psychopathology Flashcards
What are social norms?
unwritten behavioural expectations that vary depending on culture, time and context
Pros of social norms?
- does not impose a western view of abnormality on other non-western cultures. For this reason, it it argued diagnosing abnormality according to social norms is not ethnocentric
cons of social norms?
defining people who move to a new culture as abnormal according to the new culture norms can be inappropriate
What is the meaning of failure to function adequately?
When individuals cannot cope with the day to day challenges of daily life
What are Rosenham and Seligmans features of failure to function adequately?
- unpredictability & loss of control
- unconventionality
- Maladaptiveness
- violation of ideal standards
- observer discomfort
- irrationality
- personal distress
Pro of failure to function adequately
Respects the individual and their own personal experience, which is something that other definitions, such as statistical infrequency and DSN cannot do.
Cons of failure to function adequately
only includes people who cannot cope; psychopaths can often function in society in ways that benefit them personally. Having lower empathy can lead to success in business etc
What is the meaning of statistical infrequency?
Someone is mentally abnormal if their mental condition is very rare in the population, abnormality is judged objectively using statistics
What is the normal distribution curve?
Shows a population’s average spread of specific characteristics
Pro of statistical infrequency?
Individuals who are assessed as being abnormal according to it have been evaluated objectively, better than other definitions that depend on the subjective opinion of a clinician
Cons of statistical infrequency?
Not all statistically rare traits are negative, for example an IQ of 130 are statistically rare
What is deviation from ideal mental health?
Jahoda (1958) rather than defining abnormality, it defines features of ideal mental health, and deviation from these indicates abnormality
What are the features of ideal mental health?
- Self actualisation
- Environmental mastery
- Accurate perception of reality
- Resistance to stress
- Autonomy
- Positive attitudes towards self
Positives of ideal mental health?
- Positive attitude towards human behaviour and experience not just abnormality
- Useful for identifying when someone needs help and the help they need (CATAGORIES)
- Very thorough
Cons of ideal mental health?
- normal criteria is very demanding e.g elderly people struggle adapting to change are they abnormal?
- some of the criteria is culture dependent
- personal autonomy is very western, in some cultures family is more important
- there is evidence that says moderate levels of stress causes motivation
What are behavioural characteristics of phobias?
Avoidance: physically adapting normal behaviour to avoid phobic objects
Panic: an uncontrollable physical response
Failure to function: difficulty taking part in normal day-to-day activities
Emotional characteristics of phobias?
Anxiety: an uncomfortably high and persistent state of arousal
Fear: Intense emotional sensation of extreme and unpleasant alertness.
Cognitive characteristics of phobias?
Irrational thoughts: negative and irrational mental processes that include an exaggerated belief in the harm the object could cause
Reduced cognitive capacity: due to attentional focus on phobic object
Behavioural characteristics of depression
Reduction in activity level: Includes lethargy, lacking the energy needed for everyday activities
Change in eating behaviour: either significant weight gain or weight loss
Aggression: to others/self-harm
Emotional characteristics of depression
Sadness: a persistent, very low mood
Guilt: linked to helplessness and a feeling that they have no value compared to others
Cognitive characteristics of depression
Poor concentration: people with depression cannot give their full attention to tasks
Negative schemas: automatic negative biases when thinking about themselves, the world and the future
Behavioural characteristics of OCD
Compulsions: behaviours performed repeatedly to reduce anxiety
Avoidance: take actions to avoid objects that trigger obsessions
Emotional characteristics OCD
Anxiety: and uncomfortably high and persistent state of arousal making it difficult to relax
Depression: a consistent and long-lasting sense of sadness, due to uncontrollable thoughts
Cognitive characteristics of OCD
Obsessions: intrusive, irrational, re-currant thoughts that tend to be unpleasant
Hyper vigilance: permanent state of alertness, looking for the source of obsessive thoughts
Behaviourist explanation of phobias…
- Behaviours are learnt via experience
- Acquisition
- Maintenance
- Generalisation
When using the behaviourist approach to explain phobias, what does acquisition mean?
- classical conditioning suggests the phobic object changes from being a neutral stimulus with no fear response to a conditioned response by being presented at the same time as the unconditioned stimulus that naturally causes a fear response
When using the behaviourist approach to explain phobias, what does maintenance mean?
Operant conditioning suggests avoidance leads to decrease of anxiety and therefore is a pleasant feeling. This negative reinforcement strengthens the phobic response
When using the behaviourist approach to explain phobias, what does generalisation mean?
