Psychopathology

Question 1

What are the 4 definitions of Abnormality?

Answer 1

Deviation From Social Norms (DSN)
Statistical Infrequency (SI)
Failure To Function Adequately (FFA)
Deviation From Idea Mental Health (DIMH)

Question 2

What is Deviation From Social Norms?

Answer 2

Abnormality in this definition is a deviation from unwritten rules about how one is ‘ought’ to behave.

Question 3

Strengths of DSN

Answer 3

• We are able to distinguish between normal and abnormal behaviour. The definition gives a clear distinction between them both.
• This definition has real life application - In the diagnosis of ASPD the symptoms of this disorder state that a persons behaviour is deviating from social norms. This applies to other disorders like schizophrenia where a person might talk to themselves. We can apply this definition in real life. making it authentic.

Question 4

Weaknesses of DSN

Answer 4

• Cultural Relativism
• Deviation is related to context of the situation. - Person is in trunks on the beach but not in classroom. Does this make them weird?
• Definitions of Social norm can change over time. like being a gay is normalised now

Question 5

What is Statistical Infrequency?

Answer 5

Any relatively usual behaviour or characteristic can been seen as normal and any other behaviour that is different is abnormal.
SI occurs when a person has a less common characteristic

Question 6

Strengths of SI

Answer 6

• Real Life Application - It allows for the measurement of the severity of different symptom. Allows us to compare normal with abnormal.
• Definition is objective - No Bias based on statistics and facts.

Question 7

Weaknesses of SI

Answer 7

• Unusual characteristics can be a positive - If u don’t fit in the 68% of the population then you are abnormal. However some have 130iq we don’t see this as undesirable.
• Not everyone unusual benefits from a label - May cause someone to view themselves differently. May believe they are abnormal - may feel inferior.

Question 8

What is Failing To Function Adequately?

Answer 8

This definition of abnormality focuses on they everyday behaviour of an individual. A person who is suffering from FFA is unable to go through everyday stresses and cope through daily challenges.
eg, depression causes low moods so a person might be unable to get up and go to work.

Question 9

Strength of FFA

Answer 9

• Patients Perspective - Takes in account the personal situation of the individual - considers thought sand feelings of the person. Unlike DSN which bases of social norms.
• Measurable - Can be measures with a GAF scale (general assessment of functioning)
  this allows for the decision if a behaviour to be abnormal can be made in a relatively objective way.

Question 10

Weaknesses of FFA

Answer 10

• Cultural Relativism
• Who judges
• Abnormality does not always inhibit the person functioning

Question 11

What is Deviation from Ideal Mental Health?

Answer 11

This definition is based on not judging abnormality but looking at what normality is like showing good mental health can be through being physically healthy.

To show ideal mental health we should:
- have a high self esteem
- resistant to stress
- show empathy
ext

Question 12

Strength of DIMH

Answer 12

Comprehensive Definition - Brad range of criteria for mental health including most of the reasons why someone would seek help from services.

Achievement of goals - Allows for clear goals to be set and focused on to achieve ideal mental health. allows a person to be aspirational

Question 13

Weaknesses of DIMH

Answer 13

• Who can achieve all of these criteria all the time
• Cultural Relativism
• Subjectivity - Vague criteria so is difficult to measure so you can’t really see if someone is fulfilling the criteria. Only can really self-assess. eg (if you are resistant to stress)

Question 14

What are phobias?

Answer 14

An excessive fear or anxiety, triggered by an object, place or situation. The extent of the fear is out of proportion to any real danger presented by the phobic stimulus.
An explanation might be trauma which leads to the conditioning of the fear then generalising to things that may be similar.

Question 15

What are the 3 categories of phobias?

Answer 15

Specific Phobia - of an object like an animal
Social Anxiety - of a public situation (speaking publicly)
Agoraphobia - fear of being outside or public space

Question 16

Behavioural characteristics of Phobias

Answer 16

Panic - crying, screaming or running away when in the presence of the phobias stimulus.

Avoidance - Avoid coming in contact

Endurance - Remains in presence but has high levels of anxiety

Question 17

Emotional characteristics of Phobias

Answer 17

Anxiety - Phobias are an anxiety disorder. Anxiety is an unpleasant state of high arousal

Fear - The immediate and immensely unpleasant response people have when in presence of the phobic stimulus. Experienced for shorter periods than anxiety.

Emotional Responses are Unreasonable - The emotional responses that we experience in relation to phobic material go beyond what is reasonable.

Question 18

Cognitive Characteristics of Phobias

Answer 18

Selective Attention to the Phobic Stimulus - This is where it is hard for the individual to look away from the phobic stimulus.

Irrational Beliefs - A phobic may hold irrational beliefs in relation to the phobic stimulus.

Cognitive Distortions - The perceptions of the phobic stimulus may be distorted - thoughts of the phobia are unpleasant and misrepresented

Question 19

What is the Two Process Model?

