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Causal Factors and Viewpoints - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Reinforcing contributory cause: A condition that tends to maintain maladaptive behaviour that is already occurring
  - - - Distal risk factors: Risk factors occurring early in life that do not show their effects for many years that may contribute to a predisposition to develop a disorder
      - Proximal risk factors: Factors that operate shortly before the occurrence of the symptoms of a disorder
        
        Some proximal risk factors may also double up as distal risk factors for another condition
  - - - Diathesis-stress models: Combination of diathesis and stress to cause a disorder
        
        Additive model: Diathesis and stress add up
        
        Interactive model: Some amount of diathesis must be present before stress will have any effect
    - - Can lead to resilience: The ability to adapt successfully to even very difficult circumstances
- - - - Genetic Vulnerabilities
        
        Abnormalities in the structure or number of chromosomes can be associated with major defects or disorders
        
        Polymorphisms: Naturally occurring variations of genes. Genetically vulnerable people have a large number of polymorphisms of genes that operate together in an additive or interactive fashion to increase vulnerability.
        
        Genotype-Environment Interactions: Genetic factors that contribute to diathesis to develop psychopathology that only happens if there is a significant stressor
        
        Genotype: A person's total genetic endowment
        
        Genotype-Environment Correlation: Genotype shapes the environmental experiences, thus affecting the phenotype in important ways
        
        Passive Effect: Genetic similarity of parents and children (e.g. highly intelligent parents providing a highly stimulating environment for children)
        
        Evocative Effect: Genotype may evoke particular kinds of reactions from social and physical environment (e.g. happy babies draw out more positive responses from others)
        
        Active effect: The child seeks out or builds and environment that is congenial (niche-building) (e.g. extraverted children seek out company)
        
        Study methods
        
        Family history method: Observe samples of relatives of each case to see whether the incidence increases in proportion to the degree of hereditary relationships. Limitation: People that are more closely related also tend to share similar environments --> hard to tease out nature vs nurture
        
        Twin method: Identical twins and concordance rates (percentage of twins sharing the disorder) that differ from dizygotic twins. Studying identical twins that have been reared apart.
        
        Separating genetic and environmental factors
        
        Shared environmental influences (children in a family more similar) vs non-shared environmental influences (children in a family more different)
        
        Adoption method: Capitalise on how adoption creates situation in which individuals who do not share a common family environment are still genetically related. Compare rates of disorder between biological parents of children with and without disorders, or compare rates of disorder between children with biological parents with and without disorders
        
        Linkage analysis: Using known locations on chromosomes of genes for other inherited physical characteristics or biological processes to infer the location of genes for disorders. Limitation: Disorders are influenced by many different genes spread over multiple chromosomes
        
        Association studies: Have two groups of people, one with and one without disorder. Then compare frequencies of certain genetic markers with known locations on chromosomes to infer location
      - Brain Dysfunction and Neural Plasticity
        
        Neural plasticity: Flexibility of the brain in making changes in organisation and function in response to various factors (e.g. diet, etc.)
      - Neuro-transmitter and hormonal abnormalities
        
        Neurotransmitter imbalances caused by psychological stress
        
        Monoamines: Single amino acid
        
        Serotonin: Thinking and processing information from environment, behaviours and moods.
        
        Norepinephrine: Emergency reactions, attention, orientation, basic motives
        
        Dopamine: Pleasure and cognitive processing
        
        Glutamate, gamma aminobutyric acid
        
        Medications
        
        Agonists: Facilitate the effects of neurotransmitter on the post-synaptic neuron
        
        Antagonists: Inhibit or oppose the effects of a neurotransmitter on a post-synaptic neuron
        
        Hormonal imbalances
        
        Hormones: Chemical messengers secreted by a set of endocrine glands
        
        Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
        
        Malfunctioning of this system has been implicated in various forms of psychopathology
      - Temperament: Child's reactivity and characteristic ways of self-regulation. Early temperament forms the basis from which personality develops
        
        Five Dimensions of Temperament: Fearfulness; Irritability and frustration; Positive affect; Activity level; Attentional persistence and effortful control
        
        Fearfulness and Irritability = Neuroticism (disposition to experience negative affect)
        
