Paper 3 - Mental health 1 - historical context Flashcards
1
Q
what are the prehistorical supernatural explanations of mental illness
A
- abnormal behaviour attributed to demonic possession, witchcraft or a punishment by god for wrongdoings
- reductionism
2
Q
what are prehistorical supernatural treatments for mental illness
A
- involve prayers, holy water, exorcisms to release evil spirits including trephining, stretching, whipping, immersing or boiling water or freezing water
- this is to make the demonic spirit leave
- doing good deeds and having positive thoughts to impress god
3
Q
what is the greek culture of mental health explanation
A
- hippocrates argued that mental ilness was not caused by supernatural possession but physiology
- a healthy personailty was created by a balance of 4 humours - black bile,yellow bile, blood and phlegm.
- mental disorders were caused by an imbalance or exess of a humour.
- black bile linked to being quiet and restless
- blood linked to being hopeful and playful
- phlegm linked to calm and pateint
- yellow bile linked to mania
- biologically reductionist
4
Q
what were the greek cultures treatments of mental ilness
A
- correct the imabalnce of the humours by purging or laxitives or blood letting using leeches
- also changes to lifestyle, diet and exercise
- patients were looked after and not stigmatised
5
Q
what is the phsycogenic approach of mental illness cause
A
- attributed to pyschological factors
- freud attributed to conflicts within the unconscious mind and childhood experiences (holistic)
6
Q
what is the psychogenic appraoch of treatments
A
- psychoanalysis to gain insights into unconscious mind, hidden and past thoughts
- including dream analysis and free association
- becomes a dominant treatment in the 1900s
- this led to many more talking therapies like councelling
7
Q
what is the somatogenic approach to cause of mental illness
A
- renewed focus on physical causes
- the medical model which saw mental ilness as caused by genetics, abnormal brain structure and neurotransmitters
- scientific, biological causes, empirical evidence, objective judgements
8
Q
what are the treatments for somatogenic approach
A
- biological treatments including electroconvulsive therapy (electric currents into the brain), psychosurgery (parts of the brain are removed) and psychopharmacology (drugs)
- drug therapy are now the dominant treatments to correct abnormally high or low neurotransmitters.
- this made care in the community possible - patients could live at home or in a communal facility whilst keeping their disorder controled
9
Q
what are similarities between the greek theory and the somotagenic theory
A
- they both have physical/biological causes
- greek = imbalance of 4 biological humours
- somotagenic = imbalance of biological neurotransmitters
10
Q
what are similarities between prehistorical and psychogenic theories
A
- bothmake subjective judgements based on their own personal beliefs, e.g. religion and morals
- prehistorical = punishments from wrong doings
- psychogenic = unresolved unconscious conflicts
11
Q
what are differences between the somotagenic and psychogenic
A
- somotagenic = bioloically reductionist, 4 humours imbalance
- psychogenic = holist, unresolved unconscious conflicts and childhood experiences
12
Q
what are similarities/ differences of treatments
A
- all 4 of them offer treatments
- however all treatments are different e.g. psychogenic is not physical treatment but prehistorical is
13
Q
what are the 4 definitions of abnormality
A
- statistical infrequency
- deviation from social norms
- failure to function adequately
- deviation from ideal mental health
14
Q
what is the definition and evaluation of statistical infrequency for abnormality
A
- deviation from statistical norm
- relatively frequent behaviour or chatacteristic can be thought as normal
- anything that is diferent to this is abnormal
- evaluation strengths - objective, quantitative and scientific measurements, e.g. Hancock’s study
- evaluation weaknesses - rare but desirable behaviours are labelled as abnormal, e.g. high IQ.
- some mental illnesses are statistically common but doesnt mean that its not a problem, e.g. anxiety
- some rare behaviours are not related to normality or abnormality, e.g. being left handed.
15
Q
what is the definition and evaluation of deviation from social norms
A
- not participating in expected standard behaviours, e.g. queueing
- determined by societys views on how we should act
- making a collective judgement as a society on what is right.
- evaluation strengths - could lead to treatment if others notice it
- evaluation weaknesses - behaving in a different way is not abnormal if a person is functioning well
- cultural relatism - breaking the norm of being an unmarried mother could have the woman put in an assylum 100 years ago but would not now - culture changes over time.
16
Q
what is the definition and evaluation of failure to function adequately
A
- no longer cope with the demands of everyday life
- rosenhan and seligman created a list, the more things on the list the more likely thay are to be abnormal
- personal distress, unpredictability, observer distress, irrational behaviour, maladaptive,e.g. cant sustain relationships
- evaluation strengths - practical checklist
- matches sufferes perceptions, e.g. may feel distress
- can lead to person or friends and family seeking help
- evaluation weakness - may not link to abnormality,e.g. keeeping jobs during recession
- cultural relativism - in some culutres people feel distress when watching same sex relationships but some dont
- context dependency - going on a hunger strike may be seen as irrational but not if the person has been wrongly imprisoned
17
Q
what is the definition and evaluation of deviation from ideal mental health
A
- jahoda’s criterea for good mental health, those lacking items on the list are abnormal
- resistannce to stress, self actualisation, high self esteem, autonomy (independence), accurate perception of reality, empahty, not having any abnormality
- evaluation strengths - gives patients something to aim for
- evaluation weaknesses - difficult to achieve
- cultural relativism - individualists independence is more impotant than community in collectivist cultures
18
Q
what is the similarities and differences of all the definitions of abnormal behaviour
A
- all apart from statistical infrequency use subjective value judgements
- only statistical infrequency deals with objective quantitative data
- failture to function and ideal mental health have checklists
- ideal mental health is the only positive definition - provides goals for people
- all except statistical infrequency are context dependent/ culturally relative.
