Psychopathology

Question 1

Statistical Infrequency

Answer 1

Someone is mentally unstable if their mental condition is very rare in the population, the rarity of the behaviour is judged using statistics, comparing the individuals behaviour to the rest of the population.

Question 2

AO3 Statistical Infrequency
Objectivity

Answer 2

A positive evaluation - individuals who are assessed as being abnormal are being evaluated objectively; this is better than other definitions that depend on the subjective opinion of a clinician. For example deciding if the client is coping or not is a vague concept and two observers may disagree.

Question 3

AO3 Statistical Infrequency
Cut-off point

Answer 3

The psychological community decides the cut-off point for what is statistically rare enough to be defined as abnormal; this is a subjective decision with real implications. For example, defining intellectual disability as 70 IQ and under may mean individuals with an IQ just above may be denied support.

Question 4

AO3 Statistical Infrequency Common

Answer 4

There is range of psychopathologies such as anxiety and depression. The NHS found that 17% of the people surveyed met the criteria for a common mental health disorder. So this method is not appropriate when considering society’s high incidence of mental health disorders.

Question 5

Failure to Function Adequately
FFA

Answer 5

The individual is defined as abnormal if they cannot cope in their daily lives - including their ability to interact with the world and meet their challenges.

Question 6

Features of FFA

Answer 6

Maladaptive behaviour: behaving in a way that goes against one’s long term interests.

Personal anguish: suffering from anxiety and distress

Observer discomfort: causing stress to those around them

Irrationality: difficult to understand the motivation of the individual/ unpredictability

Unconventionality: behiour does not match what is typically expected by society

Question 7

AO3 FFA
Subjectivity

Answer 7

FFA is based on the decision of clinician which is personal/ subjective i.e. two observers may disagree on whether an individual is coping

Question 8

AO3 FFA
Psychopaths

Answer 8

FFA only includes people who cannot cope; psychopaths can often function in society in ways that benefit them personally. Having lower empathy in business and politics can lead to sucess. However, while they feel distress themselves, psychopathology often has negative implications for those around them.

Question 9

AO3 FFA
Implies Mental Illness

Answer 9

Not all amaldaptive behaviour indicates mental illness. Partaking in extreme sports, eating unhealthy food and drinking alcohol all risk the individuals health, so they are arguably maladaptive. However, most people would disagree that these behaviours indicate mental illness.

Question 10

Deviation from social norms

Answer 10

A social norm is an unwritten expectation that can vary depending on the culture and change over time. People who deviate from this societal expectation may be considered abnormal or social deviants

Question 11

AO3 Deviation from social norms
No Imposed Etic

Answer 11

According to social norms it does not impose a western view of abnormality unto other cultures, respecting cultural differences between societies.

Question 12

AO3 Deviation from social norms
Migration

Answer 12

It can be innapropriate to define people who move to a new culture as abnormal according to the new cultural norms. People from an Afro-caribbean living in the UK are 7x more likey to be diagnosed with SZ than people living in the UK. This is due to category failure; a western definition of mental illness is applied to individual not living according to western cultural norms. For example, in Afro-caribbean cultures, hallucinations and hearing voices may be considered a spiritual experience so a doctor in the caribbean is less likely to consider their patient as mentally ill in comparison to a doctor from the UK.

Question 13

Deviation from Ideal Mental Health

Answer 13

Jahoda’s definition derives from the humanistic approach, focusing on ways to improve and become a better person rather than dysfunction or deficit.
She identified 6 features of IMH and argue deviation from these indicates abnormality.

Question 14

Jahoda’s features

Answer 14

Environmental Mastery: the ability to adapt and thrive in new situations
Autonomy: the ability to act independently and trust in one’s own ability
Resistance to stress: the internal strength to cope with anxiety caused by daily life
Self actualisation: the ability to reach one’s potential through personal growth
Positive attitude towards oneself: high self esteem and self respect
Accurate perception of reality: the ability to see the world as it is without being distorted by personal biases.

Question 15

AO3 DIMH
Imposed Etic

Answer 15

The basis of this definition comes from humanistic psychology, which may be culturally bias reflecting a western perspective on mental health. This imposes a view from an individualistic western culture, when in many cultures, people may not place high value on autonomy and personal freedom.

Question 16

AO3 DIMH
Strictness of criteria

Answer 16

Most people would be defined as abnormal according to DIMH, as it is difficult to achieve all of the criteria for IMH at any one time

Question 17

definition

Phobias

Answer 17

An extreme or irrational fear of objects or situations.

