" - Syndrome
- Group or cluster of symptoms
- Atheoretical
- Casual mechamisms are not described
- Prevalence
- In a population, the proportion of active cases of a disorder that can be identified at a given point in, or during a given period of, time.
- Self-report
- Data collected directly from participant, typically by means of interviews or questionnaires.
- Kraepelin
- Was the first physican to establish a classification system of symptom patterns-forerunner of DSM
- General Paresis
- Syphilis of the brain; produced paralysis and insanity. Biomedical breakthrough that organic factors are underlying cause in some mental disorders
- Attachment Theory
- Bowlby researched the importance of very early infancy esperiences effects how we bond with significant others
- Ego-defense Mechanisms
-
Discharge or soothe anxiety, but they do so by helping a person push through painful ideas out of conciousness rather then dealing directly with the problem. Result in leaving a person with a distorted view of reality, although some are clearly more adaptive than others.
-A way of protecting the psyche
-Normal part of psychic development
-Can use more primetive defenses over more "sopisticated" defenses.
-When under stress, people can overuse defense mecanisms. - Neurotransmitters
-
Chemical substances that are released into a synapse by the presynaptic neuron and which transmit nerve impulses from one neuron to another.
-Imbalance in the brain can result in abnormal behavior; can sometimes be brought on by psychological stress.
-Different disorders are thought to stem brom different patterns of neurological imabalances in various brain areas.
-Different drugs used to treat varous disorders
-Various neurotransmitters are often believed to correct these imbalances - Four Neurotransmitters most extensively studied in regards to pyschopathology
-
1. Norepinephrine- Plays a role in reaction to acute stress; Monoamines
2. Dopamine-Implicated in schizophrenia;Monoamines
3. Serotonin-Plays a role in way we process the environment and in disorders such as anxiety and depression; Monoamines
4. GABA-Implicated in anxiety - Odedipus Complex
- Desire of a boy for his mother, with his father a hated rival
- Primary Process Thinking
- Gratification of id demands by means of imagery or fantasy without the ability to undertake the realistic actions needed to meet those instinctual demands.
- Schema
- An underlying representation of knowledge that guides current processing of information and often leads to distortions in attention, memory, and comprehension
- Distal
- Distant causal factors (biological, psychosocial, and sociocultural) that may contribute towards developing a disorder occurs relatively early in life but may not show their effects for many years. (Loss of parent as a child may cause depression in later as an adult.)
- Proximal
- Immediate causal factors (biological, psychosocial, and sociocultural)that develop a disorder happen shortly before the occurence of the symptoms of a disorder.(Depression is triggered shortly after loss of parent.)
- Diathesis-Stress Models
- A relatively distal necessary or contributory cause, but is not sufficient enough to cause the disorder, so there must be a more proximal cause (the stressor) which may be the contributory or necessary cause but is not sufficient enough to cause the disorder. Involves three viewpoints: Biological, Psychoanalytic, and Cognitive-Behavioral
- Diathesis
- predisposition towards developing a disorder
- Resilience
- The ability to adapt successfully to even very difficult circumstances.
- Biopsychosocial Model
- A more integrative approach that acknowledges biological, psychosocial, and sociocultural factors all interact and play a role in psychopathology and treatment.
- Biologically-Bases Models
-
-Must consider genetic endowment, biochemical, and hormonal imbalances, temperament and other constitutional liabilities.
-Other factors: Brain dysfunction and neural plasticity, and physical deprivation or disruption
-Research in this area, especially neuropsychology, are advancing ou knowledge of how the mind and body interact to produce maladaptive behavior
-Emphasis is on imbalances that echoes from ancient theories of Hippocrates and Galen
- Positives and Negatives: Host of new drugs;Emphasis on illness as the source of abnormality has been challenged(not all mental disorders are biological conditions with biological causes; Results in ignoring psychosocial viewpoints. - Temperament
- Pattern of emotional and arousal responses and characteristic ways of self-regulation that are considered to be primarily hereditary.
- Protective Factors
- Influences that modify a person's response to an environmental stressor, making it less likely that the person will experience the adverse side effects of the stressor.
- Vulnerabilities
- Factors that render a person susceptible to behaving abnormally.
- Twin Method
- The use of identical and nonidentical twins to study genetic influences on abnormal behavior.
- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
- Observed pattern in infants of alcoholic mothers, in which there is a characteristic facial or limb irregularity, low body weight, and behavioral abnormality.
