Karp & Frank - Treatments of Dysfunctional Behaviour

Question 1

Biological approach and treatments

Answer 1

Most common method within the biological approach is drug therapy. Chemical imbalances can be reduced by giving drugs.
This is used in most disorders and is often prescribed by doctors rather than psychologists.
Medicine can choose a chemical intervention to cure or treat an illness.
By taking medication the assumption is made that it is a biological imbalance causing the behaviour and it is the chemicals in our body which need adjustment, therefore genetic hence biological explanation. This is therefore reductionist, but for many disorders also very effective.
Balance has to be made between potential side-effect and effectiveness.

Question 2

Aim

Answer 2

To compare drug treatment and non-drug treatments for depression.

Question 3

Karp & Frank general

Answer 3

Looks into the effectiveness of drug therapies for depression, i.e. through combination therapy and the depressed woman.
Often the success of such therapies will support the biological explanation as to the cause of the disorder.

Question 4

Method

Answer 4

A review articles of previous research into the effectiveness of single treatments and combined drug and psychotherapeutic treatments of depression.

Question 5

Sample

Answer 5

Reviewed studies concentrated on women diagnosed with depression.

Question 6

Design

Answer 6

Independent measures design, patients having single drug treatment, single psychological treatment, combined treatments and sometime placebo groups.

Question 7

Procedure

Answer 7

• Depression analysed using a variety of depression inventories.
• Patients were tested generally prior to treatment, after treatment and in some cases after a period of time as a follow up.
• Some health practitioner assessments of symptoms were used.

Question 8

Findings

Answer 8

1: Adding psychological treatments to drug therapy did not increase the effectiveness of the drug therapy.
2: Occasionally studies did show less attrition when combination therapies were used. This means that people were more likely to continue with treatment if cognitive therapy was given in addition to drug therapy.

Question 9

Validity

Answer 9

Using a clinical trial therefore valid review as looking at people who are being treated.

Just because something can be treated by that drug doesn’t mean it is the cause.

Question 10

Nature/Nurture

Answer 10

Nature as some biological determinant is involved, if we changed someones biological history with depression we may find a change in serotonin level but it may have been a change in mental phase beforehand.

Question 11

Reductionist/Holistic

Answer 11

• Need biological treatment in order to overcome disorder (drugs), therefore reductionist however addition of psychological element helps.
• Adding psychological treatments doesn’t increase effectiveness but does increase length of time people choose to stay in study.
• Treatment is biological but using psychological treatments as well is not a bad idea. There whole may be greater than sum of its parts (holistic).

Question 12

Determinism/Free-will

Answer 12

Treatment must lie within the biological approach, therefore determinist as cannot treat without drugs. The treatment isn’t determinist but the biological approach is.

Question 13

Usefulness

Answer 13

• Useful for comparing, quantifying the success of different treatments.
• Biological treatments are useful when you are trying to treat behaviours when they have a genetic cause.
• Useful because the research suggests that adding psychological therapy to the therapy regime of a patient being treated by drugs is no more effective than just the drugs. However, the research does not show if either drug-based or psychological-based therapies are more effective.
• Only studied for the dysfunctional behaviour, depression, therefore how do we know if it is effective with other mental disorders.
  The findings that (adding psychological treatments to drug therapy did not increase the effectiveness of the drug therapy) may not be generalisable as not all disorders and dysfunctional behaviours have the same treatment.
• Gynocentric, therefore not generalisable to men.

Question 14

Reliability

Answer 14

Secondary sources are not necessarily free from bias and other issues and those issues may have been translated to this piece of research.