Psychopathology Flashcards
Deviation from social norm
Behaviour that is seen as socially unacceptable or undesirable within society
Failure to function adequately
Behaviour that means that person is unable to engage or cope with the activities in normal day to day life.
Failure to function adequately
Behaviour that means the person is unable to engage or cope with the activities in nodal day to day life
Deviation from ideal mental health
When someone does not meet a set of criteria for mental well being (eg being unable to make their own decisions or having low self esteem)
Criticism of the statistic infrequency definition
It doesn’t distinguish between infrequent characteristics that are desirable from those that are undesirable.
Some behaviours are statistically quite frequent and yet are still considered worthy for treatment
Fails to take into account the severity of someone’s condition or the impact it has on their life.
Advantages of statistical infrequency definition
Very objective- the definition is less open to influence of clinical judgements which may be biased by person beliefs
Enables us to see how common conditions are
Criticisms of the deviation from social norms definition
Many people with mental disorders do not deviate from social norms and they are still showing psychopathology
Advantages of the deviation from social norms definition
Can protect society from behaviour that is unacceptable and offensive.
Behaviour that is odd or unusual can often be one of the signs that brings someone’s mental illness to the attention of others so that the person receives treatment.
Allows the social context to be taken into account.
Criticisms of the failure to function adequately definition
Many people with mental disorders are functioning quite well
Doesn’t always mean they have a mental disorder
Deciding what is and what isn’t adequate functioning is subjective and requires a value judgement
Advantages of failure to function adequately definition
Most people seek treatment only when their mental condition is affecting their day to day functioning
Allows the severity of abnormal behaviour to be assessed by establishing the extent to which the persons life is affected using a scale like the GAF.
Statistical infrequency
Behaviour that is statistically infrequent or very rarely seen in the general population.
Marie Johoda identified 6 factors to define ideal mental health and said if you didn’t meet all 6 then you have a mental disorder. What are the 6 factors?
(PRRAMS)
Positive attitudes towards yourself Accurate perception of reality Resistance to stress Autonomy Mastery of the environment Self actualisation
Behavioural approach to phobias
The behavioural approach to phobias argues that phobias are learned as a result of frightening experiences. Therefore, phobias can be unlearned.
Mowrers 2 process model
Mowrer argued that there are 2 processes involved in acquiring a phobia- classical and operant conditioning
First, the person learns to associate the phobic object with fear due to a frightening experience. Eg a person may have a phobia of a button because they once chocked on one.
Secondly, the person learns to avoid/escape from the phobic object because this reduces their fear. This involves operant conditioning, the reducing in fear reinforces their avoidance. This avoidance maintains the phobia
Stimulus generalisation
Phobias
Sometimes the fear will start to generalise to other objects or situations to the one that initially created fear. Eg a person who chocked on a button may start to fear other small round objects.
Vicarious learning
Phobias
It may be that people may learn to be afraid indirectly by witnessing someone else experiencing intense fear.
Strengths of the behavioural approach to phobias
Considerable amount of evidence of the role of conditions. This enhances the reliability.
High face validity because many people with phobias do recall a frightening experience.
Leads to treatment such as systematic desensitization
Limitations of the behavioural approach to phobias
Many people have frightening events and yet don’t require a phobia.
Some people with phobias can’t recall any frightening event
Doesn’t take into account the influence of our cognition a p,
Can’t explain why some phobias are more common than others.
Definition of a phobia
An irrational fear of an object or situation
Definition of depression
A mental disorder characterised by low mood and low energy levels.
Major depression (unipolar)- depressed mood all of most of the day
Biolar depression- the person has weeks where they experience depressed mood but also phases of mania (excessively high mood)
Definition of OCD
An anxiety disorder in which the person experiences persistent intrusive thoughts that they find unpleasnt. Also the person may have uncontrollable urge to engage on behaviours (obsessions and compulsions)
Symptoms of phobias
Feelings of panic
Excessive fear
The person will go to great lengths to avoid the phobic situation
If the person can’t avoid the situation then they may start crying
Distorted thinking
Symptoms of depression
Low mood
Anger
Low self esteem
May lack energy
Insomnia/ hypersomnia
Changes in appetite
Distorted negative thinking
Thoughts of death
Poor concentration
Symptoms of OCD
Intense anxiety
Repetitive actions such as hand washing
Repetitive, intrusive thoughts
Realisation that the thoughts are irrational
Name the two behavioural approach treatments for phobias
Systematic desensitization
Flooding
Anxiety hierarchy
A list of situations related to the phobic stimulus that provokes anxiety arranged from least to most frightening
Describe systematic desensitization process
- Anxiety hierarchy is put together by the patient and therapist
- The therapist teaches the patient to relax. This may involve breathing exercises
- Patient gets into relaxed state and asked to imagine or encounter the first step on their hierarchy until they no longer feel fear
- Move onto next step on hierarchy and then real life exposure
Appropriateness of systematic desensitization
:) appropriate for many patients as it teaches them relaxation techniques which helps people to cope and it gradually exposes the patient to their fears
:) easy to explain
:( time consuming
Flooding
Flooding involves going to the top of someone’s fear hierarchy and exposing them to the thing they are most afraid of for a prolonged period of time
Appropriateness of flooding
:) flooding can be a rapid and effective treatment for phobias for patients who are willing
:( ethical issues are raised as patients often find it very distressing
:( rarely appropriate for children
Cognitive approach to depression
The cognitive approach to depression argues that depression occurs due to faulty thinking and irrational beliefs.