- Long-term Consequences of Physical Abuse
- Concludes that childhood physical abuse predicts both familial and nonfamiliar violence in adolescence and adulthood, especially in men.
- Id
- Primitive Forces
- Ego
- Reality principle; mediates between id and super ego
- Super ego
- Morality, conscience
- Impact of Psychodynamic
-
-Development of therapeutic techniques, such as free association
-Saw abnormal as result of exaggerated defense mechanisms
-Critisms: Case study approach does not lend itself to scientific validation; lack of evidence to support many of its basic assumptions. - Impact of Cognitive Behavioral
-
-Research supports the principle that altering human behavior through changing the way people think about themselves and other.
-Cognitions are not observable phenomena and cannot be relied on as solid empirical data. - Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
- Widely used and empirically validated personality scales
- Objective Tests
- Structured tests, such as questionnaires, self inventories, or rating scales, used in psycholodical assessment.
- Projective Tests
- Techniques that use various ambiguous stimuli that a subject is encouraged to interpret and from which the subject's personality characteristics can be analyzed.
- Rating Scales
- Formal structure for organizing information obtained from clinical observation and self-reports to encourage reliability and objectivity
- Reliability
- Degree to which a measuring device produces the same result each time it is used to measure the same thing, or when two or more different raters use it.
- Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
- Use of a series of simple pictures about which a subject is instructed to make up stories. Analysis of the stories gives a clinician clues about the person's conflicts, traits, personality dynamics, and the like.
- Validity
- Extent to which a measuring instrument actually measures what it purports to measure.
- Ritalin
- Central nervous system stimulant often used to treat ADHD
- Stressors
- Adjustive demands that require coping behavior on the part of an individual or group
- Stress
- Effects created within an organism by the application of a stressor.
- Coping Strategies
- Efforts to deal with stress
- Distress
- Negative stress, associated with pain, anxiety, or sorrow.
- Eustress
- Positive Stress
- Stress Tolerance
- Refers to a person's ability to withstand stress without becoming seriously imparied.
- Denfense-oriented Response
- Involves making changes in one's self, one's surrounding, or both, depending on the situation. May be overt or covert
- Defense-coping Response
- Behavior is directed primarily at protecting the self from hurt and disorganiztion rather than at resolving the situation. Prevails when a person's feelings of adequacy are seriously threatened by a stressor.
- Personality/Psychological Decompensation
- When a person is not able to adapt to a stressor (abuse) and may experience lowered adaptive functioning or capability to deal with future events and eventually break down under stres.
- General Adaptation Syndrome
-
Helps explain the course of biological decompensation under excessive stress and consists of three tages:
-Alarm reaction- body's defensive forces are "called to arms" by activation of the autonomic nervous system.
-The stage of resistance- biological adaptation is at the maximal level in terms of bodily resources used.
-Exhaustion- bodily resources are depleted and the organism loses its ability to resit (further stress can lead to illness or death). - Psychoneuroimmunology
- Focuses on the effects of stressors on the immune system.
- Adjustment Disorder
-
A. The development of emotional or behavioral symptomes in response to an identifiable stressor occurring within 3 months of the onset of the stressor.
B. Symptoms are either:
1. marked distress in
excess of what would
be expected.
2. Significant social or
occupational impairment
of functioning
C. Stress-related
disturbance does not meet criteria for another disorder on Axis I or II
D. Symptoms are not Bereavement
E. When stressor is absent syptoms are not present for more than 6 months
-Acute: if symptoms less than 6 months
-Chronic: Symptoms 6 months or more and only in responce to chronic stressor. - Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
-
A. Person exposed to traumatic event and both were present:
1. an extreme traumatic
event experienced,witnessed
or confronted by a person
2.Response involved
intense fear, helplessness,
or horror
B.in which a person reexpriences the event in 1 or more of the ways
C.avoids reminders of the trauma, and exhibits persistent increased arousal in 3 or more ways.
Acute: duration is less
than 3 months
Chronic: duration is 3
or more months - Acute Stress Disorder
-
A. person exposed to traumatic event
B. 3 or more dissociative syptoms after event or during event
C.person reexpriences the event, avoids reminders of the trauma, and exhibits persistent increased arousal.
G. occurs within 4 weeks after a traumatic event and lasts for a minimum of 2 days and a maximum of 4 weeks. - Disaster Syndrome
- Reactions of many victims of major catastrophes during the traumatic experience and the initial and long-lasting reactions after it.
