Genetic Vulnerabilities to Mental Illness - Genotype and Phenotype

Genotype - refers to the unobservable genetic contitution of an individual. Fixed at birth, genotype is a person's genetic makeup and contitutes his/her inherited genes.

While the genetic makeup is fixed at birth, genotype is not a static entity. Genes responsible for the various aspects of development switch on and off at specific times. The genetic programming is very flexible.  This means that they respond significantly to all the things that happen around us.

Phenotype - refers to those characteristics like stress, anxiety, etc., that are observable.  Phenotype is the combination of genotype and environment

Twin studies have shown that mental disorders are disorders of the phenotype, not of the genotype.  

For instance, only the genotype for a disorder can be inherited; not the disorder itself. Whether or not these disorders manifest into behaviours depends on individual experiences and the environment. 

In other words, diathesis or the predisposition is inherited, not the disorder itself. 

Why is this information useful?

Let's say for instance that A's family has a history of depression.  Does it mean that A and his kids will become victims of depression at some point of time?

This is not fixed in stone - they do inherit the predisposition to become depressed.  They don't inherit depression.  Whether or not they eventually succumb to depression will depend on how they perceive the environment around them and how they react to life events - remember, the genetic programming is flexible not static.

Behavioural Approach to Psychopathology

Theorists: Ivan Pavlov. John B.Watson, Skinner
Concept: Behaviour both normal and abnormal is the product of environmental influences, classical conditioning, and operant conditioning.

Classical Conditioning: The discovery of the role of conditioned reflex in learning was quite accidental.

Pavlov, observed was working on a experiment to study the salivary response of dogs to food. For the experiment, he harnessed 2 dogs to an apparatus not noticed the way the salivation and secretion of the secretion of gastric juices started even before the dogs actually started to eat. He also observed that this anticipatory reaction was in response to sound of the food cart being wheeled in.

So, he conducted an experiment that  showed that the dogs could learn to salivate in response to an external stimuli (the ringing of a bell), if it is linked to feeding.

Since the sound of the bell does not normally trigger salivation, Pavlov attributed this response to acquired learning and called it conditioned response (CR)

So, the dogs produced a conditioned response when it was paired with an unconditional stimulus (CS) - in this case food.

The bell is a Neutral Stimuli

The dog salivates at the sight of a unconditioned Stimulus (CS) whether or not it is paired with CR.

The curious thing is CR eliciting the same response as CS.

So, how is this relevant to human behaviour?

It gives us an idea of how phobias are acquired - by associating a neutral stimuli like a elevator with a traumatic event and becoming terrified at the thought of riding an elevator.

From the perspective of learning, Classical conditioning,

1. when it leads to the acquisition of maladaptive and inappropriate behaviour  hinders normal functioning of the individual.
2. explains reflexive responses like salivating to stimuli associated with food and emotional response like fear when the stimuli is associated or paired with something that is painful or aversive. 

Operant Conditioning

But does classical conditioning explain complex behaviours like working and socialising?

According to Skinner, consequences to response, strengthen the response.

1. Reinforcement - Behaviour is strengthened when the individual finds the consequences to the behaviour rewarding
2. Punishment  - Behaviour is discouraged when the individual finds the consequences to the behaviour aversive.

There are 2 aspects to both reinforcement and punishment - positive (introduce of give something) and negative (take something away)

1. Positive reinforcement - Something pleasant is introduced - class is asked to clap for the child for scoring dull marks
2. Negative reinforcement - something aversive is removed (excused from doing dishes for 2 days)
3. Positive Punishment -  Something aversive is introduced - Salesman is reprimanded in public slip shod work - give the person something he dislikes - in this case a public reprimand
4. Negative Punishment- Something pleasant is taken away - Salesman is asked to work during the weekend to make up for bad performance (his weekend is taken away) - take away something the person likes

According to Skinner, this is how behaviour is learned or unlearned.

Bias in Psychology

Cognitive Bias - this is when a person does not believe that an outcome is likely to happen; because it has already happened several times in the past.
This is a fallacy because  a random event may have occurred several times in the past. But this does not negate its chances of occurring in the future.

Example. Just because a gambler has won a game of cards 3 times in a row does not mean he will win the 4th time. His chances are still 50 - 50. Cognitive bias is also called Gamblers' Fallacy.

Hindsight Bias - After the occurrence of an event, we tell ourselves and possibly others that we could have predicted the event. We probably may not have been able to predict it.

Example. The breakup of a relationship - we think that there were ample indications since the very beginning pointing towards the break-up.

Researcher Bias: This happens when a researcher's opinion leans towards a particular outcome and this subjectively affects the results of an experiment.  This may or may not be a conscious process.

Example. A research may firmly believe in that Homeopathy is placebo and may consciously or unconsciously convey his/her views to the participants.

Dealing with Unethical Attitude - Case Study 1

Case Study: Miss A is a writer and she has applied for a post through an online forum.  Mr. X interviews her and asks her to write a sample article to help him evaluate her writing skills. Miss. A does as she is asked. Mr. X offers her a job; but she feels that the pay is too low and turns it down.

A few days later, Miss. A finds the sample article she sent Mr. X published in an online forum under his own name.  Shocked, she confronts him. But Mr. X is unrepentant and justifies his action saying, "It's after all a simple blog post.  Moreover, I offered you the job and you turned it down."

Miss. A is furious.

With the intention of exposing Mr.X, Miss. A posts the incident in one of the online groups she belongs to.  She says that she never realized that her articles were so good until she caught people posting her articles without paying her and without her permission.

Advice starts pouring in.  People tell her, she should not let him get away with it.  She should narrate the incident in all the social media channels with links pointing to his profile.

Do you think their suggestions will really help?

How would you help her deal with the situation and prevent her from getting into similar situations in the future?

By exposing the guy on online forums they both belong to?

No. Because, he would simply find other forums and people to scavenge off. Besides, the point is to prevent Miss. A from getting into similar situations in the future. So, we are not going to resort to counter- productive, vengeful  measures that could become a vicious cycle of throwing insults at each other.

So, should she simply let it go?

No. She should confront him and let him know that what's he did is unethical and leave it at that. Our job is not to correct the unethical behaviour of X but to help prevent A from getting into such situations in the future.

One solution to this specific problem is, she could start a blog (if she does not already have one) and post her sample articles in the blog. And then point prospective employers to the specific article they are likely to be interested in. That way, any publishing they do will merely be republishing and would infringe on copyright laws.

Key point: We can do nothing about other people behaving badly.  What we can do is equip ourselves to defend ourselves against such behaviour.

Any other solutions?

Sample and Population

Population: let's say you want to see how many people in your city like potatoes.  In statistics,the collection of all the people about whom you are going to draw inferences is called population.  In this case, it is the total number of people in your city.

Sample: a sample can be defined as the subset of the representative population from which the data is collected.  In order to be effective and to be truly representative of the population, the sample has to be random. In this case, it will be a group of people randomly selected from the population.

Hypothesis

Let's say we are testing the effects of a drug on cancer patients.

Hypothesis - is an idea that is based on solid facts but is yet to be tested. Based on facts, the hypothesis predicts the outcome. But the outcome has not yet been tested.

Hypothesis Testing - is a step by step procedure that helps us decide whether or not the results of a research based on a sample supports a hypothesis when applied to a population. Lets say the drug is tested on 3 patients and it works in 2. What is the inference? Does this mean it would work on 2/3 of the population? A hypothesis testing will help you decide.

Null hypothesis - assumes that the hypothesis to be tested has no effect on the outcome of the research experiment - assumes that the drug has no effect on cancer patients.