Psychopathology Flashcards
what is the deviation from social norms definition of abnormality?
Abnormality is a violation of acceptable patterns of behaviour
which are the implicit (common expectations) or explicit (enforced by law) norms set by society
What are the evaluation points for deviating from social norms?
Cultural relativism- Behavior cannot be judged unless it is viewed in the context of the society/culture it originates from
As social norms are not universal to all cultures
Limitation: Cannot distinguish between eccentric and pathologically abnormal behavior, just because someone acts outside of social norms does not determine if they have a mental disorder or not
What is the ICD or DUSM
book in America/ Europe used to determine symptoms of all mental disorders
Outline statistical infrequency as an explanation to abnormality
A certain trait lies very far away from the measures of central tendency
so is statistically abnormal
evaluation of statistical infrequency
Quantitive data: so allows us to make standardised procedures with no ambiguous differences
Desirability: Having an extreme of certain trait may be desirable and so not considered abnormal e.g. High IQ
Outline what failure to function adequately is
Is being unable to live a normal life and present correct behaviour to society
evaluate a failure to function adequately
Could be some people choose to live a different lifestyle that doesn’t meet how society expects them to function
Some people may be distressed but not suffering from failing to function so is very subjective
Outline a deviation from ideal mental health
Outlines what a normal mental health should be so abnormality is an absence of this
it outlined by the PAPERS anagram
What is PAPERS
P- positive self view
A- Accurate view of reality
P- personal autonomy
E- Environmental mastery
R- resistance to stress
S- Self Actualisation
Evaluate deviations from ideal mental health
The criteria is subjective are cannot be operationalised(e.g. you can’t define someone’s view of themselves)
Has a holistic approach as it focuses on a wide range of psychological elements
what are the 3 types of phobias?
specific phobia - extreme anxiety to a particular object
Social phobia - experience extreme anxiety when thinking or being in social situations
Agoraphobia- Anxious when in situations they cannot leave
What are behavioral characteristics of phobias
Panic avoidance/ endurance
freezing/ running away
what are emotional characteristics of phobias
Excessive fear or anxiety that is disporptionate to the danger at hand
what are cognitive characteristics of phobias
Selective attention, irrational beliefs and cognitive distortions
Describe mawer’s two process behavioral model
Phobia’s are gained through classical conditioning
Learned to associate the neutral stimulus with the unconditioned response
until it becomes the conditioned stimulus = the conditioned response
they are maintained by operant conditioning
Avoidance of the phobia reduces anxiety which is rewarding leading to negative reinforcement
OR social learning theory in which a child may copy an adults response in order to get attention as it it rewarding.
Strengths of the behavioral approach at explaining phobia’s
The treatment of systematic desensitization are based on reversal of classical conditioning by teaching them to associate relaxation with the phobia
And this done by flooding as it wants to extinct learned fear responses
Watson’s and Raynor’s (Little Albert) - the child did gain a phobia through conditioned association
Limitations of the behaviorist two process model
Ni Dardo- Only 60% of their sample who had a phobia of dogs could recall a frightful experience which had caused it. So classical conditioning cannot explain all phobia’s
LINK
to diathesis stress model which dictates that some people have a genetic vulnerability for developing phobias which can only be manifested by a frightful event
Seligman- evolutionary developed to have learned association between life threatening stimuli and anxiety LINKS to Ohman et al people needed fewer electric shocks to condition a response to fear relevant stimuli then fear irrelevant stimuli
