Psychopathology Flashcards
What are the 4 definitions of abnormality?
Failure to function adequately
Deviation from social norms
Deviation from ideal mental health
Statistical infrequency
What is statistical infrequency?
Deviating from the mean average of society, usually 3 standard deviations above or below the mean.
An example of statistical infrequency?
Being in the top or bottom 2.5% for intelligence levels means you are abnormally intelligent or unintelligent
Deviation from ideal mental health means?
The absence of health indicates abnormality. (for example the absence of positive factors indicates something is abnormal)
Give at least 3 examples of the criteria around deviation from ideal mental health
Having a positive view of oneself
Being independent and autonomous
Being resistant to stress
What is failure to function adequately?
Behaviours that stop you from being able to function in everyday life, stop you from having a job or routine.
Give 3 examples of behaviours that are considered to stop you from functioning based on the failure to function adequately criteria
Causes others distress
Unpredictable behaviour
Maladaptive behaviour
How is failure to function adequately measured?
On the GAF scale - Global assessment of functioning scale
What is deviation from social norms
Acting differently to what society expects of behaviour
An example of deviation from social norms?
Having schizophrenia (hallucinations and delusions)
What is a common weakness of failure to function adequately, deviation from social norms and deviation from ideal mental health?
They are all ethnocentric as they differ culture to culture and do not apply to all cultures
A strength of failure to function adequately and statistical infrequency is?
they are more objective than the other explanations as they can be measured quantitatively.
What is a phobia?
An intense fear of a person, place or thing
Behavioural characteristics of a phobia
Avoidance
Endurance
Panic
Cognitive characteristics of a phobia
selective attention,
cognitive distortions
irrational beliefs
Emotional characteristics of a phobia
Anxiety
Fear
Unreasonable response
What is the two process model to explain phobias?
Classical conditioning induces a phobia and operant conditioning maintains a phobia
How does classical conditioning induce a phobia?
Pairing a neutral stimulus (white rat) with an unconditioned stimulus (loud noise) that after enough pairings creates a conditioned response of fear
A study to support classical conditioning induces phobias
Little Albert white rat study. Pairing loud noise with white rat to induce fear into little albert
How does operant conditioning maintain a phobia?
Through negatively reinforcing the phobia. Avoiding the stimulus and removing anxiety acts as a reward so negatively reinforces behaviour
How does social learning theory explain phobias?
Through vicarious reinforcement, watching someone else react negatively with a stimulus
Strengths of the behaviourist explanation for phobias?
Research to support it (Little Albert)
Can create treatments
Weakness of the behaviourist explanation for phobias?
Prevalence - not all phobias follow a negative experience
The two process model doesn’t account for cognitive processes
What is the treatment for phobias?
Systematic desensitisation
Flooding
What does systematic desensitisation work off of?
Reciprocal inhibition, you cannot be relaxed and stressed at the same time
What does systematic desensitisation include
Fear Hierarchy
Pairing Relaxation techniques with fear hierarchy
Rating fear on a scale of 1-100
Moving up stages once anxiety is low
What is depression?
A disorder that includes disabling moods
Behavioural characteristics of depression
Activity levels
Disruptions to sleep and eating
Aggression and self harm.
Cognitive characteristics of depression
Poor concentration
Attending and dwelling on negative Absolutist thinking
Emotional characteristics of depression
Lowered mood
Anger
Lowered self esteem
What are the two explanations of depression?
Becks theory of depression
Ellis’s ABC model
What are the 3 elements of beck theory of depression
negative self schemas
cognitive biases
the cognitive negative triad
What does the cognitive triad consist of?
The self
The world
The future
What is a strength of Becks cognitive theory?
Cohen concluded that assessing cognitive vulnerability allows us to screen young people, identifying most at risk of developing depression for earlier intervention.
What is a weakness of Becks cognitive theory?
Ignores biological factors and can be considered a reductionist way of explaining depression
What does Ellis ABC model of depression stand for?
A = activating events
B= beliefs
C= consequences
What is a strength of Ellis ABC model?
therapies such as REBT
What is a weakness of Ellis ABC model
Only explains reactive depression not endogenous depression
What are the two treatments for depression
CBT - Beck
REBT - Ellis
What does CBT stand for?
Cognitive behavioural therapy
What does CBT involve?
Changing irrational thoughts and beliefs to positive ones
Involves the client as a scientist to investigate their own thoughts
Set homework to change their behaviour to match thoughts
A strength and weakness of CBT
Strength = Cost effect and CBT is better than no treatment at all (Robinson)
Weakness= CBT seems to lack effectiveness for severe cases and for those with learning disabilities.
What does REBT stand for?
Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy
What does REBT include?
ABCDE - Disputing irrational beliefs, noticing the Effects of the dispute.
Patients do homework tasks to relate to their disputed thoughts
What does OCD stand for?
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Behavioural characteristics of OCD
Avoidance
Compulsions are repetitive
Compulsions reduce anxiety
Emotional characteristics of OCD
Anxiety and distress
Disgust
Accompanying depression
Cognitive characteristics of OCD
Obsessive thoughts
cognitive coping strategies
insight into excessive anxiety
What genes are involved in the development of OCD
SERT gene (serotonin regulatory gene)
COMT gene (regulating the production of dopamine)
Cognitive characteristics of OCD
Obsessive thoughts
Cognitive coping strategies
Insights into excessive anxiety
As there are multiple genes involved in OCD what does this mean?
OCD is polygenic
How does the SERT gene affect OCD
If the SERT gene is faulty it causes transportation issues and so lower levels of serotonin that impacts OCD like symptoms
How does the COMT gene affect OCD
this gene is responsible for the enzyme that breaks down dopamine and when there is a mutation it stops this process = higher levels of dopamine
What is the diathesis stress model?
That environmental stressors trigger certain genes to influence OCD.
Strengths of the genetic explanation?
Nestadt found that 68% of MZ twins had OCD compared to 31% of DZ twins
Weaknesses of genetic explanation of OCD
There are many environmental risks involved in OCD - Cromer found that half of his sample with OCD had gone through trauma in their past suggesting environmental factors affect OCD development rather than being truly genetic in nature.
What areas of the brain are involved in the neural explanations for OCD
Caudate nucleus
Orbital frontal cortex (OFC)
What is the neural explanation for OCD?
The OFC sends a worry signal and the caudate nucleus switches this off. When the SERT and COMT gene are compromised they cause the OFC to send too many worry signals (too much dopamine) and the caudate nucleus cannot send turn it off (because of low levels of serotonin).
Strengths of neural explanation for OCD
Development of treatments such as SSRIs
Weaknesses of neural explanation for OCD
All evidence for neural explanations are simply correlational which has no causation between neurochemicals and OCD
What treatment is used for OCD
SSRIs (Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors)
How do SSRIs work?
They block the reuptake of serotonin on the pre synaptic cell allowing the serotonin to bind to receptors on the post synaptic cell. This usually leads to the chemical message being passed on to help the caudate nucleus switch off the worry circuit.
Strength of SSRIs
Soomro - symptoms reduce 70% when using SSRIs
Weakness of SSRIs
Side effects
What other treatments other than SSRIs can be used to treat OCD
Tricyclics (blocks the transport mechanism that reabsorbs serotonin) and benzodiazepines that slows down activity in the central nervous system by enhancing GABA activity (GABA produces a calming affect)
