Psychopathology Models - Eppp Knowledge

  1. What does the ecological systems model (Bronfenbrenner) emphasize in psychopathology risk?
    Multi-level contexts (micro to macro) interact across development. Bronfenbrenner's theory examines how nested environmental systems dynamically affect psychological development and vulnerability.
  2. What is the key idea of the developmental psychopathology perspective?
    Psychopathology reflects atypical development, with continuity and change over time. It views disorders as deviations in normal developmental trajectories, emphasizing longitudinal processes and resilience factors.
  3. What does the sociocultural model emphasize when explaining psychopathology?
    Culture, social roles, discrimination, and context shape distress and symptoms. This framework accounts for how societal structures and cultural values influence the expression and interpretation of mental distress.
  4. Identify the model: symptoms persist because avoidance is negatively reinforced by anxiety reduction.
    Behavioral (learning/conditioning) model. This exemplifies operant conditioning where escape from aversive stimuli reinforces maladaptive behaviors like phobic avoidance.
  5. Identify the model: a child's problems are best understood as serving a family homeostatic role.
    Family systems model. Systemic theory views individual symptoms as functional within the family unit, maintaining equilibrium through roles and rules.
  6. Which model most directly explains group differences in diagnosis via stigma, power, and norms?
    Sociocultural model. It addresses how cultural and societal factors contribute to disparities in mental health outcomes across populations.
  7. What is the primary causal emphasis of the biomedical model of psychopathology?
    Mental disorders are primarily due to biological pathology (genes, brain, physiology). This approach reduces mental illness to physical causes, emphasizing medical interventions like medication over psychosocial factors.
  8. What does the evolutionary model propose about some psychological symptoms?
    Some symptoms reflect maladaptive extremes of once-adaptive mechanisms. It suggests that certain disorders represent exaggerated or contextually inappropriate versions of evolved survival strategies.
  9. What does the humanistic model emphasize as a cause of psychopathology?
    Incongruence and blocked self-actualization due to conditional acceptance. Drawing from Rogers' theory, it attributes pathology to discrepancies between one's true self and externally imposed conditions of worth.
  10. Identify the model: symptoms are maintained by automatic thoughts and cognitive distortions.
    Cognitive model. Beck's theory posits that biased interpretations and schemas generate and perpetuate negative emotional states and behaviors.
  11. Identify the model: mental disorder is explained by neurotransmitter dysregulation and genetics.
    Biomedical (biological) model. It attributes disorders to physiological imbalances, supporting treatments targeting brain chemistry and heredity.
  12. What does the family systems model view as the function of an identified patient's symptoms?
    Symptoms help maintain family homeostasis and systemic interaction patterns. It conceptualizes individual pathology as serving to stabilize dysfunctional family dynamics and boundaries.
  13. What is the central claim of the interpersonal model of psychopathology?
    Symptoms arise from maladaptive relational patterns and social interactions. This perspective sees mental issues as emerging from dysfunctional communication and relationships within social networks.
  14. What does the cognitive model propose as the key driver of psychopathology?
    Distorted beliefs and information-processing biases maintain symptoms. It highlights how irrational thinking patterns and perceptual errors perpetuate emotional and behavioral disturbances.
  15. Identify the model: vulnerability (e.g., genetic risk) leads to disorder only after major stress.
    Diathesis–stress model. This interactive model requires both predisposition and precipitating factors for onset, explaining variable expression of risks.
  16. What is the main concept of the cognitive-behavioral model (CBT) for psychopathology?
    Thoughts, behaviors, and learning processes reciprocally maintain symptoms. Integrating cognitive and behavioral elements, it describes a cycle where cognitions influence actions and vice versa in sustaining pathology.
  17. What does the behavioral model identify as the primary mechanism producing symptoms?
    Maladaptive learning via conditioning and reinforcement contingencies. Based on principles of operant and classical conditioning, it attributes disorders to learned responses that become dysfunctional.
  18. What is the main focus of the psychodynamic model in explaining psychopathology?
    Unconscious conflict and early relationships shape symptoms and defenses. Rooted in Freudian theory, it views symptoms as manifestations of unresolved internal struggles from childhood experiences.
  19. Identify the model: symptoms reflect unconscious conflict managed through defense mechanisms.
    Psychodynamic model. Freudian concepts explain symptoms as compromises between repressed impulses and ego defenses to manage anxiety.
  20. Which model best integrates genes, cognition, behavior, and social context into one framework?
    Biopsychosocial model. This comprehensive framework synthesizes diverse etiological factors, promoting multifaceted assessment and intervention.
  21. What does the neurodevelopmental model emphasize about the origins of some disorders?
    Early brain development deviations confer later risk for psychopathology. This approach focuses on prenatal and early neural anomalies that predispose individuals to conditions like autism or schizophrenia.
  22. Identify the model: distress is linked to incongruence between self-concept and experience.
    Humanistic (client-centered) model. Rogers' approach links psychological distress to a mismatch between one's perceived self and actual experiences, hindering growth.
  23. What is the core assumption of the diathesis–stress model of psychopathology?
    Disorder results from vulnerability interacting with environmental stressors. This model posits that inherent predispositions require triggering events to manifest as mental disorders, integrating nature and nurture.
  24. What does attachment theory emphasize as a pathway to later psychopathology?
    Insecure attachment yields maladaptive emotion regulation and relationships. Bowlby's framework links early caregiver bonds to lifelong patterns of emotional control and interpersonal functioning.
  25. What does the biopsychosocial model propose as the best explanation for psychopathology?
    Psychopathology reflects interacting biological, psychological, and social factors. It integrates multiple domains to provide a holistic view, avoiding reductionism by considering all influences on mental health.

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