Psychopathology

• Statistical Infrequency

  • Defines normal and abnormal by the number of times that we observe it, making a behaviour rare or uncommon
  • This is statistical deviation: only 2% of people have an IQ below 70 so they're diagnosed with an intellectual disability
• Statistical Infrequency Evaluations

  • Real life application - can be used in the assessment of patients with mental disorders
  • Behaviours can be positive - just because a behaviour is rare, doen't make it a negative
  • A high IQ of 130 would make you a genius which is rewarded
  • Labels are not always helpful - the person may be abnormal but it doesn't affect everyday life
• Deviation from social norms

  • standards of acceptable behaviour are set by a social group - queuing
  • what is acceptable may change over time - homosexuality
• Deviation from social norms evaluations

  • People may be susceptible to abuse
  • Deviance may be hard to identify due to context
  • Cultural relativism - what is considered adequate differs for different cultures
• Failure to function adequately

  • not being able to cope with the demands of everyday life: going to work, eating in public
  • abnormal behaviour interferes with everyday life
  • the individual judge when their behaviour is classed as abnormal
• Failure to function adequately evaluations

  • patient may be content or unaware when clearly dysfunctional
  • person suffering may not have obvious symptoms
  • cultural relativism - what is considered adequate differs for different cultures
• Deviation from ideal mental health

  • Jahoda created a checklist for good mental health
  • self actualisation - the individual works to the best of their potential
  • integration - coping with a stressful situation
  • autonomy - ability to be independent
  • accurate perception of reality
  • mastery of environment - ability to love, function at work, solve problems etc
  • high self-attitude - high self-esteem
• Deviation from ideal mental health evaluations

  • criteria is over-demanding and very few people meet all 6
  • very subjective and relies heavily on self-report
  • culturally subjective - some societies hold groups to a higher standard
  • criteria is vague
  • criteria is comprehensive and psychiatrists can use it to assess and help people
• Phobia - an extreme and irrational fear of a particular object or situation
• Behavioural (how people act) responses to phobias

  • screaming, running away, crying
  • the longer with the object, the worse the fear
  • planning time and activities to avoid the object
• Emotional (how people feel) responses to phobias

  • high level of arousal
  • difficult to feel positive at all
  • feeling of immense dread
  • unreasonable emotional responses
• Cognitive (how people think) responses to phobias

  • attention focused on the target or situation
  • beliefs that aren't logical or useful
  • cognitive distortions - seeing something in a different light to others
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)


  Anxiety-related condition where a person experiences frequent intrusive and unwelcome obsessional thoughts, often followed by a repititive compulsions, impulses or urges

  • obsessions
  • cognitive aspect
  • internal components
  • intrusive thoughts
  • compulsions
  • behavioural aspect
  • external components
  • repetitive acts
• Behavioural characteristics of OCD

  • Repetitive compulsions - individuals tend to repeat the same behaviour (hand washing or counting)
  • compulsions reduce anxiety
  • some individuals show compulsions where obsessions are absent with the aim of reducing general anxiety
  • most individuals show compulsions as a response to an obsession
  • avoidance - an individual may remove themselves/stay away from certain situations in the hope that their anxiety will not be triggered
• Emotional characteristics of OCD

  • anxiety and distress - obsessions and compulsions are accompanied by anxiety as they are unpleasant and frightening experiences
  • depression - anxiety can be lead to a low mood and reduced enjoyment in normal activities
  • guilt and disgust - irrational guilt may be present and disgust at oneself in response to a situation
• Cognitive characteristics of OCD

  • obsessions - intrusive and persistent thoughts, images or impulses that are unwanted (over 90% of sufferers)
  • cognitive strategies to deal with obsessions (carrying out another task, eg: praying)
  • insight into excessive anxiety - an unawareness of the irrationality must be present
  • catastrophic thoughts - individuals tend to think about and focus on worst case scenarios
  • hyper vigilant - the individual maintains a constant alertness of the hazards
• Depression


  Mood disorder characterised by feelings of despondency and hopelessness
• Behavioural characteristics of Depression

  • activity levels - reduced levels of energy, feeling lethargic, withdraw from normal activities OR psychomotor agitation (unable to relax)
  • disruption to sleep and eating - insomnia/hypersomnia, weight gain/loss
  • aggression and self-harm - individuals tend to be irritable or verbally/physically aggressive
• Emotional characteristics of Depression

  • lowered mood - individuals may describe themselves as worthless
  • anger directed at themselves or others
  • low self-esteem - individuals like themselves less than usual and may have a sense of loathing
  • anhedonia - no longer enjoying activities/hobbies that used to be pleasurable
  • diurnal mood variation - changes mood throughout the day
• Cognitive characteristics of Depression

  • slower thought processes - individuals find it difficult to concentrate on work/tasks, poor decision making
  • attending to and dwelling on the negative - a pessimistic outlook
  • absolutist thinking - views are extreme: negative experiences are considered a disaster
• Two-process model to create and maintain phobias - Mowrer


  The creation of fear is through classical conditioning

  • If a man was to view a dog attack, the fear is created as the neutral stimulus (dog) is made to have a conditioned response (fear) due to the unconditioned stimulus (attack)

  The maintenance of fear is through operant conditioning

  • the man avoids going to dog parks in order to not see the dogs to reduce anxiety (reward). This is an example of negative reinforcement
• Behavioural treatment for phobias aim to:

