Psychopathology

• 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.