Psychopathology Flashcards
Statistical infrequency DoA
Abnormality defined by behaviours that are rare. E.g above 140 IQ or below 70IQ
Ao3 of Statistical Infrequency
•Flawed. Some abnormalities are desirable (IQ). Or depression is common.
•Subjective. Hard to define what % are abnormal. Bottom 10 or 20? Causes disagreement
•Culturally relative. Some cultures hear voices as God. Western believe it’s schizophrenia.
Deviation from social norms DoA
Behaviour that deviates from societal values. E.g anorexia.
Ao3 of deviation from social norms
•Lacks cultural validity. No gays in Qatar - Accepted in west.
•Lack temporal valid. 50 year ago gay was illegal. Now legal. Changes in time
•Oversimplified. Some deviations are acceptable but not abnormal. E.g bikini to school.
Failure to Function Adequately. DOA
Abnormality defined by inability to cope with day-to-day life. E.g depressed people unable to shower.
Ao3 of Failure to Function Adequately
•Subjective. Vague criteria = low reliability. People view behaviour differently.
•Many abnormal people can function. Believe they are functioning fine. E.g those with schizophrenia or anorexia.
•Culturally relative. Low cultural validity. Long grief normal in collectivist and abnormal in individualistic.
Deviation from Ideal Mental health
6 parts
Jahoda
1)Self-attitude: High self esteem.
2)Personal Growth & Self-actualisation
3)Integration (cope with stress)
4)Autonomy (independence)
5)Accurate view of reality
6)Mastery of Environment (ability to love, function, solve problems)
Ao3 of Deviation from Ideal Mental Health
•Unrealistic criteria. Understandable to be stressed or negative self attitude sometimes.
•Culturally relative. Deviation normalised in certain cultures. E.g Autonomy not expected in collectivist.
•Positive approach. Positive psychological movement.
2 process model in explaining phobias using behaviourist approach.
Classical : Negative association of neutral stimulus with fear response. E.g Little Albert
Operant : Positive reinforcement as avoiding the stimulus is rewarding by reducing the fear.
Ao3 of Behaviourist approach to explaining phobias
•Prac app. Used to treat phobias. Imp area of applied psych.
•Oversimp. Phobias too complex. Individual biological predisposition.
•Not always applicable. Diathesis-Stress model better explaination due to predisposition.
•Evolutionary factors. Fear of snakes is adaptive. Oversimp
•Unethical. Little Albert traumatised. Socially sensitive.
Behaviourist app to treating phobias
Systematic Desensitisation
Gradually reducing fear response and anxiety with counterconditioning and reciprocal inhibition.
Create anxiety hierarchy of most to least fearful and work from least to most while practicing relaxation technique.
E.g Seeing spider, room with spider , holding spider while meditating and breathe work.
Ao3 of Systematic Desensitisation
•Prac app. McGrath found 75% of patients respond to SD. High face val.
•Oversimp. Not for all phobias. E.g Underlying evolutionary fear
•Fast & effective. Lack of thinking makes it useful for all. Wide variety of pop.
Flooding for treating phobias
One long session fully exposed to phobia, while practicing relaxation. E.g fear of clowns. Ptsp thrown in room of clown and locked in till calm down.
New stimulus response link can be made once adrenaline reduces
Ao3 of Flooding
•Unethical. Highly traumatic, causes psychological harm. Socially sensitive.
•Relaxation may not be necessary. Feared stimulus is most important. Self-efficacy to be important. Counter-conditioning
Cognitive Approach to Explaining depression
Ellis’ ABC Model
A - Activating agent (fired from work)
B - Belief (company overstaffed) or irrational (They had it out for me)
C - Consequence (acceptance) irrational = (depression)
Mustabatory thinking - Certain idea must be true in order for individual to be happy.
Ellis’ 3 important irrational beliefs
• Must be approved or accepted by people
• Must do well or I am worthless
• World must give me happiness or I will die.
Becks Negative Triad
Depressed people acquire negative schema during childhood. Leads to cognitive bias in thinking. E.g individuals over-generalise, drawing sweeping conclusions.
Negative View of 3 categories
The self - “I am just undesirable”
The world - “I can understand why people don’t like me.
The Future - “ I will always be alone. “
Ao3 of cognitive explaination to depression.
