Psycopathology Flashcards
A01- cognitive approach explaining depression
-becks cognitive triad
-claims depression is caused By negative self schemas and cognitive bias’s that maintain a cognitive -ve triad: a negative view of ourselves, the future and the world around us
-according to black depressed people posses a negative self schema which are caused by negative experiences in childhood
- for example criticism from parents
-furthermore beck found that depresses people are more likely to focus on the -ve aspects of a situation while ignoring the positives.
-this distorts information a process known as cognitive bias and includes overgeneralising
-e.g ‘I have failed one test i will fail all my exams’
A01- cognitive approach explaining depression
-Eli’s is proposed ABC three stage model to explain irrational thought can lead to depression
- a activity even (A) occurs, for example you pass a friend in the corridor at school and they ignore you when you say hello.
-your belief (B) is your interpretation which could either be rational or irrational
-according to Ellis, an irrational belief e.g my friend must hate me can lead to unhealthy emotional consequences (C) including depression
A03- cognitive approach explaining depression strength- application
-strength of the cognitive explanation of depression is its application to therapy
-congntive explanations have been used to develop effective treatments for depression in ncluing CBT
And rational emotive behaviour therapy REBT which was developed from Ellis’s ABC model
-these therapies aim to identify and challenge negative irrational thoughts and have been successfully used to treat people with depression which is a strength as it provides further support to the cognitive explanation of depression
A03- cognitive approach explaining depression-weakness- origins
-weakness is to does not explain the origins of irrational thoughts
- since most of the research done in this area is correlation a psychologist are unable to determine if negative irrational thoughts cause depression or a persons depression leads to a negative mindset
- e.g genes an neurostransmitters are the cause of depression and the irrational thoughts are a symptom of depression
- a weakness because we are unable to determine if negative irrational thoughts cause depression .
AO3 cognitive approach to explaining depression weakness- addition to origins
- addition there is alternative explanations which suggests that depression is a biological condition caused by genes and neurotransmitters
-research focused on the role of serotonin has found lower levels of patients with depression
-in addition drug therapies including SSRIs which increased the serotonin levels are found to be effective on the treatment of depression which provide further support for the role of neurotransmitters in the development of depression
-a weakness as it casts doubt on the cognitive explanation as a sole cause of the disorder
A01- cognitive approach explaining depression-strength research evidence
—strength is there is research evidence to support cognitive explanation of depression -
-boury et al found that the patients with depression were more likely to misinterpret info negatively (cognitive bias) and feel hopeless about the future (cognitive triad)
-further to this bates et al ,gave depressed patients negative automatic thought statements to read and found that their symptoms became worse, these findings support different components of becks theory and the idea that negative thinking is involved in depression.
Abnormality A01- social norms + FTFA
Deviation from social norms
-social norms are set of unwritten rules which people use in order to abide by what is deemed normal behaviour
-When we deviate from these social norms, we may be viewed as abnormal
-for example, we queue for a bus rather than pushing to the front
-And we speak at volume seem acceptable for the environment ie shouting is acceptable a football match but not in a café
-Some behaviours are deemed as desirable, e.g. queueing or speaking quietly
-All the behaviours may be classed as undesirable E.G pushing or shouting
-And someone who performs undesirable behaviours may be labelled as socially deviant
Failure to function adequately
-this definition referred to a point of which someone is unable to continue their daily routine or cope with every day life
-rosenhan and seilgman proposed characteristics or features
1. Suffering.-A person who is abnormal should be suffering in someway.
2. Male adaptive behaviour.-a person is stopping themselves from progressing
3 unconventionality (0dd)- the behaviour needs to be odd in someway
4. Unpredictability and loss of control-people tend to behave in a fairly predictable way and abnormal person is expected to act in an inappropriate manner
5. Irrational and incomprehensibility.-someone may act a way in which people can’t understand
-Failing to function adequately may cause distress for the suffer and the individual
-For example someone with SZ generally lack awareness that anything is wrong but their behaviour may be distressing to other people like their family
Abnormality A01- mental health+ SI
Deviation from ideal mental health
- this is based on the idea that there are distinct markers that signal wellness or ideal mental health
-This measure assumes that if someone is mentally unwell, they will not possess a certain criteria of ideal mental health and therefore be classed as abnormal
P- perception of reality- they must be able to see the world as it is having a realistic view of the world and their place in it. (For example, if you were unsuccessful as a job interview, you may see it that the other candidate was a better fit and it’s not about you as a person.)
