Psychopathology

Cards (100)

  • What does psychopathology mean?
    Scientific study of psychological disorders.
  • What are the definitions of abnormality?
    • Statistical Infrequency.
    • Deviation of social norms.
    • Failure to Function adequately.
    • Deviation from ideal mental health.
  • What is statistical infrequency?

    behaviour that is not common is abnormal.
  • What is deviation from social norms?
    Behaviour different from social norms is abnormal.
  • What is failure to function adequately?
    When someone is not able to cope with everyday life.
  • What is deviation from ideal mental health?
    Failure to present all of Jahoda's 6 criteria for ideal mental health.
  • What is Jahoda's 6 criteria for ideal mental health?

    • Self attitude.
    • Personal growth and self-actualisation.
    • Integration.
    • Autonomy.
    • Having accurate perceptions of reality.
    • Mastery of our environment.
  • What self attitude?
    having high self-esteem and strong sense of self identity.
  • What is personal growth and self actualisation?

    the extent to which we are reaching our potential.
  • What is integration?

    being able to deal with stressful situations.
  • What is Autonomy?

    being independent and self-regulating.
  • What is mastery of our environment?
    including an ability to love, function at work & and in interpersonal relationships.
  • What is a strength of statistical infrequency?
    It has a real-life application in diagnosing people.
  • What are limitations of statistical infrequency?

    • The infrequent characteristics are not necessarily bad - i.e. high IQ.
    • A label may not be needed for some people.
  • What is a strength of deviation from social norms?
    Real life application in diagnosing.
  • What are the limitations of deviation from social norms?

    • Is not a sole reason, can't be used to diagnose.
    • Cultural relativism and time period
    • Could lead to human rights abuse.
  • What is a strength of failure to function adequately?
    acknowledges patients experience is important.
  • What are the limitations of failure to function adequately?

    • Judgement is subjective.
    • some behaviours that seem dysfunctional may actually be functional.
  • What is a strength of deviation from ideal mental health?
    Useful to focus on what is desirable rather than undesirable.
  • What are the limitations of deviation from ideal mental health?

    - Everyone could been seen as abnormal on the list.- Criterion difficult to measure.
  • What is another challenge in diagnosing mental illness?
    Cultural relativism - many definitions of illness are culture - bound, i.e. what is classed as abnormal in our culture might be quite normal in other cultures.
  • What is a phobia?

    A persistent and unreasonable fear of a particular object, activity or situation.
  • What are behavioural characteristics of phobias?
    Avoidance, freeze, faint.
  • What are emotional characteristics of phobias?
    Persistent fear, anxiety, panic.
  • What are cognitive characteristics of phobias?
    Irrational thinking.
  • What are three types of phobias?
    Agoraphobia, social phobia, specific phobia.
  • What is agoraphobia?
    Fear of open spaces normally develops as a result of a severe panic attack that the sufferer didn't expect to happen. The person stays at home and becomes fearful at the simple thought of leaving the house.
  • What is a social phobia?
    Fear of social situations, it is different from agoraphobia as this is a fear of the judgement of others.
  • What are the three types of social phobias?
    1) Performance - anxiety about performing in public, e.g. public speaking
    2) Interaction -anxiety about interacting with other people - e.g. going on a date.
    3) Generalised - anxiety in any situation where other people are present.
  • What are specific phobias?

    Can be related to almost anything, each has a different name.
  • What is some research into specific phobias?
    • Ost (1992) found from studying over 300 patients with a range of phobias that fear of animals tended to start about seven years of age.
    • In contrast, fear of closed spaces tended to start in the late teens.
    • Muris & Merchelbach (2000) found that many children between the ages of five and ten have a specific phobia. Many of these disappear with age.
  • What do behaviourists say about phobias?
    They see phobias as being learned through the process of association (classical conditioning) or due to the consequences of behaviour (operant conditioning).
  • What does social learning theory say about phobias?

    Learning occurs vicariously by observation and imitation of someone else.
  • What combines both of the behaviourist explanations and social learning theory explanations of phobias?
    The two process model.
  • What is step one of the two-process model of phobias?
    • Acquisition. Classical conditioning explanation: neutral stimulus is paired with something naturally scary and becomes feared.
    • Social learning theory: Observation another person (model) who displays a fear of an object or situation.
  • What is step two of the two-process model phobias?
    • Maintenance.
    • Phobias are maintained by operant conditioning: Avoidance behaviours are negatively reinforcing (they remove the fear which is unpleasant) and therefore increase the likelihood of further avoidance
  • What is the evidence for the behaviourist approach on phobias?

    • DiGallo (1997) found that nearly 20% of people involved in bad traffic accidents came to have phobias about travel generally.
    • Bagby (1922) reported a case of a woman who developed a fear of running water when her feet became stuck behind a rock next to a waterfall.
  • What is the evidence for the social learning theory on phobias?
    Ost & Hugdahl (1981) reported the case of a boy who witnessed his father's vomiting at death and subsequently developed a persistent fear of vomiting.
  • What are the strengths of the behaviourist approach to phobias?
    • The effectiveness of behaviourist therapies (e.g. systematic desensitization) lends support to behaviourist explanations.
    • Behaviourist theories can be combined with biological explanations for better explanations.
    • Some individuals may have a genetic vulnerability which increases their chance of learning a phobia.
  • What are the weaknesses of the behaviourist approach to phobias?
    Bounton (2007) argues that the two-process theory neglects the influence of evolutionary history -i.e. some avoidance responses are learnt more rapidly if they are part of the animal's natural defensive behaviour.Not everyone that experiences traumatic events goes on to develop a phobia.