Psychopathology Flashcards
(14 cards)
What is deviation from social norms and limitations
- Refers to people who don’t behave to the social norms.
LIMITATIONS
- Financial crimes don’t mean they’re abnormal
- Social norms vary over time: being gay was abnormal until it was legalised.
What is failure to function adequately and limitations (Rosenhan and Seligman)
- When your unable to cope with day to day living they’re abnormal.
CHARACTERISTICS
- They suggest an abnormal person should be suffering in someway.
- This refers a behaviour where a person is stopping themselves from progressing.
- They need to be odd in someway
- Abnormal people act in an inappropriate manner.
- They do random stuff for no reason.
- Makes people uncomfortable.
- Violates moral standards.
LIMITATIONS
- Unclear whether you have to meet all the characteristics to be abnormal
- Everyone suffers at one point in their lives
- Context matters for their actions
What is deviation from ideal mental health? (JAHODA)
Having more of these characteristics makes you less abnormal.
- Positive attitude towards self (self-confidence of themselves)
- Self-actualisation of one’s potential
- Independent people
- Withstand stress
- Accurate perception of reality
- Flexible to the environment.
LIMITATIONS
- Very hard to achieve all of Jahoda’s criteria suggesting we’re all abnormal
- Cultural bias: collectivist cultures aren’t independent and therefore Jahoda doesn’t take into account all cultures.
- Views on being independent varies over time and context.
- Suggests stress is a bad thing when it may help fight or flight.
What is the biological model of abnormality and evaluation
Suggests abnormality as a result of PHYSICAL/BIOLOGICAL cause.
- May be INHERITED through genes (GENETIC BASIS).
- NEUROTRANSMITTERS may influence abnormality (depression is from low levels of serotonin).
- BRAIN DAMAGE can explain abnormality.
EVALUATION
- Twin studies have shown that they’re a genetic basis with schizophrenia regarding MZ twins bc of higher concordance rates.
- Research has shown that schizo is linked to high levels of dopamine.
- However, doesn’t take into account the environment and it’s reductionist.
What is the behavioural and SLT model of abnormality and evaluate
- All behaviour is learnt
- Classical and operant conditioning can explain abnormality
CLASSICAL: Little Albert can link to phobias in real life
OPERANT: Avoiding the ocean leads to a reduction in anxiety and therefore it reinforces the phobia. (REWARD IS THE REDUCTION OF ANXIETY).
SLT: Abnormalities can be explained through imitation and observation of role models in the media.
EVALUATION
- Can explain disorders well like phobias and links to Little Albert.
- Doesn’t factor schizophrenia which may be genetic or from environment influences.
- Reductionist approach: ignores genetic makeup and cognitive processes.
What is the psychodynamic model of abnormality and evaluate
- Freud suggested that abnormalities occur from the unconscious mind and their personality. (ID, EGO, SUPEREGO)
ID - pleasure (devil)
EGO - mediator between ID and SUPEREGO
SUPEREGO - morals (angel)
The EGO always tries to reduce anxiety by using denial or repression. If it fails, it can lead to psychological disorders.
Suggests that childhood experiences affect adult behaviour.
Abnormality could also be explained through Freud’s psychosexual stages. OCD may occur when an individual is stuck in the ANAL stage.
EVALUATION
- Freud attempted to explain mental illnesses in psychological terms and set the foundations for other approaches.
- Childhood experiences affecting adult behaviour has been linked to Ainsworth’s strange situation.
- Doesn’t factor environment
- Ignores genetics and cognitive processes.
What is the cognitive model of abnormality and evaluate
- Suggests abnormality comes from errors in thinking, irrational thoughts and negative perceptions.
This leads to COGNITIVE BIASES which have negative outlooks.
EXAMPLES:
MINIMISATION: a good exam result was due to luck
MAXIMISATION: they focus on the failure
SELECTIVE ABSTRACTION: focus on information that show it’s a negative and ignoring the positive.
- Another assumption is that the individual is responsible for their thoughts because they have errors in their thoughts.
EVALUATION
- Real life application to depression: Beck’s cognitive triad
- Doesn’t take into account biological factors or genetic.
What is Beck’s cognitive triad?
- Used to explain depression and suggested that a negative mood leads to depression.
They have negative thoughts about:
SELF: negative perception of themselves
WORLD: negative perception of the world
FUTURE: negative view of their future
How do biological therapies help abnormalities and evaluate
- Use of drugs: schizo is linked to high dopamine.
CHLORPROMAZINE helps reducing SZ positive symptoms like hallucinations and delusions.
Does this by:
- Reducing activity of dopamine
DEPRESSION can be treated with anti-depressants.
ECT
- Pass a small electric current through the brain to make them have a seizure
- For SZ and for depression
- Affects the activity of neurotransmitters within the brain.
EVALUATION
- Real life application: drugs have helped to reduce SZ symptoms
- Drugs don’t tackle the root cause however
- These drugs have bad side effects
- ECT is unethical
What drug helps to reduce SZ symptoms?
Chlorpromazine
How do psychological therapies help abnormalities and evaluate
- Psychoanalysis is there to uncover repressed material and understand their origin of problems.
FREE ASSOCIATION
- Client is encouraged to express anything that comes to their mind
- One thought may lead to another and trace back to childhood
- Must not censor anything and therefore they can access repressed thoughts.
- Role of therapist to intervene sometimes and encourage the client and guide.
DREAM ANALYSIS
- Freud suggested that dreams is a route to the unconscious
- Analysing dreams can identify any conflicts that have been repressed into the unconscious
- Anything that the ID desired but was repressed is shown through dreams (sexual or aggressive desires).
SYSTEMATIC DESENSITATION
- Client is trained to replace a fear with relaxation towards a phobia
- They form a hierarchy of least anxious to most.
FLOODING
Involves exposing the client to the feared thing until the client calms down. This is to make them face their fear head on and realise it’s nothing bad.
COGNITIVE BEEHAVIOURAL THERAPY (CBT)
- Aims to modify a person’s thoughts and behaviour and replace negative thoughts with realistic thoughts.
- The therapist challenges the clients thoughts by showing the positive in negative instances brought up by the client.
- Can be applied to depression: they don’t want to get out of bed so the use of small personal achievements help build their confidence.
EVALUATION
- Very time-consuming to analyse dreams
- Freud argued that this method is for clients to understand their issues better rather than a cure.
- Real life application: behavioural therapies like systematic desensitation have been effective in treating phobias.
- However, it can be hard for severe cases of mental illnesses like PTSD and schizophrenia.
What is systemic desensitation and evaluate
Client is trained to replace a feared response with a relaxed response.
- Taught how to relax
- Form an phobia hierarchy
- They go from the bottom to the top of the hierarchy and the client will associate relaxation with the feared response.
EVALUATION
- May make them unlearn an association but it doesn’t tackle the root cause like trauma.
What is flooding and evaluate
Involves exposing the client to the feared thing until the client calms down. This is to make them face their fear head on and realise it’s nothing bad.
EVALUATION
- Very distressing for the client who may have deep-lying trauma
What is Ellis’ ABC model
- For faulty cognitions that lead to depression
ACTIVATING EVENT
BELIEF
CONSEQUENCE
