Psychopathology

Question 1

Statistical infrequency DoA

Answer 1

Abnormality defined by behaviours that are rare. E.g above 140 IQ or below 70IQ

Question 2

Ao3 of Statistical Infrequency

Answer 2

•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.

Question 3

Deviation from social norms DoA

Answer 3

Behaviour that deviates from societal values. E.g anorexia.

Question 4

Ao3 of deviation from social norms

Answer 4

•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.

Question 5

Failure to Function Adequately. DOA

Answer 5

Abnormality defined by inability to cope with day-to-day life. E.g depressed people unable to shower.

Question 6

Ao3 of Failure to Function Adequately

Answer 6

•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.

Question 7

Deviation from Ideal Mental health
6 parts

Answer 7

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)

Question 8

Ao3 of Deviation from Ideal Mental Health

Answer 8

•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.

Question 9

2 process model in explaining phobias using behaviourist approach.

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

Ao3 of Behaviourist approach to explaining phobias

Answer 10

•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.

Question 11

Behaviourist app to treating phobias
Systematic Desensitisation

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Ao3 of Systematic Desensitisation

Answer 12

•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.

Question 13

Flooding for treating phobias

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Ao3 of Flooding

Answer 14

•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

Question 15

Cognitive Approach to Explaining depression

Ellis’ ABC Model

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

Becks Negative Triad

Answer 16

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. “

Question 17

Ao3 of cognitive explaination to depression.

Answer 17

•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.

Question 18

Cog app to Treating Depression

CBT
4 stages

Answer 18

1) Challenge Irrational belief
2) Behavioural Activation
3) Homework
4) Unconditional Positive Regard

Question 19

Stage 1 of CBT

Answer 19

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).

Question 20

Stage 2 of CBT

Answer 20

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)

Question 21

Stage 3 of CBT

Answer 21

Homework
Clients asked to complete asignments between sessions. E.g asking someone out on a date to explore fear of rejection.

Question 22

Stage 4 of CBT

Answer 22

Unconditional Positive Regard
Therapist is to provide respect and appreciation regardless of what the client does or says. Ellis found this was important

Question 23

Ao3 of cog app to treating depression

Answer 23

•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

Question 24

Bio app to explaining OCD
2 parts

Answer 24

Genetic explanation & Neural Explanation.

Question 25

Stage 1 of genetic explanation of OCD

Answer 25

1. 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)

Question 26

Stage 2 of genetic vulnerability

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

Stage 3 of genetic explanation of OCD

Answer 27

OCD is polygenic
OCD caused by a culmination of multiple genes.
Taylor found 230 different genes may be involved in OCD.

Question 28

Stage 4 of genetic explanation

Answer 28

Aeteological Heterogeneous
A group of genes may cause OCD in one person but a different group of genes may cause it in someone else.

Question 29

Stage 1 of Neural explanation

Answer 29

Serotonin
Serotonin is believed to regulate mood. Low levels of serotonin may lead to low moods which may lead to OCD.

Question 30

Stage 2 of neural explanations

Answer 30

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.

Question 31

Ao3 of bio app to explaining OCD

Answer 31

•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.

Question 32

Bio app to treating OCD

Answer 32

Drug therapy : Anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs.

Question 33

Anti-depressants for OCD

Answer 33

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
(SSRIs)
Serotonin regulates mood. By preventing the reabsorption of serotonin. Meaning more serotonin causing less impulsive behaviour.

Question 34

Anti-anxiety drugs for OCD

Answer 34

Benzodiazepines used to reduce anxiety.
They enhance the activity of GABA which reduces the speed of the nervous system to make client more relaxed.

Question 35

Ao3 of bio app to treating OCD

Answer 35

•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.