A conditioned fear response is also experienced in the presence of stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus e.g fear of bees could be generalised to fear of flying insects
Cons of using the behaviourist approach to explain phobias
- DiNardo showed while conditioning events like dog bites were common in participants with dog phobias (56%), they were just as common in people with no phobias (66%)
- Humans don’t have phobias to knives or cars, however snakes and spiders are more common. These could be better explained by evolutionary theory.
Pros of using the behaviourist approach to explain phobias
- Little Albert demonstrates a phobic response is learnt from association
- Behaviourist theories have been applied to counter conditioning therapies, systematic desensitisation and flooding. They are effective suggesting they’re principles are valid
What are the treatments of using the behaviourist approach to explain phobias?
- Reciprocal inhibition
- Systematic desensitisation
- Flooding
What is flooding?
Immediate and full exposure to the maximum level of the phobic stimulus. Keep going until the patient has ran out of energy and can no longer panic
What is systematic desensitisation?
Starts with relaxation techniques, breathing exercises. Anxiety hierarchy, gradual exposure to the phobic object
What is reciprocal inhibition?
replacing the fear association with a calm association
Cons of the behaviourist treatments of phobias
- SD and flooding are more effective at treating specific phobias. It is very challenging to do it with social phobias in a therapists office
- SD and flooding may be limited to the controlled environment and may not translate to real world experiences
Pro of the behaviourist treatments of phobias
Garcia - Palacios, Found 83% of participants treated with VR exposure to spiders improved compared to 0% in the control group. Suggests principles are valid and they can treat a wide range of phobias
How does the cognitive approach explain depression?
- Beck’s negative triad, three schemas: the self, the world, the future
- Ellis’ ABC model
How does ellis’ ABC model explain depression?
A: activating event, anything that happens to someone
B: belief, people with depression have irrational beliefs
C: consequence, irrational beliefs = negative consequences
What is mustaborty thinking?
Thinking the world must be a certain way ultimately leads to disappointment
Pros of using the cognitive approach in explaining depression?
- Grazioli and Terry: assessed the thinking styles of 65 women before and after birth, they found women with negative thinking styles were most likely to develop PP depression
- March showed that CBT had an effectiveness rate of 81% after 36 weeks of treatment, same as drugs.
Cons of using the cognitive approach in explaining depression?
- People with bipolar depression experience extreme happiness, excitement etc, problem for Beck’s theory which explains depression as due to negative schemas resistant to change
- Assumes irrational thoughts = depression. Could be a reasonable response to racism or poverty
Treatments of depression using the cognitive approach?
- Beck’s CBT and Ellis’ REBT change negative schemas and challenge irrational thoughts with cognitive restructuring
- Beck’s CBT patient as a scientist, thought catching, homework tasks
Pros of using the cognitive approach to treat depression 2
- CBT empowers patients and gives a sense of personal efficiency. CBT gives patients the skills to improve themselves, whereas drugs passively biologically intervenes.
Cons of using the cognitive approach to treat depression 2
- some are too depressed to engage with CBT, it requires motivation
- REBT and CBT may be overly focused on the present, some patients may need to discuss past traumas
Biological explanation for OCD?
- It’s inherited - 230 seperate candidate genes found more frequently in people with OCD
- neural explanation, low serotonin levels, worry circuit
What is the worry circuit?
Set of brain structures including: orbitofrontal cortex,basal ganglia system, candidate nucleus. Communication between these structures in the worry circuit is overactive in people with OCD
Pros of using the cognitive approach to explain OCD 2
Nestadt: DZ twins have a 31% C rate, MZ rate is 68%. MZ and DZ twins grow up in a similar environments. This suggests that the additional shared DNA is responsible for increased concordance
Cons of using the cognitive approach in explaining OCD
- The correlation in twin studies does not equal causation. As the concordance rate for MZ twins is 68% not 100% suggests their mist be role for the environment.
Evaluation of using the cognitive approach in explaining OCD
Diathesis stress explanation combines a genetic vulnerability to OCD with an environmental factor needed for the disorder to develop. Cromer showed 54% of 265 people with OCD had a traumatic event
Treatments of OCD using the cognitive approach
- Antidepressant - SSRIs - influence serotonin levels in the brain, normalises the activity of the worry circuit
-mbenzodiazepines increase neurotransmitters caused GABA slowing the CNS and resulting in general relaxation
Pros of treatments using the cognitive approach
- Soomro found SSRIs significantly reduced the symptoms of OC between 6 and 17 weeks
- Drug therapy is inexpensive and more convenient for patients
Cons of treatments using the cognitive approach
- Goldacre , argues most research studies on drug therapies are conducted by the companies that created them. Potentially bias
- Many patients prefer CBT as drugs have side effects