Question 18

Behavioural characteristics of
Phobias

Answer 18

Avoidance: physically adapting normal behaviour to avoid objects

Panic: an uncontrollable physical response, at a sudden appearance of the phobic object

Failure to function: difficulty taking part in activities required to perform a normal life

Question 19

Emotional characteristics of Phobias

Answer 19

Anxiety: an uncontrollably high and persistent state of arousal, making it difficult to relax.

Fear: an immense emotional state linked to the fight or flight response, a sensation or extreme and unpleasant alertness in the presence of a phobia - which only subsides when the phobic object is removed.

Question 20

Cognitive characteristics of
Phobias

Answer 20

Irrational thoughts (fear): negative irrational mental processes that include an exaggerated belief in the harm the phobic object could cause them

Reduce cognitive capacity: people with a phobia annot concentrate with day-to-day activities like work due to the excessive attentional focus on the phobic object.

Question 21

Depression

Answer 21

A mood disorder defined by a consistent and long-lasting sense of sadness

Question 22

Behavioural characteristics of
Depression

Answer 22

Reduction in activity level: includes legarthy, lacking energy to perform everyday tasks + lack of pleasure doing enjoyable activities

A change in eating behavour: over/under eating

An increase in aggression: to other people but often takes form of self harm.

Question 23

Emotional characteristics of
Depression

Answer 23

Sadness: a persistent very low mood

Guilt: linked to helplessness and a feeling they have no value in comparison to other people

Question 24

Cognitive characteristics of Depression

Answer 24

Poor concentration: people with depression cannot give their full attention to tasks and are indecisive

Negative schemas: automatic negative biases when thinking about themseleves. the world or the future

Question 25

OCD

Answer 25

Defined by obsessions which are constant intrusive thoughts that cause high anxiety levels. Compulsions (behavioural response) are attempts to deal with the continuous invasive thought process.

Question 26

Behavioural characteristics of OCD

Answer 26

Compulsions: behaviours performed repeatedly to reduce anxiety (temporary) Avoidance: take or resist actions to avoid being in the presence of objects/ situations that trigger obsessions Social Impairment: not particpating in enjoyable social activities - due to difficulty leaving the house without triggering obsessions

Question 27

Emotional characteristics of OCD

Answer 27

Anxiety: an uncomfortably high and persistent state of arousal, making it difficult to relax. Depression: a consistent a long-lasting sense of sadness. The result of being unable to control anxiety-causing thoughts.

Question 28

Cognitive characteristics of OCD

Answer 28

Obsessions: consistent intrusive, irrational thoughts that tend to be unpleasant catastrophic thoughts about potential dangers. Hypervigilance: a permanent state of alertness where the sufferer is looking for the source of their obsessive thoughts Selective attention: focus on the objects connected to the obsessions they cannot focus on other thing in the environment or concentrate on conversation.

Question 29

# Explanation Behaviourist approach - Phobias

Answer 29

Two process model - phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and maintained via operant.

Question 30

# Classical conditioning Acquisition of a phobia

Answer 30

A phobic object starts as a NS (neutral stimulus), it cause a NR (neutral response), no response An unconditioned stimulus produces an unconditioned response of fear. UCS-R links are automatic not learnt. An association is formed when a NS is paired with UCS. The object - NS - then becomes a CS (conditione stimulus), now producing a CR (conditioned response of fear). Phobias can be generalised to stimuli that is similar to the CS.

Question 31

# Operant conditioning Maintenance of a phobia

Answer 31

A person with a phobia is aware of their phobia and will try to avoid their phobic object and situations that put them in contact with it. The avoidance behaviour leads to a reduction in anxiety, which is a pleasant sensation. This reinforcement strengthens the phobia, making the person more likely to avoid that phobia in the future.

Question 32

AO3 Behaviourist explanation for Phobias Little Albert

Answer 32

Watson and Rayner When introduced to a rat for the first time, a young child name little Albert showed no phobic response. However, Watson paired the rat with hitting a loud metal pole behind a child's head, creating a loud noise to scare them. A phobic response was formed, and the rat produced a fear response, demonstrating phobias can be acquired through association. Little Albert also showed generalisation, displaying a fear response to other similar objects such as small dogs and fury blankets.

Question 33

AO3 Counter research Watson and Rayner

Answer 33

DiNardo showed while conditioning events like dog bites were common in participants with dog phobias (56%), they were just as common in participants with no dog phobia (66%). Also, Mendes and Clarke found that only 2% of children with a phobia of water could recall a negative experience of water and 56% of parents told researchers the phobia had been present since the child's first encounter with water. These findings suggest the behaviourist approach does not fully explain all phobias.

