Psychopathology

• 9. Outline 2 emotional characteristics of depression. (4)

  • Low Mood - feelings of intense sadness / hopelessness and lowered mood in everyday life.
  • Loss of Interest and Pleasure – lack of enthusiasm associated with a lack of concern or pleasure in daily activities.
• 10. Referring to the description above, outline 3 definitions of abnormality. (6)

  • Deviation from social norms: set of unwritten norms and expectations
  • Failure to function adequately: individual cannot cope with day to day life
  • Statistical infrequency: behaviour that is statistically rare or uncommon and only affects a small proportion of the population.
• 11. Briefly explain Ellis’s ABC model as a cognitive explanation of depression. (2)

  1. It is not negative events that cause depression - it is the irrational beliefs and faulty interpretation of unpleasant events that causes depression.
  2. Activating event: something unpleasant which happens in the environment
  3. B: Belief: way of interpreting the event - irrational or rational
  4. C: Consequence: rational: healthy consequence. Irrational: unhealthy consequence.
• • ❌FAILS TO ADRESS ROOT CAUSE OF PHOBIA. - Beh. treatment criticised by psychanalysts for being too focused on symptoms (anxiety) and ignores causes of phobias. Psychoanalysis's claim symptoms only ‘tip of iceberg’- real cause: traumatic childhood exp repressed to unconc. mind.- Behaviorist therapy doesn't deal with issues, just alleviates anxiety. Long term, phobia resurfacing in a different form (symptom substitution) as root cause not addressed. Beh trt does not cure phobias, just temporarily treats. NOT EFFECTIVE IN LONGRUN.
• 13. Outline and evaluate 1 or more neural explanations of OCD. (8)

  • NEUROTRANSMITTERS: Serotonin responsible for regulating mood by facilitating synaptic transmission between one neuron and another. In people with OCD, serotonin is removed too quickly from the synapse and does not get the chance to pass on an impulse. This low level of serotonin leads to issues with mood that are associated with OCD. - Dopamine high in people with OCD – produces anxiety associated with obsessions
• • ABNORMAL BRAIN CIRCUITS:- Normally: ORBITO FRONTAL CORTEX 🡪 worry signals to thalamus 🡪 mediated by Caudate Nucleus [IN BASAL GANGLIA] - suppresses minor signals, allow major. - People with OCD, hypersensitive Caudate Nucleus – lets through both minor and major signals – worry circuit 🡪 leads to acting on these worries 🡪 compulsions/repetitive actions
• • ✔️ PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Led to use of SSRI to treat depression - Block the reuptake of serotonin into the pre-syn neuron- Prolongs the influence of serotonin on post-syn neuron. Soomro et al: SSRI’s effective in 70% of cases. Increases validity and shows it can improve lives of others
• • ❌SUPPORTING EVIDENCE IS CORRELATIONAL: Don’t know if low serotonin lead to OCD, or dev of OCD causes serotonin levels to deplete. If the former is true, the theory is valid. If the latter is true, it presents a problem. Low serotonin may be an effect of OCD rather than cause- cause may be beyond scope of biological approach – e.g. learning a cleanliness OCD through imitation + reinforcement of this behaviour