Psychopathology Flashcards
What is Psychopathology?
the study of psychological disorders
Why does abnormality have no definition among health experts
as when definitions remain unstated it means it cannot be challenged and alternative explanations our ignored therefore we cannot develop a scientific understanding
What is the most common definition of psychopathology
statistical infrequency
Describe statistical infrequency as a definition
we can define what is normal by mean, median, and mode then by using this typical value in the data we can see what is not normal
Describe deviation from social norms as a definition
Norms are created by a group of people and thus social
there are standards of acceptable behaviours that are set by the social group anyone who behaves differently is classed as abnormal
Evaluation of statistical infrequency as a definition: Some abnormal behaviours are desirable
some abnormal behaviour is desirable such as having a high IQ other normal behaviours are undesirable, for example it is quite common to experience depression this makes it hard to distinguish between desirable and undesirable behaviours
Evaluation of statistical infrequency as a definition: the cut of point is subjectively determined
need to be able to decide where to separate normality from abnormality also depends on how you see the data
Evaluation of statistical infrequency as a definition: statistical infrequency is sometimes appropriate (strengths)
in some situations it is appropriate to use a statistical criterion for example intellectual disability is defined in terms of the normal distribution more than two standard deviations below the mean then it is judged as having a mental disorder
Evaluation of deviation from Social norms as a definition: susceptible to abuse
What is socially acceptable varies as times change, if we define abnormality in terms of social norms then it can become based on social morals and attitudes
- Thomas Szaz in 1974 said “concept of mental illnesses was to exclude non conforms from society
Evaluation of deviation from Social norms as a definition: Deviance is related to context and degree
relate to the context or degree of behaviour for example wearing a bikini to the beach is normal but at a funeral it is not
Evaluation of deviation from Social norms as a definition: strengths
it does distinguish between desirable and undesirable, takes in effect it has on others
- abnormal behaviour is behaviour that damages others
How does definitions of psychopathology relate to cultural relativism
- statistical infrequent behaviours may be more frequent in another culture for example hearing voices
- social norms are defined by culture as well, classification systems such as DSM are based on western culture there are no universal standards or rules for labelling a behaviour as abnormal
Describe a failure to function adequately as a definition
functioning refers to going about daily life such as eating regularly when you fail to do this then it can cause distress and suffering for the individual and others
- in some cases the person does not feel distress but others around them are distressed for example schizophrenic people
What are the things that you need to be able to function failure
- understanding and communicating
- getting around
- self care
- getting along with people
- life activities
- participation in society
it is rated on a scale of 1 to 5 then scored out of 180
Evaluation of failure to function adequately as a definition: who judges
may be the individual that experiences the distress and recognises that they cannot cope
the individual may be content with the situation or not aware that they are not coping so will judge their behaviour as abnormal
depends on whose making the judgement
Evaluation of failure to function adequately as a definition: the behaviour may be quite functional
some dysfunctional behaviours can be adaptive and functional for the individual
for example not eating gains attention this can be rewarding and functional for the disorder
Evaluation of failure to function adequately as a definition: Strengths of failure to function adequately
recognises the subjective experience of the patient allowing use to view the mental disorders from the point of view of the patient
- easy to judge objectively as we can list behaviours and thus judge abnormality objectively
describe deviation from ideal mental health as a definition
Maire Jahoda (1958) said that we should judge mental health like we do physical illness and look at the absence signs of mental health
What are the characteristic of happy mental health based off of
self attitudes person growth
personal growth and self actualisation
integrations - being able to cope in stressful situations
autonomy - being independent and self regulation
having an accurate perception of reality
mastery of the environment
Evaluation of ideal mental health as a definition: unrealistic criteria
according to criteria mist of us abnormal as no one can ever meet them all at once
how many have to be lacking before a person is classed as abnormal?
