Psychopathology

Question 1

Deviation from social norms

Answer 1

Behaviour that is different from the accepted standards of behaviour in a community or society
Breaching/ breaking/ not following/ not complying to the written and unwritten rules of society

Question 2

Failure to Function Adequately
David Rosenhan & Martin Seligman (1989)

Answer 2

• When a person no longer conforms to standard interpersonal rules, for example maintaining eye contact and personal space
• When a person experiences severe personal distress
• When a behaviour becomes irrational or dangerous to themselves or others

Question 3

Statistical deviation

Answer 3

The number of times that a less common behaviour or characteristic is observed

Question 4

Failure to function adequately

Answer 4

A person is considered abnormal if they are
unable to cope with the demands of everyday life.
Causes distress for the individual and others

Question 5

Deviation from ideal mental health

Answer 5

• Does not meet the criteria for good mental health
• Who deviates from the ideal mental health

Question 6

Observer discomfort

Answer 6

Displaying behaviour causes discomfort to observers e.g not keeping good hygiene so it is unpleasant to be around that person.

Question 7

Unpredictability

Answer 7

Displaying unexpected behaviours characterised by loss of control e.g. quitting a course after one bad mark in a test.

Question 8

Irrationality

Answer 8

Displaying behaviour that cannot be explained rationally.

Question 9

Maladpativeness

Answer 9

Displaying behaviour stopping individuals from attaining life goals both socially and occupationally.

Question 10

Personal Distress

Answer 10

Displaying behaviour which causes personal stress to the sufferer e.g. not being able to hold down a job and so having a limited income.

Question 11

Violation of moral standards

Answer 11

Displaying behaviour violating social norms e.g. loudly talking to oneself, loudly in the street.

Question 12

Unconventional or statistically rare behaviour

Answer 12

Displaying unconventional behaviours.

Question 13

Phobias
Behavioural characteristics

Answer 13

Panic - A person with a phobia may panic in response to the presence of the phobic stimulus. e.g crying, screaming, running away

Avoidance - The person is making a conscious effect to face their fear they tend to go to a lot of effort to prevent coming into contact with the phobia stimulus.

Endurance - This occurs when the person chooses. to remain in the presence of the phobic stimulus.

Question 14

Emotional Stimulus

Answer 14

Anxiety- they involve an emotional response of anxiety, an unpleasant state of high arousal. This prevents the person from relaxing and makes it very difficult to experience any positive emotion

Fear - Fear is the immediate and extremely unpleasant response we experience when we encounter or think about a phobic stimulus. It is usually more intense but experienced for shorter periods than anxiety.

Question 15

Cognitive characteristic

Answer 15

Selective attention to the phobic stimulus -
if a person can see the phobic stimulus it is hard to lock away from it. Keeping our attention on something really dangerous is a good thing as it gives us the best chance of reacting quickly to a threat, but it is not useful when the fear is irrational.

irrational belief - A person with a phobia may hold unfounded thoughts in relation to phobic stimuli. This kind of belief increases the pressure on the person to perform well in social situations.

Cognitive distortions - The perception of a person with a phobia may be inaccurate and unrealistic.

Question 16

Classical conditioning

Answer 16

Learning by association occurs when 2 stimuli are repeatedly paired together - a conditioned stimulus and new neutral stimuli. The neutral stimulus eventually produces the same response that was first produced by the unconditioned stimulus alone.

Question 17

Operant conditioning

Answer 17

A form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences eg. positive and negative reinforcement or punishment.

Question 18

Little Albert

Answer 18

It demonstrated that classical conditioning- the association of a particular stimulus or behaviour with an unrelated stimulus or behaviour - works in human beings. Albert was afraid of loud sounds - they provoked a discontinued fear response. The experiments left Albert alone with the rat, but each time he reached for it, they would hit a hammer against the metal, causing a banging noise. §

Question 19

Systematic Desensitisation

Answer 19

Is a behavioural therapy designed to gradually reduce phobic anxiety through the principle of classical conditioning. If a person can learn to relax in the presence of the phobic stimulus they will be cured.

Question 20

In Vitro
In vivo

Answer 20

1. imaginary exposure to the phobic stimulus
2. The client is actually exposed to the phobic stimulus

Question 21

Counterconditioning

Answer 21

Essentially a new response to the phobic stimulus is learned.
(phobic stimulus is paired with relaxation instead of anxiety.

Question 22

Reciprocal inhibitions

Answer 22

It is impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time, so one emotion prevents the other.