R- resistance to stress-being able to resist stress and cope in stressful situations EG tight deadlines celebrations
A- attitude- they must have high levels of self-esteem and a strong sense of identity
I- independence ( autonomy)- they must be able to act independently from others having self regulation being able to work on own and solve problems that may arise
S- self actualisation-they must have personal growth and development, developing themselves and achieving goals that they set E.G buying your house or getting a job
E-mastery of environment -they must be able to adapt and meet the demands of the environment situation they are in
Statistical infrequency
-this defines abnormal behaviour using statistical measures
-A behaviour is guided as abnormal if it is statistically uncommon/rare
-E.G the average IQ is approximately 100
-95% of people have an IQ which falls between 70 to 130
-Approximately 2.5% of the population have an IQ below 70
-And approximately 2.5% of the population have an IQ of 130+
-Behaviours/conditions are also considered statistically abnormal
-E.G the case of HM who suffered extreme anterograde amnesia
-It is classed statistically and frequent if it is two standard deviations away from the mean
Abnormality A03 - social norms - over time +recognise behaviour
- -One weakness is social norms change over time
-For example as recently 1974 homosexuality was classified in the DSM as a disorder
-However the diagnosis was dropped because it was found that homosexuality wasn’t as infrequent as previously fought and that homosexuals don’t differ from heterosexual in terms of psychological well-being
-Or for example in the 17th century any women who are outspoken or assertive were burned as witches where is nowadays this would not be the case as it is relatively normal for women to now be in places of authority
-This means that historically our alliance up upon deviation from social nouns as a definition of abnormality may have resulted in violations of human rights where people by today standards were deemed as abnormal
-Could be argued that these diagnosis upon these grounds may have been used as a form of social control over minority groups as it means to exclude those who don’t conform
-this lack of consistency reduces to reliability of this definition of abnormality
+ a strength is that is a useful tool for assessing behaviour
-For example, someone who constantly behaves in an antisocial manner could be termed as social deviant
-Their socially deviant behaviour may be in fact symptoms of schizophrenia or another mental disorder. Thus a proper cause of treatment can be prescribed to them.
-Additionally social norms are in place to ensure that societies are harmonious and run smoothly
-Identifying social deviant behaviour for example pushing in a queue
-May protect members of a society from distressing or harmful act committed by others
-Therefore recognising this abnormal behaviour can help prevent it.
Abnormality A03- FFA
-A weakness of the failure to function adequately definition is the issue of individual differences which it ignores
-For example, a person who hears voice is may be unable to function adequately
-Where is another person may suffer from the same symptoms but function perfectly well
-Therefore despite the same psychological and behavioural symptoms each person will be diagnosed differently according to this definition
-Thus questioning the validity of this definition
+ one strength as it gives a checklist on what defines abnormality making identification easier and organising data
+ additionally this definition acknowledges the patient’s feelings as the patient knows what behaviours, like suffering lead to abnormality
-it provides clear behavioural signs that an individual is not coping
-And these observable signs allow the individual to receive help
+ the checklist provided by RosenHan and seilgman can be used to assess the degree of FTFA which increases the reliability and objectivity of the measure
Abnormality A03- deviation from ideal mental health
-One weakness is it may be culturally biased
-This is because the ideals of mental health may not be applicable to all cultures
-For example the criteria of self actualisation is relevant to the members of individualistic cultures but not collectivist cultures
Collectivists strive for the greater good of the community rather than send self-centred goals
-This is a problem because the definition to be classified as reliable the same behaviour should be viewed consistently between cultures
-another weakness if the criteria of our mental health is almost impossible to live up to as it requires each individual to reach the highest self of positive mental well-being
-Constantly self actualising would be exhausting and may lead to self doubt and disappointment
-Also being completely free of stress is not particularly desirable as stress is a necessary motivator in daily life
-Therefore the definitions unrealistic characteristics would mean that many individuals will be classified as deviating from ideal mental health and therefore be classes abnormal in actuality they may not be
Abnormality A03 - statistical infrequency
+ one strength is that it is objective and based on data so easy to identify abnormality
-Furthermore it has no value judgements as abnormality is based solely on how Frequent behaviours are, so we can adapt overtime like homosexuality which was considered abnormal and mental disorder many years ago but now it’s seen as normal.