Question 34

AO3 Behaviourist explanation for phobias Hereditary

Answer 34

Humans don't often display phobic responses to objects that cause the most pain in day-to-day life, such as knives or cars. However, phobias of snakes and spiders are more common. These phobias may be better explained by evolutionary theory, as these are dangers many of our evolutionary ancestors faced. Those with natural instictual fear would have been more likely to survive and reproduce suggesting phobias are hereditary.

Question 35

AO3 Behaviourist explanation for phobias Practical Application

Answer 35

Behaviourist theories on the acquisition and maintenance of phobias have been practically applied to counter-conditioning therapies, systematic desensitisation and flooding. As these treatments are effective, it suggest the behaioural principles they were based on are valid.

Question 36

Reciprocal Inhibition

Answer 36

fear and relaxation are two antagonistic emotions, as you can't feel two opposite emotions simultaneously. If the therapist can help the client hold the phobic object/ be around it without fear - they have sucessfully counter-conditioned.

Question 37

Systematic Desensitisation SD

Answer 37

1. The therapist teaches the client relaxation techniques like breathing exercises. 2. The client creates an anxiety hierarchy, a list of feared situations of the phobic object, from least to most feared. 3. The client is exposed to each level of the anxiety hierarchy starting with the least anxiety producing level. The client must be able to fully relax at each stage before progression to the next. 4. When the client can hold the phobic object without fear, the association is extinct and a new association with relaxation is formed.

Question 38

Flooding

Answer 38

Attempts to counter condition a phobia by immediate response and full exposure to maximum level phobic stimulus. Immediate exposure is expected to cause an extreme panic response in the client. The therapist's job is to stop the client escaping the situation. A fear response takes energy so eventually the client will become exhausted and calm down in the presence of the phobic stimulus. If the client ends the treatment before this point, anxiety will decrease due to removing the stimulus and the phobia will be reinforced.

Question 39

AO3 SD Treatment Client control

Answer 39

The client controls SD, making it a more pleasurable experience as they limit their anxiety. This slower process can result in more sessions for SD compared to flooding, which means it is more time consuming and expensive.

Question 40

AO3 Flooding treatment Stressful

Answer 40

Due to its stressful nature, flooding isn't an appropiate method for older people, people with heart conditions or children. Also, the phobia is reinforced if flooding fails and the client is released before the anxiety subsides.

Question 41

AO3 Flooding and SD treatment Environment

Answer 41

The effectiveness of SD and flooding may be limited to the controlled environment of a therapist's office and may not translate to real-world experiences. For instance, a person may successfully conquer their fear of birds in the presences of a tame bird within the therapist's room, but when confronted with numerous wild birds in the outside world, their phobia may resurface.

Question 42

AO3 Flooding and SD treatment Social phobias

Answer 42

SD an flooding are more effective in treating specific phobias than social phobias, it is generally easier to construct and gradually advance an anxiety hierarchy for object-related phobias, or undergo a complete and intense exposure to snakes within a controlled setting, than to simulate social situations and interactions with unfamiliar individuals in a therapist's office.

Question 43

AO3 Flooding and SD treatment Pharmaceutical Intervention

Answer 43

Drugs such as anti-depressants, are considered effective alternative treatments for phobias. These medications effectively reduce anxiety, alleviate phobic response and are generally quicker and less expensive than sd and flooding which require multiple sessions with a qualified therapist. Nonetheless, due to the temporary nature of drug therapy and potential adverse effects, sufferers often prefer behavioural treatments.

Question 44

Cognitive approach depression

Answer 44

Depression is due to irrational thoughts, resulting from maladaptive internal mental processes.

Question 45

Beck's Negative Triad

Answer 45

Three schemas with persistent automatic negative bias The self: self-schema - feeling inadequate or unworthy The world: thinking people are hostile or threatening The future: thinking things will turn out badly This can lead to avoidance, social withdrawal and inaction.

Question 46

Beck's negative triad - Cognitive Distortions

Answer 46

negative triad develops in childhood but provides the framework for persistent bias as an adult, leading to cognitive distortions: Overgeneralisation - one negative experience results in an assumption that the same thing will always happen. Selective abstraction - mentally filtering out positive experiences and focusing on the negative.

Question 47

Ellis' ABC model

Answer 47

A: Activating event - anything that happens to someone. B: Belief - people with depression have irrational beliefs (about A) C: Consequence - irrationa.l beliefs lead to negative consequences.

Question 48

Ellis' ABC model - Mustabatory Thinking

Answer 48

The consequence of not accepting we don't live in a perfect world. The fact that we fail to achieve unrealistic goals, other people don't behave the way we want them to or an unexpected event happens and ruins are plans leads to dissapoitment.

