Defining Psychopathology

Question 1

What is Psychopathology? And name the four Ds of Psychopathology.

Answer 1

• The study of mental disorders, emotional problems or maladaptive behaviours (PsychINFO Thesaurus)
• The study of deviations from normal or everyday psychological or behavioural functioning (Davey, 2014)
• Deviation, Dysfunction, Distress, Dangerousness

Question 2

Explain the four Ds of Psychopathology.

Answer 2

Deviation: Statistical infrequency
- If an person’s behaviour deviates from the statistical norm, it’s regarded as psychopathological.
e.g., someone with an IQ below 70 would be deemed statistically rare.

• Used as a criteria for diagnosing intellectual disability.

Violation of Social norms: a behaviour may be psychopathological if it deviates from social norms.
- e.g., deliberate self-harm, ranting incomprehensively, believing one has superpowers.
- however, difficult to use violation of social norms to define psychopathology.
- different cultures differ in what is socially normal.

Dysfunction: maladaptive behaviour
- behaviour that impairs social, occupational, or educational functioning considered psychopathology.
e.g., hand washing in OCD, agoraphobia associated with panic disorder.
- some maladaptive behaviours would not be considered psychopathology.
- some psychopathology can be adaptive.
Distress: For individual- clinically significantly distress e.g., suicide ideation, is a sign of psychopathology.
- individuals judge their own normal.
- individuals judged by if they can cope with their normal.
For observer: behaviour that causes discomfort in observers may be psychopathology.
- some behaviour may cause observer discomfort but wouldn’t be considered psychopathology (e.g., people with body piercings).
Dangerousness: behaviour that’s dangerous to the self or others, e.g., drug taking.
- someone acting unpredictably and aggressively out of context.

Question 3

Explain the Medical Model of Psychopathology.

Answer 3

• Somatogenic hypothesis: psychological problems are a consequence of biological impairments.
• Introduced the scientific approach to the study of psychopathology
• let to medical discipline Psychiatry
• Psychiatrists treat mental health conditions using medication or other biological interventions
• led to systematic methods of classification

Question 4

Evaluate the Medical Model of Psychopathology.

Answer 4

• assumes a medical or biological cause for all psychopathology, which is not always the case.
• reductionist model- can’t capture the complexities of many characteristics of psychopathology.
• implication that something is broken or not working correctly and needs to be fixed, which is problematic
• implies that that someone experiencing psychopathology is abnormal; may lead to stigma.

Question 5

Explain the demon possession historical conception of psychopathology.

Answer 5

• some (western) societies believed that personality change was a result of demon possession (demons or evil spirits).
• these beliefs still exist today in some places.

Question 6

What is Trepanning?

Answer 6

• where ‘possessed’ individuals were often subjected to physical attacks to remove the evil spirits.
• common practice to ‘treat’ possessed individuals.

Question 7

Explain Mental Illness as Moral Degradation.

Answer 7

• during 18th century, Victorians paid to go to asylums to stare at the inmates.
• mental illness was seen as social weakness/ moral degeneration.
• Strange ‘treatments’ were used; extremely hot or cold baths.
• Inmates were often constrained physically (using straps, chains) and chemically (using laudanum)
• Asylums also used to deal with social issues, e.g., poverty, teen pregnancy.