  1. reduce phobic anxiety through classical conditioning where a new response to the phobic stimulus is paired with relaxation instead of anxiety - counterconditioning
  2. reduce phobic anxiety through the principal of operant conditioning whereby there is no option for avoidance behaviour so you can't avoid the fear
• Counterconditioning phobias


  Wolpe's theory that two competing emotions cannot occur at the same time, so if fear is replaced by relaxation the fear can't continue
• Systematic desensitisation for phobias

  Teach the patient to learn a more appropriate association

  Designed to reduce an unwanted response to a stimulus

  • Patient is trained in relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises
  • Anxiety hierarchy from least to most frightening is constructed by the patient and therapist
  • Patient is exposed to the phobic stimulus and follows the anxiety hierarchy
• Reciprocal inhibition of phobias


  The process of inhibiting anxiety by substituting a competing response
• Strength of systematic desensitisation as a treatment for phobias

  • Gilroy et al followed up 42 people who had had SD for spider phobias. At both 3 and 33 months, the SD group were less fearful than the control group who were treated with relaxation. This shows that the procedure is sustainable and effective
  • SD can also help people with learning disabilities, meaning that it is the most appropriate procedure for everyone
• Flooding as a treatment for phobias


  Involves overwhelming the individual's senses with the item or situation that causes anxiety so the person realises that no harm will come to them. This is negative reinforcement.

  Individual is exposed repeatedly and in an intensive way with their phobia

  Senses are flooded with thoughts, images and experiences
• Evaluating flooding as a treatment for phobias

  • highly cost-effective, as one session may be all that's needed
  • highly unpleasant and traumatic experience making it an ethical issue (but due to informed consent, it is not an issue)
  • Schumacher found that participants and therapists rated flooding as significantly more stressful than SD
• Beck's cognitive theory of depression

  • Faulty information processing - we pay attention to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positive, small issues are blown out of proportion
  • Negative self schemas - we interpret all information about ourselves in a negative way
  • Negative triad - three types of negative thoughts about the world, future and ourselves
• Research for support for Beck's cognitive theory of depression


  Koster et al presented participants with either a positive, negative or neutral word, which disappeared and then were questioned against a grid as to which coordinate the word appeared in.

  • depressed participants were able to recall the location of the negative word better than non-depressed participants.
  • suggests that the depressed participants were focusing more on the negative words, which supports Beck's theory
• ABC model for depression - Ellis

  • activating events - irrational thoughts triggered by an external event
  • irrational beliefs
  • utopianism - life should always be fair
  • musturbation - feeling of having to always be perfect and the best
  • catastrophising - it's a disaster when things don't go well
  • consequence - the emotional and behavioural consequence of depression
• Evaluations of the ABC model as an explanation of depression


  A strength of the cognitive explanation of depression is that there is evidence to support the role of irrational thinking. Bates et al found that depressed participants who were given negative automatic thoughts statements become more and more depressed. This is a strength because the research supports the view that negative thinking leads to depression
• Evaluations of the ABC model as an explanation of depression


  The cognitive explanation of depression can be criticised for being over-simplified. For example, the cognitive explanation states that if an individual thinks in a negative way/has negative automatic thoughts they are likely to develop disorders such as depression. This is a criticism because this theory of depression ignores the fact that the biological research has indicated that depression can be down to low levels of the neurotransmitter, serotonin, and therefore, the cognitive approach can be seen to be too simplistic
• Cognitive treatments of depression - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)


  • irrational thinking leads to irrational behaviour
  • respect and appreciation for clients current situation
  • helps the client understand consequences of irrational thinking
  • puts the control back in the clients hands
  • provides a positive outlook on life - convincing client of their value
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

  • Challenging irrational thoughts by clarifying the patients problem, identify their goals and decide a plan to achieve them
  • logical disputing - is this a logical thought
  • empirical disputing - where is the proof for this thought
  • pragmatic disputing - how is this belief going to help them
  • homework - puts the new irrational beliefs into practice (making the patient the scientist)
  • behavioural activation - clients carry out activities that are enjoyable to them, providing more evidence that beliefs are irrational
• Evaluation of CBT as a treatment for depression

  • A strength of CBT is that it is effective. March found that when patients took part in CBT, 81% of people found it effective, and when paired with antidepressants, 86% of people found it effective
  • A criticism of CBT is that it fails to acknowledge that some mental disorders may be due to biological factors. For example, according to the biological approach, depression may be linked to low levels of serotonin. The therapy blames the patient which can cause them to lose motivation. This is a weakness as it means that CBT is reductionist.
• Genetic explanation


  Suggestion that it is chromosomes and DNA which determine a behaviour
• Diathesis-stress model


  A model which tries to explain a disorder by looking at both the predisposition (diathesis) and life experiences (stress), also known as co-morbidity
• Neural explanation


  Suggestion that the nervous system determines psychological characteristics, including disorders
• Genetics as an explanation for the development of OCD

  • There is a 5 times greater risk of developing OCD if a first-degree relative (parent or sibling) has experienced the illness
  • A monozygotic (100% shared DNA) twin is more than 2 times more likely to develop OCD if their twin has the disorder compared to dizygotic (50% shared DNA) twins
  • Though it is not certain that you are to develop OCD if a relative does, you are susceptible to genetic vulnerability