Psychology-Psychopathology Flashcards
What is psychopathology?
The scientific study of psychological disorders
What are the definitions of abnormality?
Statistical infrequency, deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health
What is statistical infrequency?
Mean, median and mode are descriptive statistics that are used as a way to represent the typical value for any set of data, and many aspects of what is normal is defined by referring to typical values. Abnormality therefore is defined as those behaviours that are extremely rare
What is an example of statistical infrequency?
A frequency distribution graph will show what is normal, and usually either ends of it will be what is abnormal. For example a graph of intelligence in the population would be a bell shaped curve, either ends of it (genius or low intelligence) would class as abnormal
What are the evaluation points for statistical infrequency?
Some abnormal behaviour is desirable, the cut off point is subjectively determined and statistical infrequency is sometimes appropriate
Explain ‘some abnormal behaviour is desirable’ as an evaluation point
Many abnormal behaviours are actually desirable eg very few people have an IQ over 150, so it is abnormal however it would not be undesirable. Also some normal behaviours are undesirable such as depression. Therefore this definition cannot distinguish between desirable and undesirable behaviours
Explain ‘the cut off point is subjectively determined’ as an evaluation point
It has to be decided at what point does normal become abnormal. This is subjective as many people will have different opinions. Although either ends of the scale are easy to distinguish between really abnormal and really normal, but at point where the two meet there will be many slightly different opinions, leading someone to possibly be labelled as abnormal when in fact some people would still class it as normal
Explain ‘statistical infrequency is sometimes appropriate’ as an evaluation point
In some situations it is appropriate to use a statistical criterion to define abnormality eg intellectual disability is defined in terms of the normal distribution using the concept of standard deviation to establish a cut off point for abnormality. Anyone with an IQ more than two standard deviations below the mean is judged as having a mental disorder-however this diagnosis would only be made in conjunction with failure to function adequately
What is deviation from social norms?
Social norms are created by a group of people (Social_. In any society there are standards of acceptable behaviour that are set by the social group and adhered to by those socialised into that group. Anyone that deviates from these would be considered abnormal. The standards are often there for good reasons eg politeness, to help people know how to behave, to stop unacceptable behaviour etc
What is an example of deviation from social norms?
In the past, homosexuality was classified as abnormal and regarded as a mental disorder. It was also against the law in the UK. This judgement was based on social deviation-a judgement made by society at that time
What are the evaluation points for deviation from social norms?
Susceptible to abuse, deviance is related to context and degree, there are some strengths, and cultural relativism
Explain ‘susceptible to abuse’ as an evaluation point?
Social norms vary as times change so what is socially acceptable now, may not have been 50 years ago eg homosexuality. If abnormality is defined in terms of deviation from social norms, it opens the door to definitions based on prevailing social morals and attitudes. Szasz claimed that the concept of mental illness was simply a way to exclude nonconformists from society
Explain ‘deviance is related to context and degree’ as an evaluation point
For example, at a beach it is acceptable to wear swimming clothes (next to nothing) but the same outfit in a classroom or formal gathering would be abnormal, and a possible indication of a mental disorder. In many cases there is not a clear line between what is an abnormal deviation and what is simply more harmless eccentricity. Also somethings may be normal but abnormal if they are excessive and so cannot be determined in one moment
Explain ‘there are some strengths’ as an evaluation point
The definition distinguishes between desirable and undesirable behaviour (unlike with statistical infrequency). The social deviancy model also takes into account the effect that behaviours has on others. Deviance is defined in terms of transgression of social rules and social rules are established in order to help people live together
Explain ‘cultural relativism’ as an evaluation point
Cultural relativism is the view that behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates. What is abnormal in one culture may be normal in another, and what is normal somewhere may be abnormal elsewhere. This evaluation point works for both statistical infrequency and deviation from social norms
What is failure to function adequately?
People are judged on their ability to go about daily life, eg eating regularly, washing clothes, communicating etc. If they can’t do this and are also experiencing distress (or others are distressed by their behaviour eg with schizophrenia where the person may not know or be distressed) then it is considered a sign of abnormality. It can also be abnormality is someone is not coping with life in a normal day eg they may be content living in unwashed clothes without a regular job (but only abnormality if it causes distress to others or self)
What is an example of failure to function adequately?
The DSM includes an assessment of ability to function called WHODAS (World health organisation disability assessment) which considers six areas (understanding and communicating, getting around, self-care, getting along with people, life activities and participation in society. Each item has a scale of 1-5 and are given an overall score out of 180. An assessment of abnormality using the DSM would include a quantitative measure of functioning
What are evaluation points for failure to function adequately?