Question 23

Flooding

Answer 23

Flooding also involves exposing people with a phobia to their phobic stimulus but without a gradual build-up in an anxiety hierarchy. Instead flooding involves immediate exposure to a very frightening situation.

in classical conditioning this process is called extinction - the client quickly learns that the phobic stimulus is harmless.
A learned response is extinguished when the conditioned stimulus is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus. The result is that the encountered is no longer produces the conditioned response (fear)

Question 24

CBT A01 6marks

Answer 24

cognitive behavioural therapy is one way to threat depression. Ellis developed REBT which aimed to turn irrational thoughts into rational ones because the cause of depression often comes from self-defeating beliefs which have unproductive consequences
to do this Ellis extended the ABC model to also include D (disputing irrational thoughts), E (effects of disputing) and F (new feelings)
effective disputing allows the client to move away from catastrophising eg. no one likes me to more rational explanations eg. my friend just didn’t see me
= CBT also involves behavioural activation which encourages the client to engage in pleasurable activities and anticipate and deal with any cognitive obstacles ahead of time
= by disputing the irrational belief of ‘I won’t be able to achieve that’ into something more positive, the client will re-emerse themselves into things they once found enjoyable
= finally, CBT usually involves putting the new rational beliefs into practice by asking the client to complete homework, for example, making them rejoin a dance club

Question 25

Behavioural characteristics of depression

Answer 25

Activity levels
Firstly, there is often a change in activity level; sufferers of depression often experience a reduction in energy and constantly feel tired.
- In some cases, depression can lead to an opposite effect - known as psychomotor agitation. Agitated individuals struggle to real and may end up pacing up and down a room

Disruptions to sleep and eating behaviour
Furthermore, sufferers often experience disturbances with their sleeping pattern, with some sufferers sleeping significantly more, while others experience insomnia, an inability to sleep. Finally, sufferers often experience changes in appetite, which cause significant weight changes. Some sufferers will eat less and lose weight, while others will eight more and gain weight.

Aggression and self-harm
People with depression are often irritable, and in some cases, they can become verbally/physically aggressive. Depression can also lead to physical aggression directed against the self. This includes self-harm, often in the form of cutting or suicide attempts.

Question 26

Emotional Characteristics of depression

Answer 26

They key emotional characteristic of depression is a depressed mood, or feelings of sadness. Sufferers of depression will often experience the following: depressed mood, feelings of worthlessness and lack of interest or pleasure in all activities.

Although a depressed mood is the most common emotional characteristic of depression, some sufferers experience anger, which can be directed at themselves, or others. Anger can also lead to self-harming behaviours

People with depression tend to report reduced self-esteem, they like themselves less than usual. This can be extreme, with some people with depression describing a sense of self-loathing.

Question 27

Cognitive characteristics of depression

Answer 27

In addition to the emotional and behavioural characteristics, sufferers of depression often have a diminished ability to concentrate and tend to focus on the negative.Sufferers of depression find it difficult to pay or maintain attention and are often slower in responding to, or making decisions.

Furthermore, they are inclined to focus on the negative aspects of a situation, while ignoring the positives and in some cases experience recurrent thoughts of self-harm, death or suicide.

Absolutist thinking- Most situations are not good or bad when a person is depressed think in black and white. This means when a situation is unfortunate they tend to see it as an absolute disaster.

Question 28

Cognitive explanation for depression

Answer 28

Good mental health = rational thinking
Poor mental health = irrational thinking

A activating event
B Beliefs about A (thoughts)
C consequences/results of your beliefs about A

Question 29

Becks Cognitive theory of depression

Answer 29

it’s a person’s cognitions that create this vulnerability

Faculty information processing
this is when depressed people attend to the negative aspects of the situation and ignore the positives. People also tend to blow small problems out of proportion and think in black-and-white terms.

Negative self-schema
A schema is a package of ideas and information developed through experience. The act as a mental framework for the interpretation of sensory information. A self-schema is the package of information people have about themselves. People use schema to interpret the world, so if a person has a negative self schema they interpret all information about themselves in a negative way.

Negative triad
Beck suggested that a person develops a dysfunctional view of themselves because of a 3 types of negative thinking that occurs automatically, regardless of what reality of what is happening at the time.

A- Negative view of the world - eg. ‘the world is a cold hard place.’ This creates an impression that there is no hope anywhere.
B- negative view of the future- eg. the economy will really get better.’ Such thoughts reduce hopefulness and enhance depression
C- negative view of the self - eg. ‘i am a failure. Such a thought enhances any existing depressive feelings because they confirm the existing emotions of low self-esteem.

Question 30

Cognitive behaviour therapy

Answer 30

From the cognitive viewpoint, the therapy aims to deal with thinking such as challenging negative thoughts. The therapy also includes behavioural activation.
Behavioural element- CBT then involves working to change negative and irrational thoughts and finally put more effective behaviours into place.

Cognitive therapy aims to help clients test the reality of their negative beliefs. In future sessions if clients say that no one is nice to them/ there is no point in going to events, the therapists can then produce this evidence and use it to prove the clients statements are incorrect.

