Paper 1 Psychopathology Flashcards
Describe and evaluate two ways of defining abnormality (16) option 2
Failure to function adequately:
- Rosenhan and Seligman
- Depression
Strength = patient’s perspective is recognised
Limitation = FFA definition doesn’t account for individual differences individual differences
Limitation = hard to say someone is failing when they are actually just deviating from social norms
Deviation from ideal mental health:
- Jahoda
- Depression
Strength = Jahodas definition sets goals in treatment
Limitation = culturally relative
Limitation = unrealistic criteria
Describe and evaluate two ways of defining abnormality (16) option 1
Statistical frequency:
- IQ
- Intellectual disability disorder
Strength = real life application for diagnosis of intellectual disability disorder
Limitation = unusual characteristics can be desirable traits
Limitation = not everyone benefits from having a label
Deviation from social norms
- Anti social personality disorder
- DSM - 5 defintion
Strength = real life application in diagnosis of anti social personality disorder
Limitation = culturally relative
Limitation = definition doesn’t consider severity and context when breaking social norms
Outline characteristics of phobic disorders (4)
Behavioural:
Avoidance - avoiding coming in contact with phobic stimulus
Panic in response to the phobic stimulus (crying, screaming, running away)
Emotional:
Anxiety and fear - extreme anxiety = high arousal and extreme fear thinking or in contact with stimulus
emotional response = unreasonable
Cognitive:
Irrational beliefs in relation to phobic stimuli
recognising the fear is excessive or unreasonable = distinguishes phobia and mental illness (schizophrenia)
Outline characteristics of depression (4)
Behavioural:
Reduced activity - low energy levels = withdraw from work and social life (extreme = out of bed)
Disrupted sleep patterns - insomnia or hypersomnia
Appetite and eating = increase/ decrease
Emotional:
Lower mood - diminished interest in activities
Feeling worthless and low self esteem - negative emotions
Cognitive:
Focusing on negative things - negative thoughts can be irrational
Inability to concentrate
Outline characteristics are OCD (4)
Behavioural:
Compulsive behaviour - repetitive compulsions (repeating behaviour), compulsions reducing anxiety (response to obsession)
Avoidance - to situation that trigger OCD = reduce anxiety
Emotional:
High levels of anxiety - obsessional and compulsions = overwhelming
Lead to depression - anxiety = low mood and loss of pleasure
Cognitive:
Obsessive and unpleasant thoughts - repetitive/ unpleasant
Insight - awareness of irrationality/ hyper vigilant
Describe and evaluate the behavioural approach to explaining phobias (16)
- Definition of behavioural approach
- Mowrer two process model
- Acquisition by classical conditioning = Watson and Rayner
- Maintenance by operant conditioning
Strength
= explanation led to development of successful behavioural therapies
Limitation
= traumatic event doesn’t always lead to a phobia, which the behavioural approach doesn’t account for
BUT Dinardos findings diathesis stress model
Limitation
= conflicting evidence = Bregman
Describe and evaluate the use of the behavioural approach to the treatment of phobias (16)
Systematic decentralisation:
- counter conditioning
- 3 processes = anxiety hierarchy, relaxation, exposure
strength = effective in treatment for specific phobias = Kilroy
further = appropriate for phobic disorders
limitation = symptom substitution - treatment only treats the symptom of disorder not the cause
Flooding:
- ethical safeguard
strength = effective an more effective than systematic decentralisation - choy et al
But = highly traumatic
limitation = less effective for some types of phobia
Discuss the cognitive approach to explaining depression (16)
How depression links to the cognitive approach
- faulty information processing
becks cognitive theory of depression
- negative self schemas
- cognitive biases
- negative triad
Ellis’s ABC model
- activating event, beliefs, consequence
Strength = good supporting evidence (depression associated with faulty information processing)
limitation = doesn’t explain origin in irrational thoughts - biological approach (diathesis model)
strength = practical application in therapy (CBT)
Describe and evaluate cognitive behavioural therapy for depression (16)
cognitive behavioural therapy linked to depression
- beaks cognitive therapy
- ellis’s rational emotive behavioural therapy
- homework
- behavioural attraction
Strength = supporting evidence to support effectiveness in comparison to drug therapy
Further = lesschance of relapse than drug therapy
BUT = combined approach is effective
Limitation = not appropriate treatment for everyone
BUT = flexability of treatment tecniques
Discuss the biological approach to OCD (16)
Link between biology and OCD
Genetic explanation:
- candidat genes
- OCD is polygenic
- different types of OCD
strength = good supporting evidence - nestadt
however = environmental factors also need to be explored
Limitation = too many candidate genes
Neural explanations:
- serotonin
- brain structure
Strength = some supporting evidence
however = not clear exactly what neural mechanisms are involved
further = biological abnormalities result in OCD rather than cause
Limitation = competition from psychological explanations
Describe and evaluate the biological approach to the treatment of OCD (16)
Drug therapy
- anti depressant drugs
- anti anxiety drugs
strength = evidence to support that it is effective at tackling OCD symptoms and so improving quality of life for OCD patients
further = advantage of drugs are that they can be seen as an appropriate treatment for
OCD because they are cost effective and non-disruptive
limitation = significant minority will get no benefit from this treatment
further = provide a palliative
treatment and therefore do not provide a lasting cure.