Who judges, the behaviour may be quite functional and strengths of the definition
Explain ‘who judges’ as an evaluation point
The patient them self may recognise that they are not coping and may feel distressed, but also an individual may be content and/or unaware they aren’t coping, and so others judge the behaviour as abnormal eg with schizophrenia. This is a weakness of this definition as it depends on who is making the judgement
Explain ‘the behaviour may be quite functional’ as an evaluation point
Some dysfunctional behaviours can be adaptive and functional for the individual eg some mental disorders such as eating disorders or depression, may lead to extra attention for the individual. This is rewarding and functional for the individual as it can lead to getting help
Explain the strengths of this definition
It recognises the subjective experience of the patient, allowing us to view mental disorders from the point of view of the person experiencing it. Also it is relatively easy to judge objectively due to WHODAS
What is deviation from ideal mental health?
Abnormality is defined in terms of mental health, behaviours that are associated with competence and happiness. Ideal mental health would include a positive attitude towards the self, resistance to stress and an accurate perception of reality. Jahoda shows that physical health is defined in part by looking at the absence of signs of physical health and so suggested it should be the same for mental health. Deviation from ideal mental health would therefore be an indicator of abnormality and a possible mental disorder
What are the evaluation points for deviation from ideal mental health?
Unrealistic criteria, suggests that mental health is the same as physical health, it is a positive approach and cultural relativism
Explain ‘unrealistic criteria’ as an evaluation point
According to the criteria, most people would be abnormal. It is also not clear on how many criteria need to be lacking before someone is judged as abnormal. Also the criteria are quite difficult to measure eg hard to assess capacity for personal growth or environmental mastery. Therefore this approach is not very useable when it comes to defining abnormality
Explain ‘suggests that mental health is the same as physical health’ as an evaluation point
In general physical illnesses have physical causes eg bacterial/viral infection, and as a result they are often relatively easy to detect and diagnose. It is possible that some mental disorders have physical causes eg brain injury or drug abuse, but many don’t. They are consequences of life experiences and therefore it is unlikely that we could diagnose mental abnormality in the same way as physical abnormality
Explain ‘it is a positive approach’ as an evaluation point
It is an alternative perspective on mental disorders, by focusing on the positives rather than negatives, and focusing on what is desirable rather than undesirable. Jahoda’s ideas were never really taken up by mental health professionals, though they did have some influence and are in accord with the ‘positive psychology’ movement
Explain ‘cultural relativism’ as an evaluation point
Works for failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health-different cultures have different views and perspectives, and would define different things as abnormal, and so one perspective of abnormal according to these definitions cannot define abnormality across all cultures
What three mental disorders do we look at?
Phobias, depression and OCD
What types of characteristics are discussed for each disorder?
Emotional characteristics, behavioural characteristics and cognitive characteristics
What are phobias?
A group of mental disorders characterised by high levels of anxiety in response to particular stimulus or group of stimuli. The anxiety interferes with normal living. They are included in the DSM and ICD within the category ‘anxiety disorders’. They are irrational fears that produce conscious avoidance of the feared object or situation eg agoraphobia, social phobia and specific phobias
What are the emotional characteristics of phobias?
Fear that is marked and persistent, and is likely to be excessive and unreasonable. Also feelings of anxiety and panic. These emotions are cued by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation and are out of proportion to the actual danger posed
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?
Fear causes an immediate response to try and avoid the object or situation. The opposite behavioural response is to freeze or even faint. The stress response is often described as fight or flight, when in reality it is actually fight, flight or freeze. Freezing is an adaptive response as a predator may think prey is dead. Avoidance interferes significantly with normal life which distinguishes a phobia from a more everyday fear
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?
These relate to thought processes. For phobias, a defining characteristic is the irrational nature of the persons thinking and the resistance to rational arguments. A person may also recognise that their fear is excessive or unreasonable, which distinguishes a phobia from a delusional mental illness
What is depression?
It is classified as a mood disorder. The DSM V distinguishes between major depressive disorder and persistent depressive disorder which is longer term and/or recurring
What are the emotional characteristics of depression?
Diagnosis of major depressive disorder requires five symptoms including either sadness or loss of interest and pleasure in normal activities. Other characteristics include feeling empty, worthless, hopeless, low self esteem, despair, lack of control, also sometimes anger
What are the behavioural characteristics of depression?
Most people experience shift in activity level (reduced energy eg tiredness and wish to sleep all the time or increased energy eg agitated and restlessness). Sleep can also be affected and can increase or decrease (insomnia). Appetite can also be either increased or decreased
What are the cognitive characteristics of depression?
Negative emotions are associated with negative thoughts such as negative self concept, as well as guilt, a sense of worthlessness etc. Often have a negative view of the world and expect things to turn out badly. These expectations can become self-fulfilling and confirm these negative beliefs. In general the negative beliefs are irrational
What is OCD?
Obsessive compulsive disorder is also classed as an anxiety disorder. The disorder typically begins in young adult life and has two main components-obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are persistent thoughts and compulsions are repetitive behaviours
What are the emotional characteristics of OCD?
Obsessions and compulsions lead to considerable anxiety and distress. Sufferers are aware their behaviour is excessive and this causes feelings of embarrassment and shame. A common obsession concerns germs which gives rise to feelings of disgust
What are the cognitive characteristics of OCD?