- Stress-inoculation Training
-
Prepares people to tolerate an anticipated threat by changing the things they say to themselves before the crisis. Three stage process is used:
1. Information is provided about the stressful situation and about ways people can deal with such dangers.
2. Saying self-statements that promote effective adaptation (don't worry)
3. The person practices making such self-statements while being exposed to a variety of ego-threatening stressors, - Debreifing Sessions
- An approach to helping people who have been involved in a disaster is that allows them to discuss their experiences with others, usually shortly after the trauma has subsided.
- Neurotic Behavior
- Anxiety-driven, exaggerated use of avoidance behaviors and defense mechanisms
- Neurosis
- Term historically used to characterize maladaptive behavior resulting from intrapsychic conflict and marked by prominent use of defense mechanisms.
- Panic
- A basic emotion that involves activation of the "fight-or-flight" response of the sympathetic nervous system and that is often characterized by an overwhelming sense of fear or terror.
- Anxiety
- A general feeling of apprehension about possible danger.
- Anxiety Disorder
-
An unrealistic, irrational fear or anxiety of disabling intensity.seven types:
-
1. Specific phobic disorders
2. Social phobic disorders
3. Panic disorders with agoraphobia
4. Panic disorders without agoraphobia
5. Generalized anxiety disorder
6. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
7. Post-tramatic Stres Disorder (PTSD) - Phobia
- Persistent and disproportionate fear of some specific object or situation that presents little or no actual danger.
- Specific Phobias
- Persistent or disproportionate fears of various objects, places, or situations, such as fears of situations (airplanes or elevators), other species (snakes, spiders), or aspects of the environment (high placees, water)
- Social Phobias
-
-Fear of 1 or more situations in which a person might be exposed to the scrutiny of others and fear of acting in a humiliating or embarrassing way.
- If fears include most social situations than Generalized - Blood-injection-injury Phobia
- Persis and disproportionate fear of the sight of blood or injury, or the possibility of having an injection. Afflicted persons are likely to experience a drop in blood pressure and faint.
- Panic Disorder
-
Panic disorders with agoraphobia
-A. Both 1 and 2:
1. recurrent unexpected
Panic attacks
2. at least 1 attacks
has been followed by 1
month of 1 or more
symptoms
-C. Presence of Agoraphobia
Panic disorders without agoraphobia
-A. Both 1 and 2:
1. recurrent unexpected
Panic attacks
2. at least 1 attacks
has been followed by 1
month of 1 or more
symptoms
-C. Absence of Agoraphobia
Occurrence of repeated unexpected panic attacks, often accompanied by intense anxiety about having anther one. - Agoraphobia
- Fear of being in places or situations from which escape would be physically difficult or psychologically embarrassing, or in which immediate help would be unavailable in the event that some mishap occurred.
- Panic Provocation Agents
- Biological challenge procedures put stress on certain neurobiological systems, which in turn produce intense physical symptoms (increased heart rate), often culminating in a panic attack for clients with panic disorder.
- Amygdala
- A collection of nuclie in front of the hippocampus in the limbic system of the brain that is critically involved in the emotion of fear.
- Anxiety Sensitivity
- A high level of belief that certain bodily symptoms may have harmful consequences
- Interoceptive Fears
- Fears of bodily sensations
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
-
A. Syptoms occur more days than not for at least 6 months
B. Person finds it difficult to control worries
C. Anxiety and worry symptoms are 3 or more. (children 1 item)
1.restlessness
2.easily fatigued
3.mind going blank
ect.
Characterized by chronic excessive worry about a number of events or activities that cause impairment in social and work functioning. - Obessions
- Persisten and recurrent intrusive thoughts, images, or impulses that a person experiences as disturbing and inappropriate but has difficulty suppressing
- Compulsions
- Overt repetitive behaviors (such as hand washing) or more covert mental acts (such as counting) that a person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession.
- Ruminations
- Forced preoccupation with thoughts about a particular topic, associated with brooding, doubting, and inconclusive speculation.
- Cognitive Rituals
- Elaborate series of mental acts the client feels compelled to complete. Termination depends on proper performance.
- Compulsive Motor Rituals
- Elaborate, often time-consuming activities frequently associated with everyday functions such as eating, toileting, grooming, dressing, and sexual activity.
- Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Anxiety disorder characterized by the persistent intrusion of unwanted and intrusive thoughts or distressing images; these are usually accompanied by compulsive behaviors designed to neutralize the obsessive thoughts or images or to prevent some dreaded event or situation.
- Mood Disorders
- Disturbances of mood that are intense and persistent enough to be clearly maladaptive
- Depression
- Emotional state characterized by extraordinary sadness ad dejection.
- Mania
- Emotional state characterized by intense and unrealistic feelings of excitement and euphoria
- Unipolar Disorders
- Mood disorders in which a person experiences only depressive episodes, as opposed to Bipolar disorders where a person is experiencing both manic and depressive episodes.
- Bipolar Disorders
- Mood disorders in which a person experiences both manic and depressive episodes.
- Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood
- Moderately severe mood disorder that is similar to dysthymic disorder but has an identifiable, though not severe, psychosocial stressor occurring within 3 months before the onset of depression, and does not exceed 6 months in duration.
- Compulsive Avoidances
- Substitute actions performed instead of appropriated behavior that induces anxiety.
- Dysthymia
-
A person must have a persistently depressed mood most of the day, for more days than not, for at least 2 two years (1 yr for children and adolescents) and are not psychotic. Also must have at least two of the six symptoms when depressed:
1. Poor appetite or overeating
2. Sleep Disturbance
3. Low energy level
4. Low self-esteem
5. Difficulties in concentration or decision making
6. Feelings of hopelessness - Major Depressive Episode
-
A. 5 or more symptoms have been present during the same 2 week period. 1 of symptoms is either markedly depressed mood or marked loss of interest in pleasurable activities.
1. Fatigue or loss of energy
2. Insomnia or hypersomnia
3. Decreased appetite and significant weight loss without dieting (or the opposite, although rare)
4. Psychomotor agitation or retardation
5. Diminished ability to think or concentrate
6. Self-denuncation to the point of claiming worthlessnes or guilt out of proportion to any past indiscretions
7. Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide - Specifiers
- Different patterns of symptoms or features
- Major Depressive Episode with Melancholic Features
-
Must meet criteria for major depressive dissorder that involves loss of pleasure and lack of reactivity to usually pleasurable stimuli, as well as experience at least 3 symptoms below:
1. Early morning awakenings
2. Depression being worse in the morning
3. Marked psychomotor retardation or agitation
4. Significant loss of appetite and weight
5. Inappropriate or excessive guilt
6. Depressed mood that is qualitatively different from the sadness experienced following a loss or a nonmelancholic depression - Severe Major Depressive Episode with Psychotic Features
- Psychotic symptoms, characterized by loss of contact with reality and including delusions (false beliefs) or hallucinations (false sensory perceptions)that accompany the other symptoms of major depression.
- Mood-congruent
- Delusions or halluncinations that are consistent with a person's mood.
- Recurrence
- A new occurrence of a disorder after a remission period of at least 2 months
- Relapse
- Return of the symptoms of a disorder after a fairly short period of time
- Seasonal Affective Disorder
- Mood disorder involving at least 2 episodes of depression in the past two years occurring at the same time of year (fall or winter) with remission also occurring at the same time of year (spring.)
- Depressogenic Schemas/Dysfuncitonal Beliefs
- Dysfuctional beliefs that are rigid, extreme, and counterproductive and that are thought to leave one susceptible to depression when experiencing stress
- Negative Automatic Thoughts
- Thoughts that are just below the surface of awareness and that involve unpleasant pessimistic predictions.
- Negative Cognitive Triad
- Negative thoughts about the self, the world, and the future
- Learned Helplessness Theory of Depression
- Cognitive theory of depression that suggests that an organism that learns it has no control over aversive events will show motivational, cognitive, and emotional deficits similar to those shown by depressed persons.
- Pessimistic Attributional Style
- Cognitive style involving a tendency to make internal, stable, and global attributions for negative life events.
- Manic Episode
-
A. At least 1 week of markedly elevated,euphoric, and expansive mood, often interrupted by occasional outbursts or intense irritability or even violence.
B. 3 or more symptoms have persisted and been significantly present - Hypomanic Episode
- A person experiences abnormally elevated, expansive, or irritable mood for at least 4 days. Also, person must have at least three other symptoms similar to those involved in mania but to a lesser degree. Much less social and occupational impairment than manic.
