Psychopathology Flashcards
Definitions of Abnormality 1 AO1
Statistical infrequency - defining abnormality in statistic, rarely seen behaviour is abnormal e.g. iq
Deviation from social norms - abnormality based on social context - when person behaves in diff way to expected classed as abnormal e.g. antisocial personality disorder but expectations vary between culture so not one universal set of social rules!
Definitions of Abnormality 1 AO3
+real life applications of statistical infrequency - assessment of those with mental disorders includes some comparison to statistics e.g. intellectual disability disorder so is a useful part of clinical assessment
-unusual characteristics can be postive tho - if behaviour is rare doesnt mean person needs treatment e.g. iq scores over 130 - so statistical frequency shouldnt be used to make diagnosis alone!
-not everyone unusual benefits from a label - when someone is living happily no point in them being labelled abnormal e.g. someone with a low iq who wasnt distressed doesnt need a diagnosis and using labels can have negative effect on ppl and the way others see them
-social norms are culturally relative - person from one culture may label someone else as abnormal using their own standards for example hearing voices is acceptable in some cultures but abnormal in uk causing problems within people of a culture living within another cultural group
Definitions of Abnormality 2 AO1
Failure to function adequately - inability to cope with everyday living e.g. not being able to maintain hygiene, rosenhan et al signs of failure to cope includes distress, irrational behaviour, ie diagnosis would be need in intellectual disability disorder where person acc fails to cope due to low iq
Deviation from ideal mental health - jahodas 8 criteria on what makes someones mental health ideal, inevitable overlap between definitions tho.
Definitions of Abnormality 2 AO3
+failure to function adequately recognises patients perspective - difficult to assess distress but acknowledges importance of patient experiences and captures experience of many ppl who need helpful and can therefore be used to define abnormality!!!
+deviation from ideal mental health is comprehensive - broad range of criteria - most reasons someone would seek mental health help - good tool for thinking about mental health
-same as deviation from social norms - hard to say whether failing to function or deviation from social norms e.g. ppl who do extreme sports can be seen as behaving maladaptively and treating these as failures of adequate functioning may be restricting freedom
-culturally relative - ideas in jahodas classification specific to western countries e.g. in individualistic cultures self actualisation would be considered self indulgent where focus is on community than urself and these traits are of individualistic cultures and culturally specific
Phobias depression and ocd
Phobias -
Behavioural - panic, avoidance
Emotional - immediate fear leading to anxiety in future
Cognitive - Irrational beliefs about fear stimulus, difficulty concentrating as preoccupied by anxious thoughts due to selective attention to stimulus
Depression -
Behavioural - lowered activity levels, change in appetite leading to weight gain or loss and sleeping patterns e.g. insomnia
Emotional - lowered mood feelings of sadness, anger
Cognitive - Slower thought process - poor concentration, persistent negative beliefs (absolutist thinking)
OCD -
Behavioural - compulsions - repeated behaviours e.g. handwashing reducing anxiety, avoidance of situations triggering anxiety e.g. avoiding germs
Emotional - anxiety, distress, guilt and disgust ie towards dirt
Cognitive - obsessive thoughts leading to excessive anxiety ie being contaminated with germs
Behavioural approach to explaining phobias AO1
Two process model - phobias learnt through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
UCS - UCR
NS-NR
UNS+UCS - UCR
CS-CR
Little Albert: watson and raynor showed how fear of rats can be conditioned - noise (UCS) - fear (UCR), rat (UNS) + noise (UCS) - fear (UCR), rat (CS) - fear (CR)
Generalisation of fear to other stimuli too
Maintenance by operant conditioning - behaviour reinforced or punished , negative reinforcement - individual removes unpleasant behaviour
people avoid phobic stimulus preventing anxiety and acts as negative reinforcement
Behavioural approach to explaining phobias AO3
+good explanatory power - two process model goes beyond watson and raynors simple classical conditioning explanation - important implications for therapy - strength of two process model
-not all bad experiences lead to phobias - easy to see how phobias come about due to conditioning and bad experience but u dont have to develop a phobia as a result of it so conditioning itself cant explain, phobias may only develop where a vulnerability exists
-two process model doesn’t properly consider cognitive aspects - behavioural explanations orientated towards explaining behaviour not cognition - phobias can also have cognitive element so two process theory doesnt adequately explain that side
Behavioural approach to treating phobias AO1
Systematic desensitisation - counterconditioning so cs paired with relaxation instead of fear, reciprocal inhibition - not possible to feel anxious and relaxed at same time so one must prevent the other
-patient therapist design anxiety heirarchy most to least frightening stimuli
- relaxation practised at each level using a relaxation technique and takes place over several sessions from bottom of hierarchy, treatment success when person can stay relaxed in situations high on hierarchy