-additionally the measure includes a use of a standardised tool which means that the measure has inbuilt reliability
-standardised measured are replicable i.e. they can be applied repeatedly to analyse data sets
Ability means that large data sets can be included in the calculation
-The large of the data at the less likely is to be affected by anomalous results. Thus consistent patterns/trends are highlighted and consistent.
-however a weakness is that it ignores desirable and undesirable behaviour-
-for example, having a high IQ is desirable and wanted so labelling it as abnormal may not be appropriate
-furthermore it fails to consider some behaviours that are frequent can also be considered abnormal like depression which is common with the elderly
-depression affects around 280 million people across the world at any given time
-The high prevalence rate of depression means that it is not statistically deviant
-therefore SI may not be a fully valid measure of abnormality
Explaining phobias- AO1-classical
-behaviourists argues that any behaviour phobias are learned through the environment
-according to the true process model by mowrer
- Phobias are required through classical conditioning and maintained by operating conditioning
-For classical conditioning, it’s learning through association
-A neutral stimulus is consistently paid with an unconditional stimulus so that eventually takes on the properties of the stimulus and is able to produce a conditioned response
-For example, a neutral stimulus like a dog is per the unconditioned stimulus like biting which results in an unconditional response of fear
-This will then intern make the neutral stimulus become a condition stimulus resulting in a conditioned response of fear
Explaining phobias- AO1 operant
-then in the two process model phobias are negatively reinforced where a behaviour is strengthened because an unpleasant consequence is removed
-This person will avoid the situation that is unpleasant
-For example, the person with the phobia of dogs will see one while walking and will avoid it by crossing the road
-This reduces their anxiety so their behaviour is negatively reinforced making this person much more likely to avoid dogs in the future maintaining this phobia
Explaining phobias- AO3 strenght
-One strength will be research evidence
-What’s an arena demonstrated classical conditioning information of a phobia in little Albert who was conditioned to fear a white rat
-He was presented with a neutral stimulus (white rat)
-Which was impaired with a loud noise which was the unconditioned stimulus
-This brought about fear
-Once it was done for times
-The neutral stimulus of the white rat then became the conditioned stimulus
-Which now produced a conditioned response of fear?
-This supports the idea that classical conditioning is involved in acquiring phobias
-However, this was a case study, so it’s very difficult to generalise these findings to other children or even adults due to the unique nature of investigation
Explaining phobias- AO3 - strength
-another strength would be the real life application is that the two step process model has brought rise to
-For example, there are several behavioural therapies which use the principles of classical conditioning to treat phobias
-For example systematic desensitisation which is classical conditioning to unlearn phobias
-And the therapy of flooding which prevents people from avoiding phobias to stop negative reinforcement
-These therapies have been used to successfully treat phobias
-Therefore, supporting the effectiveness of the behaviourist explanation in helping people overcome phobias
Explaining phobias- AO3 -weakness
-however a weakness is it ignores the role of cognition?
