Psychology: Psychopathology

• Definitions of abnormality


  • Statistical Infrequency
  • Deviations from social norms
  • Failure to function adequately
  • Deviation from ideal mental health
• Statistical Infrequency


  Occurs when an individual has a less common characteristic, for example being more depressed or less intelligent than most of the population
• Statistical Infrequency


  • IQ and intellectual disability disorder (reliably measured)
  • Intelligence - the further we go above or below that average the fewer people will attain that score outside the average
• Statistical Infrequency


  • It is useful in clinical practice, as a way to assess the severity of an individual's symptoms
  • It is never sufficient as the sole basis for defining abnormality
• Deviations from social norms


  Concerns behaviour that is different from the accepted standards of behaviour in a community or society
• Deviations from social norms


  • Antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy) is impulsive, aggressive and irresponsible
• Deviations from social norms


  • It is useful in clinical practice
  • It is limited by cultural and situational variability in social norms
  • It is difficult to judge deviation from social norms across different situations and cultures
• Failure to function adequately


  Occurs when someone is unable to cope with ordinary demands of day-to-day living
• Signs of failure to function adequately

  • When a person does not conform to impersonal standard rules e.g personal space or eye contact when talking
  • When a person experiences severe personal distress
  • When a person's behaviour becomes irrational or dangerous to themselves or others
• Failure to function adequately


  • It represents a sensible threshold for when you need professional help
  • It can label non-standard living choices as abnormal, limiting freedom of choice
• Deviation from ideal mental health


  Occurs when someone does not meet a set criteria for good mental health
• Criteria for ideal mental health


  • No symptoms or distress
  • Rational and can perceive themselves accurately
  • Self actualise
  • Can cope with stress
  • Have a realistic view of the world
  • Have good self-esteem and lack guilt
  • Are independent of other people
  • Can successfully work, love and enjoy their leisure
• Deviation from ideal mental health


  • It is highly comprehensive, separating mental health from mental disorder
  • It is difficult to apply equally across different cultures
• Types of phobias


  • Specific phobias
  • Social phobias
  • Agoraphobia
• Phobias


  • Panic
  • Avoidance
  • Endurance
• Emotional characteristics of phobias


  • Anxiety
  • Emotional responses are unreasonable
• Cognitive characteristics of phobias


  • Selective attention to the phobias
  • Irrational beliefs
  • Cognitive distortions
• Acquisition of phobias


  1. Classical conditioning

  2. Traumatic experience

  3. False alarm
• Maintenance of phobias


  1. Operant conditioning

  2. Avoiding the feared stimulus is rewarding
• Behaviourist explanation of phobias


  All behaviours are learnt from the environment including abnormal behaviours such as phobias
• Case of 'Little Albert'


  • Classically conditioned fear of phobia in a small child
  • Fear was generalised to other similar stimuli
• Systematic Desensitisation


  1. Based on the principle of classical conditioning

  2. Reciprocal inhibition - fear/relaxation are oxymorons

  3. In vivo or in vitro - imagination / reality

  4. Fear must be replaced

  5. Relaxation is the key goal

  6. Anxiety Hierarchy - least to most feared situations

  7. Gradual exposure - Patient is taught to relax at each stage + can go to the next stage unless you're able to relax
• Systematic desensitisation (SD)


  • Effective in both short term and long term in reducing the severity of simple phobias compared to relaxation alone
  • 80-90% of simple phobias are reduced in severity using this therapy without a return to original symptoms
• Systematic desensitisation (SD)


  • Works better for specific phobias
  • Harder to change abstract phobias such as death
  • Can't treat social phobias and agoraphobia as effectively
• Sufferer has some control over the treatment

  Seen as a positive as it allows the sufferer a say in how their treatment develops
• Patients are more likely to persevere with treatment that allows them some control, making treatment more likely to succeed
• Number of sessions for SD

  Average is 6.8 but more for stronger phobias
• SD treatment could be expensive if done privately
• Symptom substitution


  A phobia is a symptom of an underlying condition linked to anxiety, and when the behaviour is removed another problem may emerge
• Flooding


  1. Exposing the patient directly to the phobic object

  2. Patient experiences extreme anxiety at first, but eventually exhaustion sets in and anxiety level goes down

  3. Patient has no choice but to confront their fears

  4. When panic subsides, patient realises the stimulus is not a threat
• Flooding


  • Based on classical conditioning
  • Works by extinguishing the learned fear response when the conditioned stimulus is encountered without the association of fear
• Flooding often involves 1 session lasting 2-3 hours, with occasional follow-up sessions
• Weaknesses of flooding


  • Ethical issues such as distress and lack of protection from harm
  • High dropout rate
  • Not suitable for the elderly, children with learning disabilities, and pregnant women
• Strengths of flooding


  • Effective for specific phobias
  • Efficient
  • Cheaper than other treatments
• Symptom substitution is more present in flooding than systematic desensitisation
• Depression


  A mood disorder, a mental health class that includes all types of depression and bipolar disorders
• Characteristics of depression


  • Behavioural (shift in activity level, change in sleep and eating, aggression and self-harm)
  • Emotional (sadness, anger, lowered self-esteem)
  • Cognitive (negative and irrational thoughts, poor concentration, absolutist thinking)
• Beck's negative triad


  Depression is the result of holding negative schemas about the world, the self, and the future
• Ellis' ABC model


  Irrational beliefs, not events, cause depression
• Cognitive explanations suggest abnormality is a result of faulty, irrational cognition (thinking)