Psychopathology

• Characteristics of depression

  • Emotional
  • Behavioural
  • Cognitive
• How phobias are initiated through classical conditioning

  A neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (that causes fear) to produce a conditioned response of fear
• Systematic desensitisation

  Preferred to flooding due to being less traumatic and more viable for all phobic individuals
• Behavioural characteristics of depression

  Depressed individuals experience either increased or reduced levels in activity, changes in sleeping hours, agitation, restlessness, and appetite changes
• Emotional characteristics of depression

  5 symptoms required for a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, including feelings of intense sadness and worthlessness, some may report feelings of anger
• Cognitive characteristics of depression

  Negative thoughts cause negative emotions associated with depression, irrational thoughts include negative expectations and thoughts of worthlessness, self-fulfilling thoughts may occur
• Diathesis-stress model


  Certain genes create vulnerability for mental disorders, and after an activating event or trauma, mental disorders develop in these individuals
• Systematic desensitisation


  Treatment for phobias replacing fear with relaxation by exposing patients to progressively anxiety-inducing scenarios
• Negative triad


  A cognitive approach to understanding depression, focusing on how expectations (schema) about the self, world, and future lead to depression
• SLT explains phobias

  May be acquired through modelling the behaviour of others, especially if the behaviour is rewarding and gets attention
• Phobias maintained by operant conditioning

  Avoidance of phobic stimulus reduces anxiety, leading to continued avoidance due to negative reinforcement
• Statistical infrequency


  Abnormality defined as behavior that is extremely rare or characteristics not displayed by many people
• Emotional, behavioural, and cognitive characteristics of phobias

  Emotional- Anxiety, Behavioral- Avoidance behaviors, Cognitive- Irrational fears and avoidance behaviors
• Emotional, behavioural, and cognitive characteristics of OCD

  Emotional- Feelings of anxiety and shame, Behavioural- Compulsive behaviors to alleviate anxiety, Cognitive- Recurrent, intrusive thoughts often involving irrational themes like germs
• Cognitive theory explains depression


  Depression is due to irrational thinking and skewed negative cognitions
• Failure to function adequately

  Abnormality defined as an inability to cope with everyday life, causing distress to the individual or others around them
• Biological theory explains OCD

  OCD is caused by abnormal levels of dopamine and serotonin, and a non-functioning worry circuit in the brain
• Phobias interfere with the individual’s daily life, distinguishing them from normal fears
• OCD is treated using the biological approach by administering drugs to reduce symptoms, such as SSRIs to increase serotonin levels
• Briefly describe the case of Little Albert
• The deviation from ideal health definition is criticised for being founded on unrealistic criteria that are unlikely for any one individual to display all the time
• Little Albert study

  1. A fear of fluffy white objects was conditioned in a young baby

  2. Pairing neutral stimulus (NS) with unconditioned stimulus (UCS) led to a fear response becoming a conditioned response
• Characteristics of phobias

  • Emotional: Anxiety is the primary emotion associated with phobic disorders
  • Behavioural: Phobic individuals often avoid situations involving their phobic stimulus
  • Cognitive: Thoughts of a phobic individual are irrational and not reduced by reasoning
• Depression is treated using the cognitive approach by using CBT, a combination of cognitive therapy and behavioural therapy
• Deviation from the ideal mental health is defined as displaying the absence of the criteria set by Jahoda for ideal mental health