Psychopathology Flashcards
What are the 4 definitions of abnormality?
- Deviation from social norms
- Statistical infrequency
- Failure to function adequately
- Deviation from ideal mental health
What is deviation from social norms?
- any behaviour society doesn’t approve that
- behaviours that are antisocial/undesirable
Deviation from social norms A03:
+ Real life application in diagnosis - ASPD
x Cultural relativism - social norms differ between cultures (eg. homosexuality)
x Context - what is ‘normal’ in one context may be abnormal in another (eg. wearing a bikini)
x can lead to human rights abuse
What is statistical infrequency?
Any behaviour that is statistically infrequent is found in very few people. Eg. shoe size, height, avg IQ = 100
Statistical infrequency AO3:
+ Real life application - diagnosis of mental health disorders eg. intellectual disability disorder
x unusual characteristics can be positive - although the behaviour can be classed as ‘statistically abnormal’ it doesn’t mean that the person requires treatment to go back to normal
What is failure to function adequately?
- being judged as abnormal if their illness makes them unable to cope with daily routine
What are Rosenhan and Seligman’s signs of someones failure to function?
- person experiences severe personal distress
- person’s behaviour becomes irrational/dangerous to themselves
Failure to function adequately AO3:
+ takes into account subjective experience of patients (F2F often indicates that someone needs help)
x can sometimes be confused for deviation from social norms (treating these behaviours as F2F can mean limitation of personal freedom/ discrimination against minority groups
Deviation from ideal mental health
Jahoda said we have good mental health if we have the following criteria:
- we have no symptoms or distress
- we self-actualise
- we can cope with stress
- we have a realistic view of the world
Deviation from ideal mental health AO3:
+ comprehensive definition (not vague)
x Cultural relativism - culturally bound to western/ individualistic cultures
x unrealistically high expectations of mental health (humanistic approach says we can’t actually self-actualise)
What are the 3 different types of characteristics?
- Behavioural
- Emotional
- Cognitive
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?
- Panic - crying, screaming, fight/flight
- Avoidance - an effort to keep away from phobic stimulus, makes it hard to go about daily life eg. public toilet fear (can’t go out)
- Endurance - in unavoidable situations eg. flying (continuous and extreme anxiety
What are the emotional characteristics of phobias?
- Excessive fear
- Unpleasant state of high arousal
Prevents relaxation and experience of positive emotions
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?
- Irrational thoughts
- Person knows that their fear is excessive
- Selective attention (only able to focus on irrational thoughts about the phobia)
What is the behavioural approach to EXPLAINING phobias?
- Mowrer suggested that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
- This is known as the two step model
What is the two step model?
- Demonstrated how little Albert associated the fear caused by a loud bang with a white rat
1. Before conditioning: US (loud bang) produced an UR (fear)
2. During conditioning: US+NS (bang+rat) produced the same UR of fear
3. After conditioning: CS (rat) produced a CR of fear
What are the behavioural approaches to treating phobias?
Systematic desensitisation
Flooding
What is systematic desensitisation?
Stage 1: client is taught relaxation techniques
Stage 2: client puts fears into a hierarchy
Stage 3: client us taught to use relaxation techniques in each stage; can only move onto the next stage if they don’t feel anxious anymore
What is flooding?
- client is taught relaxation techniques then is exposed to the fear for a long period of time in its most fearful form
- relies on principle that it is impossible to feel heightened anxiety for a long period of time so patient sees that phobic stimulus is actually harmless
Behavioural approach to treating phobias AO3:
+ SD suitable for many patients including those with learning difficulties: anxiety disorders usually accompanied with learning difficulties so things like CBT wouldn’t be as effective because those patients may not have ability to evaluate their thoughts properly, therefore SD is suitable alternative
+ Cost effective: psychologists argue that SD is effective even when self-administered which makes it more cost effective
x Ethics: flooding can be traumatic as it can be highly distressing for patient and their RTW is denied from them during the exposure
x Less effective for complex phobias: social phobias involve anxiety and cognitive aspect eg. thinking unpleasant thoughts about a situation. this means CBT may be better suited therapy as it targets all aspects of the phobia not just one
What are weaknesses of systematic desensitisation?
- relies on clients ability to be able to imagine fearful situation - some people can’t create a vivid image thus SD is not effective
- might be effective in a therapeutic situation but doesn’t work in the real world
What is the cognitive approach to explaining depression?
Becks negative triad
Ellis’s ABC model
What is Beck’s negative triad?
- Faulty information processing: when depressed always focusing on negative aspects in life and never the positive
- Negative self schema: interpreting information about ourselves in a negative way
- Negative triad: negative view of the world, negative view of the future, negative view of the self
What is Ellis’s ABC model?
A: Activating event
B: Belief (in terms of depression these are irrational beliefs)
C: Consequence - rational beliefs lead to healthy emotions and ‘normal’ life, irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy emotions and possibly depression