Obsessions are recurrent, intrusive thoughts or impulses that are perceived as inappropriate or forbidden. They may be frightening and/or embarrassing so that the person doesn’t want to share them with others. They are uncontrollable which creates anxiety. The person recognises that the obsessional thoughts or impulses are a product of their own mind, and at some point realises their obsessions and compulsions are excessive or unreasonable
What are the behavioural characteristics of OCD?
Compulsive behaviours are performed to reduce the anxiety created by obsessions. They are repetitive and unconcealed. They may be mental acts eg counting or physical eg hand washing. Patients often feel they must perform these actions or something dreadful may happen, which creates anxiety. The behaviours are not connected in a realistic way with what they are designed to neutralise or prevent and are clearly excessive. Some people experience compulsions without obsessions
What is the behavioural approach?
It suggests that behaviour is learned, and so is sometimes called learning theory. It uses the concept of conditioning (learning)
What is the behavioural approach to explaining phobias?
Orval Hobart Mowrer proposed the two process model to explain how phobias are learned. The behavioural approach to explaining phobias also covers social leaning (not part of the two process model)
What is the two process model?
The first stage is classical conditioning and the second stage is operant conditioning. Both processes are needed to explain why phobias begin and why they continue
How does classical conditioning explain the initiation of phobias?
A phobia is acquired through association eg with Little Albert the association between a neutral stimulus such as a white furry rate and a loud noice results in a new stimulus response being learnt. Little Albert’s phobia generalised to other furry white objects and he showed anxiety when exposed to a non-white rabbit, a fur coat and someone wearing a Santa beard
As an example, explain how a phobia of dogs can start after being bitten by one
Being bitten (UCS) causes fear (UCR). Dog (NS) associated with being bitten (UCS). Dogs (now CS) produces fear response (now CR)
How does operant conditioning explain the maintenance of phobias?
The likelihood of a behaviour being repeated is increased if the outcome is rewarding. With phobias, avoiding the phobic stimulus reduces fear and so is reinforcing. This is negative reinforcement. The individual avoids the anxiety created by the phobia, and so the phobia is maintained
Separate to the two process model, how can social learning theory explain phobias?
It is a neo-behaviourist explanation. Phobias may be acquired through modelling the behaviour or others. Eg seeing a parent respond to a spider with extreme fear may lead a child to acquire a similar behaviour because the behaviour appears rewarding as the fearful person gets attention
What are the evaluation points for the behavioural approach to explaining phobias?
The importance of classical conditioning, diathesis stress model, support for social learning, biological preparedness and the two-process model ignores cognitive factors
Explain ‘the importance of classical conditioning’ as an evaluation point
People with phobias often can recall a specific incidence when their phobia appeared. However not everyone can. It is possible that such traumatic incidents did happen but have been forgotten (Öst). Also Sue et al suggest that different phobias may be the result of different processes, eg agoraphobics may explain their disorder in terms of a specific incident whereas arachnophobics are most likely to cite modelling as the cause
Explain ‘diathesis-stress model’ as an evaluation point
According to the two-process model of phobias, an association between neutral stimulus and fearful experience will result in a phobia. However research has found that eg not everyone bitten by a dog will develop a phobia of dogs (Di Nardo et al). The dieathesis stress model can explain this-it proposes that we inherit a genetic vulnerability for developing mental disorders, however a disorder will only manifest itself it triggered by a life event such as being bitten by a dog, therefore it would only cause a phobia in those with the vulnerability
Explain ‘support for social learning’ as an evaluation point
An experiment by Bandura and Rosenthal supported the social learning explanation. In the experiment a model acted as if he was in pain every time a buzzer sounded. Later on, those participants who had observed this showed an emotional reaction to the buzzer, demonstrating an acquired fear response
Explain ‘biological preparedness’ as an evaluation point
The fact that phobias don’t always develop after a traumatic incident may be explained in terms of biological preparedness. Seligman argued that animals, including humans, are genetically programmed to rapidly learn association between potentially life threatening stimuli and fear. These stimuli are referred to as ancient fears that would have been dangerous in our evolutionary past such as snakes, heights, strangers and was adaptive to learn to avoid these. This explains why people are much less likely to develop fears of modern objects (Bregman could not condition a fear response in infants by paring a loud bell with wooden blocks suggesting the behavioural explanation cannot alone explain phobias)
Explain ‘the two-process model ignores cognitive factors’ as an evaluation point
There are cognitive aspects to phobias that can’t be explained in a traditionally behaviourist framework. The cognitive approach proposes that phobias may develop as the consequence of irrational thinking which causes anxiety and possibly can trigger a phobia. This alternative explanation leads to cognitive therapies (CBT) that may be more successful than behaviourist treatments in some cases such as with social phobia
What are the two (behavioural approach) therapies to treating phobias?
Systematic desensitisation and flooding
