PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: Evaluation Flashcards
STATISTICAL INFREQUENCY
1) Many abnormal behaviours that some people find desirable, for example
having an IQ of over 150 is abnormal, but desirable. Equally there are normal behaviors that are seen as undesirable.
Therefore, using statistical infrequency to define abnormality makes it hard to distinguish between desirbale and undesirable behaviours.
STATISTICAL INFREQUENCY
2) The cut-off point between normal and abnormal is subjective, for example
a symptom of depression is difficults sleeping, some people think abnormal sleep should be less than 6, some people think it should be less than 5.
This makes it difficult to define abnormality using statistical infrequency.
STATISTICAL INFREQUENCY
3) Behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may not be as infrequent in another, for example
a symptom of schizophrenia is hearing voices, but this is normal in some cultures.
This shows that there aren’t universal laws defining what is or isn’t frequent.
DEVIATION FROM SOCIAL NORMS
1) What is acceptable now wouldn’t have been acceptable 50 years ago, for example
homosexuality is widely acceptable today, but in the past would’ve been included under sexual and gener identity disorders in the DSM.
Therefore, if abnormality is defined as deviation from social norms, there is a risk of creating definitions based on prevailing social morals and attitudes.
DEVIATION FROM SOCIAL NORMS
2) One negative is that judgements on deviance often relate to the context of the behaviour, for example
wearning next to nothing on a beach is acceptable, but not in a classroom.
This shows that social deviance on its own can’t offer a complete definition of abnormality because it relates to both context and degree.
DEVIATION FROM SOCIAL NORMS
3) One strength is that this definition distinguishes between desirable and undesirable behaviours and takes into account how behaviour effects others, as it states
that abnormal behaviour is behaviour that damages.
Therefore, this definition provides a practical and useful way to identify damaging or undesirable behaviour.
FAILURE TO FUNCTION ADEQUATELY
1) Who decides if someone is failing to function adequately?
If someone is experiencing personal distress they may recognise this and seek help or they may be content with the situation and unaware that they aren’t coping well.
Therefore, a limitation of this approach is that the judgement is subjective because it depends who is deciding what is ‘normal’.
FAILURE TO FUNCTION ADEQUATELY
3) A positive is that this definition of abnormality recognises the subjective experience of the patient and allows
us to view the disorder from the POV of the person who is experiencing it. It is also easy to judge objectively because we can list behaviours and judge abnormality objectively.
Therefore this definition has a sense of sensitivity and practicality.
FAILURE TO FUNCTION ADEQUATELY
4)This definition is limited by being culturally relative because
definitions of adequate functioning relate to cultural ideas of how ones life should be lived. This could explain why lower-class and non-white patients are often diagnosed with mental disorders. This means that the use of the model is limited by its cultural relativism.
IDEAL MENTAL HEALTH
1) A criticism of this definition is that at some point in our lives we will be classed as abnormal according to the idea mental health criteria. Jahoda
represents them as an idea criteria, but we need to question how many categories we need to be lacking in to be classed as abnormal and it is difficult to measure some categories such as personal growth.
This shows that this approach is interesting, but is hard to use to identify abnormality.
IDEAL MENTAL HEALTH
3) This definition focuses on the positives rather than the negatives, therefore
offering an alternative perspective on idea mental health as Johoda’s ideas had a big impact on positive psychology.
Therefore one strength is it’s positive outlook on metal health and its influence on humanistic approach.
IDEAL MENTAL HEALTH
4) Most of Jahoda’s criteria are culture-bound, for example
self-actualisation is relevant to some individualist cultures, but not to collectivist cultures where the needs of the group are more important.
Therefore this limits the usefulness of this definition for certain cultural groups.
BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH TO EXPLAINING PHOBIAS
2) A limitation of the behavioural approach is that a NS associated with a fearful situation should result in a phobia, but this doesn’t always happen, for example
research shows that not everyone who is bitten by a dog will have a phobia of dogs which can be explained by the diathesis stress model.
This suggests that a dog bite may only result in a phobia if the individual is genetically vulnerable and therefore the behaviourist explanation is incomplete.
BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH TO EXPLAINING PHOBIAS
5) Another limitation is that it ignores other aspects, for example cognitive, that could also explain phobias. The cognitive approach suggests that
a person develops a phobia because of irrational thinking, if the behavioural approach ignores this it could rule out effective therapies such as CBT.
You also need a combination of behaviourist and cognitive explanations to fully account for and explain phobias.
BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH TO EXPLAINING PHOBIAS
3) Bandura and Rosenthal conducted an experiment which helped support the social learning theory. Every time a
buzzer was sounded, the model was told to act out as if he was in pain. Participants who observed this showed an emotional reaction to the buzzer, demonstrating they had acquired a fear response.
This shows that modelling behaviour can lead to the acquisition of phobias.