-Phobia is developed due to irrational thoughts, not just learning
-For example, sufferers of claustrophobia may think
“ I will get stuck in this lift and suffocate”
-This irrational thought is not taken into a consideration
-Also environmentally it’s reductionist as it reduces behaviour down to stimulus response association
-Cognitive psychologists were disagree with the explanation as it would argue that other cognitive factors like irrational thinking play important roles that lead to the phobia
-The code of approach led to CBT, which has been seen to be more successful than behaviourist treatments for phobias
Explaining phobias- AO3 - weakness
-another weakness is it may not provide a complete explanation of phobias
-For example bouton highlights the fact of evolutionary factors which complete a role especially of avoiding a stimulus
-For example, a snake could cause pain or death to our ancestors
-Evolutionary psychologist would argue that some phobias are not but innate as they act as a survival mechanism for our ancestors
-This is called biological preparedness
-This passed out on the two process model since it suggests there is more involved in learning and some phobias are not learned but are innate
Behaviourist- treating phobias A01
-there are two kinds of treatment derived from the behaviourist theory for treating phobia
-One being systematic desensitisation
-And another being flooding
-These both derive from the classical conditioning approach
Behaviourist- treating phobias A01- SD
-systematic desensitisation aims to extinguish an undesirable behaviour by substituting the conditioned response with another
-The idea is that it’s impossible to experience two opposites emotions at the same time
-In the case of phobias, you cannot experience anxiety and relaxation at the same time
-The process can be split into three component
-1st is real relaxation in which the patient is taught techniques are giving drugs to relax themselves
-2nd is the anxiety hierarchy which is produced by the therapist and the patient and construct a pyramid of at least event for example seeing a photo of the phobia to the top of the pyramid which is the most feared
-The patient will gradually work their way up the anxiety hierarchy until component three
-which is exposure they are in the presence of the phobic stimuli
Behaviourist- treating phobias A01 - F
-flooding is an alternative treatment
-This involves exposing the phobic patients to their phobic stimuli
-With no gradual buildup or relaxation like an SD in attempt to extinguish the negative association between the phobia and fear by immediate exposure
-Also it differs from SD in the sense that it can take around four hours compared to the 24th to 30 weeks of SD
-Footing involves the patient being put into the phobic stimuli and not being able to leave until the extreme anxiety has dissipated or they learned repo of fear becomes extinct as they achieve relaxation in the presence of the stimuli simply due to the exhaustion of their own fear response
-This Then will prevent future avoidance with the stimuli as they would no longer associate the stimuli with fear
Behaviourist- treating phobias A03- SD -
-One limitation is the SD is weakened by oversimplification of linking human behaviour to a single root cause
-The behavioural approach to explaining phobias hence the behavioural treatments to phobias explain them as being due to a faulty association of fear with a phobic stimulus
-However this fails to acknowledge other factors which could cause fear or how other non-learnt phobias are required
-Phobia such as those which are innate and non-specific evolutionary phobias cannot be explained by the behavioural explanation thus they cannot be treated by flooding or systematic desensitisation as there is no association to extinguish
-This limits the usefulness of SDN flooding due to his ignorance of other potential causes of phobias and it’s inability to treat all phobias
-It may be good for certain general anxiety phobias, but not innate phobias.
Behaviourist- treating phobias A03 - F
-flooding is limited in its usefulness by its ethically dubious nature
-Flooding involves a scenario of upfront contact with the phobic stimulus which can be highly traumatic events for the individual involved
-This can lead to a high dropout rate due to the traumatic nature of the treatment and therefore it may be unsuitable for younger children or more vulnerable adults
-Additionally if the patient is not able to endure the prolonged exposure and early before the fear is extinguished then the fear may even become stronger. Those the treatment has not treated the phobia but in fact exaggerated it.
-Thus weaken the effectiveness of flooding as a behaviour treatment.
-Some cases of flooding have had to be hospitalised due to the extreme fear which despite having informed consent from the patient does think about the question of the cost benefit analysis of flooding
-is it worthwhile for a patient to potentially exaggerate their fear from an unnecessary unsuccessful treatment which put them under a great deal of psychological duress?
Behaviourist- treating phobias A03 + F
-The treatment of flooding is strengthened by supporting research to show its effectiveness
-Wolfe carried out flooding treatment on a young girl who was incredibly scared of cars in 1973
-He drove the girl around in his car for a prolonged period of time
-at first she was terrified but eventually her terrorist subsided and her faulty ass association between cars and face was extinguished
-This is evidently support of flooding being used to successfully treat phobias.
— Additionally, flooding is relatively quick as it only requires one session for it to be effective
-As shown by Kaplan and Solin who found that 65% of patients had no fear four years later after the initial and only flooding session
-This supposing evidence plus less time consuming nature strengthens the use of flooding in real time.
