Abnormal Psychology

[luv]

Hi everyone, time for the give-back session. Here’s to Abnormal Psychology. There are some great posts already here & you might want to check them out too. I’ve read where others were able to go in after four hours or two days of studying the IC, cards old versions of Abnormal psych, or sparknotes and they have been able to pass with flying colors. My hat’s off to them. That is freakin’ awesome. I’ll be real, it took me four weeks of study to pass this thing. I will say that I got 77 which is an A a& I was able to complete the 160 questions in one hour and ten minutes, but it was no easy trick.

Okay, let’s get down to cases. I encourage you to find an abnormal psych book and read through it. I used the module from the college network. Then I went over the IC notes twice % I used the powerpoint from the following website Davison-Neale / Abnormal Psychology, 8e and answered the questions from this website Davison, Neale, Kring: Abnormal Psychology, 9th Edition - Student Companion Site.

You might want to take the practice exam for EC as other’s have said many of the questions are either similar or the same. There is a $ 60 fee.


YOU NEED TO KNOW & UNDERSTAND THE FOLLOWING:
The definition of abnormality, distress% maladaptivity. What are the social/cultural norms, what is statically considered normal & what it measures.

Humane tx to the mentally began w/ Pinel in Europe in the 1700. Dorthea Dix and Rush followed Pinel’s lead some years later in the states.
Know about informed consents, that insanity is a legal term & know about Mc’ Naughten, whether someone is fit to stand trial.
Know the different tx settings, residential tx centers, halfway house, hospitals and day tx centers and what each is used for. Know what happened when they started turning people out of the hospitals& closing them down. Hint, people with psychological disorders began to show up in prisons and hospitals more.

Understand research approaches, EXPERIMENTS, CASE STUDIES, CORRELATION STUDIES. Know that experimental research focuses on causes, requires random assignment or matching & has an independent and dependant variable. Know that the control group doesn’t receive the tx, but is given either nothing or a placebo, know what the placebo effect is. Know that the independent variable can be manipulated & usually is, while the dependant variable is what is measured.

CASE STUDIES gather info, provides researchers w/hypothesis or are used to dispel a well known theory.

CORRELATION STUDIES show how two phenomena or situations correspond to each other.

Know about EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESEARCH & what prevalence and incidence mean.

Understand the uses of cross validation, meta-analysis and single-subject design experiments.

Understand reliability & validity, know interrater reliability, content and construct validity. A test can be reliable w/out being valid, but validity requires reliability to be valid.

ASSESSMENT TESTS, understand structured interviews, standardized interviews, objective tests MMPI-2 (personality assessment inventory), projective testing (Rorschach inkblot, thematic apperception test), behavioral cognitive assessment andIQ testing (which can also measure the degree of retardation), biological assess( EEGs, MRIs, CAT ECG etc).

Freud’s id (pleasure principle), ego (reality) and superego (morality conscience).

Know Kraeplin, Bleuer (used hypnosis), Beck’s depression inventory comes from cognitive paradigm, Seligman’s learned helplessness, Ellis’ rational-emotive therapy (eliminates self defeating thoughts),

Have knowledge of eaparadigm, treatment model, modes and disadvantages:

BIOLOGICAL (biomedical model, ie how the brain works, neurotransmitter, heredity, illness, injury etc.

PSYCHODYNAMIC MODEL Freudian grounded (usually involves, repression, unconscious conflicts between the id, ego and superego). Know the definitions of sublimation, repression, projection, displacement and denial.

BEHAVIORAL PARADIGM (learning model), usually involves classical or operant conditioning, or modeling. Know avoidance learning.

COGNITIVE MODEL PARADIGM the person’s thoughts, perceptions or beliefs.

HUMANISTIC MODEL PARADIGM advance by Rogers, emotional growth, self actualization, values and choices.

EXISTENTIAL MODEL, unresolved conflict & ability to accept certain aspects of reality.

SOCIAL AND SOCIOCULTURAL MODELS interpersonal systems model
BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL focuses on each subset of function ie biological, psychological, social.

KNOW ABOUT GESTALT THERAPY, PSYCHOANALYSIS, HUMANISTIC/ EXISTENTIAL THERAPY, BEHAVIORAL-COGNITIVE THERAPY, CLIENT-CENTERED THERAPY.

DIATHESIS-STRESS MODEL causes of abnormality and assumes a combination of factors ie, physical, environmental, intellectual ability, social conditions etc. In other words the predisposition or tendency to a condition is known as diathesis and the stressors also help dictate whether the person develops the disease or not depends on the environment & experiences.

