Psychopathology A03 Flashcards
Strength of Statistical Infrequency
Real life applications. Can measure child development by comparing intelligence to the average of their peers. Helps to identify developmental problems early on and demonstrates real life contributions.
Weaknesses of Statistical Infrequency
- Unusual characteristics can be positive. People with statistically abnormal behaviours don’t always need to treatment to make it normal. Can’t be used alone to make a diagnosis.
- Not everyone unusual benefits from label. If someone is happy and fulfilled they don’t need label despite being unusual. May have negative effects on the way others view them/way they view themselves.
Strength of Deviation from Social Norms
Helps keep society orderly. Social norms tell people what is acceptable which prevents chaos. Practical and real life use.
Weaknesses of Deviation from Social Norms
- Relies on context of behaviour. Behaviours can be normal or abnormal depending on situation. Behaviour itself isn’t abnormal, context is.
- Culturally specific. Cultural norms/expectations vary and must be considered. Perception of social norms must adapt according to culture in focus.
Strength of Failure to Function Adequately
Attempts to include individual subjective experience. Acknowledges that experience of the patient is important. Captures experiences of many of the people who need help. This suggests it’s a useful criteria for measuring abnormality.
Weaknesses of Failure to Function Adequately
- Relies on subjectivity. Too much reliance on interpretation e.g. observer discomfort can vary. Too much room for error and people can be incorrectly judged as abnormal.
- Doesn’t always stop functioning. People could appear fine and fit in while having distorted thinking which causes hidden distress. Shows abnormality can’t be entirely based on the ability to function.
Strengths of Deviation from Ideal Mental Health
- Can help people’s recovery. If specific criteria of concern can be identified, that person can be supported to improve that criteria to help overall mental health. Shows real life applications.
- Focuses on healthy behaviour rather than unhealthy behaviour. Focuses on how to become normal rather than problematic, maladaptive behaviours. Less stigmatising to talk about mental health and is more sensitive to people’s emotions.
Weakness of Deviation from Ideal Mental Health
Too subjective. Whether people meet criteria or not is dependent on interpretation, rather than clear cut off points. Makes definition unreliable.
Strengths of the Behaviourist explanation of phobias?
- Research support. Watson + Rayner demonstrated classical conditioning through Little Albert who was conditioned to fear white rats. Supports that classical conditioning is involved in acquiring phobias.
- Application to therapy. Effective treatments such as systematic desensitisation/flooding can help people unlearn phobias through classical conditioning as it prevents avoidance of fears and negative reinforcement. There has been successful use of these treatments.
Weakness of the Behaviourist explanation of phobias?
May be limited as it doesn’t account for possible evolutionary fears. Many people can have common fears even if they haven’t had a traumatic experience with the stimulus. Highlights some fears can be adoptive and genetically inherited and biological preparedness plays a role alongside conditioning.
Strength of Flooding
Cost and time efficient. Significantly quicker than SD and cognition therapies. Patients treated quicker and more cost effective for health service providers.
Weaknesses of Flooding
- Highly traumatic and anxiety inducing. Many don’t finish treatment because experience is too stressful, making flooding a waste of time and money. Makes treatment ineffective.
- Only useful for simple (specific) phobias. Social phobias caused by irrational thinking, not unpleasant experience or classical conditioning. More complex phobias can’t be treated by behaviourist treatments and may be more responsive to other treatments such as CBT, which treats irrational thinking.
Strengths of Systematic Desensitisation
- Very effective. Barlow found 60-90% success rates for specific phobias when people stuck to the treatment and regime. Therapy is effective at removing disorder symptoms with needing drugs which cause side effects.
- Not as traumatic/anxiety inducing. Easier for patients to do treatment as it starts with simple conversations instead of being thrown in the deep end. More likely to complete treatment, making it more likely to be effective.
Weakness of Systematic Desensitisation
Not as cost and time efficient. SD is significantally slower than flooding as SD can take multiple days to complete. Patient treatment is very slow and could waste time and money for health service providers.
Strength of Cognitive Explanations of Depression
Application to therapy. Used to develop effective treatments e.g. CBT and REBT, which was developed from ABC Model. Therapies identify and challenge negative, irrational thoughts and have successfully treated depression. Provides further support to this explanation.
Weakness of Cognitive Explanations of Depression
- Doesn’t explain origins of irrational thoughts and most research is correlational. Unable to determine if negative, irrational thoughts cause depression or if depression leads to negative mindset. Other factors e.g. genes could cause depression.
- Alternate biological explanation. Lower levels of neurotransmitter serotonin found in depressed people. Drug therapies e.g. SSRIs increase serotonin level and are effective. Cognitive explanation limited as it doesn’t consider biological factors.
Strength of CBT
Research evidence. CBT as effective as antidepressants as they both showed an impact in treating depression. Combination of both produced most effective results. Suggests that while CBT is effective, a combination of both treatments is most effective.
Weaknesses of CBT
- Requires motivation. Depressed people may not engage or even show up . Alternate treatments such as antidepressants don’t require same level of motivation and may be more effective. Poses problem for CBT as it may not be used as the sole treatment.
- Overemphasis on role of cognitions. Doesn’t take into account other factors. e.g. domestically abused people need to change circumstances, not beliefs. CBT would be ineffective in treating patient until circumstance is changed.
Strengths of Genetic Explanation of OCD
- Research from family studies. 37% of OCD patients had OCD parents and 21% had OCD siblings. Provides support but doesn’t rule out other environmental factors as families share same environment.
- Evidence from twin studies. 68% of identical twins and 31% of non-identical twins have OCD, suggesting a very strong genetic component. Stronger evidence than family studies as concordance is more likely due to genetics than the environment.
Weakness of Genetic Explanation of OCD
Reductionist. Biological reductionist as it reduces complex OCD behaviours into singular components such as genes. Doesn’t take into account other factors and may oversimplify OCD. Holistic approach may be needed to fully understand OCD explanations.
Strength of Neural Explanation of OCD
Research support from biological treatments. Anti depressants such as SSRIs typically work by increasing serotonin levels, correcting the imbalance. Drugs effective in reducing symptoms for both neural explanation and practical explanation for use in treatments.
Weaknesses of Neural Explanation of OCD
- Reductionist. Biological reductionist as it reduces complex OCD behaviours into singular components such as neurotransmitters/brain structures. Doesn’t take into account other factors and may oversimplify OCD. Holistic approach may be needed to fully understand OCD explanations.
- Issue with establishing cause + effect and direction of it. Link between low serotonin and symptoms doesn’t show direct causal relationship. May be other factors impacting OCD symptoms and serotonin levels. Brain structure may not cause symptoms, but OCD may cause abnormal functioning of brain structures.