Behaviourist- treating phobias A03 F +
-One strength of flooding is it provides a cost-effective treatment for phobias
-Research suggests that flooding is comparable to other treatments including systematic desensitisation and cognition therapies
-However it’s significantly quicker
-this is a strength because patients are treated much more quicker therefore much more cost-effective for health service providers
Behaviourist- treating phobias A03 SD
-One strength of system desensitisation is that it has proven to be effective.
-gilroy et al examined 42 patients with a arachnophobia
-Each patient was treated using 3 45 minute SD sessions
-she found the at both three and 33 months they were less fearful and more in control of their phobia compared to the control group who had not had any SD therapy
-This supports the effectiveness of SD as a treatment for phobias
Behaviourist- treating phobias A03 - SD
-One strength is that it is much preferred over flooding
-The reason for this is there not much trauma involved as the patients are gradually exposed to the phobic stimulus
-There’s also much lower number of people dropping out
-Therefore it helps a higher number of people
-However it does take a long amount of time therefore it isn’t as cost-effective as flooding and certain patients may of out due to the longitude nature of the treatment.
Cog approach to treat depression A01
-cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is one way to treat depression
-CBT starts with an assessment in which the patient and therapist identify the patient’s problems and whether there might be a negative and irrational thought that will benefit from being challenged
-CBT then aims to replace these irrational thoughts with more effective behaviours and attitudes
-CBT uses both Ellis’s and Beck’s theory to understand why people may be depressed
Cog approach to treat depression A01
In Beck’s cognitive therapy uses his negative triad
-This is to help the patient identify the negative thoughts in relation to themselves their world and the future
-The patient works together to challenge these irrational thoughts by discussing evidence for and against them
-The patient will be encouraged to test the validity of their negative thoughts and maybe set homework to challenge and test their thoughts
-Sometimes the patient is referred to a scientist investigating negative beliefs in the way a scientist word
Cog approach to treat depression A01
Ellis developed rational emotive behaviour therapy
-Expanding the ABC model to the ABCDE model
-The D stands for dispute
-The E for effect or effective
-There are different types of disputes which can be used, including logical dispute and empirical dispute
-Logical dispute is when the therapist questions the logic of a person thought thoughts
-For example does the way you think about that situation? Make any sense?
-Empirical dispute is the therapist seeks Evidence for a persons thoughts
-For example, where is evidence that your beliefs are true?
-Following your session therapists may set their patient homework
-For example, someone who is anxious to meet in social situations maybe set a homework to meet a friend for a drink
-The idea behind this is so patient identifies their own irrational beliefs and proves them wrong
-As a result, their beliefs begin to change
Cog approach to treat depression A03
-A strength of CBT is research evidence suggesting its effectiveness
-For example, research by March et al
- Found that CBT was just as effective as treating depression as antidepressants
-They examined 327 adolescence with depression and looked at the effectiveness of the CBT antidepressants and a combination of CBT plus antidepressants
-After 36 weeks
-81% of the antidepressant group and 81% of the CBT group has significantly improved
-Demonstrating the effectiveness of CBT and treating depression
-However 86% of the CBT plus antidepressant group had significantly improved suggesting that a combination of both treatments maybe more effective
Cog approach to treat depression A03
Another strength of CBT is that unlike a drug it doesn’t have side-effects
-For example, Joe can have severe side-effects affecting the heart and some have been linked to even suicide
-Some drug therapies require patients to avoid certain foods such as cheese and wine which can have adverse and fatal reactions
-However using CBT there is no such risks involved
-Thus for patient suffering from health conditions of those unable to make such lifestyle changes CBT will be much more appropriate and effective for them
Cog approach to treat depression A03
-however a limitation of CBT is it requires motivation
-Patient with severe depression may not engage with CBT or even a attend sessions and therefore treatment will be ineffective in treating these patients
-Alternative treatments like antidepressants do not require the same level of motivation and maybe much more effective in these cases
-This process a problem a CBT cannot be used as primary treatment for severely depressed patients
Cog approach to treat depression A03
However, another limitation is CBT over emphasises on the role of cognitions
