Psychopathology

• Statistical infrequency


  Abnormality is defined as those behaviours that are extremely rare
• Deviation from social norms


  Abnormal behaviour is seen as a deviation from unstated rules about how one 'ought' to behave. Anything that violates these rules is considered abnormal.
• DSM ( Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)


  A list of mental disorders that is used to diagnose mental disorders. For each disorder a list of clinical characteristics is given i.e. the symptoms that should be looked out for.
• Evaluation points of statistical infrequencies


  -Some abnormal behaviours are desirable such as a higher IQ than average. Equally, there are some 'normal' behaviours that are undesirable

  -cultural relativism - behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may be more frequent in another. There is no universal standard of rules for labelling abnormal
• Evaluation points of deviation from social norms

  -what is socially acceptable now may not have been socially acceptable 50 years ago. For example, today homosexuality is accepted in a lot of countries, but in the past it was included under sexual and gender identity disorders in the DSM.

  -deviance is related to context and degree - for example wearing a bikini on a beach is normal whereas it would be deviating in a classroom. Shouting would be deviating but not considered a mental disorder unless very excessive.

  - this definition does distinguish between desirable and undesirable behaviour which was lacking in the statistical infrequency model.
• deviation from ideal mental health


  Abnormality is seen as deviating from an ideal of positive mental health. This includes a positive attitude towards the self and an accurate perception of reality
• Marie Jahoda


  A psychologist who proposed a set of characteristics that suggest mental wellbeing:

  self attitudes

  Personal growth and self-actualisation

  integration (coping with stressful situations)

  Autonomy (independent)

  Accurate perception of reality

  Mastery of the environment (ability to love and function in society and solve problems)
• self attitudes

  personal growth and self-actualisation

  integration

  autonomy

  accurate perception of reality

  mastery of the environment


  Marie Jahoda's characteristics of mental wellbeing
• Failure to function adequately


  People are judged on their ability to go about daily life. If they can't do this and are also experiencing distress (or others are distressed by their behaviour) then it is considered a sign of abnormality.
• Evaluation points for failure to function adequately

  -some apparently dysfunctional behaviour can actually be adaptive and functional such as attention. Fails to distinguish between what is functional or not

  - the definition recognises the subjective experience of the patient . Failure to function is relatively easy to judge e.g. being able to get dressed

  - culturally relative - related to a person's belief of how we should liv. Likely to lead to different diagnoses when applied to to different cultures - explains why working class and non-white patients whose lifestyles differ from the dominant culture who are diagnosed most often.
• Evaluation points for ideal mental health

  - the criteria is difficult to judge and doesn't specify how many characteristics must be lacking to be judged as abnormal as most people wouldn't have all.

  -positive outlook , having an influence on humanistic approaches as it focuses on 'ideal' rather than negatives.

  - cultural relativism - self-actualisation is applicable to individualist cultures rather than collectivist cultures.
• emotional characteristics of phobias


  -persistent, excessive fear from exposure to the phobic stimulus.
• Behavioural characteristics of phobias


  avoidance, interfering with daily life.
• Cognitive characteristics of phobias


  irrational thinking and resistance to rational arguments. Recognises the fear is excessive or unreasonable.
• emotional characteristics of depression


  sadness or loss of interest in normal activities, feelings of emptiness and low self-esteem.
• Behavioural characteristics of depression


  shift in activity level, sleep and eating
• cognitive characteristics of depression


  negative thoughts and self-concept, guilt, negative view of the world and future.
• emotional characteristics of OCD


  anxiety and distress, embarrassment, shame.
• cognitive characteristics of OCD


  recurrent, intrusive thoughts or impulses. Recognises they are excessive or unreasonable.
• behavioural charcateristics of OCD


  compulsive, repetitive behaviours to reduce anxiety of obsessions.
• Depression


  a mood disorder characterized by loss of interest, sadness, hopelessness, loss of appetite, disturbed sleep, and other physical symptoms
• obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)


  an anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions (compulsions). Compulsions are a response to the obsessions and the person believes that the compulsions will reduce anxiety.
• Phobias


  A group of mental disorders characterised by high levels of anxiety in response to a particular stimulus or group of stimuli. The anxiety interferes with normal living.
• Two-process model


  Hobart Mowrer (1960)

  A theory that explains the two processes that lead to the development of phobias - they begin through classical conditioning and are maintained by operant conditioning
• Evaluation of behaviorists explanation of phobias

  - incomplete on its own- Diathesis-stress model - we inherit a genetic vulnerability for developing mental disorders but must be triggered by a life event.

