Mental Illnesses Flashcards
Characteristics of Abnormal Functioning:
Deviance - Violations of Societies Ideas about Normality
Distress - Experienced by the person or the family
Dysfunction - Distortion of perceptual or cognitive functioning
Danger - to oneself or others
Ancient Greek/Roman Views:
Hippocrates attributed mental disorders to brain pathologies caused by an imbalance of bodily fluids such as bile and phlegm.
Treatment: the medium of healing such as baths, a good diet, exercise, massages, and a supportive atmosphere.
Europe in the Middle Ages:
Collapse of Roman Empire = Collapse of Scientific Reasoning. Belief of evil spirits took over.
Treatment: mild to extreme exorcisms
The Renaissance:
Johann Weyer was the first medical practitioner to specialize in mental illness.
Treatment: focused on home care and pilgrimages to holy shrines. Monasteries and hospitals were converted into asylums. Cruel rather than therapeutic.
19th Century Reform:
Philippe Pinnel lobbied to unchain patients.
Tuke led humane changes in Europe.
Their methods were called ‘Moral Treatment’.
Treatment: Mesmerism, Phrenology, Coma therapy, Lobotomies.
Money and Staff shortages lowered recovery rates, mentally ill were viewed as dangerous.
Modern Approaches to Mental Health
Psychodynamic Approach Humanistic Existential Approach Behavioural Approach Cognitive Approach Biological Approach Sociocultural Approach
Psychodynamic Approach
Freud:
ID: operates in accordance with instinct and the pleasure principle.
Ego: operates in accordance with the reality principle and develops defense mechanisms to control unacceptable id impulses and avoid anxiety.
Superego: grows from the ego and introjects our parents’ values through its two components, the conscience, and the ego ideal.
Unpleasant thoughts and impulses are repressed and fuse with other unconscious material into ‘complexes’.
This material can become conscious but always transformed in such a way that its original content is concealed (dreams).
Treatment: Psychoanalysts to interpret.
Humanistic Existential Approach
Rogers:
Unconditional positive regard leads to unconditional self-regard.
Conditions of worth are the standards by which people judge themselves and must conform to be accepted. Leads to self-deception which inhibits self-actualization.
Dysfunctioning is caused by self-deception, hiding from life’s responsibilities and choices.
Cognitive Approach
Aaron Beck:
Cognition encompasses the mental processes of perceiving, recognizing, judging and reasoning.
Seen to be at the center of behaviour, thought, and emotions.
Irrational assumptions are thoughts that lead one to acts that lower the chances of happiness and success.
Illogical thinking processes include selective perception, magnification, and overgeneralization.
Biological Approach
Assumes that psychopathology is caused by an organic defect.
Looks at the role of behavioural genetics and biochemistry in the nervous system in explaining behaviour.
The medical model saw all mental problems as diseases, e.g alcoholism is a disease.
Sociocultural Approach
Sociologists linked forms of abnormal behaviour to social classes, and anthropologists found that patterns of abnormal behaviour varied among cultures.
Societies undergoing major change usually show a rise in mental disorders.
Psychological abnormality is 3x higher in lower socioeconomic classes than higher.
At least 2x as many women as men are diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
Behavioural Approach
It assumes abnormal behaviour is learned the same way other behaviour is learned. It was the first clinical perspective developed in a psychological laboratory.
Behavioural Approach
It assumes abnormal behaviour is learned the same way other behaviour is learned. It was the first clinical perspective developed in a psychological laboratory.
Classical and Operant Conditioning
Assessment of Behavioural Approach:
It can be tested in the lab, but treatments easier than causes.
Actual behaviour does not always follow basic principles.
Emphasis on the cognitive-behavioral model is growing.
Assessment of Cognitive Approach:
The model has broad appeal.
Cognitive theories can be tested and much research has been carried out.
Shown to be effective with depression, anxiety, and sexual disorders.
Criticized for the narrowness of scope.