Know about the DSM-IV. Know the five axis.
AXIS I (clinical syndromes ie, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, sleep, somatoform, substance abuse, sexual and childhood disorder, schizophrenia etc). AXIS II (personality disorders, mental retardation and speech disorders). AXIS III Physical or medical problems that may contribute to Axis I and II). AXIS IV (environmental or psychosocial stressors that may contribute to Axis I and II). AXIS V is the global assessment functioning, on a scale from 0 to 100 w/ the higher functioning = higher score.
I won’t go into each, but have a working knowledge of each type of disorder, PSYCHOTIC (schizophrenia, schizophreniform, schizoaffective), MOOD DISORDERS (depression, bipolar I and II), ANXIETY (panic, phobias, OCD, post traumatic stress and general anxiety disorder), SOMATOFORM (conversion, somatization factitious, hypochondrias, malingering, pain disorders & body dysmorphic), DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS (amnesia, fugue, identity disorder, organic memory loss & depersonalization), SLEEPING DISORDERS, EATING DISORDERS, SUBSTANCE USE (substance dependence requires the person to be both tolerance and withdrawal when drug is taken away, know what opiates, stimulants and sedatives do), COGNITIVE (alheimer’s, delirium, dementia and korsakoff’s syndromes), LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENTAL (childhood disorders, adhd, asperger’s, conduct disorders), PERSONALITY DISORDERS (CLUSTER A bizarre eccentric: paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, CLUSTER B dramatic emotional erratic: antisocial, borderline, histrionic and narcissistic, CLUSTER C anxiety/ fearful: avoidant, dependent obsessive-compulsive note different from OCD).

FOR EACH DISORDER know: The definition, how it develops, brain anatomy dysfunction, if any, such as, neurotransmitter involvement or brain structural abnormality, environmental stressors, prevalence, comorbidity, treatment both clinical and medical, such as medication how they work to help and side effects. You should also know each subtype of the disorder & symptoms. Also know which Axis it belongs to and which disorders it may have comorbidity with.

FOR EXAMPLE: Schizophrenia is with Axis I of DMS-IV it involves loss of contact w/reality, it is a psychotic disorder including disturbed thought, emotion and behavior. THERE TWO SETS OF SYMPTOMS: POSITIVE OR TYPE I SCHIZOPHRENIA which includes hallucinations (perceiving things that are not real usually auditory), delusions (beliefs that are not real), emotional upheaval, bizarre behavior. NEGATIVE OR TYPE II include deficits in appropriate responses to differing situations, speech inadequacies flat or abnormal affect, reduced social interaction, ANHEDONIA (inability to experience pleasure), ALOGIA (reduction in the amount or content of speech), AVOLITION (lack of energy).

There are several subtypes of Schizophrenia, PARANOID( presense of delusions including persecution and grandiosity), DISORGANIZED (disorganized speech & flat affect), CATATONIC (prolonged motor immobility states that alternate w/ periods of excitability), and UNDIFFERENCIATED. The prevalence of schizophrenia is 1% in the US. There is a both a genetic and environmental predisposing for it.

BIOLOGICALLY there are increased levels of dopamine & enlarged folds on the brain surface. Low activity in the frontal lobe may produce negative symptoms while dysfunction of the temporal lobes and limbic system seems to produce positive symptoms.

PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS that increase incidence may be communication deviance, double-bind communication, expressed emotion, stressful events, low socioeconomic situations and technosocieties.

BIOLOGICAL TX: antipsychotic (neurolyptic) meds i.e. thorazine are highly effective in reduction or elimination of positive symptoms but have side affects ie tardive dyskinesia, wt gain, tremor, sedation, blurred vision and atypical antipsychotic meds i.e. risperdal. ECT, lobectomy (not in use anymore or only in extreme cases). Antischizo drugs block dopamine receptors. Using street drugs like an amphetamine can induce psychosis as it causes release of dopamine.

PSYCHOSOCIAL TX: rehab, psychotherapy, reality-oriented therapy, family therapy, group therapy, hospitalization, milieu therapy.

So remember you should to be able to break down each disorder and subset of that disorder the same way I just did schizophrenia. I made a chart for myself. Some things sound the same, but are very different ie OCD under anxiety involves obsessions & compulsion and both interfere with the patient’s normal functioning, while obsessive-compulsion under personality disorder is more a nit picky person who likes everything just so and doesn’t see a problem with it.

Okay, there’s more of course, but...

[Basket Weaver]

Incredible feedback and score, you really covered all the bases didn't you? Makes me almost feel guilty for passing it with just 7 days study solely using IC. This is sure to help others out on this exam.

[ShotoJuku]

[SIZE="3"]Congrats to you and thanks on behalf of many IC members who will be able to use your spot on feedback![/SIZE]

[Librevore]

[SIZE="2"]Congratulations![/SIZE]

[sgloer]

Amazing--thanks for the huge feedback!