Consequently, the cognitive approach argues that depression can be created by enabling someone to challenge and change their maladaptive thinking patterns
Ellis’s cognitive model of depression
Ellis argued that depression isn’t just the results of unpleasant events in a persons life but depends on what the person believes and thinks about those events.
Ellis’s abc model of depression
A= adverse event (eg failing an exam)
B= beliefs (I’m stupid)
C= consequences (depression)
3 key features to Becks cognitive approach to depression
Negative schema
Cognitive errors
Biased memories
Becks cognitive triad
People suffering from depression tend to show negative thinking about the
- self
- world
- future
Schema
A mental representation of previously held knowledge and views stored in long term memory
Beck negative schema
Cognitive approach to depression
If a persons schema is negative, they are more likely to suffer from depression. This is because negative schema acts like negative spectacles which makes the persons see events in a negative way.
Beck argued that negative schema develops in childhood often as the result of abusive parenting. Negative schema lays dormant but may become activated by a triggering event.
Catastrophing
Cognitive error
When someone assumes the worst will happen. Eg if someone fails an exam, they may assume they will never get a job
Applying a negative filter
Cognitive error
Where someone only pays attention to negative into and ignores the positive. Eg if a person only pays attention to the negative info a teacher has written on their work
Misinterpreting positive events in a negative way
Cognitive error
When a person misinterprets something that is positive as being negative
Biases in memory
Depression
Negative schema can influence how we process and remember information. In depression, people’s memory often becomes biased towards remembering negative events and finds it difficult to recall positive events.
Cognitive behavioural therapy
The main aim of CBT is to change dysfunction thinking.
There are 2 key steps which are
- Identify the distorted thinking
- Challenge dysfunctional thinking
Identifying distorted thinking
The therapist and patient work together.
This could involve a thought diary where the patient notes down any times when they have noticed they’re feeling particularly depressed. They would write down what was happening so they can see the type of thinking errors they are having.
Assessment of thoughts in the session
Challenging the distorted thinking
CBT
The therapist will work with the patient to challenge distorted thinking.
Socratic questioning
When the therapist asks the patient a series of questions to help the patient to discover new ways of thinking and to realise their thinking is distorted.
Collaborative thinking
Patients are encouraged to view their beliefs as hypothesis to be systematically tested by gathering evidence.
They work together to test beliefs in an empirical way
Appropriateness of CBT for depression
:) relatively straight forward. CBT makes sense because it aims to change the way people think and extreme negative taking is one of the key symptoms of depression.
:( expensive to deliver because of the need to see a trained therapist. However, it is good at preventing relapse so it could be more cost effective than anti depressants in the long run.
:( may not be suitable for patients with limited social skills
:( patients require motivation
:( altering thinking may be impossible in some patients
Biological approach to OCD
OCD is caused by neural abnormalities in the structure/ function of the brain.
May partly be due to genes
OCD is assumed to be as illness which can be treated by using medical methods
OCD
Neural abnormalities
There is evidence which suggests that OCD is associated with abnormalities in the brain circuits that are involved in detecting and responding to potential threat. However, is OCD abnormal activity in these circuits may cause them to trigger obsessions and compulsions.
The basal ganglia in the base of the brain is programmed to look out and detect threat and generate anxiety so we respond to threat.
The basal ganglia connects with the orbitofrontalbcortex in a loop. Baxter (1992) argues that abnormalities in this loop in people with OCD may mean that behaviours that are designed to protect us from threat get over activated despite sensory info telling the brain there is no longer threat. Therefore, compulsive behaviours become repetitive.m
Neurotransmitter
Chemicals in the brain that allow messages to be sent between brain cells across the synapse.
One important neurotransmitter in mood regulation is called serotonin (5-HT)
