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Paper 1 Psychology > Psychopathology > Flashcards

Psychopathology Flashcards

1
Q

Statistical infrequency

A

Behaviours that are statistically rare are abnormal. 2 standard deviations away from the mean classed as abnormal

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2
Q

Statistical infrequency Evaluations

A
  • Not all infrequent behaviours are undesirable. eg high iq
  • Chronic depression occurs in 10% of people at some point meaning it would be classed as normal
  • Gives full overview of general behaviours in population
  • Cultural factors, sth may not be abnormal in other cultures eg cueing in britain
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3
Q

Deviation from social norms

A

Behaviour that goes against agreed social norms is abnormal.
Situational norms - acceptable behaviour in a situation
Developmental norms - acceptable behaviour at a certain age

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4
Q

Changes over time (deviation from social norms)

A

Drinking and driving was common in 60s and 70s
Smoking in public places was common

Homosexuality was classed as illness on DSM until 1973

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5
Q

Deviation from social norms Evaluations

A
  • Accepts developmental norms
  • Gives society the right to intervene in someones life when they need it most

-Social norms are subjective and are not tangible
- Change over time
- Is being non conforming abnormal?

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6
Q

Deviation from ideal mental health

A

Behaviour is abnormal if person deviates too far from expected state of ideal mental health.

Jahoda 1958 identified 6 aspects of ideal mental health and if these are absent it indicates abnormality

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7
Q

Jahoda’s 6 aspects of ideal mental health

A

1) Personal growth and self actualisation - achieving ones potential
2) Accurate perception of reality - no distortion and realistic view
3) Autonomy - being independent
4) Integration - resisting and coping with stress
5) Self-attitudes - self respect
6) Environmental mastery - Being flexible in any environment

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8
Q

Evaluation of deviation from ideal mental health

A
  • Emphasises on what we need to have rather than what we dont. Positive and progressive definition
  • Holistic takes into account many different aspects of individuals life not reductionist
  • Goal setting - allows individuals to see goals to achieve normality
  • Very difficult to achieve normality in this defoniton
  • Vague criteria and difficult to measure
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9
Q

Failure to function adequately

A

The inability to cope with the demands of everyday life. Eg not going to work

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10
Q

Features of failure to function adequately

A
  1. Personal or distress to others
  2. Maladaptive behaviour - stops u from attaining life goals
  3. Unpredictability
  4. Irrationality
  5. Observer discomfort
  6. Violation of moral standards
  7. Unconventiality
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11
Q

Evaluations of failure to function adequately

A
  • Focuses on observable behaviour that can be seen
  • Very difficult to achieve normality
  • Feeling distress can be normal sometimes . eg if parent dies
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12
Q

Two Process Model

A

Classical conditioning - Learning through association
Operant condition - Learning through consequence

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13
Q

Acquisition of phobias

A

Acquisition of phobias through a traumatic event and association.
Stimuli you become phobic to starts as neutral stimulus as it doesn’t initially scare you, but the pairing to the unconditioned stimulus links it to the feeling of fear

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14
Q

Maintenance of phobias

A

(operant conditioning processes)
Rewarded for avoiding phobia
Punishment if exposed to phobia

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15
Q

Law of effect

A

Every behaviour that is rewarded will likely be repeated. Every behaviour that is punished will lead to extinguishing the behaviour

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16
Q

One trial learning

A

Behaviour can be learnt in one incident. Doesn’t take several repeated events to trigger phobia.
EG - Spider bite

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17
Q

Watson and Rayner (Little Albert)

A

-Watson and Raynor presented little albert with a white rat and he showed no fear

-They then presented the rat with a loud bang that startled albert and made him cry

-After continuous association of the white rat and loud noises Albert became classically conditioned to experience fear at sight of rat

-Alberts fear generalized to other stimuli similar to the rat, eg fur coat and cotton wool

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18
Q

Stimulus-generalisation

A

Conditioned stimulus can be generalised to similar stimuli. EG - little albert generalised fear to almost anything white and fluffy

