(no subject)

[sebastienne]

personality & psychological disorders

it's going to be a bit harder to tell how i've done on this one, as i've had a lot less marking/feedback on my psychology modules, but here goes:

1. In his classic book, The Mask of Sanity, Cleckley (1976) refers to incomplete manifestations of psychopathy: the psychopath as "businessman, man of the world, gentleman, scientist, physician, psychiatrist". In the light of currest evidence about primary psychopathy, is this still a plausible viewpoint?
I had lots (and lots) to say on this, but how much of it was sound empirical evidence? I'm not so sure. Drew a graph - guess that's a good sign. Definitely came off sounding like I knew my stuff.. hope that's enough. 64

2. What is "Reward Deficiency Syndrome" and how might this help explain cases of compulsive overeating?
Pretty standard question - pretty standard answer. Again, shocked by how many things I "knew that" without knowing why.. so many statements with no empirical support! But talked about rats, and brains, and scientific-sounding things, including name-dropping a study carried out by my tutor, so I can't have done too badly. 62

4. Discuss the serotonin (5-HT) hypothesis of anorexia nervosa and explain how this meshes with personality and clinical features of the disorder.
I essentially made this up in the exam room, out of a vague memory of a lecture slide and a couple of conversations with stronglight. It's a wonderful theory, which explains the difference between binge/purge anorexia and bulimia, and fits with evolutionary accounts.. but I made it all up. In the exam room. Based on a vaguely-remembered lecture slide and a conversation. As such, I conclude that it will be either a fail or a first, and I have no real way of telling. 50/70

Overall, not bad, a little vague and under-evidenced, but stated with conviction. 59/65

Comments

[neoanjou.livejournal.com]

It amazes me that you're able to evaluate your performance so well - my typical response at the end of a paper was 'thanks god its over - I never have to look at this paper again', I suppose I would be able to determine a rough upper limit on my marks, but as to a lower limit I would have no idea, and then afterwards as marks are scaled by the average of other people and I have no idea how well they would have done...

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

I'm estimating based on past response, and perhaps even "guestimating" is overstating it a bit. Mostly, it's for myself to come back and remind myself of the papers with when I get my marks.. and it's comparative as well, ie, I can tell that some papers went better than others only when I translate them into guestimated marks. Sometimes I'm surprised.

Essentially - I'm not putting any guarantee of even vague accuracy into these marks, but then, who does it really matter to but me? XD

Be seeing you next week?

[neoanjou.livejournal.com]

Often it seemed for me that where I found a paper hard, so did everyone else and so I did as well or better than my fellow classmates after the moderation.

Re: Next Week - Indeed I'll be down for the show at least.

I am also down this weekend for my graduation and might be attempting to meet with some OULES people on Saturday evening if you are going to be about or don't have plans.

[vass]

Oh, thank goodness.

I clicked the cut-tag fully ready to open my memories page to the rant I have handy for linking to when people do that horrible "Which personality disorder do you have?" meme, then I realised you were talking about uni.

Thank you, very much, for not being one of the thousands of people posting 'tee-hee, I'm crazy! This quiz says so!' memes, and I'm sorry I thought you were for a moment.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

I will admit to occasionally being amused by how many personality disorder diagnoses I can claim, but that's more a comment on the horoscope-like vagueness of the DSM's diagnostic criteria than it is a serious self-diagnosis.

In general, I completely see where you're coming from, and hope that the above university education, along with a smidgen of common sense, would be enough to stop me ever being that outright offensive.

[countess-rezia.livejournal.com]

I wish someone would explain to me the difference between binge/purge anorexia and bulimia. Then maybe I'll have a lable :)

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

The DSM would say that if you are below 70% of a healthy body weight, it's binge-purge anorexia, and if not, it's bulimia. This is obviously stupid and unhelpful, ie, calling bulimics "failed anorexics" for not having starved themselves enough. Way to promote mental health there. So while my conclusion was fabricated in the Exam Schools somewhat, it's got to be at least less damaging that the actual diagnositc criteria...

My distinction was based on personality/temperament measures, such that anorexics are high in the neurotransmitter serotonin (leading to high "sensitivity to punishment", obsessionality, perfectionism) while bulimics are high in both serotonin and dopamine (high "sensitivity to punishment" and high "sensitivity to reward" - both anxious and impulsive).Self-starvation lowers your serotonin levels in any condition - making you feel less anxious/obsessional. ( These facts have been demonstrated, I think, more-or-less; it's only the conclusions I'm about to draw that are completely fabricated.) The binge-purge anorexic then binges because the starvation takes them through into LOW serotonin, which makes them depressed, irritable, and impulsive... while the bulimic binges because of a naturally highly hedonic nature (due to the high dopamine levels), impulsive enjoyment of pleasures, etc.