  - Bandura and Rosenthal - model acted in pain when a buzzer sounded. Participants who observed later showed an emotional reaction to the buzzer

  -ignores cognitive factors - phobias may develop due to irrational thinking - led to CBT
• Flooding


  A form of behvaioural therapy used to treat phobias and other anxiety disorders. A client is exposed to ( or imagines) an extreme form of the threatening situation under relaxed conditions until the anxiety reaction is extinguished.

  The idea is that fear has a time limit and as adrenaline levels naturally decrease, a new stimulus-response of no anxiety is linked to the feared stimulus.
• Evaluation of flooding

  -flooding is highly effective & quicker than alternative treatments. Choy et al reported both methods were effective but flooding was the most effective for treating phobias

  - flooding is a highly traumatic experience, meaning that patients are often unwilling to see it through to the end which would limit the effectiveness
• Evaluation for systematic desensitisation

  - effective- McGrath et al reported that about 75% of patients with phobias responded. in vivo (physical) techniques more successful than in vitro (images)

  - Ohman et al suggested that it may not be as effective for treating phobias with underlying revolutionary survival components compared to phobias triggered by personal experiences.
• systematic desensitisation


  A form of behavioural therapy used to treat phobias and other anxiety disorders. A client is gradually exposed to (or imagines) the threatening situation under relaxed conditions until the anxiety reaction is extinguished.
• Experiment by Bandura and Rosenthal


  supported social learning theory

  a model acted in pain every time a buzzer sounded. Later, the participants who observed, showed an emotional response to the sound of the buzzer, demonstrating an acquired fear response.
• Diathesis Distress Model


  Proposes we inherit a genetic vulnerability to develop a mental disorder. However, the disorder will only manifest if triggered by a life event.
• Ellis' ABC model (1962)


  the key to mental disorders such as depression is irrational beliefs

  A - activating event

  B - belief (rational or irrational)

  C - consequence - rational beliefs lead to healthy emotions, irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy emotions
• Musturbatory thinking


  Depressed people are more likely to think like this, thinking certain ideas must be true for an individual to be happy:

  'I must be approved of or accepted by people i find important
• Beck's negative triad


  Three kinds of negative thinking that lead to depression

  1. negative view of the world

  2. negative view of the future

  3. negative view of the self
• negative schema


  an enduring negative cognitive belief system about some aspect of life developed during childhood. Leads to cognitive biases.
• Evaluating the cognitive approach to explaining depression

  - practical applications - applied to CBT which is found to be the best treatment for depression.

  - blames the client, ignoring situational factors that will persist despite therapy.

  - irrational beliefs may actually be realistic - Alloy and Abramson found that depressed people gave more accurate estimates of the likelihood of a disaster than the control group - sadder but wiser effect
• Alloy and Abramson (1979)


  Found that depressed people gave more accurate estimates of the likelihood of a disaster than those without depression - sadder but wiser effect.
• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

  A combination of cognitive therapy (a way of changing maladaptive thoughts and beliefs) and behvaioural therapy (a way of changing behaviour in response to theses thoughts and beliefs)
• Ellis' model for treating depression


  ABC model was the causes of depression and Ellis extended this to the ABCDEF model

  D - disputing irrational thoughts and beliefs

  E - effects of disputing and effective attitude to life

  F - feelings and emotions produced
• Logical disputing


  self-defeating beliefs do not follow logically from the information available