Psychopathology Flashcards
(28 cards)
DEFINITIONS OF ABNORMALITY - STATISTICAL INFREQUENCY AO1
- Defining in terms of statistics
- Behaviour that is rarely seen is deemed as abnormal
- E.g. IQ - those scoring below 70 are ‘abnormal’ and may be diagnosed with Intellectual Disability Disorder
DEFINITIONS OF ABNORMALITY - STATISTICAL INFREQUENCY AO3
✔ = Real-world application - use in diagnosis of e.g. IDD, and diagnosis of depression (only 5% score 30+ on BDI)
✘ = Unusual can be positive - IQ scores over 120 are abnormal, but not seen as requiring treatment
DEFINITIONS OF ABNORMALITY - DEVIATION FROM SOCIAL NORMS AO1
- Based on social context, judged by society and social groups
- Few behaviours are universally abnormal, and may even be time-bound in a single culture, e.g. homosexuality no longer being abnormal in westernised cultures
- Antisocial personality disorder (formerly psychopathy) is an inability to conform to lawful and culturally normative ethical behaviour
DEFINITIONS OF ABNORMALITY - DEVIATION FROM SOCIAL NORMS AO3
✔ = Real-world application, used to diagnose Antisocial Personality Disorder as well as Schizotypal P.D.
✘ = Heavily culture bound, hearing voices can be seen as normal in some cultures but would be abnormal in others
DEFINITIONS OF ABNORMALITY - FAILURE TO FUNCTION ADEQUATELY AO1
- A failure to cope with the demands of daily life
- May no longer conform to interpersonal rules e.g. maintaining personal space, severe personal distress, irrational or dangerous behaviour
- Low IQ wouldn’t lead to diagnosis of IDD, would need evidence of a failure to function as well.
DEFINITIONS OF ABNORMALITY - FAILURE TO FUNCTION ADEQUATELY AO3
✔ = Good basis for when professional help is needed - 25% of us experience symptoms to some degree, clarifies a threshold
✘ = Hard to distinguish between a failure to function and conscious decisions to deviate from social norms
DEFINITIONS OF ABNORMALITY - DEVIATION FROM IDEAL MENTAL HEALTH AO1
- Anything that isn’t psychologically healthy
- Jahoda’s 8 criteria, such as no symptoms or distress, coping with stress, being independent, self-actualisation
DEFINITIONS OF ABNORMALITY - DEVIATION FROM IDEAL MENTAL HEALTH AO3
✔ = Comprehensive - provides an effective checklist of all the ways mental health issues could arise
✘ = Culturally bound - e.g. self-actualisation isn’t recognised in many cultures
PHOBIAS
BEHAVIOURAL
- Panic = May involve behaviours such as crying, screaming or running away
- Avoidance = Effort to avoid the phobic stimulus
- Endurance = Remaining with the phobic stimulus
EMOTIONAL
- Anxiety = High arousal, preventing relaxation
- Fear = Immediate fear response
- Disproportionate emotional response
COGNITIVE
- Selective attention to the stimulus, finding it hard to look away
- Irrational beliefs
- Cognitive distortions
DEPRESSION
BEHAVIOURAL
- Reduced levels of energy
- Disruption to sleep and eating - insomnia or hypersomnia, changes to appetite and weight
- Aggression and self harm
EMOTIONAL
- Lowered mood
- Anger or self-harming behaviour
- Lowered self-esteem
COGNITIVE
- Poor concentration, inability to stick to tasks
- Attention to the negative
- Absolutist, ‘black and white’ thinking
OCD
BEHAVIOURAL
- Repetitive, ritualistic compulsions
- Compulsions may reduce anxiety
- Avoidance of anxiety-triggering situations
EMOTIONAL
- Anxiety and distress (stemming from obsessive thoughts)
- Depression
- Guilt and disgust
COGNITIVE
- Obsessive thoughts
- Cognitive coping strategies
- Awareness of irrational behaviour and thoughts
BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH TO EXPLAINING PHOBIAS AO1
- Phobias are learned via classical conditioning and maintained via operant
- Acquisition via classical - Little Albert study, a loud noise was played in his ear whenever he played with a white rat. Rat became CS, produced fear response. Any other white, fluffy items, too (generalisation)
- Maintenance via operant conditioning - Negative reinforcement where the person avoids the phobic stimulus and avoids the anxiety, reinforcing the avoidant behaviour
BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH TO EXPLAINING PHOBIAS AO3
✔ = Real-world application - helps with exposure therapies, as preventing avoidance behaviour keeps it from being reinforced
✘ = Cannot explain cognitive aspects, i.e. the irrational beliefs around the phobic stimulus. Not full explanation
✔ = Link to a traumatic experience - De Jongh et al (2006) found 73% of dental phobics had experienced a traumatic incident
✘ = HOWEVER not a full exp. - snake phobias occur in populations where few have had any experience of snakes.
BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH TO TREATING PHOBIAS - SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION
SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION (SD)
- Aims to gradually reduce anxiety via counterconditioning. CS is paired with relaxation instead of fear to eliminate the CR of fear. Reciprocal inhibition - not possible to be both afraid and relaxed at the same time
- Formation of an anxiety hierarchy
- Relaxation techniques are practiced at every stage of the hierarchy to gradually eliminate the phobia
✔ = Evidence of effectiveness - Gilroy followed up with 42 people who had SD for spider phobias.
✔
BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH TO TREATING PHOBIAS - FLOODING
FLOODING
- Instantly exposes the person to the phobic stimulus with no build-up
- Quick learning via extinction - the person quickly learns that the phobic object is harmless
- Flooding isn’t unethical but it can be distressing, requiring fully informed consent
✔
COGNITIVE APPROACH TO EXPLAINING DEPRESSION - BECK’S NEGATIVE TRIAD
- Faulty information processing. People with depression tend to focus on the negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives. They have absolutist views, and blow small problems out of proportion
- Negative self-schema = they interpret all information about themselves in a negative way
- Triad = Negative view of the self, negative view of the world, negative view of the future
✔
COGNITIVE APPROACH TO EXPLAINING DEPRESSION - ELLIS’ ABC MODEL
- A = Activating event. Ellis suggested that depression arises from irrational thoughts. Depression occurs after a negative event
- B = Beliefs. Negative events trigger negative beliefs, e.g. musterbation (the belief we must always succeed), utopianism
- C = Consequences. There are emotional and behavioural consequences, e.g. if you believe you must always succeed but then you fail, the consequence is often depression
✔
COGNITIVE APPROACH TO TREATING DEPRESSION - CBT AO1
- CBT is the most common psychological treatment. The cognitive aspect challenges irrational thoughts, while the behavioural challenges behaviour
- Beck - the aim is to identify the negative thoughts about the self, future and world (negative triad). Client must take an active role in their treatment
- ‘Client as scientist’ - they’re encouraged to test the reality of their irrational beliefs. They might be set work to note down whenever they feel happy, which can be used to challenge whenever they feel like they ‘never feel happy’.
- Ellis’ REBT - Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. Extends ABC to ABCDE - Dispute irrational beliefs, Effect.
- Challenging irrational thoughts. Empirical argument = disputing whether there is evidence to support the irrational belief. Logical argument = disputing whether the negative thought actually follows from the facts
COGNITIVE APPROACH TO TREATING DEPRESSION - CBT AO3
✔ = Evidence of effectiveness - CBT had an 81% effectiveness in over 300 depressed adolescents, and 86% in combination with drugs
✘ = May not be suitable for severely depressed people, who may struggle to engage with CBT to the extent required. May not be suitable for those with learning difficulties
✔ = Taylor et al concluded it may be suitable for those with learning difficulties. May have a wider application than initially thought
✘ = High relapse rates - few studies look at long-term effectiveness. Ali et al found that 52% relapsed within a year
BIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO EXPLAINING OCD - GENETIC EXPLANATIONS
- Candidate genes, several genes which can create a vulnerability for OCD.
- Serotonin gene, e.g. 5HT1-D beta, which are implicated in the transmission of serotonin
- Dopamine genes implicated in OCD too
- OCD is polygenic, with up to 230 genes being involved in OCD
- Aetiologically heterogenous, with different sets of genes causing OCD in different people. Different genetic variations may cause different types of OCD
✔ = Evidence for genetics - Marini and Stebnicki found a person with a family member with OCD were four times as likely to develop OCD
✘ = Doesn’t recognise environmental risk factors. Cromer et al found that over half of people with OCD have experienced a traumatic event
BIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO EXPLAINING OCD - NEURAL EXPLANATIONS
- Low levels of serotonin lower mood - normal transmission of mood-relevant behaviour doesn’t occur
- Some OCD, esp. things like hoarding disorder, are associated with impaired decision making. May be related to abnormal function of the lateral frontal lobes
- Parahippocampal gyrus dysfunction, associated with processing unpleasant emotions
✔ = Antidepressants that work on serotonin help reduce OCD symptoms, and OCD symptoms are known to be found in biological conditions (e.g. parkinson’s)
✘ = No unique neural system - many people with OCD also have depression which likely causes serotonin disruption. Serotonin activity could just be disturbed by depression, not OCD
BIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO TREATING OCD - AO1
- Impacts levels of neurotransmitters
- SSRIs - selective serotonin uptake inhibitors. Prevents reuptake and breakdown of serotonin so it continues to stimulate the neuron
- Fluoxetine - typical dosage is 20mg, with 3-4 months for SSRIs to impact symptoms
- SSRIs are most often combined with CBT
- Alternatives are Tricyclics which could have more severe side effects, or SNRIs which are newer and also target noradrenaline
