Psychpathology P1 Flashcards
What is deviation from social norms
. Definition of abnormality
. Norms are unwritten rules for acceptable behaviour
. Deviation is behaviour that violates accepted social rules
. These norms can vary across cultures, situations, age, and gender
. Important to consider degree which norm is deviated, and how important society sees norm as being
. If norm is unimportant, may not be abnormal to go against it
. Implicit - unspoken rules
. Explicit - laws that tell us how to behave
What are the strengths and weaknesses of deviation from social norms
. W norms change as times change, e.G.homosexuality accepted now but not in the past, lack of consistency reduces reliability of definition
. W culturally relative E.G. Suri tribal woman well lit plates normal for the tribe however this will be viewed as abnormal in other cultures, reliable definition should be consistent between cultures
. W can be seen as punishing people expressing individuality, repressive, limitation as using definition can be damaging to certain people
. S more appropriate definition of abnormality when compared to statistical infrequency, distinguishes between desirable and undesirable behaviour and effect it has on others
What is failure to function adequately
. Means a person is unable to cope with every day life or engage in every day behaviours
. Not functioning adequately causes distress and suffering for individual, and distress to others
. Remember music, maladaptive behaviour, unconventionality, suffering, irrational and incomprehensibility, control (a lack of)
. E.G.can’t sleep, not eating, struggling to keep job, not able to maintain/form relationships, late, not attending school
What are the strengths and weaknesses of failure to function adequately
. S include patience effective, views mental disorder from POV of person experiencing it, suggest spell your function adequately useful criterion for assessing level of functioning
. W abnormality not always accompanied by dysfunction E.G.psychopaths, E.G.Harold Shipman, GP who murdered at least 215 patients who seem to be respectable doctor, therefore definition may not apply to all
. W definition limited by cultural relativism, same behaviour could be defined as abnormal because it’s viewed as a failure to function in one culture yet function adequately and another, definition is unreliable and inconsistent
. W abnormality could be due to a range of other factors, E.G.someone unable to hold a job down maybe in a situation due to economic situation of country, means the definition could incorrectly label people as abnormal, there is a limitation of this definition as it’s just it’s not appropriate and inapplicable
What is statistical infrequency
. Any behaviour that statistically rare will be classed as abnormal
. Classification requires normal distribution curve in order to identify proportion of people with characteristics
. Human behaviour classed as abnormal if it falls outside the range that is typical for most people
. Behaviour is abnormal because it infrequent in the population
What are the strengths and weaknesses of statistical infrequency
. S objective way to define abnormality, clear cut off point, makes it easier to decide who meets criteria of abnormal, therefore definition seen as less subjective than other definitions
. W many abnormal behaviours are quite desirable, high IQ and normal behaviours are undesirable, depression, problem with planning treatment as only undesirable behaviour need to be identified so couldn’t be enough for them to make a diagnosis
. W cut-off point needs to be decided to separate normality from abnormality which is subbjectively determined so lacks validity
. W Could be culturally biased, some behaviours statistically infrequent in some cultures but more in others, E.G.hearing voices is common in some cultures but not others, definition could only be used to define abnormality in some cultures
What is deviation from ideal mental health
. Praise Jahoda
. Defined criteria required for normality, people who lack these are defined as abnormal
. jahoda defined ideal mental health through six characteristics (optimal living characteristics), healthy people should show these
. Praise, perception of reality, resistance of stress, autonomy, self actualisation personal growth, mastery of environment
. The less of these qualities you have the more abnormal you are seen to be
What are the strengths and weaknesses of deviation from ideal mental health
. S offers alternative perspective on mental disorders, focus on positive, in accord with humanistic approach which focuses on positive aspects of human nature
. W maybe culturally biased, ideals not applicable to all cultures, self actualisation is relevant to members of individualistic cultures but not collectivist cultures, problem because definition is unreliable and should be consistent between cultures
. W unclear how many criteria needs to be lacking before seem to be deviating from ideal mental health, let the individual psychiatrists to judge whether someone is deviating enough to diagnose, leads to inconsistency, subjective so where were used in real world
What is the DSM
. System for classifying and diagnosing mental health problems
. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
. Current version of DSM-5 published in 2013
What is a phobia and what are the DSM 5 categories of phobias
. Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder characterised by excessive fear and anxiety triggered by object place or situation, disproportionate to any real danger
. Specific phobia - simple phobia, fear of a an object or situation
. Social phobia - phobia of social situation like public speaking
. Agoraphobia - fear of leaving home or safe place
What are the behavioural characteristics related to phobias
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. Panic - response to the presence of God it’s tomorrow, includes crying screaming running away or freezing
. Avoidance - being close to stimuli, natural survive certain situation for object will be present
. Disruption of functioning - anxiety and avoidance responses so extreme that there’s 1 billions of October day working in social functioning
. Endurance – because one person chooses to remain in presence of phobic stimulus e.g. watching a spider rather than leaving and running
What are the emotional characteristics Related to phobia
. Anxiety - unpleasant state of high arousal, makes it difficult to experience any positive emotions, can be long-term, due to the presence of or anticipation of phobic stimuli
. Fear - emotional response accompanies phobic stimuli, often extremely unreasonable, fear is disproportionate to actual danger posed by stimuli
What are the cognitive characteristics related to phobia
. Irrational beliefs - suffers hold a Irrational believes in relation to phobic stimuli, resistance a rational arguments
. Selective attention – suffers will look intently at phobic stimuli, find it difficult to look away, useful to keep attention on something dangerous so we can react with that quickly, not useful when fear is irrational and affecting daily life
What is the Two process model
. Phobias are acquired by classical conditioning and maintained by operant conditioning
. E.G. little Albert learnt to associate the fear of rats with a loud noise resulting in new condition stimulus being learnt
. Phobia is maintained by operant conditioning with negative reinforcement as individual avoid situation that is unpleasant allowing them to escape the fear and anxiety which reinforces the avoidance behaviour and maintains the phobia
. Avoid phobic stimulus > fear taken away > behaviour is reinforced > behaviour is replaced >
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the two process model
. S can be tested in an objective rigourous way explanation of phobias
. S has practical applications, several behavioural therapies use principles of conditioning to treat phobias, E.G.systematic desensitisation for therapy, success of treatment strengthen validity of behavioursist explanation of phobias
. W argued that explanation is incomplete as fails to explain role evolution please, found that we are innately predisposed to fear of things like snakes and spiders, therefore model may be too simplistic as there may be more to fear than conditioning
. W fails to explain the cognitive aspects of phobia, person in a lift I think I could be trapped in here, irrational thought creates extreme anxiety and they trichophobia, weakness is behavioural isolation is failing to explain a vital component of disorder
What is systematic desensitisation
. Behavioural therapy decide to gradually reduce Phobia through classical conditioning
. Sufferer has to learn to relax in presence of phobic stimulus
. New response to stimulus is learnt, this is called counterconditioning
. Uses three processes
. 1) anxiety hierarchy - phobic patient works with therapist to list situations related to stimulus, least fearful at bottom, most at the top
. 2) relaxation - impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time, called reciprocal inhibition, teaching relaxation techniques is vital, E.G.deep breathing, mindfulness, and visualisation, also achieved using antianxiety drugs
. 3) exposure-patient exposed to phobic stimulus whilst in relax state, patient starts at bottom of the hierarchy, can remain relaxed at that level progress on the next level, over several sessions patient gradually moves up hierarchy, successful when patient can maintain relaxation in most feared level on hierarchy
. This exposure is done in two ways in vitro – client imagines exposure to phobic stimulus, in vivo-client is actually exposed to phobic stimulus