        Positive affect and Activity level = Extraversion
        
        Attentional persistence and effortful control = Constraint or Control
        
        Inhibition: Fearful; risk factor for development of anxiety disorders
      - Impact: Importance of biochemical factors and innate characteristics in behaviour; effects of psychological events are always mediated through CNS; require multiple perspectives to fully understand psychopathology
    - - Psychodynamic: The unconscious
        
        Behaviour results from the interaction of three components of personality
        
        Id: Pleasure principle, primary process thinking
        
        Ego: Reality principle, mediates the demands of the id and the real world, secondary process thinking
        
        All three subsystems are striving for different goals --> mental conflicts. If unresolved, intrapsychic conflicts lead to mental disorder
        
        Anxiety develops when there is conflict between the id and the superego, or when ego-defense mechanisms (irrational protective measures) come up
        
        Superego: Executive branch, consciences, morality
      - Behavioural Perspective: Study of directly observable behaviour. Behaviour is learned
        
        Classical conditioning: Many physiological and emotional responses can be conditioned
        
        Generalisation and discrimination
        
        Generalisation: A response is conditioned to one stimulus and can be evoked by other similar stimuli. Can lead to maladaptive behaviour.
        
        Discrimination: Learning to distinguish between similar stimuli and to respond to them based on which ones are followed by reinforcement
        
        Operant conditioning
        
        Observational learning: Learning through observation alone, without directly experiencing an unconditioned stimulus or reinforcer
        
        Impacts: Maladaptive behaviour results from the failure to learn necessary adaptive behaviours or competencies and/or the learning of ineffective of maladaptive responses
      - The Cognitive-Behavioural Perspective: How thoughts and information processing can become distorted and lead to maladaptive emotions and behaviour
        
        Schemas: Underlying representations of knowledge that guides current processing of information. Can be sources of psychological vulnerabilities because some of our schemas or self-schemas can be distorted or inaccurate, leading to distortions in thinking
        
        Assimilation: Working new experiences into existing schemas
        
        Accommodation: Changing existing frameworks to incorporate new information (goal of psychological therapies)
        
        Nonconscious mental activity: Mental processes occurring without our awareness
        
        Attributions: Assigning causes to thing that happen
        
        Attribution style: Characteristic way in which individual tends to assign causes to bad or good events
        
        Cognitive Therapy: The way we interpret events and experiences determines our emotional reactions to them. Using techniques to alter a client's negative cognitive bias
    - - Early Deprivation or Trauma
        
        Deprivation of essential resources
        
        Institutionalisation: Significantly less warmth and physical contact, less intellectual, emotional, and social stimulation, lack of encouragement and help in positive learning
        
        Neglect and abuse at home: Negative effects on development. Abused children have the tendency to develop abusive characteristics themselves
        
        Disorganised attachment style
        
        Separation from parents: Increased vulnerability to stressors in adulthood
      - Problems in parenting style
        
        Parent-child relationship is always bidirectional: The behaviour or each person affects the behaviour of the other.
        
        Parental psychopathology: Parents with various forms of psychopathology have children who are at a higher risk of developing psychopathological problems as well
        
        Parenting styles
        
        Authoritarian: Lower in social and academic competence, conflicted, irritable, moody
        
        Permissive: Impulsive and aggressive, inconsiderate
        
        Neglectful: Low self-esteem, conduct problems, low social competence
        
        Marital discord and divorce
        
        Marital discord
        
        Severe cases of marital discord already exposes children to other stressors
        
        Children with parents with high levels of overt conflict have greater disposition to behave aggressively toward both peers and parents, have conflict in own romantic relationships
        
        Divorce
        
        For parents: Could be beneficial
        
        For children: Delinquency, anxiety, depression, may experience divorce themselves, but can be favourable (most children adapt well)
      - Low socio-economic status and unemployment: More stressors
      - Maladaptive peer relationships
        
        Bullying
        
        Bullies are both highly proactively aggressive (initiating aggressive behaviour) and reactively aggressive (respond aggressively)
        
        Cyberbullying: Depression, anxiety
        
        Popularity vs Rejection
        
        Too aggressive or too withdrawn
      - Prejudice and Discrimination in Race, Gender, and Ethnicity
        
        Access discrimination: Members of a certain group are not hired
        
        Treatment discrimination: Certain people are given a job, but are paid less and receive fewer opportunities for promotion
      - Impacts: How environmental factors can influence the occurrence of mental disorders; programmes to improve social conditions; community facilities for the early detection, treatment, and long-range prevention