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19
Q

Systematic Desensitisation (WOLPE 1950S)

A

-Counter conditions sufferers by replacing feeling of fear with calmness.
Extinguishes undesirable behaviour by replacing it with a more desirable one

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20
Q

Reciprocal inhibition

A

The idea that we cannot feel two major emotions at the same time eg fear and relaxation

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21
Q

In vitro

A

Patient imagines exposure to the phobic stimulus

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22
Q

In vivo

A

Patient is actually exposed to the phobic stimulus

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23
Q

Menzies and Clarke 1993

A

Found in vivo techniques more effective, but sometimes it has to be imagined eg death phobia

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24
Q

Three step approach of Systematic Desensitisation

A
  1. Relaxation techniques
  2. Hierarchy of fear
  3. Graduated exposure
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25
Flooding
Exposing the patient to their phobia without any build up to the exposure. Clients are exposed to the most fearful scenario immediately with a view to overwhelm and normalise fear response
26
How flooding prevents phobias
Overwhelming of fear response, coupled with realisation that fear isn't harmful leads to adrenaline and anxiety levels returning to baseline and client realising irrationality of phobias. Exhaustion sets in and anxiety level begins to go down
27
Flooding and classical + operant conditioning
Prolonged intense exposure eventually creates new association between feared object and something positive. Preventing reinforcement of phobias through avoidance behaviour.
28
Evaluations of flooding
- Ethical issues as not being protected from harm - Requires strong commitment from suffer not always available - Requires less sessions compared to SD due to directness of tackling phobia
29
The cognitive approach explaining depression
Suggests faulty thinking processes are cause of dysfunctional behaviour (Maladaptive thinking). We all have same input but processing is different from everyone
30
Two cognitive explanations for depression
- Becks negative triad - Ellis ABCDE model
31
Beck (1997) Negative triad
1. The cognitive triad of negative thinking 2. Negative self schemas 3. Errors in logic
32
Cognitive triad
Caused by emergence of negative schemas developed by individual. Triggered by parents in childhood and adolescence. (OVERLY CRITICAL) 1. Negative views about world 2. Negative views about future 3. Negative views about oneself
33
Negative self Schemas
Ineptness schemas - makes depressives expect to fail Self - blame schemas - makes depressives feel responsible for all misfortunes Negative self-evaluation schemas - constantly remind depressives of their worthlessness
34
Cognitive bias
Negative schemas are maintained by cognitive biases. A faulty way of thinking or perceiving info Inattentional biases - Failure to notice something completely visible Confirmation biases - Tendency to search for sth that backs up how you feel about urself ignoring other positive elements
35
Errors in logic
People with negative schemas prone to making logical errors as they selectively focus on certain aspects of situation while ignoring other relevent information.
36
3 Errors in logic
Personalization - Negative events interpreted as their fault Selective Abstraction - Focusing on worst aspects of any situation Magnification and Minimisation - Making a problem appear bigger than it is and solution smaller.
37
Ellis ABC model
A - Activating event or trigger B - Belief about event c - Consequences Eg - Doing bad in a test. Thinking your gonna fail main exam. Feeling useless as a result of the grade
38
3 Layers of thought
Automatic thoughts - Thoughts that come in to the mind automatically -Intermediate beliefs - Attitudes and rules called underlying assumptions - Core beliefs - Absolute beliefs about yourself, others and the world. These thought patterns distort your experiences. If any of them go toxic it is easy to link negative thoughts to depressive behaviours, eg low self esteem low mood
39
Mcintosh and Fischer 2000 (Becks triad)
Found no distinct types of thinking, suggesting Beck's negative triad is not realistic to show how people with depression think
40
CBT
Aims to help the client identify their negative, irrational thoughts and replace these with positive more rational ways of thinking. Includes cognitive and behavioural elements ,with homework
