Psychopathology Flashcards
What are the four definitions of abnormality?
Deviation from social norms
Failure to function adequately
Deviation from ideal mental health
Statistical infrequency
What is the failure to function adequately definition of abnormality?
When an individual cannot cope with the day to day challenges of life
What are features of the failure to function adequately definition of abnormality as identified by Rosenhan and Seligman?
Maladaptive behaviour - their irrational and unpredictable actions go against their long term best interests
Personal anguish - observers feel discomfort in their presence
What is the deviation from social norms definition of abnormality?
Individuals who break the social norms of their society
What is the deviation from ideal mental health definition of abnormality?
Missing features identified by Jahoda as the ideal mental health
What are the features of the deviation from mental health definition of abnormality as identified by Jahoda
Resisting stress
Self actualisation
An accurate perception of reality
Autonomy
Environmental mastery
Positive attitude to yourself
What is the statistical infrequency definition of abnormality?
Someone is identified as ‘abnormal’ when their mental condition is very rare in a population as judged by statistics
What are some strengths of the definitions of abnormality?
Deviation from social norms - Does not impose a western view of abnormality so it is not seen as ethnocentric
Failure to function adequately - Respects the individual and their own personal experience
Deviation from ideal mental health - Holistic view as it considers multiple factors in diagnosis and provides ways to overcome them
Statistical infrequency - People accessed as abnormal by this have been evaluated objectively
What are some limitations of the definitions of abnormality?
Deviation from social norms - Defining people who move to a new culture as abnormal can be inappropriate
Failure to function adequately - Only includes people who cannot cope
Deviation from ideal mental health - Too strict to set a criteria to define MH as it is challenging to meet all the requirements at one time
Statistical infrequency - Not all statistically rare traits are negative
What are the behavioural characteristics of Phobias?
Avoidance - Avoiding phobic objects
Panic - Uncontrollable response
Failure to function - Difficulty in day to day activities
What are the emotional characteristics of phobias?
Anxiety - An uncontrollable high state of arousal
Fear - Emotional sensation of extreme and unpleasent alertness
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?
Irrational thoughts - Exaggerated belief in the harm the phobic object can cause
Reduced cognitive capacity
What are the behavioural characteristics of depression?
Reduction in anxiety level - Lack of energy for daily tasks
Change in eating behaviour - Weight gain/Weight loss
Aggression - Self harm
What are the emotional characteristics of depression?
Sadness - Persistent low mood
Guilty - Feeling where they have no value in comparison to others
What are the cognitive characteristics of depression?
Poor concentration - Cannot give their full attention
Negative schemas - automatic negative biases
What are the behavioural characteristics of OCD?
Compulsions - behaviours performed to reduce anxiety
Avoidance - taking action to avoid objects that trigger obsessions
What are the emotional characteristics of OCD?
Anxiety - uncomfortably high state of arousal
Depression - consistent and long-lasting sense of sadness
What are the cognitive characteristics of OCD?
Obsessions - Intrusive, Impulsive, Recurrent thoughts that tent to be unpleasant
Hypervigilance - Permanent state of alertness
What is Marlow’s two process model?
Marlows model describes how phobias are acquired and maintained
How are phobias acquired according to Marlow?
Phobias are acquired by classical conditioning where an association is formed between the phobic object and fear
How are phobias maintained according to Marlow?
Phobias are maintained by operant conditioning where an avoidance of a behaviour leads to a reduction in anxiety which is a pleasant sensation
The negative reinforcement strengthens phobic response
What are the behavioural treatments for phobias?
Systematic desensitisation and flooding
What is systematic desensitisation?
Systematic desensitisation leads to the elimination of the negative association and formation of a new positive association
The therapist first teaches the patient relaxation techniques which they use to progress through the anxiety hierarchy
What is flooding?
Flooding is an immediate and full exposure to the maximum level of the phobic stimulus
What are some strengths to the behavioural explanation of phobias?
Watson + Rayner - Little Albert
WBehaviourists theories have been practically applied to counter conditioning therapies (SD + Flooding)
What are some limitations for the behavioural explanation of phobias?
DiNardo - Dog phobias were just as common in people who experienced conditioned events like dog bites to those who havent
What are some strengths of the behavioural explanation for treating phobias?
Garcia-Palacious - 83% of participants with VR exposure to spiders improved, where 0% of the control group did
What are some limitations of the behavioural explanation for treating phobias?
Both techniques are more suited to specific object phobias than social phobias
The effects of the therapies may be limited due to the controlled conditions of the therapists office
What are the cognitive explanations for explaining depression?
Depression is due to irrational thoughts and maladaptive internal mental processes
Becks negative triad
Ellis ABC model
What is Becks negative triad?
Where a person with depression have three schemas with a negative bias which are believed to have been developed in childhood and provides the framework for adult life
What are the three schemas in Becks negative triad?
The self - Negative self schemas
The future - Negative thoughts such as things will always turn out badly
The world - Thinking people are hostile or threatening
What does Ellis ABC model stand for?
A - activating event
B - irrational beliefs
C - consequence
What are some strengths to the cognitive approach to explaining depression?
Grazioloi and Terry - Found that women with negative thinking styles were most likely to develop postpartum depression. Supports the idea of faulty thinking leading to depression
What are some limitations to the cognitive approach to explaining depression?
Bipolar depression is manic episodes - Provides problems for becks theory as it states that depression is due to negative schemas which are formed in childhood and provide framework for adult life
What are the cognitive explanations for treating depression?
Becks CBT and Ellis REBT - They change negative schemas and challenge irrational thoughts
What is Becks CBT?
The patient generates and tests hypothesis of their irrational thoughts and then they see that they lack them they change their schemas
What is Ellis REBT?
Development of the ABC model which adds Dispute and Effect
What is the biological approach to explaining OCD?
The genetic explanation for OCD is that the disorder is inherited - Around 230 separate candidate genes found in people with OCD, shows OCD appears to be polysemic
The neural explanation for OCD includes low serotonin levels - Likely due to serotonin being removed too quickly from the synapse before it has been able to transmit its signal/influence the postsynaptic cell
What are some strengths to the biological approach to explaining OCD?
Nestadt - DZ twins have a 31% concordance rate and MZ have a 68% concordance rate, because they share a similar environment the additional shared DNA must be the reason for the increased concordance
What are some limitations of the biological approach to explaining OCD?
Correlation in twin studies does not equal causation
What is the biological approach to treating OCD?
Drug therapies - The primary class of drugs used to control the symptoms of OCD are a group of antidepressant drugs called SSRIs which influence the serotonin levels in the brain
What do SSRIs do and how do they treat OCD?
SSRIs inhibit the reuptake process in the synapse - Therefore serotonin is still present in the synaptic cleft and continues to stimulate the postsynaptic neuron
What are some strengths to the biological approach to treating OCD?
Drug therapies are far less expensive then CBT
Soomro - Meta analysis of 17 studies comparing SSRIs to placebos and found that SSRIs significantly reduced the symptoms of OCD which suggests drug therapy is effective
What are some limitations of the biological approach to treating OCD?
Goldacre - Drug therapies are researched and funded by companies looking for financial gain not actually the effectiveness of the drug
