Chapter 3 Flashcards
Models
(aka paradigms) are things used to treat abnormality. ex. Biological, Psychodynamic, etc.
Biological Model
Summary: The medical perspective, thinks of abnormality as a malfunctioning organ.
Brain Chemistry and Anatomy: Neurotransmitters, or the lack of, are often the cause of abnormality. Sometimes it is not an issue of the neurotransmitter itself, but the structure producing it.
Sources: These issues are theorized by genetics or evolution
Treatment: Drug therapy (happened in 1950s, think antianxiety/depression/psychotic or mood stabilizers), brain stimulation (electroconvulsive therapy), psychosurgery (lobotomy).
Strengths: has respect in the field, produces valuable new info, often brings relief
Weakness: seen as too simplistic (not everything can be handled w/ a drug), treatment can have side effects
Psychodynamic Model & Freudian Beliefs
Summary: Oldest, most famous model. Person’s behavior is determined by underlying psychological influences and conflict. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was the father of this approach.
id - the pleasure principle (usually sexual)
ego - reality principle; tells us when to gratify and when not to gratify, this defense mechanism avoids anxiety through 7 things: repression, denial, projection, rationalization, displacement, intellectualization, and regression.
super ego - moral center of the psyche, aka the conscience
These three things in balance are good, and if they are out of balance then dysfunction occurs.
5 Stages of Psychosexual Development: 1. oral (0-18 months), 2. Anal (18 months to 3 years), 3. Phallic (3-5 years) 4. Latent (5-12 years), 5. Genital (12 to adulthood)
During those stages the id, ego, and super ego have to adjust to account for the difficulties each stage brings. If they get stuck fixation occurs.
Psychodynamic Model (Therapies, Pros, & Cons)
Therapies: Free association is when a patient describes any though/feeling that may or may not be unrelated, therapist interpretation can address resistance transference or dream interpretation, catharsis is the reliving of past events to settle conflicts, working through is what it sounds like.
Pros: first to recognize importance of psychological theories, sees abnormal functioning as the same as normal functioning, first to apply theory and techniques to treatment.
Cons: Theories are unsupported and difficult to research, uses components that are not observable (unconscious tendencies).
Cognitive-Behavioral Model (Background, Cognitive, & Behavioral Dimension)
Background: focus on thoughts and behaviors, traced back to labs where conditioning was studied, stemmed from psychodynamic model but based more on learning.
Behavioral: addresses conditioning and classical conditioning (learned by association), modeling (learn by imitating others), and operant conditioning (consequences affect behavior).
Cognitive: Created by Beck and Ellis, they believed abnormal functioning is best understood through cognitive processes, clinicians ask questions about assumptions attitudes and thoughts of clients, abnormality occurs from faulty assumption and attitudes along with illogical thinking processes, psychological disorders can be overcome by developing functional ways of thinking.
Cognitive-Behavioral Model (Interplay, New Wave, Pros, & Cons)
Interplay: Both dimensions are used in determining treatments/explanations for disorders.
New Wave: Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) helps individuals see their feelings with out trying to act on it, helps people see their feelings in a nonjudgmental manner.
Pros: powerful force, over 1/2 of psychologists identify as this model, can be tested, treatments are research based, shown to be helpful
Cons: don’t know if thoughts/behaviors are the cause or effect, not successful for everyone, criticized for being two narrow.
Humanistic-Existential Model (Humanistic, Existential Dimension, & Rogers’ Humanistic Theory vs. Gestalt Theory)
Combination of both views
Humanistic: emphasizes people as friendly, focus on the drive for self-actualization by recognizing strength/weaknesses.
Existential: emphasis on self-determination and choice; authenticity, humans search for means to define themselves through their actions.
Rogers’ Humanistic Theory/Therapy: Rogers argues there’s a basic need for unconditional positive regard, if received this leads to unconditional self-regard, if not it leads to “conditions of worth” (have to act a certain way for love), he made client-centered therapy.
Gestalt Theory/Therapy: humanistic approach developed by Fritz Perls, goal is to achieve self recognition, skillful frustration and role-playing are some methods, little research done on this theory.
Humanistic-Existential Theory (Spiritual Views, Existential Theories, Pros, & Cons)
Spiritual Views: twentieth century clinicians believed religion was negative for mental health, today researchers believe it can be psychologically beneficial, in fact spiritually is associated w/ mental health, therapists today include spiritual issues in treatment w/ religious clients.
Existential Theories: similar to humanistic but believe dysfunction is caused by self-deception, focus on acceptance of personal responsibility, emphasis on client-therapist relationship, little research has been done.
Pros: emphasizes individual, taps into domains missing from other theories, emphasis on health and not illness.
Cons: focus on abstract issues, criticized for not dealing w/ “serious” mental health issues, not much impact on the field.
Sociocultural Model (Background, Family-Social Explanation & Treatment)
Background: focus on broad forces that causes abnormality like norms and roles in society
Family-Social Explanation: theorists should focus on concrete things that affect an individual like social/diagnostic labels, social connection and support, and family structure
Family-Social Treatment: Treatments include traditional individual therapy, credited w/ broadening therapy to new things, some examples are group therapy, family therapy, couple therapy, and community therapy
Sociocultural Model (Multicultural Explanation & Treatment, Pros, & Cons
Multicultural Explanation: seek to understand how culture, race, ethnicity, gender, etc. affect behavior, belief that individual’s behavior is best understood in relation to their cultural context.
Multicultural Treatment: studies found that minorities improve less from treatment than the majority, therapists show great sensitivity to cultural issues and include cultural models.
Pros: Added to clinical understanding and treatment of abnormality, increase awareness for clinical and social roles, this has shown success when other models have failed.
Cons: research is difficult to interpret b/c the amount of confounds to address, research is limited by correlational design, while this can predict abnormality within/across cultures it cannot predict abnormality within individuals.
Integrating the Models
None of the specific models have proved superiority consistently, most clinicians use multiple models to explain abnormal behavior, the psychopathological perspective looks into how different models interact to account for both functional and dysfunctional behavior, has equifinality and multifinality.