- Attributions
-
Assigning causes to things. The kinds of causes we assign to uncontrolable events are central to whether they become depressed. Three dimenesions:
1. Internal/external
2. Global/specific
3. Stable/unstable - Cyclothymia
-
A. 2 years or more numerous periods of hypomanic and depressive symptoms (that don't meet Major Depressive Episode.
B. Person has not been without the symptoms above for more than two months at a time
C. In the first 2 years, no major depressive, manic or mixed episode has been present - Mixed Episode
- Characterized by symptoms of both full-blown manic and major depressive episodes for at least 1 week, whether the symptoms are intermixed or alternate rapidly every few days
- Bipolar Disorder with a Seasonal Pattern
- Bipolar disorder with recurrences in particular seasons of the year
- Bipolar II Disorder
- the person does not experience full-blown manic episodes but has experienced clear-cut hypomanic episodes (clyclothmia), as well as major depressive episodes.
- Rapid Cycling
- A pattern of bipolar disorder involving at least four manic or dpresseve episodes per year.
- Schizoaffective Disorder
- At least 1 Major Depressive Episode, Manic Episode, or a Mixed Episode concurrent with symptoms that meet Criterion A for Schizophrenia
- Mood-incongruent Delusions
- Delusional thinking that is inconsistent with a person's predominant mood.
- Suicide
- Taking one's own life
- Drugs Used to Treat Depression
-
-Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI's)-
Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil
-not addictive
-Not chemically related to
older tricyclics and
monoamine oxidase
inhibitors.
-SSRI's inhibit the
reuptake of the
neurotransmitter serotonin
following its release into
the synapse.
-Most antidepressants work
by increasing the availbility of serotonin, or norepinephrine, or of both.
-Tricyclics-Commonly used - Drugs Used to Treat Anxiety
-
-Benzodiazepine:
(Xanax)- Used in treating panic disorder and agoraphobia. Acts quickly but are addictive. - Halstead-Reitan Battery
- A neuropsych exam composed of tests which measure the extent of impairment- Takes 6 hours to administer.
- Classification of Childhood and Adolescent Disorders
-
1. Historically, childhood disorders have not been clearly described
2. Inadequacies stemmed from using adult models of pathology
3. Has been a gradual evolution of DSM until present version, greatly expanded
4. The developmental level of a child was ignored (seen as little adults).
5. The most common diagnosis are attention deficit and separation anxiety
6. There is no sharp demarcation from childhood to adulthood, certain Diagnoses develop over time, beginning early on.
7. Influence of environment is critical for children (more vulnerable to social environment and family)
-More depedent on otherss
-Have fewer coping skills
-More unrealistic, less
ability to make sense of
problem
-More short lived, less
specific than in
adulthood. - Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
-
-6 symptoms, for 6 months of either Inattention OR Hyperactivity-impulsivity that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level:
1. Inattention- Difficulty
sustaining attention,
over-activity.
2. Hyperactivity- Figity,
can't remain seated/will
leave room when supposed
to, talks excessively
Impulsivity- Blurts out
answers before question,
difficulty waiting turn
-Aggression often confused with ADHD - Causal Factors of ADHD
-
-Dietary factors have proposed
-No clearly established psychological factors have been identified - Treatment and Outcomes of ADHD
-
-Ritalin-Cerebral stimulants are widely used
-Behavior techniques using programmed learning
-Some adults can currently have symptoms- Specify "In Partial Remission"
-ADHD children are referred to mental health providers.
-Is comorbid with other disorders (such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ODD) - Conduct Disorder
-
-3 or more criteria, 12months
-9 years old when onset
A. A repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules violated.
1.Aggression to people and animals
2. Destruction of property
3. Deceitfulness or theft
4. Serious violations of rules
B. The disturbance in behavior causes clinically significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning
C. If the individual is age 18 years or older, criteria are not met for Antisocial Personality Disorder.
**
-Not all children with ODD develop Conduct Disorders
-The pervasiveness of ODD and conduct disorders that develop into antisocial PD's or psychopathy. - Oppositional Defiant Disorder
-
-4 symptoms, 6 months
A. A pattern of negativistic, hostile, and defiant behavior:
1. Often loses temper
2. Often argues with adults
3. Actively defies or refuses to comply with adults.
4. Often deliberately annoys people
5. Often blames others for his or hers mistakes or misbehavior
6. Is often easily annoyed by others
7. Often angry and resentful
8. often spiteful and vindictive.
