mental health

• historical views of mental health

  --> demonic possession:

  • evil spirits have possession of an individual
  • spirits of ancestors, gods etc
  • skulls in history have characteristic holes chipped out as a release of the demons
• historical views of mental health

  --> humourism

  • 4 humours: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile
  • illness occurs when there is too much or too little of humours
  • need to restore the balance and can be done through bloodletting
• historical views of mental health

  --> animalism

  • believed the insane should be treated like animals
  • in bedlam, patients were confined with chains, kept in dungeons and whipped
  • fear was thought to restore the mind
• historical views of mental health

  --> moral treatment

  • argued for humane treatments
  • mental disorders caused by stress or conditions

  evaluation of historical views of mental health:

  --> ethics , psychology as a science
• characteristics of an affective disorder - depression

  • depressed mood
  • loss of interest or pleasure
  • fatigue

  5 or more symptoms must be present during a time period
• characteristics of a psychotic disorder - schizophrenia

  • delusions
  • hallucinations
  • disorganised speech
  • catatonic behaviour

  2 or more symptoms must be present and disturbances must have occurred for 6 months
• characteristics of an anxiety disorder - phobia

  • phobias are strong, irrational fears of something

  --> specific phobias (occur in childhood)

  --> agoraphobia = fear of open spaces

  --> social phobia = fear of public speaking (occur in adulthood)

  • evaluate characteristics on reliability, socially sensitive, ethnocentrism
• Rosenhan (key)

  aim

  • to see if american mental hospitals could tell the difference between the sane and the insane
• rosenhan (key)

  study 1:

  • 8 sane people had appointments with mental hospitals claiming they had the same symptoms
  • once admitted, all stopped showing symptoms
  • majority were diagnosed with schizophrenia and were in hospital for 7 to 52 days
  • many patients had suspicions of pseudopatients - "your not crazy"
  • pseudopatients also approached staff members and only 2% of the time, staff paused to chat
• rosenhan (key)

  study 2:

  • hospital was made aware over the next 3 months, one pseudopatient would be admitted
  • no pseudopatients were sent but 40/200 people admitted were seen as fake
• rosenhan (key)

  conclusions

  • mental hospitals couldn't make valid or reliable diagnosis

  evaluation:

  --> ethnocentric, useful, reliability
• defining abnormality

  1. statistical infrequency = any rare behaviour

  --> issue = many behaviours are rare but not abnormal (high IQ)

  2. failure to function adequately = no job, no relationships

  --> issue = could be due to lack of education
• defining abnormality

  3. deviation from social norms = behaviour not socially acceptable

  --> issue = can change across time and culture

  4. deviation from ideal mental health = not having good mental health

  --> issue = who defines ideal?
• categorising mental disorders

  --> 2 main classification systems

  
  

  • ICD = used around the world, developed by WHO
  • DSM-5 = only used in america, contains 300+ disorders
• biochemical explanation of depression

  • depression is related to low levels of serotonin in the nervous system
  • serotonin is a neurotransmitter which are chemicals in the brain sending signals from one nerve to another
  • to little serotonin means the messages aren't transmitted
• biochemical explanation of schizophrenia

  • related to high levels of dopamine
  • dopamine is also a neurotransmitter
  • there is an excess of dopamine in the synapses
• biochemical explanation of disorders - treatments

  • depression = block the re-up take of serotonin
  • schizophrenia = block receptors to prevent overload

  -> both restores levels of neurotransmitter action
• genetic explanation of mental illness

  --> certain disorders could inherited through genetic transmission

  --> key research: gottesman
• genetic explanation of mental illness

  --> we have inherited traits that have a beneficial effect on survival

  • people are more scared of spiders than cars as were pre-programmed to fear objects that might be harmful
  • ancestors being sensitive to dangers led to their survival
  • Ohman showed people photos of faces, houses and snakes with a mile electric shock and people were most scared of snakes
• genetic explanation of mental illness

  treatment = embryo manipulation to reduce inheritance of disorders
• brain abnormality explanation of schizophrenics

  • brains were 6% lighter
  • had enlarged hollow areas in the area
  • differences in pre-frontal cortex and hippocampal volume compared to normal brain
• brain abnormality explanation of depression

  • have smaller hippocampal volume
  • people with depression experience stress so releases more cortisol which can destroy hippocampal cells
• brain abnormality in mental illness - treatments

  • drug therapy
  • surgery - removal of brain tumours if causing symptoms
• evaluation of biochemical explanations of mental illness

  • nature/nurture = nature - chemical imbalances
  • useful - shows ways of treatment for restoring chemical levels
  • not valid - can't measure cause and effect of neurotransmitters
• evaluation of genetic explanations of mental illness

  • nature - genes predispose individuals to mental illness
  • not useful - hard to change genetics, but could do genetic screening to inform
  • not valid - hard to impose controls on family studies
• evaluation of brain abnormality explanations

  • nature - natural differences in brain structure
  • not useful - can't change brain structure
  • not valid - hard to identify causes of brain abnormality
• gottesman - key

  aim:

  • to investigate the probability of a child being diagnosed with a mental disorder if either or both parents had the disorder
• gottesman - key

  sample:

  • 2.7 million people
  • from denmark
  • had clear link to biological parents
• gottesman - key

  procedure:

  • identified 4 groups of people

  = both parents admitted with schizophrenia, depression or bipolar

  = one parent admitted with one of the disorders

  = no parents admitted

  = general public
• gottesman - key

  findings:

  • if both parents admitted = child had schizophrenia 27% of the time, child had depression 25% of the time
  • genetic overlap between schizophrenia and bipolar
  • fresh diagnosis of bipolar still made aged 50+
• gottesman - key

  conclusion = where both parents admitted, their offspring are at a high risk of being admitted themselves
• evaluation of gottesman - key

  • nature + nurture
  • deterministic
  • reliability
  • ethnocentric
• biological treatment of disorders

  • drug therapy aims to restore normal levels of neurotransmitters
  • SSRI's - selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
  • SSRI's block the reuptake of serotonin by the pre-synaptic neuron so greater amount of serotonin between synapse
  • increases likelihood of serotonin reaching receptors and sending electrical impulses
  • SSRI's treat depression and anxiety
• behaviourist explanation of mental illness

  = classical conditioning

  • one unconditioned stimuli (storm) with a conditioned stimuli (clap of thunder) can lead to the stimuli alone producing a fear response

  operant conditioning = rewards and punishments that reinforce behaviour

  social learning theory = copy role models through observation and imitation
• cognitive explanation of mental illness

  = Beck's negative cognitive triad

  • individual is suffering from irrational thoughts
  • 3 dysfuntional beliefs in depressed people which forms the triad eg. i am worthless
  • Ellis = proposed irrational thoughts could sustain mental disorders with awfulising, musterbating

  treatment = use therapy to change people's thinking
• psychodynamic explanation of mental illness

  • conflicts between the id, ego and superego
  • weak ego could result in an uncontrolled id
  • aim of psychodynamic treatment is to bring unconscious conflicts into the concious mind to be resolved

  treatment = dream analysis, free association
• evaluation of explanations

  psychology as a science, nature / nurture, reductionism
• szasz (key)

  evaluation on holism, usefulness
• non biological treatment for disorders

  = systematic desensitisation

  • form a hierachy of fearful situations
  • trained in muscle relaxation and breathing techniques
  • exposed to least fearful item, using relaxation and continues until desensitised
• non biological treatments for disorders

  = flooding

  • stimulus is presented directly
  • immediate fear response from adrenaline can't be sustained and person calms down
  • associate feeling of calm with the object so no more fear