Question 49

AO3 Beck's Negative Triad Grazioli and Terry

Answer 49

Grazioli and Terry assessed 65 women before and after giving birth and found that women with negative thinking styles were most likely to develop postpartum depression, especially mothers with infants who were identified as having a difficult temperament. This supports the idea that faulty thinking leads to depression but also that there is a diathesis stress mechanism to Beck's theory, negative thinking is a vulnerability which can be triggered by aversive life experiences like motherhood.

Question 50

AO3 Cognitive explanations for depression CBT

Answer 50

Cognitive theories that explain depression have led to highly effective successful cognitive therapies

Question 51

AO3 Cognitive explanations for depression Irrational thoughts

Answer 51

Cognitive theories depend on the assumptions that the person with depression's thoughts are irrational when it could be that depression is a reasonable response to the challenges they face, for example, poverty and racism. People without depression may have a cognitive bias; they live with a rose-tinted view of the world, selectively perceiving the world in a positive light, having overly positive self evaluations and unrealistic optimism; people with depression see the world without this positive bias.

Question 52

AO3 Cognitive explanations for depression Genetics

Answer 52

Family studies and genetic research suggest a predeposition to depression is inherited, likely genes that influence neurochemicals such as serotonin in the brain. Also the effectiveness of drug treatments like SSRIs suggest the cognitive explanation is not complete and there is a biological aspect to depression.

Question 53

Beck's CBT

Answer 53

Patient as a scientist: the patient generates and test hypotheses about the validity of irrational thoughts; when they realise their thoughts don't match reality, this will change their schemas and irrational thoughts can be discarded Thought catching: identifying irrational thoughts coming from the negative triad of schemas. Homework tasks: include keeping a diary, which is used to record negative thoughts and identify situations that cause negative thinking. Behavioural activation: partaking in activities that the sufferer used to enjoy.

Question 54

Ellis' Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT)

Answer 54

Development of the ABC model, adding D for Dispute - the therapist confronting the client's irrational beliefs empirical arguments - challenge the client to provide evidence for their irrational beliefs while logical arguments attempt to show that the beliefs don't make sense. E for Effect - reduction of irrational thoughts (restructured beliefs) leads to better consequences in the future. Shame attacking exercises: the client performs a behaviour they are afraid to do in front of others - showing they can act agianst their emotions and cope with unpleasant experience/ survive the disapproval of others

Question 55

Difference in Beck's CBT and Ellis' REBT

Answer 55

In Beck's the cleint is helped to figure out the irrationality of their thoughts themselves by acting as a scientist. In REBT, the therapist explains the irrationality directly to the patient.

Question 56

AO3 REBT and CBT present

Answer 56

REBT and CBT may be overly focused on the present and how to restructure how the client thinks about their current situation cognitively. Clients may want to discuss severe trauma in their past. It also may be that the client is in an unhealthy relationship, is experiencing unfulfilling work, discrimination etc concerns about these social problems are not irrational.

Question 57

Genetic explation for OCD

Answer 57

There is no one gene for OCD; however, it is thought a vulnerability or predisposition to OCD is inherited from parents. Genetic analysis has revealed around 230 separate candidate genes found more frequently in those with OCD; many influence the functioning of neural systems in the brain. For example the SERT gene affects reuptake in the serotonin system. Many candidate genes have been identified, suggesting OCD is polygenic - meaning a predisposition to OCD requires a range of genetic changes.

Question 58

AO3 Genetic explanations for OCD Twin studies

Answer 58

Evidence for the heritability of OCD comes from family and twin studies. As the prevalence rate of OCD in the general population is 2% the concordance ratw between someone with OCD and a random stranger is also 2% However, with OCD, the more genetically related two people are the higher the concordance rate. First degree relatives have 10% non-identical twins have 31% and monozygotic twins have 68% concordance rate. This suggests a predidposition to OCD is inherited.

Question 59

Neural explanation for OCD

Answer 59

Include biochemical causes, an imbalance of neurotransmitters and the large neural structures in the brain is made of many neurons.

Question 60

Serotonin OCD

Answer 60

Low serotonin levels are thought to cause obsessive thoughts, and the low level of serotonin is likely due it to being removed too quickly from the synapse before its been able to transmit its signal.

Question 61

AO3 OCD Biological explanations Correlational

Answer 61

The correlation in twin studies does not automatically equal causation. It may not be due to shared genetics as a there are other factors; closer family members also share similar environments, identical twins are more likely to be treated similarly in comparison to non-identicals. As the concordance rate for identical twins is 68% not 100% there must be some role for the environment.

Question 62

Biological approach to treating OCD

Answer 62

SSRIs are used to control the symptoms of OCD (antidepressants). SSRIs only influence serotonin in the brain; as reuptake inhibitors, they inhibit the reuptake of serotonin in the synapse. This decreases anxiety by normalising the activity in the worry circuit.