Evaluation of ideal mental health as a definition: mental health is not same as physical health
Mental illnesses are not as easy to diagnose and threat consequences of persons life experiences
Evaluation of ideal mental health as a definition: positive approach
offers alternative perspective and focus on the desirable
Evaluation of ideal mental health as a definition: cultural relativism
failure to function and ideal mental health, likely to result in different diagnoses from different cultures
What are phobias
its an anxiety disorder when a patient produces an irrational fear which produces a conscious avoidance of the feared object or situation
What are the emotional characteristics of phobias
primary emotional characteristics is unreasonable and excessive fear, this is allied by anticipation of a specific object and out of proportion to the actual danger based
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias
- avoidance - interferes with the daily routine and causes the personal distress this distinguishes phobias from every day fears
- freeze or faint, person plays dead
What are the cognitive characteristic of a phobia
their irrational behaviour and their resistance to rational arguments
the person recongises that there fear is excessive or unreasonable this distinguishes between a phobia and mental illnesses - they could be schizophrenic if they cannot realise their excessive behaviour
What are the symptoms of depression
sadness
loss of interest and pleasure
Explain sadness as a symptom of depression
sadness is most common description, they feel empty lonely and have low self-esteem
Explain loss of interest/pleasure
feel despair and lack of control, have anger and this is directed towards one self or others they want to hurt or retaliate
What are the behavioural characteristics of depression
reduce of increase their activity level,
they want to sleep more or less
increasingly agitated and restless
don’t want to eat
What are the cognitive characteristics of depression
associated with negative self hate as well as guilt and worthlessness
negative view of the world and expect things to turn badly
negative thoughts can be fulfilling for believing they will fail out of a test and actually fail
negative thoughts are irrational
What are the emotional characteristics of OCD
obsessions and compulsions are a source of anxiety and distress, the people are aware that there behaviour is excessive and are shamed and embarrassed
What are the behavioural characteristics of OCD
the compulsive behaviours reduce anxiety and patients feel that they must perform the action otherwise some thing dreadful will happen, even though the events are not connected in a realistic way
What are the cognitive characteristics of OCD
obsessions are recurrent and some thoughts are embarrassing so they don’t want to share
common thoughts include ideas or impulses
impulses are not excessive and are worries of everyday problems at some point person recognises that obsession is unreasonable
describe the little ablbert study - phobias
John B Watson along with Rosalie Raynerin 1920 conducted the study with little Albert
- wanted to show that an emotional response could be learned via classical conditioning, 11th month old could called Albert showed fear furry objects these were the neutral stimuli
- every time albert reached for the furry objects a loud noise was played behind his head
- this was repeated and scared him
- this conditioned him
Explain the two process model ( in the behavioural approach)
Orval Riopart Maurer 1947 - proposed the two process model to explain how phobias are learned
- 1st stage would be classical conditioning while the 2nd stage is operant
Explain the classical conditioning initiation (two process model)
a phobia is acquired through association between neutral stimuli and the response being learned
the UCS Is the noise and the UCR is the fear, in the case of little Albert the furry object (NS) is being paired with the UCS transferred the properties and made it to a CS which produces a CR
Explain the operant conditioning maintenance ( two process model)
classical conditioning does not explain why the individual continue to feel fearful or why they avoided the feared object, the avoidance of the phobic stimulus this reducing the fear thus reinforcing - negative reinforcement as the individual is escaping an unpleasant situation therefore is why they avoid
social learning theory (behavioural approach)
phobias may be acquired through modelling the behaviours of others for example persons is afraid of spiders and gets attention then the other person sees there reaction and mimics this to get attention which is rewarding
Evaluation of the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias: the importance of classical conditioning
Most people with phobias recall a specific incident when their phobia appeared sue et at) - 1994 but not everyone can remember that incident (öst 1987)
- sue et al - phobias may result of different processes for example agoraphobics are likely to be specific whereas arachnophobias are likely to be modelled
Evaluation of the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias: Diathesis-stress model
according to the two process model on association between a neutral stimuli and a fearful experience will result in a phobia this is not true and explained by the diathesis- stress model
- we inherit a genetic vulnerability for developing mental disorders which are triggered by a life event
Evaluation of the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias: support for social learning
Bandura and Rosenthal- 1966 - supported social learning theory in an experiment
a model acted in pain everytime a buzzer was pressed later on the patients who had seen this showed fear to the buzzer
Evaluation of the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias: Biological preparedness
Martian Seligman 1970 argued that animals are genetically programmed to learn association between life threatening situations and fear these are referred as ancient fears from our envoluntary past, explains why we don’t fear modern objects
- bregman 1934 failed to condition 8-16 months by pairing a loud bell with a wooden block this suggests behavioural approach cannot explain
Evaluation of the Behaviourist approach to explaining phobias: The two process model ignores cognitive factors
- cognitive approach suggests that phobias may develop as a result of irrational thinking this is not the way that behaviourists would suggest that it come about
