Paper 1: Psychopathology

Question 1

what are the 4 definitions of abnormality?

Answer 1

statistical deviation, deviation from social norms (DSM), failure to function adequately, and deviation from ideal mental health

Question 2

what is statistical deviation and how useful is it?

Answer 2

considered abnormal if you are statistically unusual; could be with IQ, scores on certain tests, etc.
Pro: easy to calculate
Con: very reductionist

Question 3

what is deviation from social norms and how useful is it?

Answer 3

considered abnormal if you violate the unwritten social rules of what is considered acceptable.
Pro: more holistic than statistical deviation
Con: not culturally valid; what is abnormal in one culture may be considered normal in another

Question 4

what is failure to function adequately and how useful is it?

Answer 4

considered abnormal if you are unable to cope with the usual demands of everyday life. Eg being able to get up in the morning, clean teeth, go to work, interact with other people etc.
Pro: easy to spot, does not require extensive testing etc
Con: can be caused by a huge range of factors

Question 5

what is deviation from ideal mental health and how useful is it?

Answer 5

considered abnormal if you don’t meet Jehodah’s criteria for ideal mental health. This is:
Positive attitudes towards the self
Self actualisation
Autonomy
Resistance to stress
Environmental mastery
Accurate perception of reality
Pro: set list of criteria, highly detailed
Con: criteria for ideal mental health very difficult to achieve for the whole population, not just people who we would consider “abnormal”

Question 6

what are behavioural characteristics of a phobia?

Answer 6

running away, screaming, crying, avoidance, eg trying not to touch door handles in public places - phobia of germs

Question 7

what are emotional characteristics of a phobia?

Answer 7

anxiety, fear

Question 8

what are cognitive characteristics of a phobia?

Answer 8

not being able to concentrate on anything else - phobia takes up all attention

Question 9

what are behavioural characteristics of depression?

Answer 9

lower activity levels eg cannot get out of bed, disruption to sleep, self harm

Question 10

what are emotional characteristics of depression?

Answer 10

lowered mood, feeling worthless, unhappy, empty, angry towards self or others

Question 11

what are cognitive characteristics of depression?

Answer 11

absolutist thinking - things are perceived either as perfect or disastrous, with nothing in between. Poor concentration, dwelling on the negative

Question 12

what are behavioural characteristics of OCD?

Answer 12

compulsions - the need to perform certain actions eg tidying and ordering things continuously.

Question 13

what are emotional characteristics of OCD?

Answer 13

anxiety and distress, guilt, disgust

Question 14

what are cognitive characteristics of OCD?

Answer 14

obsessions - continually recurring intrusive thoughts.

Question 15

what are the behaviourist approaches to treating phobias?

Answer 15

flooding and systematic desensitisation

Question 16

what is the process of flooding?

Answer 16

Patient gets immediate and intense exposure to their phobia, aka they are flooded. Eg if a patient has arachnophobia, the patient has a large spider crawl over them. Works based on the idea that people can only be high anxiety states for a short period of time. After a while the phobic response stops, and the learned response is extinguished. Idea of counter-conditioning. Relaxation paired with phobic stimulus.

Question 17

evaluation of flooding?

Answer 17

Strengths: very cost effective, often only needs one session

Limitations: not suitable for anyone who is not in good health due to the brief, but extreme anxiety it causes. Not children, elderly people, anyone with a heart condition.
If the treatment is not completed fully, the patient might end up with a worse phobia than before.
Incredibly traumatic for the patient, highly unpleasant experience.

Question 18

what is the process of systematic desensitisation?

Answer 18

Systematic desensitisation uses counter-conditioning, to make someone unlearn their phobia, by eliciting another response (relaxation)
Uses an anxiety hierarchy - rank the phobic situation from least to most terrifying, then work their way up (eg picture of the phobia followed by the item far away, then finally patient holding the phobic item)

Trying to recondition a patient to have a new association - attempting to associate the phobic stimulus with relaxation.
According to systematic desensitisation, two emotions cannot exist at the same time. This theory is called reciprocal inhibition. Eg someone is unable to be anxious and relaxed at the same time. The goal is relaxation overrides fear.

Question 19

evaluation of systematic desensitisation?

Answer 19

Strengths: does not require a large cognitive load - successful with children, people with learning disabilities, low IQ, etc.

Limitations: much more expensive and time consuming compared to flooding. The process has a very high attrition rate due to people not wanting to return repeatedly to phobic stimuli.
Doesn’t treat the cause of the phobia, only the symptoms.

Question 20

what is beck’s negative triad?

Answer 20

Negative views about:
The world; the self; the future. Beck suggests that people’s depression can be treated by changing the views around. Once irrational thoughts have been identified, CBT is used to change them.

Question 21

what is cognitive behavioural therapy?

Answer 21

CBT:
Challenges negative self-schemas and absolutist thinking
Challenges irrational thoughts (with proof)
Patients are often set homework to record positive events
Goal of CBT is to change faulty internal mental processes.

Question 22

what is Ellis’s ABC model?

Answer 22

A - activating event
B - beliefs about the event
C - emotional consequences

Based on this model, Ellis created his own type of therapy called REBT (rational emotive behavioural therapy)
Idea is to change the beliefs about the event in order to change the emotional response - changing B to influence C

Question 23

what is the genetic explanation of OCD?

Answer 23

A version of the COMT gene gives too much dopamine which causes OCD
A version of the SERT gene gives too little serotonin which causes OCD

Question 24

what is the neural explanation of OCD?

Answer 24

Basal ganglia controls human coordination of movement so the biological approach thinks that increased activity in basal ganglia causes OCD movement symptoms. Eg excessive hand scrubbing/switching of light
orbitofrontal cortex converts human sensory info into thoughts/actions - increased activity in orbitofrontal cortex causes OCD symptoms - obsessions
Orbitofrontal cortex causes obsessions, basal ganglia causes compulsions.

Question 25

what is the biological treatment for OCD?

Answer 25

drug therapy
SSRIs: (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) block the reuptake of serotonin into the presynaptic neuron meaning it stays in the synapse, and binds to the receptor of the postsynaptic neuron causing it to continually fire. Sometimes people with OCD are also treated with anti-anxiety drugs; benzodiazepines enhance the GABA neurotransmitter. GABA tells neurons to stop firing, which has a quieting influence on the brain.