What is mental illness?

Question 1

Define deviance

Answer 1

Violations of society’s ideas about normality (culturally based)

Question 2

Who experiences distress?

Answer 2

Experienced by the person OR the family (but we all experience distress)

Question 3

What is dysfunction?

Answer 3

Distortion of perceptual or cognitive functioning

Question 4

Name some characteristics of abnormal functioning

Answer 4

Deviance, distress, dysfunction , danger

Question 5

What are some things that were regarded as ‘mental illness’ during the 1800s?

Answer 5

Drapetomania which is the irrational urge to run away from slavery.

Dysaethesia aethiopica - destroying owner’s property, being disobedient

Homosexuality was regarded as a mental disorder until the 1970s

Question 6

How was mental illness historically displayed as primitive sacred notions?

Answer 6

Using animistic models and mythological models, myths and deities saying what cures there are for symptoms. Demonological models showing formal theologies of creative/good vs destruction/ evil demons

Question 7

What were the ancient views and treatments surrounding mental health/ illness?

Answer 7

beliefs focussed on magic and evil spirits, early literate cultures believed all demonic causes of mental illness . Treatments included exorcisms and trephination.

Question 8

What were the Greek and Roman views of mental health/ illness?

Answer 8

Hindu medical treatment probably predated Greeks and Romans . Greeks named mental disorders such as dementia, melancholia and mania. Hippocrates attributed mental disorders to brain pathology caused by the four humours. Treatments were aimed to heal underlying problems by using music, massages, exercise , baths, sobriety and vegetarian diet.

Question 9

What did the collapse of the Roman Empire led to?

Answer 9

Led to the collapse of the scientific reasoning . Plague, wars, and urban uprising undermined science. Many believed in evil spirits and severe exorcism .

Question 10

Who was the first medical practitioner to specialise in mental illness?

Answer 10

Johnann Weyer

Question 11

What did treatments during the renaissance look like?

Answer 11

Treatment focussed on home and pilgrimages . Some hospitals and monasteries were converted to asylums which were filthy and degrading towards patients. England’s Bedlam was in deplorable conditions . A key treatment was the drawing of blood which was cruel rather than therapeutic.

Question 12

What did the 19th century lead to?

Answer 12

Reform and moral treatments, things moved away from traditional asylums and hospitals. instead treatments were more residentially based .

Question 13

Who lobbied to unchain patients?

Answer 13

Phillipe Pinel

Question 14

What were psychiatrists known as in the 19th century?

Answer 14

Alienists

Question 15

What treatments were attempted in the 19th century?

Answer 15

Mesmerism and phrenology and lobotomies. These treatments worked with most patients but not all.

Question 16

What economical events lowered recovery rates in the 19th century? What was the consequence of this?

Answer 16

Money and staff shortages lowered recovery rates. As recoveries dwindled, prejudice became rife , the mentally ill were viewed as strange and dangerous.

Question 17

Briefly summarise Freud’s psychodynamic model explaining mental illness.

Answer 17

Freud believed that personality was made up of three components; the id, ego and superego. Each operates on its own principle - the morality, reality and pleasure principle. Unpleasant thoughts, impulses and wishes are repressed and fuse with other unconscious material into complexes.

Question 18

What is a strength of the psychodynamic model?

Answer 18

The model has had a significant impact on the understanding and treatment of abnormal functioning .

Question 19

What is a limitation of the psychodynamic model?

Answer 19

It depends largely on case studies and has little research support

Question 20

Briefly summarise the humanistic-existential explanation of mental illness.

Answer 20

Conditions of worth are standards by which people judge themselves - they must conform to these standards if they are to be socially accepted. Conditions of worth lead to self-deception which inhibits self actualisation. Overwhelmed by pressure , one may look to authority , conform excessively or build resentment. Abdication of responsibility leads to emptiness and inauthenticity.

Question 21

Briefly summarise the behavioural model of mental illness.

Answer 21

The model assumes that abnormal behaviour is learnt the same way other behaviour is learnt - through classical and operant conditioning.

Question 22

Briefly summarise the cognitive model of mental illness.(Beck)

Answer 22

The model encompasses the mental processes of perceiving, recognising, conceiving, judging and reasoning. Maladaptive assumptions are thoughts that lead to people acting in a way that lowers their chances of happiness and success. Illogical thinking processes, include selective perception, magnification and overgeneralisation.

Question 23

What is a strength of the cognitive model of mental illness?

Answer 23

Cognitive theories can be tested and much research has been carried out.

Question 24

What is a limitation of the cognitive model of mental illness?

Answer 24

May not help with all disorders, but has been shown to be effective with depression, anxiety and sexual disorders. It has been criticised for the narrowness of the scope.

Question 25

Briefly summarise the biological paradigm of mental illness.

Answer 25

The model assumes that psychopathology is caused by an organic defect. It focuses on the role of behavioural genetics and biochemistry in the nervous system in explaining behaviour. Neurotransmitters are implicated in various disorders which prescribed drugs are used to treat. These psychoactive drugs alter neurotransmitter activity and transmission of the neural impulse across the synapse. Genes may predispose individuals to seek out situations that increase the likelihood of developing a disorder.

Question 26

Briefly summarise the sociocultural model of mental illness.

Answer 26

Sociologists link forms of abnormal behaviour to social classes and anthropologists found that patterns of abnormal behaviour varied among cultures. Societies undergoing major change usually show a rise in mental disorders.Rates of psychological abnormality are 3x higher in the lower socioeconomic classes than in higher classes prejudice and discrimination based on race, sex or age make physical and psychological health and life satisfaction harder to achieve

Question 27

What was the Rorschach Inkblot test ?

Answer 27

The pictures the children saw in the clouds reflected their personalities . This was significant as it highlighted that abnormal functioning may be rooted in the same processes that underlie normal functioning

Question 28

What does abdication of responsibility lead to feelings of?

Answer 28

Emptiness and inauthenticity

Question 29

Why is the humanistic model for mental illness optimistic?

Answer 29

Follows the belief that the patient is yet to unlock their special potential however can do so under the influence of their innate goodness

Question 30

How does operant conditioning explain mental illness?

Answer 30

Through the law of effect - responses that have satisfying consequences are strengthened and likely to be repeated. Therefore shaping is the use of rewards for successive approximations to the desired behaviour.

Question 31

What is the best way forward concerning the three modes?

Answer 31

Best thing to do is combine them in order to create the most informative model.