-Some psychologists have criticise CBT as it suggests that a persons irrational thinking is the primary cause of their depression and CBT does not consider any other factors
-cbt therefore ignores other factors or circumstances that might contribute to a persons depression
-For example someone who suffer suffering from domestic violence does not need to change their negative irrational beliefs but needs to change their circumstances
-Therefore, CBT will be ineffective in treating these patients until their circumstances have changed
Bio approach to explain ocd A01
The biological approach focuses on the genetic and neural explanations of OCD
-The genetic explanation suggest the OCD is inherited and the individuals inherit specific genes that cause OCD
-Did explanation focuses on identifying specific genes which can leave people more likely to suffer from OCD known as candidate genes
- The sert gene is Linked to the neurotransmitter serotonin which affect affects the transport of serotonin across synapses
-Decrease levels of this neurotransmitter is associated with OCD and depression
-The compt gene is associated with the production of dopamine which is also implicated in OCD
-Moreover OCD is not caused by one single gene but several genes it is polygenic
-There’s evidence that different type types of OCD may be the result of certain genetic variations
Bio approach to explain ocd A01
-The neural explanation of OCD focused on the neurotransmitters and the brain structure
-A neurotransmitter is responsible for relaying information from one neuron to another
-Abnormal levels of neurotransmitters is believed to cause OCD
-The neurotransmitter serotonin is believed to play a big role in OCD as reduction in serotonin in the brain lowest mood and is used to explain some cases of OCD
-Additionally high levels of dopamine may lead to OCD
-Additionally other the cases of OCD like hoarding disorder are associated with impaired decision making
-This is when the lateral frontal lobes are functioning abnormally
-This part of the brain is responsible for logical thinking and making decisions
- Additionally the orbital frontal cortex is a region in the brain which converts sensory information into thoughts and actions
-The OFC send signals about potential hazards like concerns about harmful germs
-To the thalamus
-However if these were signals are not serious, they will be suppressed by the caudate nucleus preventing them from reaching the thalamus
-When the caudate nucleus is damaged It fails to suppress minor unimportant signals.
-Thus unnecessary thoughts and impulses are allowed to alert the thalamus
-those signals are then sent back to the OFC enforcing the belief that these unnecessary thoughts and impulses are a major concern that need immediate and powerful responses
Bio approach to explain ocd A03
A strength of the genetic explanation for OCD is there is good supporting evidence for it
For example nestadt at all reviewed twin studies and found that 68% of identical twins, MZ twins, shadow OCD as opposed to 31% of DZ twins
-This evidence suggests that some individuals are more vulnerable to OCD because of their genetic make up particularly in MZ Twins
-This is a strength to the genetic explanation as it strongly supports the genetic influence on OCD
Bio approach to explain ocd A03
However a limitation of the genetic explanation is the environmental factors can also create the risk of developing OCD
-For example Cromer et al found it over half of OCD patients in their sample had traumatic events in their past
-An OCD was more severe in those with one or more traumas
-This evidence suggests that OCD is not entirely genetic in origin and the environmental risk factors can also trigger them
-Thus this is a limitation of the genetic explanation as it supports the diet is stress model and explaining OCD as it factors the effects of both genetics and the environment
Bio approach to explain ocd A03
A strength of the neural explanation is there a supporting evidence for the role of some neuro mechanisms in OCD
-For example, antidepressants that were purely on the serotonin system increase the level of this neurotransmitter and are effective in reducing OCD symptoms
-This suggests that serotonin may be involved in OCD
-Also OCD symptoms form part of biological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease
-Therefore this suggests that the biological processes that cause symptoms in those conditions may also be responsible for OCD
Bio approach to explain ocd A03
-additionally research evidence supports the role of OFC in OCD
- Menzies conducted MRI scans on OCD patients and their immediate family members without OCD
-And a healthy control group
-He found the OCD patients and their immediate close family members had reduced great matter in the OFC
-Supporting the view that differences in this brain region are inherited and may be contributing to the disorder
-However researchers have been unable to successfully identify which gene are causing this reduction in grey matter
-The consequence is that the genetic explanation is unlikely to ever be very useful because it provides little predictive value
-for example it is unable to predict which relatives with the reduction in matter will develop OCD
