Issues in MH Topic 3:

Question 1

Key Research: Szaz (2011)

Answer 1

Szaz published an essay called ‘The Myth of Mental Illness’ and he challenged the medical model of mental illness which was becoming popular at the time. He was rejecting the image of patients as passive victims of biological events, and believed that psychiatry was coercive and involved a denial of human rights. 50 years later, Szazsz revisited his earlier work

Szasz concluded that:
- the medicalisation and politicisation of psychiatry over the past 50 years has led to a dehumanised model of care
- mental illness should be regarded as a metaphor; a fiction
- the moral legitimacy of psychiatry should be rejected as it involves violating human liberty

Question 2

Evaluation of the research by Szasz

Answer 2

Reductionism - Holism:
- Szasz suggets we should take more of a holistic view of mental illness, saying that the medical model is too limited and alternative explanations and treatments should be considered

Socially sensitive:
- it can cause groups of people to be upset as they are being told their illness is fiction

Usefulness:
- useful as it may reduce the reliance on the medical models and allow alternative treatments to be more accepted

Ethnocentrism:
- it is focused on the western system of patriarchy and so his conclusions are only applicable to the way that mental illness is diagnosed and treated in these cultures

Question 3

Classical Conditioning explanation of Phobias

Answer 3

if an object is presented at the same time as an unconditional stimulus, it can lead to the object being associated with the unpleasant effect and over time the same fear is shown towards the object.

Watson and Rayner outlined the case of little Albert who was made phobic of rats, despite having no fear of them

Question 4

Operant Conditioning explanation of Phobias

Answer 4

positive reinforcement = if a child shows a fear response in relation to a situation, they might receive attention and comfort which reinforces the fear responses

negative reinforcement = if someone deals with fear by avoiding the situation, this reinforces the fear by lowering their anxiety levels when they show avoidance

Question 5

Social learning theory explanation of Phobias

Answer 5

social learning theory involves observing adult role models and limiting behaviour. Therefore if a parent or adult role shows a fear of a particular object, the child might pick up on this and shows the same fear response

Question 6

Aaron Beck and the negative cognitive triad

Answer 6

Aaron Beck suggested that there were 3 main dysfunctional beliefs in people with depression which form a cognitive triad:
- negative thoughts about the world
- negative thoughts about the self
- negative thoughts about the future

Beck suggested that when a person becomes depressed then they would seek out information to confirm their beliefs

Beck proposed a diathesis-stress model of mental illness suggesting that genes or early traumas can create a predisposition for the disorder, and can lead to faulty thinking processes but for someone to develop a mental health issues, there has to be a trigger

Question 7

Albert Ellis and faulty cognitions

Answer 7

Ellis propose that irrational thoughts could cause mental disorders. People have highly unrealistics expectations and when they are not met, it leads to negative thoughts and depression:

awfulizing/catastrophizing - “its awful if I get turned down a date”

can’t-stand-itis = “I can’t stand not doing well on a test”

must-rebating = “people must like me, or I’m worthless”

all or nothing thinking = “if I don’t get this job, I am a failure”

Question 8

Humanistic approach

Answer 8

Each person has the potential and ability to be mentally healthy. They can achieve this through physiological growth, with the key aim to reach self-actualism

if anything prevents this natural ability for growth, it will cause mental health and social problems

Question 9

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Answer 9

in order to reach self actualisation, our lower level needs must be met first. If our physiological and lower level needs are not met, people will be unable to move beyond that level and so cannot achieve self-actualism

links to mental illness:
- e.g. a Childs parents advice, they may believe they are to blame and this causes them to feel they are never good enough, leading to anxiety and depression
- or someone who is bullied as a child may feel low self-esteem or a lack of love and belonging

Question 10

Carl Rogers’ theory

Answer 10

• people have two basics needs: self worth and positive regard
• Rogers suggested that our self-image is important in determining our mental health

conditions of worth:
- rogers stated that things that can affect our view of ourselves are ‘conditions of worth’