Question 31

REBT - Ellis rational behaviour therapy

Answer 31

• Extends ABC model to an ABCDE model
  D dispute / E effect
  the central technique is to identify and dispute (challenge) irrational behaviours

An REBT therapist would identify these as examples of utopianism and challenge this as an irrational belief. The intended effect is to challenge irrational belief and so break the link between negative and life events and depression.

The empirical argument involves disputing whether there is actual evidence to support this negative belief. The logical argument involves disputing whether the negative thought logically follows the facts.

Question 32

REBT - Ellis rational behaviour therapy

Answer 32

• Extends ABC model to an ABCDE model
  D dispute / E effect
  the central technique is to identify and dispute (challenge) irrational behaviours

An REBT therapist would identify these as examples of utopianism and challenge this as an irrational belief. The intended effect is to challenge irrational beliefs and so break the link between negative and life events and depression.

The empirical argument involves disputing whether there is actual evidence to support this negative belief. The logical argument involves disputing whether the negative thought logically follows the facts.

Question 33

Behavioural activation

Answer 33

is to work with depressed individuals to gradually decrease their avoidance and isolation and increase engagement with activities to improve mood. eg. exercise .
therapist reinforces the activity

Question 34

OCD

Answer 34

A serious anxiety related condition where a person experiences frequent intrusive and unwelcome obsessive thoughts, often followed by repetitive compulsions, impulses/urges

Question 35

OCD Behavioural Characteristics

Answer 35

• people with OCD feel compelled to repeat a behaviour.
  Compulsions reduce anxiety
  Compulsive behaviours are performed in an attempt to manage the anxiety produced by obsessions.
  Avoidance - They attempt to reduce anxiety by keeping away from situations that trigger it.

Question 36

OCD emotional characteristics

Answer 36

Anxiety and distress
unpleasant emotional experience because of the powerful anxiety that accompanies both obsessions and compulsions.
Accompanying depression
anxiety can be accompanied by low mood and lack of enjoyment relief from anxiety is temporary.
Gulit and Disgust - directed against something external like dirt/self.

Question 37

OCD cognitive characteristics

Answer 37

Obsessive thoughts- thoughts that occur over and over again.
Cognitive coping strategies help manage anxiety.
Insight into excessive anxiety people with OCD experience catastrophic thoughts about the worst-case scenarios. They tend to be hypervigilant - they maintain constant alertness and keep their attention focused on potential hazards.

Question 38

Genetic hypothesis/explanation

Answer 38

Candidate genes - genes which create a vulnerability to OCD.
the gene 5HT1-D beta is implicated in the transport of serotonin across synapses.

Polygenic - several (230) genes are involved

Question 39

Genetic hypothesis/explanation

Answer 39

Candidate genes - genes which create a vulnerability to OCD.
the gene 5HT1-D beta is implicated in the transport of serotonin across synapses.

Polygenic - several (230) genes are involved

1 group of genes may cause OCD in 1 person and another group and another group of genes may cause the disorder in another person- aetiologically heterogeneous

Different types of OCD may be a particular genetic variation

Question 40

Supporting evidence for biological explanations for OCD

Answer 40

Nestadt et al - reviewed twin studies and found 68% of identical twins (MZ) shared OCD as opposed to 31% of non-identical (D2) twins.

Lewis observed of that of his OCD patients, 37% had parents with OCD and 21 % had siblings with OCD.

Question 41

Neural explanations
serotonin hypothesis

Answer 41

Neural explanations - the genes associated with OCD are likely to affect. the levels of key neurotransmitters as well as structures of the brain.

Role of serotonin - helps to regulate mood
If a person has low levels of serotonin then normal transmission of mood-relevant information does not take place. and a person may experience low moods.

Decision-making systems - this is associated with abnormal functioning of the lateral of frontal lobes of the brain. This is responsible for logical thinking and making decisions. The left parahippocampal gytas associated with processing unpleasant emotions, functions abnormally in OCD.

Question 42

SRRIs
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor

Answer 42

• the presynaptic neuron releases serotonin and travels around the synapses.
• the neurotransmitters chemically convey the signal from the presynaptic neuron to the postsynaptic neuron.
• it is then reabsorbed by the presynaptic neuron, where it is broken down and reused.
  SSRIs inhibit serotonin, which causes the levels of serotonin to increase. As well as the postsynaptic neuron being stimulated.
• this compensates for whatever is wrong in the serotonin system for someone who has OCD.
  it takes 3-4 months of daily use for SSRI to have much impact on symptons.

Question 43

Alternatives

Answer 43

When an SSRI is ineffective after 3 to 4 months, the dose can be increased or combined with other drugs.

Tricycles - an older type of antidepressants, such as clomipramine
acts on various systems including the serotonin system where it has the same effect on SSRI. Clomipramine has more severe side effects than SSRIs so it is generally kept in reserve for people who do not respond to SSRIs.

SNRI - noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors - are a 2nd line of defence for people who don’t respond to SSRIs. SNRIs increase levels of serotonin as well as other different neurotransmitters - noradrenaline