Psychopathology

• what is psychopathology?

  any pattern of emotions, behaviors, thoughts innapropriate to the situation, leading to persnal distress or the inability to achieve important goals
• what are the 4 definitions of abnormality

  deviation from social norms, deviation from ideal mental health, failure to function adequately, statistical infrequency
• statistical infrequency

  uses typical values, commonly occuring, based on a frequency distribution, both ends of the distribution are abnormal
• deviation from social norms

  explicit rules are policed by law, individuals are socialised into norms, standards are socially set, implicit rules are socially regulated, behavior that deviates from expectation is abnormal
• failure to function adequetely

  cause distress to self, causing distress to others, not coping with everyday living, WHODAS provides a measure of function /180
• deviation from ideal mental health

  absence of ideal MH signs indicate abnormality, limited personal growth, self attitude, accurate perception of reality, mastery of the environment
• evaluation of statistically infrequency:

  • it can be culturally relative- hearing voices can be normal in some cultures but abnormal in some
  • some abnormal behaviours are desirable
• evaluation of deviation from social norms:

  • it can be culturally relative- hearing voices is norm in some cultures
  • low temporal validity, what is abnormal can change over time, eg. homosexuality
• evalution of failure of funtion adequately:

  • can be culturally relative- 'functioning' differs across cultures
  • difficult to measure
• evaluation of deviation from ideal MH:

  • can be culturally relative- focus on self can be undesirable in some cultures
  • some cultures dont focus on sigular health
• measuring abnormility with standard deviation:

  • many characteristics are normally distributed, cluster around the mean
  • if outside the 1st or 2nd deviation, considered abnormal
  • the deviations are distances from the mean
• strengths of deviation from ideal mental health explanation:

  • did identify factors that psychologists feel are important for health
  • contributed to humanistic psychology
• limitations of deviation from ideal mental health explanation:

  • criteria are difficult to measure
  • criteria are unrealistic, how many are needed to be considered normal?
  • culturally relative, some of criteria are unattainable, a focus on the self would be innaprorpriate, in collectivist cultures
• strength of the failure to function adequately explanation:

  • patients distress is considered and intervention can be determined, using the WHODAS rating scale
• limitations of the failure to function adequately explanataion:

  • may not be functioning but may not affect their mental health
  • culturally relative, signs of functioning adequately in one culture may differ from another
  • individual may appear to be managing everyday life, but may still be causing unknown distress to others
• strength of the statistical infrequency explanation:

  • can be used for establishing a objective criteria for a trait, a measurement to be considered abnormal
• limitation of the statistical infrequency explanation:

  • difficult to distinguish between desirable and indesirable behaviors, some abnormal behaviors are desirable, eg. high IQ
  • difficult to establish a cut-off point between normal and abnormal
  • culturally relative, frequent behaviors may differ across cultures
• strength of the deviation from social norms explanation:

  • can distigish between desirable and undesirable, tends to be a consensus to be polite
• limitation of the deviation from social norm explanation:

  • low temporal validity- what is normal/abnormal can change over time
  • unusual behaviors can be ususual and indicate a lack of normality but may be useful to the individual
  • context dependent, can be normal in some situations but not in others. eg. crying
• depression:

  • mood disorder, can influence a person's ability to function normally
  • type 1 - major depression - can occur suddenly as a result of externa/ internal factors eg. death of loved one
  • type 2 - manic depression - alternation between moods, occurs in regular cycles of mania and depression
• physical characteristics of depression:

  • insomnia or hypersomnia
  • change in appetite
  • lack of activity
• emotional characteristics of depression:

  • feelings of sadness, hopelessness or despair
  • changes in mood throughout day
  • no longer enjoying activities/ hobbies
• cognitive characteristics of depression:

  • persistent negative beliefs
  • suicidal thoughts
  • difficulty concentrating and making decisions
• phobia

  extreme irrational fear of a particular object or situation
• phobia types:

  • specific phobias - objects or situations
  • agoraphobia - fear of not being able to escape/ find help
  • social anxiety - fear of social situations
• cognitive characteristics of phobias:

  • irrational beliefs
  • anxious thoughts
• behavioural characteristics of phobias:

  • restless / easily startled
  • anxiety / dread
• physical characteristics of phobias:

  • increased adrenaline
  • increased heart rate and breathing
• behaviours are learnt:

  • phobias are learnt by classical or operant conditioning
  • classical - phobias created when natural fear becomes associated with a stimulus, can be gerneralised to similar stimuli
  • operant - important in maintaining phobias due to negative reinforcement
• two process model:

  1. people develop phobias by classical conditioning - a CS is paired with an UCS to produce the CR
  2. once phobia is developed, maintained by operant conditioning, avoiding the phobia
• strengths of behavioural explanation:

  • cases of individuals with a fear of driving, 50% involved in road accident
  • behavoiral therapies effective by getting patient to change their response to the stimulus
• weaknesses of behavourial explanation:

  • only 7% of spider phobias have a traumatic experience with a spider
  • suggests there could be other explanations eg. biological factors
• treatments for phobias:

  1. systematic desensitisation
  2. flooding
• flooding:

  • exposing patient to phobia stimulus immediately, in real life or visually
  • kept in situation until anxiety is worn off
• systematic desensitisation: counter conditioned association with phobic stimulus

  1. person makes a fear hierachy
  2. taught relaxation techniques
  3. imagines the anxiety-provoking situations with relaxation techniques
  4. repeat until feared event is linked with relaxation
  5. process repeated through fear heirachy
• strengths of behavioural therapy:

  • effective for specific phobia, systematic desensitisation found most effective
  • works very quickly, anxiety reduced in 90% patients after just one session
• weaknesses of behavioural therapy:

  • ethical issues - flooding causes a lot of anxiety, can cause more anxiety
  • only treats symptoms of disorder, other therapies tackle cause of it
• two parts of OCD:

  1. obsessions - intrusive and persistent thoughts, internal aspect of OCD, unable to ignore thoughts, cause distress
  2. compulsions - physical or mental repetitive actions, external aspect of OCD, may repeat the behaviours that relate to an obsession, compulsions are meant to reduce anxiety
• types of OCD behaviours:

  • checking repetitively
  • contamination, fear of germs
  • hoarding, keeping useless items
  • symmetry, having things organised in a specific way
• Biological approach to OCD factors:

  • genetic factors
  • biochemical factors
  • neurological factors