Psychopathology Flashcards
State four definitions of abnormality
Deviation from social norms
Deviation from ideal mental health
Statistical Infrequency
Failure to function adequately
Describe deviation from social norms
Behaviour violates unwritten rules
Doesn’t fit in with social expectations
Describe statistical infrequency
Objective way of defining abnormality
Eg intelligence
Uses normal distribution graphs
Describe failure to function adequately
Unable to cope with the demands of everyday life
Describe conditions of ideal mental health
Mastery of environment,
Resistance to stress,
Self actualisation
Give 3 types of phobias
Social phobias
Agoraphobia
Specific phobias
State physical symptoms of phobias
Avoidance behaviours
Fight or flight response
Increased heart rate, sweat
Give examples of behavioural characteristics for depression
Difficulty falling asleep
Fatigue
Weight loss, gain
Give examples of emotional characteristics for depression
Extreme sadness
Worthlessness
Guilt
Give examples of cognitive characteristics for depression
Difficulty concentrating
Suicidal ideation
Poor self-esteem
What is the DSM diagnosis for depression
Must show five or more of the symptoms
For most days in a two week period or more
Give examples for cognitive characteristics of OCd
Obsessions
Persistent thoughts
Give examples for behavioural characteristics for OCD
Compulsions
Repeated and extensive hand washing, cleaning, checking and ordering
Give examples of emotional characteristics for OCD
Severe anxiety and distress
Guilt
Describe the Little Albert experiment
Albert saw an animal and simultaneously heard a loud scary noise,
Through classical conditioning he learned to fear the animal that he had previously liked
Describe the two process model
Mowrer(1947)
Origins of phobias are a combination of classical and operant conditioning
Classical,
Initial learning associated with a previously neutral stimulus
Operant,
When avoiding the stimulus, person feels calmer
Describe counter conditioning
Client learns a new response to a stimulus that has previously caused undesirable behaviour
Aversive conditioning
Exposure therapy
Give two types of treatment for phobias
Flooding
Systematic desensitisation
Describe flooding
Exposure therapy
Exposes the person to the fear,
Changing the association they have with classical conditioning
Taught relaxation skills
Exposed to the highly feared stimulus
Become very distressed
Use relaxation
Feel less stressed
Can be distressinh
Describe systematic desensitisation
Tries to change persons associations
Create hierarchy
Exposed to first
Use relaxation techniques
Move onto next level
Describe a study that supports behavioural therapy
Ost et al(1991)
Retrospective studies
81 blood phobics and 56 needle phobics asked to complete a questionnaire on their memories of origins of their phobias
52% conditioning experiences
24% vicarious experiences
7% instruction,information
17% couldn’t remember
Describe a study that supports behavioural explanation for phobias
Barlow and Durand(1995)
50% of people with phobia for driving could remember a specific incident that triggered the fear.
Supports that phobias are learnt
50% couldn’t remember
Bandits and Rosenthal(1966’
Model acted as if in pain when buzzer sound.
Ps observed this, showed emotional reaction to buzzer, demonstrating an acquired fear
What was Beck’s theory of depression
Result of negative thoughts and views of the world
Depressive people have depressive schemas
Prompt dysfunctional thoughts about
Negative triad
Self
World
Future
Believes they develop in childhood
What is cognitive therapy
How you think determines how you feel and act
Therapists help their clients change dysfunctional thoughts to relieve distress
Help a client see how they misinterpreted a situation
What is a cognitive bias
An error in how we process information about ourselves
Can lead us to focus on the negatives of experiences and block positive memories
What is the concordance rate of OCD among identical twins identical twins and fraternal twins
Identical
57%
Fraternal
22%
Describe Ellis’s ABC model
Aims to alter a persons beliefs so that events have different consequences
Activating event
Belief
Consequences
Describe neural explanations for OCD
Orbits-frontal cortex observes the world and sends experiences to the thalamus. An ordinary brain would have a caudate nucleus to suppress anxieties. However otherwise the thalamus becomes very aware and starts obsessing, making the OFC overactive.
Give examples of drugs given to OCD patients
Valium
Increases levels of GABA in the brain,
Helps to calm people down
Give evidence for genetic factors of OCD
billet et al(1998)
MZ twins were twice as likely to develop OCD if their twin had it
Suggests genetic explanation for OCD
However concordance rates were never 100%
Shared environment may be better exolanation
evaluate statistical infrequency
Objective, good for practitioner.
Some abnormalities are desirable
Common problems go misdiagnosed, e.g depression because it is classed as normal
Evaluate deviation from social norms
social norms change over time and culture
Takes into account situational norms, some behaviours aren’t appropriate in certain contexts
Evaluate failure to function adequately
Could lead to misdiagnosis- someone could have the same symptoms but they don’t affect their lives
Subjective personal experience- takes into account thoughts/feelings
Evaluate deviation from ideal mental health
Unrealistic criteria- not many people are self-actualised and it is common to be stressed.
Positive criteria- others say if you are these you have these, you’re abnormal.
Positive outlook
Provide evidence for the neural explanations of OCD
Beucke et al
Compared brains of OCD patients on or no medication
Those who didn’t have more active OFC.
Severity of symptoms correlated with severity of over activity.
Evaluate the biological explanation for OCD
Pracyical apps- treatment
Research found lowered serotonin leads to OCD
Therefore development of SSRI drugs