B. The disturbance in behavior causes clinically significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning
C. the behaviors do not occur exclusively during the course of a Psychotic or Mood Disorder
D. Criteria are not met for Conduct Disorder and individual is 18 years or older and does not meet Antisocial Personality Disorder criteria. - Casual Factors in Operational Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder
-
- A self-perpetuating cycle linked to ineffective parenting, rejection, inconsistent discipline, neglect
-Low SES, poor neighborhoods, parental stress, and depression
-Linked to later Antisocial Personality Disorder diagnosis; early onset important for later psychopathy -
Treatment and Outcomes for Operational Defiant Disorder
and Conduct Disorder -
-Treatment is often ineffective, though family group oriented approach and bhavioral techniques can be effective
- Teaching control techniques to parents
- Difficulty carrying out treatment program - Separation Anxiety Disorder
-
-Characterized by excessive fears
-Clear stressors are usually identified - Selective Mutism
-
-Persistent failure to speak
-Can speak and understands language - Causal Factors in Anxiety Disorders of Childhood and Adolescence
-
-Unusual constitutional sensitivity may be present
-Feelings of inadequacy may be due to trauma or illness
-Modeling of anxious parents
-Social-enviornmental factors - Treatment and Outcome of Anxiety Disorder of Childhood and Adolescence
-
- Instruction for parents is often needed
- Diagnostic uncertainties make treatment difficult
- Cognitive behavioral treatments gaining in popularity
- Play Therapy - Childhood Depression
-
-Symptoms: withdrawal, crying, and physical complaints, more irritation than in adult depression
-Adult criteria for depression is used in diagnosis. - Causal Factors in Childhood Depression
-
-Biological- Genetic Component, depressed parents
-Learning- Parent-child interaction in transmission of depressed affect - Treatment and Outcomes for Childhood Depression
-
- Controversy regarding medication for children
-Undesirable side effects -
-Enuresis
-Encopresis
-Sleepwalking
-Tics -
-Lack of bladder
control; male prevalence
-Lack of bowel
control; male prevalence
-Risks for injuries; related
to anxiety
-Large range of behaviors;
behavioral interventions - Autism
-
A. six or more items from (1,2, and 3) with at least two from (1) and one from each (2 and 3):
1. Social Deficit, Child
seems aloof or apart from
others
2. Absence of speech
3. Importance of
maintaining sameness - Causal Factors in Autism
-
- Cause is unknown, but, conclusions fro family and twin studies is that 80-90% of the variance in risk for autism is based on genetic factors
-Most heritable psychopathy discussed in text. - Treatments and Outcomes for Autism
-
-Behavioral treatments are recommended; long-term effectiveness of treatment is poor
-No current medication - Learning Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence
-
A disparity between expected and actual academic performance.
1. Diagnosis of learning disorder is given in those cases in which there is clear impairment in school performance or (if the person is not a student) In daily living, and impairment is not due to mental retardation
-Blaming the victim often takes place, child's self-esteem can suffer - Treatment and Outcomes of Learning Disorders
- -Long term follow-up suggests that problems continue into college.
- Mental Retardation in Childhood and Adolescence
-
A significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning...that is accompanied by significant limitations in adaptive functioning
-Problems must begin before 18 yrs old
-Coded on Axis II of DSM (with personality disorders)
-Occurs in children throughout the world
-Largest number of mentally retarded are the mild mental retardion level, IQ 50-70 - Down Syndrome in Childhood and Adolescence
-
-Best known of the clinical conditions associated with moderate and severe mental retardation
-Caused by an additional chromosome
-Amniocentrises has reduced the frequency
-Physical Features usually present
-Greatest intellectual deficits are in verbal and language skills
-Age of parent is an apparent risk factor - Factors in Treating Children and Adolescence
-
-Child's inability to seek assistance
-Vulnerability that place children at risk for developing emotional problems: Violence and sexual abuse, parent history of substance abuse, homelessness
-Need for treating parents as well as children
-Problems of placing a child outside the family (foster homes, private institutions for the care of child (group homes), County or state institutions; homes of relatives
-Early intervention is crucial because it has the double goal of reducing stressors in a child's life and strengthening the child's coping mechanisms. - Juvenile Delinquency and Causal Factors
-
- A legal term, refers to illegal actors committed by individuals between the ages of 8 and 18
- Not recognized by the DSM as a disorder
- Causal Factors- Personal pathology, pathogenic family patterns, and undesirable peer relationships.