Psychopathology Flashcards
Statistical infrequency and deviation from social norms - AO1
Statistical infrequency - numerically unusual behaviour or characteristic. E.g. intellectual disability disorder IQ below 70 (bottom 2% of a normal distribution).
Deviation - social judgments about what is acceptable. Norms are culture-specific - what is normal in one culture may not be in another - e.g. homosexuality.
E.g. antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy) - impulsive, aggressive, irresponsible behaviour.
Statistical infrequency and deviation from social norms - AO3
+ Statistical - real-world application - useful in diagnosis and assessment. For example, a score of 30+ (top 5%) on Beck’s depression index indicates severe depression.
- Unusual characteristics can be positive. Below 70 IQ is abnormal, but so is over 130. Low depressions score could be abnormal. This means that SI is good for diagnosis, but not for measuring abnormality.
+ Deviation - real-world application in clinical practise - used to diagnose some disorders - antisocial and schizotypal personality disorders. ‘Strange’ is used to describe behaviour of people with the disorder.
- Cultural relativism - different standards - hard to make social judgments. Hearing voices in one culture is normal, but a sign of schizophrenia in others. Also, norms vary between situations. Aggressive and deceitful behaviour more normal in corporate world compared to family life.
Failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health - AO1
Failure to function - inability to cope with demands of everyday life. Non-conformity to social rules, personal distress, danger to self. Poor hygiene and nutrition, inability to hold down a job.
E.G intellectual disability disorder - failure to function is part of diagnosis, low IQ not enough.
Mental health - Jahoda considered normality rather than abnormality. Came up with a set of positive characteristics. Includes: lack of distress, rationality, self-actualisation, coping with stress, realistic view of world, self-esteem, independence, successfully work.
Failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health - AO3
+ Represents a threshold for help - provides a way to identify when someone needs professional help. According to studies, 25% people in the UK experience a mental health problem in any given year, but they are normally noticed and treated when they fail to function.
- Discriminatory - may lead to alternative lifestyles being judged as abnormal. People who live ‘off-grid’ do not hold down jobs. People who do extreme sports are dangers to themselves. Are they abnormal though?
- Culture bound - self-actualisation associated with Western individualism. Independence also varies between cultures, high in Germany, low in Italy.
- Extremely high standards - few people ever meet them - unrealistic and damaging. Good self -esteem and self-actualisation are hard to achieve.
Characteristics of phobias - AO1
Phobias are characterised by excessive fear towards a thing or situation (stimulus). DSM recognises following categories: specific phobia (fear of needles or cats), social anxiety, agoraphobia (fear of going outside).
Behavioural:
Panic - crying, screaming. Children may react differently, e.g. freezing, tantrum.
Avoidance - avoiding phobic stimulus, e.g. not using public bathroom.
Endurance - enduring phobic stimulus, e.g. staying in room with spider when you have arachnophobia.
Emotional:
Anxiety - phobias are anxiety disorders, so produce states of high arousal.
Fear - immediate unpleasant response to stimulus. More intense but shorter than anxiety.
Emotional response is unreasonable - disproportionate to danger of phobic stimulus.
Cognitive:
Selective attention - focusing on phobic stimulus.
Irrational beliefs - e.g. someone with social phobia may believe ‘if I blush people will think I’m weak.’
Cognitive distortion - perception of phobic stimulus is distorted - snakes as alien and aggressive.
Behavioural explanation for phobias - AO1
Two-process model of conditioning. Phobias acquired by classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning. Behaviourist approach.
Acquisition by classical conditioning - we associate NS with something that already triggers fear response (UCS).
Little Albert rat study - rat is NS. Loud noise UCS - hitting iron bar. Fear of rat CR. Fear generalises to similar stimuli - non-white rabbit, Santa Claus beard. Were going to countercondition him, but parents pulled out.
Maintenance through operant conditioning - avoidance behaviour is both positive and negatively reinforcing. This explains the longevity of phobias.
Behavioural explanation for phobias - AO3
+ Real-world application - phobias successfully treated by preventing avoidance - flooding. Systematic desensitisation - counterconditioning.
- Ignores cognitive aspects of phobias like irrational beliefs. Overly reductionist. Doesn’t adequately explain phobic cognitions, therefore not a valid explanation.
