Psychopathology

• What is agoraphobia?


  Fear of open or public spaces.
• What are two behavioural treatments for phobias?

  Systematic desensitization, flooding.Both use classical conditioning principles to replace phobia with new response of relaxation
• What is systematic desensitisation ?

  Treatment for phobias where counterconditioning is used to unlearn the maladaptive response to a situation or object by instead eliciting relaxation
• What are the 3 components of systematic desensitisation ?

  1. fear hierarchy
  2. relaxation training - breathing techniques, mental imagery techniques ect
  3. reciprocal inhibition
• What is reciprocal inhibition?

  where the two emotional states cannot exist at the same time in systematic desensitisation. Relaxation should take over the fear
• How is the fear hierachy used in systematic desensitisation?

  Exposure to feared stimuli from least to most anxiety-provoking. Gradually processes to each level until they are completely relaxed in the most feared stimulus. At this point new response to stimulus is learnt, Phobia is replaced
• What are strengths of using systematic desensitisation ?

  1. more ethical in nature compared to flooding, causes lower levels of distress. More appro for those with anxiety disorders
  2. research evidence supports effectiveness. McGrath found 75% of patients were successfully treated with systematic desensitisation
  3. Effective long term
• What is a weakness of systematic desensitisation ?

  Not effective in treating all phobias. phobias not developed through personal experience (classical conditioning) aren’t effectively treated using SD. Ineffective in innate/evolutionary phobias such as snakes as it is not the result of learning
• What is flooding?

  Behavioural therapy that immediately exposes the indidivudal to the anxiety inducing stimulus (not gradual). Intense exposure which means they are unable to avoid (negatively reinforce) the phobia through continuous exposure so anxiety levels will decrease causing extinction.
• What are the strengths of flooding?

  1. cost effective treatment. Much less time with quicker, equal results. health services won’t have to fund for as long
  2. Highly effective for simple phobias
• What is a simple phobia?

  Specific fear
• What are the weaknesses for flooding?

  1. Highly traumatic- unethical as it causes harm since it elicits high levels of anxiety and distress. However they do recieve informed consent so it is not entirely unethical.
  2. Some do not compete treatment due to traumatic nature, waste of money and time if they don’t finish full treatment
• What is are the weaknesses of the behaviourist explanation for the development of phobias?

  1. Environmental determinism- ignored the role of free will in the formation. Someone may be attacked by a dog but not develop a phobia
  2. Reductionist- overly simplistic in its reduction of human behaviour to a simple stimulus response association. Ignores role of thinking/cognition- cognitive psychologists argue irrational thinking may develop phobias
• What are the definitions for abnormality?

  1. Function to failure adequately
  2. deviation from ideal mental health
  3. deviation from social norms
  4. statistical infrequency
• What are the weaknesses of using failure to funciton adequately as a definition of abnormality ?

  Subjectivity- individual differences. For example one person with OCD may experience the same excessive rituals as another but one can function adequately and meet normal life demand while the other cant. Therefore despite suffering with the same behavioural symptoms they would be diagnosed differently just based on this defintion
• What is a strength of using failure to function adequately as a definition of abnormality?

  Subjective. It considers personal experiences of the patient
• What are the issues with using deviation from social norms to define abnormality?

  1. cultural relativism- social norms differ between cultures, what is considered normal in one is abnormal in another. not standardised
  2. Hindsight bias- social norms change over time. Example homosexuality used to be regarded as a mental illness until 1973.
• What are the principles proposed by jahoda to define deviation from ideal mental health?

  1. having a positive view of yourself and strong sense of identity (high self esteem)
  2. being capable of personal growth and self actualisation
  3. being autonomous and self regulating (independent)
  4. having an accurate view on reality
  5. being able to master your environment (friendships,love,work)
  6. being able to integrate and resist stress