Psychopathology

Question 1

What is deviation from social norms?

Answer 1

Where a behaviour is seen as abnormal if it breaks unwritten rules.

Question 2

What are the strengths of ‘deviation from social norms’?

Answer 2

• considers how are behaviours affect others hence social norms may exist to protect us and avoid harm to others.
  -Clarity- living within a culture means you are aware of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

Question 3

What are the weaknesses of ‘deviation from social norms’?
Hint: changing over time.

Answer 3

-social norms change over time which causes problems diagnosing people with mental disorders. and our classification of what is/isn’t abnormal will keep changing meaning we will have to keep updating the classification which is not practical.
-Eg: in 1950’s homosexuality was considered abnormal and seen as a mental disorder in the DSM but now it is not seen as abnormal or a mental disorder.

Question 4

What is a weakness of the ‘deviation of social norms’?

Answer 4

-very dependent on culture as people from ethnic minorities may be considered as abnormal as they’re being judged by social norms that are different to their own culture and they may be misdiagnosed because they are judged by different social norms.

Question 5

What is anti-social personality disorder?

Answer 5

-also known as psychopathy and they are unable to conform to lawful and culturally normative ethical behaviour

Question 6

What is ‘deviation from ideal mental health’?

Question 7

What does Jahoda’s 6 criteria suggest?

Answer 7

• a criteria that suggests whether we have good mental health or not
  1) positive self-attitude
  2) behaving independently
  3) self-actualisation
  4) resistance to stress
  5) accurate perception of reality
  6) environmental mastery

Question 8

What are the strengths of ‘deviation from ideal mental health’?

Answer 8

It allows patients to set clear goals using Jahoda’s 6 criteria.

Question 9

What are the weaknesses of ‘deviation from ideal mental health’?

Answer 9

Jahoda’s criteria can be seen as overly demanding and it is difficult to measure objectively.

Question 10

What is the ‘failure to function adequately’?

Answer 10

Where a person is considered abnormal if they are unable to cope with everyday life.

Question 11

What are the strengths of ‘failure to function adequately’?

Answer 11

Behaviours are used to identify abnormality and that can be easily observed and measured.

Question 12

What are the weaknesses of ‘failure to function adequately’?

Answer 12

-It fails to identify people who do cope well with everyday life but have a mental disorder.
- It is highly dependent on culture and time period
-We are all humans so we will sometimes behave in a way that’s bad for us and that cause failure to cope.

Question 13

What does Rosenhan and Seligman’s 7 criteria suggest?

Answer 13

1) personal distress
2) maladaptive behaviour
3) unpredictability
4) irrationality
5) observer discomfort
6) violation of moral standards
7) unconventionality

Question 14

What is ‘statistical infrequency’?

Answer 14

When an individual has a less common characteristic compared to the population.
- those in the 2% category are considered to be abnormal

Question 15

What are the strengths of statistical infrequency?

Answer 15

-It is an easy/practical way of diagnosing people
-relies less on doctor’s subjective interpretation of the patient

Question 16

What are the weaknesses of statistical infrequency?

Answer 16

-Some mental disorders aren’t infrequent (depression)
-doesn’t consider the desirability of behaviours as infrequent behaviours can also be seen as good behaviours.

Question 17

What is a phobia?

Answer 17

An irrational fear of an object or situation.

Question 18

What is avoidance?

Answer 18

Trying to move away from their fear.

Question 19

What is panic?

Answer 19

When you come face-to-face with your phobia and panic kicks in and high levels of stress and anxiety.

Question 20

What is the 2 process model?

Answer 20

-made by MOWRER
-explains how phobias are learned via classical and maintained via operant conditioning

Question 21

What is endurance?

Answer 21

Where a person may choose to remain in the presence of the phobic stimulus.

Question 22

What is systematic desensitisation?

Answer 22

-gradually reduces phobic anxiety through principles of classical conditioning.
-breathing/visualisation/anti-anxiety drugs

Question 23

What is counter conditioning?

Answer 23

Where a new, positive response to the phobic stimulus is learned.

Question 24

What is reciprocal inhibition?

Answer 24

You cannot feel two conflicting emotions at the same time.

Question 25

What is a cognitive distortion?

Answer 25

The perception of a person with a phobia may be inaccurate and unrealistic.

Question 26

What is selective attention?

Answer 26

Keeping our attention on something really dangerous and gives us the best chance of reacting quickly, but it is not useful when the fear is irrational.

Question 27

What is major depressive disorder?

Answer 27

severe, but short-term depression

Question 28

What is persistent depressive disorder?

Answer 28

long-term/recurring depression

Question 29

What is disruptive mood dysregulation disorder?

Answer 29

childhood temper tantrums

Question 30

What is premenstrual dysphoric disorder?

Answer 30

disruption to the mood prior to/or during menstruation

Question 31

What is Beck’s theory of depression?

Answer 31

• a cognitive approach explaining why some people may be more vulnerable to depression than others.

Question 32

What is faulty information processing?

Answer 32

When one person focuses on negative aspects of a situation rather than the positives
-selective attention to just the negatives.

Question 33

What is a negative self-schema?

Answer 33

we interpret all info about ourselves negatively.

Question 34

What is CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy)?

Answer 34

where a therapist works with a patient to address their thinking.

Question 35

What are the strengths of CBT?

Answer 35

-March et al: compared effects of CBT to anti- depressants and a combo of the two on 327 adolescents.
CBT: 81% improvement
Anti-depressant: 81% improvement
Mixed: 86% improvement

Question 36

What are the weaknesses of CBT?

Answer 36

-Their depression may be so severe that the patient cannot motivate themselves to engage with CBT- it requires them to engage and do the homework that the therapist gives to them.
-Rosenzweig suggested that the relationship between the patient and the therapist is also a leading factor to the success of psychological therapy.

Question 37

What is flooding?

Answer 37

Flooding doesn’t have gradual build-up of the hierarchy whereby they are presented with the phobic stimuli all at once.

Question 38

What are the three processes within systematic desensitisation?

Answer 38

1) Anxiety Hierarchy
2) Relaxation- therapist teaches patient on how to relax ( breathing techniques/ imagining techniques)/ medication such as Valium can be used to relax too
3) Exposure- when patient is relaxed they are exposed to the phobic stimuli starting at the bottom of the hierarchy. Move up the scale as they become more comfortable.

Question 39

What are the weaknesses of systematic desensitisation?

Answer 39

-does it work only in hierarchical situations? noted that patients struggle to deal with the phobia outside the therapy because they cannot apply what they learnt to real life.
- may leave the patient vulnerable to other phobias developing as the real reason behind the fear has yet to be uncovered

Question 40

What is the process of flooding?

Answer 40

• Flooded with immediate exposure to the phobia
• Designed to stop phobic response using ‘short, sharp, shock’ approach ie they cannot avoid the phobic stimulus
• Phobic response stops and the learned response is extinguished (classical conditioning-extinction)

Question 41

What are the strengths of flooding?

Answer 41

-Flooding is cost-effective
- Works well with ‘simple’ phobias.

Question 42

What are the weaknesses of flooding?

Answer 42

• Traumatic for the patient: SCHUMACHER found both patients and therapists rated flooding as significantly more stressful than systematic desensitisation.
• Flooding is less effective with more complex phobias such as social phobias