Answer 19

Howard Mowrer’s 2 Process Model states that phobias are acquired through Classical Conditioning and maintained through Operant Conditioning.

Question 20

What is Classical Conditioning?

Answer 20

Classical Conditioning is learning through association. It is when a neutral stimulus (NS) is regularly paired with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) it generates an unconditioned response (UCR) e.g. feeling of reward or fear - due to the UCS. This response will become associated with the Neutral stimulus (NS). Once this happens enough then the response becomes a conditioned response (CR) and the original NS becomes a conditioned stimulus as it evokes a natural response (CS).

Watson and raynor rassed the 11 month old

Question 21

What is Operant Conditioning?

Answer 21

Operant conditioning is learning through the reinforcements (rewards) and punishments. Behaviours which are rewarded are likely to be repeated.
Two types of reward:
Positive reinforcement is when an individual carries out a behaviour to achieve a reward
Negative reinforcement is when an individual carries out a behaviour to avoid a negative consequence e.g. discomfort or fear.

When a phobic stimulus is avoided, fear and anxiety are also avoided - avoidance is a form of negative reinforcement (fear is seen as punishment/negative consequence)

Question 22

How does operant conditioning explain the maintenance of phobias?

Answer 22

Negative reinforcement explains the maintenance of behaviours through avoidance. This is where a person will go to lengths to avoid their phobic stimulus as they want to avoid the negative consequence (fear), this habit leads to many never confronting their phobia and always avoiding it.

Positive reinforcement could explain the maintenance of phobias through the attention received when scared.

Question 23

Strengths of the Behavioural Approach to explaining Phobias

Answer 23

Provides a good explanation of how phobias could be maintained over time and explains why patients need to be exposed to the feared stimulus in therapy. - once patient is prevented from avoidance, the behaviour ceases to be reinforced so it declines. - has been proven through systematic desensitisation and flooding

Supported by experimental evidence - Little Albert (loud noise + white rat)

Question 24

Weaknesses of the Behavioural Approach to explaining Phobias

Answer 24

Not all avoidance behaviour is associated with phobias - some avoidance behaviour may be more motivated by positive feelings of safety

Doesn’t provide a complete explanation of phobias. Evolutionary factors could play a role in phobias such as snakes as these may have caused pain or even death to our ancestors. These are not learned but innate. Used as a survival mechanism - Biological preparedness

Evidence is flawed due to being unethically obtained (Little Albert) - no consent

Question 25

What is Systematic Desensitisation (SD)?

Answer 25

Systematic desensitisation is a form of behaviour therapy. It is a form of counter conditioning.
A therapist will attempt to replace the fear response by an alternative and harmless response. It is designed to GRADUALLY relax phobic anxiety as a new response to the phobic stimulus is learned. - reciprocal inhibition

Question 26

What are the 3 Processes involved in Systematic Desensitisation?

Answer 26

Three processes in SD:

The Fear/anxiety hierarchy - A list of situations relating to the phobic stimulus is put together by the patient and therapist in order from least frightening to most frightening.

Relaxation - the therapist teaches the patient to relax as deeply as possible. This is because of reciprocal inhibition (One emotion prevents another opposite emotion - it is impossible to feel scared and relaxed at the same time)

Exposure - the patient is exposed to the phobic stimulus while in a relaxed state. They start with the first and least scariest thing from the anxiety hierarchy. Once the patient can remain calm on one stage of the hierarchy they have mastered it and can move on to the next one. Treatment is considered successful when patients can stay relaxed in situations high on the anxiety hierarchy

Question 27

Evaluation of systematic desensitisation

Answer 27

+quick and requires less effort than other forms of psychotherapies
+it is successful for certain phobias. 90 percent success rate for phobias such as blood injection and spider phobias.
+it is an ethical method as it allows patients to feel comfortable unlike flooding

-it doesn’t work for social phobias
-relies on the clients ability to imagine the fearful situation if using in vivo technique for anxiety heirarchy
-may not work for phobias that have no previous trauma or personal experiences to explain for them - such as evolutionary phobias like heights and snakes.

Question 28

What is flooding?

Answer 28

It involves exposing patients to their phobic stimulus with no gradual build up. It involves immediate exposure to a very frightening situation.
The idea is that patients cannot use their avoidance response and anxiety peaks at such high levels that cannot be maintained for long
After they subside the patient can learn that the stimulus is harmless. This is known as extinction in classical conditioning.
They can even relax sometimes as they become exhausted from their own fear response

Question 29

Evaluation of flooding

Answer 29

+cost effective
+quicker than alternatives and has been found to be highly effective (Choy 2007 found it was more defective than SD)

-less effective for complex phobias such a social phobias as their is a cognitive aspect to these phobias
-the treatment can be traumatic as there is a high level of anxiety
-can be a waste of time and money if people do not complete the treatment as they often pull out because the experience can be too stressful - ineffective