+ Research support - 73% of people with dental phobia had past trauma, compared to 21% in control.
C.P - not all phobias e.g. snakes - no trauma. This is due to evolutionary adaptations of phobias.
Systematic desensitisation - AO1
Systematic desensitisation - a behavioural therapy designed to gradually reduce phobic anxiety through counterconditioning.
Anxiety hierarchy - list of situations ranked for how much anxiety they produce. E.g. - picture of a cat lowest, holding one highest.
Relaxation techniques - reciprocal inhibition - can’t be relaxed and afraid at same time. Breathing/imagery techniques.
Exposure to phobic stimulus whilst relaxed. Often takes several sessions. When client is relaxed at a certain level of the hierarchy they move up one.
Systematic desensitisation - AO3
+ Evidence of effectiveness - more effective than relaxation after 33 months (Gilroy study of people with arachnophobia). Resent research suggests it is suitable for range of phobias, including agoraphobia and social anxiety.
+ Suitable for people with learning disabilities - cognitive therapy requires complex rational thinking and flooding is traumatic. SD the most appropriate.
- time consuming - takes 6-8 sessions compared to 1-2 flooding sessions. Person needs to be trained in relaxation techniques and slowly move up hierarchy.
Flooding - AO1
Exposes clients to phobic stimulus - very frightening situation without build-up. Flooding sessions are longer than SD - often 3 hours, but only need one or two.
Works through extinguishing phobic stimulus - realising it is harmless. Often client will achieve relaxation by becoming exhausted from their own fear response.
Ethical safeguards - clients must give informed consent and be prepared for flooding. Normally given choice between SD or flooding.
Flooding - AO3
+ Cost-effective - doesn’t take many sessions, mostly 1-3, compared with SD which takes about 6-8. Clinical effectiveness is important but so is cost, due to NHS. More people can be treated.
- Traumatic - rated as more stressful - higher attrition rates, aka dropout rates. This can make the phobia worse if stimulus is not extinguished.
Characteristics of depression - AO1
All forms of depression are characterised by changes to mood. DSM-5 recognises: major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder.
Behavioural:
Activity levels - reduced energy levels, lethargy. Knock-on effect on work or education. Psychomotor agitation - restless pacing.
Disruption to sleep and eating - insomnia or hypersomnia (increased need for sleep).
Aggression and self-harm - verbal and physical aggression and often suicide attempts.
Emotional:
Lowered mood - more pronounced than ‘sadness’ - depressed people feel worthless and empty.
Anger - towards self and others - translates often into aggression and self-harm.
Lowered self-esteem - self-loathing.
Cognitive:
Poor concentration - inability to stick with a task - makes work hard.
Dwelling on negatives - depressed people more likely to focus on negatives - bias to remember unhappy events over happy ones.
Absolutist thinking - thinking everything is either all good or all bad. Catastrophising small events.
Beck’s theory of depression - AO1
Beck’s cognitive triad - he took a cognitive approach to explaining why some people are predisposed to have the disorder.
Faulty information processing - attending to negative aspects of a situation. ‘Black and white’ thinking - something is all bad or all good.
Negative self-schema - negative information about ourselves is accessed whenever we encounter a self-relevant situation.
Negative triad - dysfunctional view of self a result of three types of thinking. Negative views of the world, self and future.
Beck’s theory of depression - AO3
+ Research support - cognitive vulnerability precedes depression - Cohen prospective study of 473 adolescents. Demonstrates association.
+ Real-world application - identify cognitive vulnerabilities through screening and target them with CBT. CBT can make people more resilient to negative life events.
- Both forms of cognitive explanation ignore the biological roots of depression - serotonin levels, family history. Reductionist, partial explanations.
Ellis’s ABC model - AO1
Depression arises from irrational thoughts. These are different to illogical or unrealistic thoughts - any thoughts that interfere with us being happy and free from pain.
A - activating event - negative real-life event that triggers an irrational response.
B - beliefs - beliefs that lead us to overreact - utopianism - life always meant to be fair. ‘Musturbation’ - we must always achieve success.
C - consequences - depression results when we overreact to negative life events. Musturbation then failing at something leads to depression.