•Prac app. Develops best treatment. Cog Bahavioural Therapy. Area of Applied Psychology
•Oversimp. Doesn’t account other factors E.g serotonin. Multi
•Partial explaination. Depression not always obvious cause. Ellis’ model only applies to some.
•Research supp. Bates et al found people with negative thought statement became more depressed.
•Correlation not causation. Cause & effect cannot established. Lower internal valid.
Cog app to Treating Depression
CBT
4 stages
1) Challenge Irrational belief
2) Behavioural Activation
3) Homework
4) Unconditional Positive Regard
Stage 1 of CBT
Challenging Irrational Belief
DEF model
D - Disputing irrational belief
E - Effects of disputing and Effective attitude to life
F - Feelings that are produced
Disputing using emirical (evidence to support irrational belief) or logical (does negativity actually follow from facts).
Stage 2 of CBT
Behavioural Activation
Patients engage in activity and pleasurable behaviour. And therapist deal with any cognitive obstacles ( E.g I won’t be able to achieve that)
Stage 3 of CBT
Homework
Clients asked to complete asignments between sessions. E.g asking someone out on a date to explore fear of rejection.
Stage 4 of CBT
Unconditional Positive Regard
Therapist is to provide respect and appreciation regardless of what the client does or says. Ellis found this was important
Ao3 of cog app to treating depression
•Prac app. Used across world a lot. Area of applied psych.
•Oversimp. Doesn’t account for bio cause. E.g serotonin imbalance. Multi.
•Research supp. Cuijpers et al found CBT as superior in 75 studies. Ellis 90% success rate by avg of 27 sessions.
•Methodological issues of researcher bias. Researchers ignore unwanted results. Low internal val.
•Time consuming & expensive. Requires commitment. Takes around 12 weeks. Not appropriate for all
Bio app to explaining OCD
2 parts
Genetic explanation & Neural Explanation.
Stage 1 of genetic explanation of OCD
- Genetic vulnerability : OCD inherited through genes. Lewis 37% of people with OCD had parents with OCD and 21% with siblings.
Lack of SAPAP3 gene leads to OCD (proven by rats grooming self to death)
Stage 2 of genetic vulnerability
Candidate Gene
Certain genes lead to OCD like SAPAP3 and SERT (affects transport of serotonin)
Ozaki et al found 6 out of 7 family members with mutated SERT developed OCD.
Stage 3 of genetic explanation of OCD
OCD is polygenic
OCD caused by a culmination of multiple genes.
Taylor found 230 different genes may be involved in OCD.
Stage 4 of genetic explanation
Aeteological Heterogeneous
A group of genes may cause OCD in one person but a different group of genes may cause it in someone else.
Stage 1 of Neural explanation
Serotonin
Serotonin is believed to regulate mood. Low levels of serotonin may lead to low moods which may lead to OCD.
Stage 2 of neural explanations
Impaired decision-making systems
Frontal Lobe : Orbitofrontal cortex sends worry signal to thalamus.
Caudate nucleus is damaged and fails to suppress minor worry signal. Signal alerted thalamus.
Thalamus send signal back to OFC confirming and running loop again.
Left parahippocampal gyrus: Functions abnormally in OCD.
Ao3 of bio app to explaining OCD
•Prac app. Used for bio treatments. SSRIs. Area of applied psych.
•Oversimp. Doesn’t account other factors. Multi
•Bio determinism. Ignore free will & individual differences.
•Scientific measures.Brain scans & genemapping.Respected by widercom.
•Rsearch supp. Twin studies. Billet et al. Mz twins twice as likely to develop OCD.
Bio app to treating OCD
Drug therapy : Anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs.
Anti-depressants for OCD
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
(SSRIs)
Serotonin regulates mood. By preventing the reabsorption of serotonin. Meaning more serotonin causing less impulsive behaviour.
Anti-anxiety drugs for OCD
Benzodiazepines used to reduce anxiety.
They enhance the activity of GABA which reduces the speed of the nervous system to make client more relaxed.
Ao3 of bio app to treating OCD
•Cheap & effective. Little monitoring and very economic.
•Research supp. Soomore et al found SSRIs much more effective than placebo.
•Oversimp. Doesn’t consider other causes. Multi
•Side effects like headaches nausea or insomnia.
•Publication bias. Over exaggerated positive findings and fault to correctly publish negative findings.