41
Cognitive element of CBT
Therapist encourages client to become aware of beliefs contributing to anxiety or depression. Involves direct questioning
42
Behavioural element of CBT
The therapist and client decide together how the client's behaviour can be reality tested through experimentation either through role play or homework. Aim of this is that clients will themselves be able to recognise consequences of their faulty cognitions. Client and therapist work together to set new goals for client with more realistic and rational beliefs
43
ABCDE model
Activating event Belief Consequences Disputing of beliefs Effective new approach
44
Disputing of beliefs (ABCDE)
By this stage individual has understanding of what triggers them. Therapist helps individual challenge their belief structure with the goal of helping them replacing it with more useful beliefs. Questions a therapist might use is How are your beliefs serving you?
45
Effective new approach
Involves coach working with individual to replace unhelpful beliefs with set of new helpful beliefs
46
CBT Techniques
Guided discovery - Therapist sees thing from your perspective Journaling - Asking clients to list negative thoughts that occurred to them between sessions as well as positive thoughts Role playing - Help work through different behaviours in difficult situations.
47
Obsessions (OCD)
Persistent and uncontrollable thoughts, images, impulses, worries, fears or doubts. Often intrusive, disturbing and unwanted.
48
Compulsions (OCD)
Repetitive physical behaviours and actions or mental thought rituals that are performed over and over again in attempt to relieve anxiety caused by obsessional thoughts
49
Genes and OCD
There is no single OCD gene Couple of candidate genes implicated in onset of OCD 1. SERT GENE 2. COMT GENE
50
SERT gene
Deals with how efficiently serotonin is transported across the synaptic gap. When it goes faulty this can lead to OCD
51
COMT gene
Responsible for clearing dopamine from synapses and low activity of the COMT gene is also associated with OCD
52
hSERT gene
Has the instructions for making a serotonin transporter. Transporters job is to mop up extra serotonin after nerve splits it towards the next nerve cell in line. In people with OCD hSERT works too fast and may collect all the serotonin before the next cell even receives signal
53
Evaluation of Genetic explanation of OCD
- Biologically reductionist - Practical applications of drug therapy of SSRIS economic benefit eg taxes - Face validity
54
Genetic explanation
Genotypes Phenotypes Some genes always lead to certain characteristics (dominant genes) Some genes need more than one copy to produce a characteristic (recessive genes)
55
March and Benton 2007 (GENES AND OCD)
Studies of twins with OCD estimating that genetics contribute approximately 45-65% of the risk for developing the disorder in children. These figures show that genetic factors do play a role in development of OCD but not whole story
56
Lewis 1936 (OCD GENES)
Calculated that 37% of his OCD patients had parents with OCD And 21% had siblings with OCD
57
Neural explanation for OCD
Rapid serotonin reuptake. Serotonin transport system has become too efficient
58
Orbital frontal cortex
Problem detection eg germs
59
Cingulate gyrus
Solution to problem eg:wash hands
60
Caudate nucleus
Move on - eg hands washed and problems solved so move onto something else
61
Chen et al 2016 OCD Orbital frontal cortex and cingulate gyrus
Those with OCD cannot move on from behaviours of washing hands and carry on doing it. Their caudate nucleus is faulty
62
Biological treatments of ocd
Antidepressants SSRI'S
63
SSRI'S
DO not increase the levels of serotonin, they merely make it easier for the next neuron to absorb the neurotransmitter
64
Types of SSRI'S
Fluoxetine sertraline Can take between 2-4 weeks for benefits to be shown
65
Side effects of SSRI's
- Dry mouth - dizziness - Headaches - Loss of appetite and weight loss - Vomiting blood - Hallucinations
66
Half life of SSRI'S
Half life - refers to how quickly half the drug will leave your system. Determines how frequently u can take the drugs Half life of sertraline is roughly 26 hours.
67
Pigott and Seay 1999 (SSRI'S)
Meta analysis on effectiveness of SSRI'S found to be consistently effective in treating OCD symptoms but some had serious side effects
68
Benzodiazepines
They haven't been found to treat OCD symptoms, but they are used to treat anxiety

Paper 1 Psychology (4 decks)

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