psychopathology Flashcards
What are the 4 different types of definitions of abnormality?
Failure to function adequately
Deviates from ideal mental health
Drastically infrequency
Deviation from social norms
Describe and evaluate failure to function adequately
1S and 1W
When someone’s is unable to maintain basic standards of nutrition and hygiene
ROSENHAN AND SELIGMAN
When you no longer control to standard interpersonal rules
When a person experiences severe personal distress
When your behaviour becomes irrational or dangerous to themselves or others
S observable characteristics
W cultural differences
Describe and evaluate deviates from ideal mental health
1S
4W
What makes people normal? MARIE JOHODA..good mental health is No symptoms of stress We are rational Realistic view of the world Have good self esteem and lack guilt Independent of others We can successfully work, love and enjoy leisure
S positive empathises- positive achievements rather than failure and distress
W changes over time, perception change, cultural variation and subjective criteria
Describe and evaluate deviation from social norms
1S
3W
We make a collective judgement as a society about what is right. When a person behaves in a way that is different from how we except people to behave
S helps people by giving society the right to intervene in abnormal peoples lives and help them
W subjective social normals aren’t real but are based on the opinions of ruling elite, time/change/cultural/individualism
Describe and evaluate statistical infrequency
1S
2W
Any behaviour which is statistically uncommon. Any behaviour that falls outside mean/median/mode
S based on real data
W same rare behaviour are desirable (intelligence)
W cultural factor
What are the emotional characteristics of OCD
Powerful anxiety
Low mood
Irrational guilt
What are the behavioural characteristics of OCD
Compulsions they feel compelled to repeat
Reduced anxiety when compulsion are performed
Avoidance, they attempt to reduce anxiety by keeping away from situations
What are cognitive explanation of OCD
Plagued with obsessive thoughts
Hyper vigilant
Aware they’re being irrational
What are the emotional characteristics of depression
Feeling worthless
Extreme anger
Low self esteem
What are the behavioural characteristics of depression
Lethargic Withdrawal from work/education/society Insomnia/hyper insomnia Aggressive Effect on eating habits
What are the cognitive characteristics of depression
Process info differently
Poor conc levels
Hard making decisions
Bias to recalling happy events
What are the emotional characteristics oh phobias
Anxiety
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias
Panic
Avoidance
Endurance when the suffer remains in the presence of the phobic stimuli
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias
Selective attention to phone stimuli
Irrational beliefs
Cognitive distortions
How do you explain phobias?
The 2 process model
Classic and operant conditioning
The phobia is developed thought classic conditioning
They learnt to maintain it through operant conditioning
The sufferer feels anxiety and panic when they see the phobic stimuli. In response they avoid and/or try to escape
Once they are away from the stimuli (rewarding) the suffer has learnt that running away will make them feel better. They’ll repeat this behaviour
Describe and evaluate systematic desensitisation
Developed by Joseph wolpe.
The treatment involves creating a hierarchy of fear.
It is based on the principle that you can’t be in a state of relaxation and fear at the same time.
Once in a state of relaxation, the therapists works with the Ps to create a hierarchy of fear.
Over a period of sessions the Ps is gradually taken through the hierarchy all the time associating all items with relaxation
S used to eradicate ‘little peters’ fear of white fluffy animals.
Gilry followed a control group for 3 months and 33 months after SS. They showed less fear than other who had received flooding
W it require exposure to phobic stimuli, even the prospect of this can cause high anxiety so the drop out rate is high
Can only be carried out by professionals
Describe and evaluate flooding
Involves putting the Ps in a situation where they’d be forced to face their phobia
The inescapable exposure of fear objection lasts until the fear response disappears.
It is based on the rationale that there is only a certain amount of time that the body can experience fear for, eventually the anxiety will subside
S cost effective and quicker as you need only one session
W symptoms substitution- when one phobia disappears and is replaced by another
W requires high motivation
What are the explanations for depression?
Necks negative triad and Ellis ABC model
Describe and evaluate becks negative triad
Beck suggested that a person vulnerable to depression will have; faulty processing, negative self esteem and negative triad
Negative view of the world
Negative view of themselves
Negative view of the future
S all cognitive aspects of depression can be adapted and changed
W becks cognitive theory can’t explain all types of depressed thinking and ignores the environment
Describe and evaluate Ellis ABC model
Ellie’s explained that depression occurs because someone has irrational thoughts A- activation event- situation triggers irrational thoughts in a person
B- beliefs- identified a range of irrational beliefs e.g. I must always succeed
C- consequence- the activating event than triggers a irrational belief for which there are emotional and behavioural consequence
S in a questionnaire people with depression made more negative assessment on questions like ‘ people will probably think less of me if I do something wrong’
W is over simplistic and ignores other influencing factors
What psychologist specialise for phobias
Behaviourist
What psychologists specialise in depression
Cognitive
What are the explanations for OCD neural
neural explanations
Role of serotonin- helps regulate mood. Low levels of serotonin means normal transmission of mood-relevant info doesn’t take place and mood and other mental processes are affected.
Some cases of OCD may be explained by a reduction in the functioning of the serotonin system in the brain
Decision making system- OCD is assocatied with improved decision making. This in then maybe be associated with abnormal functioning of the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is responsible for logical thinking and making decision
What are the explanations for OCD, genetic
Genes are involved in individual vulnerability to OCD.
According to the diathesis stress model certain detains leave some people more likely to suffer a mental disorder
Candidate gene- “genes which create vulnerability for OCD. These genes are involving in regulating the development of serotonin system”
Polygenic- “there are several genes involved”
Aetiologically heterogenous-“ one group of genes may cause OCD in one person but a different group of genes may cause the disorder in another
