psychopathology studies

• GENETIC EXPLANATION FOR OCD (3)

  Nestadt - reviewed twin studies in humans and found that 68% of MZ twins and 31% of DZ twins both had OCD, suggesting there is a genetic link to OCD

  
  

  - the SERT gene malfunction has been found in two unrelated families, where 6 out of the 7 members had OCD

  
  

  Grootheest et al (2005) - found that OCD originating in childhood is more likely to have a genetic component than OCD originating in adulthood suggesting there are different types of OCD with different causes
• NEURAL EXPLANATION FOR OCD (2)

  saxena and rauch (2000) - used brain imaging techniques to show an association between increased activity in the orbitofrontal cortex and OCD symptoms - faulty neural mechanisms linked to OCD

  
  

  Hu (2006) found that serotonin levels were significantly lower in OCD sufferers than in non- OCD sufferers
• BIOLOGICAL TREATMENTS FOR OCD (1)

  Julien (2007) - reviewed research into the effectiveness of SSRI's and found that between 50-80% of patients show a reduction of OCD symptoms, to the extent that they could life a normal lifestyle due to use of SSRI's
• BEHAVIOURIST EXPLANATION FOR PHOBIAS (1)

  Watson & Rayner - 11 month albert was given various stimuli to play with, including a white rat to which he showed no fear response

  - Watson and Rayner then induced a fear response into albert by striking a metal bar with a hammer every time he went to touch the white rat, continued for 3 months

  - after the 3 months, every time albert was then shown the rat, he would scream, cry and try to crawl away (fear response)- albert had been conditioned into a phobia of white rats
• BEHAVIOURIST TREATMENTS FOR PHOBIAS (2)

  Gilroy et al (2003) - found patients who were treated for spider phobias with 3 45 minute sessions of SD felt lower levels of anxiety at both 3 and 33 months after the treatment (assessed using questionnaires)

  
  

  Ourgrin - compared flooding to cognitive therapies and found it to be cheaper as phobias could be cured in just one session
• COGNITIVE EXPLANATION FOR DEPRESSION

  koster et al (2005) - showed participants a screen with negative or neutral words on it, then asked them to press a button to locate a square that appeared on the screen, found participants with depression took longer to disengage with the negative word than the non-depressed participants
• COGNITIVE TREATMENTS FOR DEPRESSION (1)

  marche et al (2007) - compared CBT with medication in 327 patients with depression and found each alone had an 81% effectiveness rate and 86% effectiveness rate together