FLOODING - immediate exposure to phobic stimulus, quick learning that phobic stimulus is harmless thru exhaustion of fear response leading to extinction, unethical as it gives unpleasant experience, need informed consent
Behavioural approach to treating phobias AO3
+ SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION is suitable for diverse range of patients - alternatives not well suited to some e.g. those w learning difficulty - sd most appropriate
+SD acceptable to patients - preffered, doesnt cause same degree of trauma as u can get pleasant experiences like relaxing and talking to therapist, low refusal rates to start treatment and low attrition rates to drop out for SD
-flooding less effective for some types of phobia - less effective for complex phobias like social phobia as they can have cognitiveaspects too such as anxiety from unpleasant thoughts - cognitive therapies may be better in this respect as they tackle irrational thoughts
-flooding is traumatic - highly traumatic - not unethical as consent given but patients unwilling to see it through to end - treatment not effective waste of time and money preparing patients just for them to refuse it
Cognitive approach to treating phobias AO1
Beck’s cognitive theory of depression - faulty information processing - thinking in a flawed way depressed ppl tend to show absolutist thinking and blow things out of proportion, have negative self schemas and negative triad - negative views of world, future and self
Elis’ ABC model -
A activating event - irrational thought, negative events
B beliefs - negative events cause irrational belief e.g. musterbation (must always succeed)
C consequences - activating event triggering irrational beliefs causes emotional and behavioural consequences
Cognitive approach to treating phobias AO3
+becks theory has practical applications - forms a part of cbt - negative triad can be identified in cbt and challenged - successful therapy
-becks theory doesnt explain all aspects of depression - depression is complex and some are depressed cuz of deep anger - some depressed patients suffer hallucinations and bizarre beliefs - becks theory cannot always explain all cases of depression focuses only on one aspect
-ellis model is a partial explanation - no doubt that some cases of depression follow activating events - psychologists call this reactive depression and see it as different from the kind of depression arising without obvious cause - ellis explanation only applies to some kinds of depression
Cognitive approach to treating depression AO1
CBT - patient and therapist work together to clarify problems, challenging negative thoughts relating to negative triad challenged about world future and self, patient is scientist - patient encouraged to test reality of irrational beliefs
REBT by ELLIS extends abc model to abcde d for dispute irrational beliefs and E for effect.
Behavioural activation - working with depressed to decrease their avoidance behaviours and increase engagement with activities that improve mood
Cognitive approach to treating depression AO3
+success may be due to therapist-patient relationship - rosenzwieg suggested that differences between methods of psychotherapy are slim but all have one essential ingredient - therapist patient relationship and it might be the quality of this that determines success of treatment than anything else
-CBT may not work for severe cases - some cases so severe that patients unmotivated to take on hard cognitive work required by cbt - antidepressant medicine then commence cbt when they are alert and motivated - cbt cant be used as sole treatment for all types of depression
-Some patients really want to explore their past - focus of cbt is on present and future not past - patients make links between childhood and current depression and so the present future focus of cbt might ignore important aspect of depressed patients experience
-overexaggerated on cognition - cbt might minimise importance of circumstances patient is living in - e.g. in poverty or suffering abuse needs changing fast rather than what is in patients mind - cbt used inappropriately can demotivate ppl to change their situation
Biological explanation to explaining OCD AO1
Genetic explanations - Candidate genes create vulnerability for OCD
Serotonin genes, dopamine genes - role in regulating mood
OCD is polygenic - caused by several genes
DIFF TYPES OF OCD caused by particular genetic variations e.g.hoarding
Neural explanations - low levels of serotonin lowers mood - normal transmission of serotonin doesnt take place between neurons
Decision making systems in frontal lobe impaired causes ocd
Left parahippocampal gyrus dysfunctional - processes emotions
Biological explanation to explaining OCD AO3
-too many candidate genes identified - psychologists less successful at pinning down all genes involved - each genetic variation only increases risk of ocd by a fraction so dk which gene involved - little predictive value
-environmental risk factors - environment also plays a role in increasing risk of developing ocd ie cromer et al found half of ocd patients had traumatic event in past, ocd more severe in patients with one or more traumas supporting diathesis stress model - more productive as we can acc do something about this
-supporting evidence for neural explanations - antidepressants work on serotonin suggesting serotonin system involved in ocd also ocd symptoms form part of biological conditions such as parkinsons - biological processes that cause symptoms in those conditions may also be RESPONSIBLE FOR OCD!!!!!!!
-serotonin ocd link may not be unique to ocd - many ppl with ocd have depression - co morbidity - depression may be caused by disruption to serotonin system - could just be that serotonin system disrupted in patients as they have depression not just ocd so we dk
