Psychopathology Flashcards
(40 cards)
How do we define something as ‘abnormal’ using the method of Statistical Infrequency?
According to statistical infrequency anything that is relatively usual can be considered “normal”, and anything different is considered “abnormal”.
For example the average IQ is 100 and 68% of the population have an IQ between 85-115. Those within this range are considered to have a normal IQ. There are also people that have an IQ below 70 - but these only make up 2% of the population. They are however considered to be “abnormal”
How do we define something as ‘abnormal’ using the method of deviation from social norms?
When a person behaves in a way that is different from the way society expects, because society makes different judgements about ‘correct” behaviours in particular circumstances.
This is often related to cultural context and can change through time; as there are relatively few behaviours that are universally considered abnormal.
For example homosexuality was once considered abnormal, and still is in some cultures.
A person with anti-social behaviour disorder is also considered abnormal as they fail to conform to “lawful and culturally normative ethical behaviour”. In other words they deviate from social norms and standards.
What are the evaluation points for definitions of abnormality through deviations from social norms?
Weakness - not the sole explanation of abnormality. for examine APD shows there is a benefit but should consider other things - such as distress to others. so deviation is not the only reason.
weakness - social norms are culturally relative - creates problems for integration within cultures + no defined standards.
Weakness - could lead to human rights abuses - i.e drapetomania and nymphomania shows how diagnosis was used to control. these appear ridiculous but psychologists argue there are still cases of this.
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?
Panic - may involve behaviours such as crying, screaming or running away from the phobic stimulus.
Avoidance - considerable effort to avoid coming into contact with the phobic stimulus, can make it hard to go about everyday life - especially if the phobia is common (such as public spaces.)
What are the emotional characteristics of phobias?
Anxiety and fear - Fear is the immediate experience when a phobic encounters or thinks about the phobic stimulus. this fear then leads to anxiety
Responses are unreasonable - response is widely disproportionate to the threat posed - i.e an arachnophobic will have a strong response to a small spider.
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?
Selective attention to the phobic stimulus - The phobic finds it hard to direct attention away from the stimulus - i.e an arachnophobic will struggle to concentrate if there is a spider in the room.
Irrational beliefs - For example, social phobias will include beliefs such as “if i blush people will think I’m weak” or “I must always sound intelligent”.
What are the behavioural characteristics of depression?
Activity levels - Suffers of depression have reduced energy levels making them lethargic, in some cases this can be so extreme they cannot get out of bed.
Disruption to sleep and eating behaviour - Suffers may experience reduced sleep (insomnia) or an increased need to sleep (hypersomnia).
Appetite may increase of decrease - leading to wait gain or loss.
What are the cognitive characteristics of depression?
Poor concentration - sufferers may find themselves unable to stick with a task as they usually would, or they might find a simple decision difficult.
Absolutist thinking - ‘Black and white thinking’ when a situation is unfortunate it is seen as absolute disaster.
What are the emotional characteristics of depression?
Lowered mood - More pronounced than the daily experience of feeling lethargic or sad. Sufferers often describe themselves as ‘worthless’ or ‘empty’.
Anger - On occasion, such emotions lead to aggression or self-harming behaviour.
How are classical and operant conditioning involved in phobias?
Orval Hobart Mowrer (1960) argued that phobias are learned by classical conditioning and then maintained by operant conditioning - so two processes are involved.
How phobias acquired?
Unconditioned stimulus triggers a fear response (the unconditioned response). e.g being bitten creates anxiety
Neutral stimulus is associated with the unconditioned stimulus e.g being bitten by a dog. (Dog did not previously create anxiety.
Neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus, producing fear (which is now the conditioned response). The dog becomes the conditioned stimulus, causing a conditioned response of anxiety/fear following the bite.
How is the behavioural approach shown in little Albert?
Watson and Raynor (1920) showed how a fear of rats could be conditioned in “Little Albert”.
Whenever Albert played with a white rat, a loud noise was made close to his ear. The noise (UCS) caused a fear response (UCR).
Rat did not create fear until the bang and the rat had been paired together several times.
Albert showed a fear response (CR) every time he came into contact with the rat (now a CS).
How was Little Albert’s fear generalised to other stimuli?
Albert showed a fear response to other white, furry items - such as a fur coat and a Santa Claus mask.
How does operant conditioning maintain a phobia?
Operant conditioning is when are phobia is reinforced or punished.
Negative reinforcement - individual produces a behaviour that avoids something unpleasant.
When a phobic avoids a phobic stimulus they escape the anxiety that would have been experienced. This reduction in fear negatively reinforces the avoidance behaviour and the phobia is maintained.
What is an example of negative reinforcement?
If someone has a morbid fear of clowns (coulrophobia) they will avoid circuses and other situations where they may encounter clowns.
The relief felt from avoiding clowns negatively reinforces the phobia and ensures it is maintained rather than confronted.
What is a strength and limitation of the two process model?
Strength:
Has good explanatory power - it goes beyond Watson and Rayner’s simple classical conditioning explanation. It has important implications for therapy, if a patient is prevented from practising their avoidance behaviour then the phobic behaviour declines. The application to therapy is a strength.
Limitation:
Incomplete explanation. Even if we accept that classical and operant conditioning are involved in the development and maintenance of phobias, there are some aspects that need explaining. For example biological preparedness suggests that we easily acquire phobias of things that were a danger two us in the past, because we are innately prepared to fear them more. This is a weakness for the two-process model as it shows there’s more to the two-process model than simple conditioning.
What is Beck’s theory of explaining depression?
He suggested that it comes from some peoples faulty information processing. When depressed they tend to highlight the negatives and ignore the positives, they will also blow small problems out of proportion and think in black and white terms.
They also have negative self-schemas - meaning that they interpret all information about themselves in a negative light.
Beck also suggested that there is ‘negative triad’, the three elements of this triad are;
Negative views of the world - ‘The world is a cold hard place’
Negative view of the future - ‘There isn’t much chance that the economy will get much better’
Negative view of the self - For example thinking ‘I am a failure’, which negatively impacts on self-esteem.
What is Ellis’ ABC model?
A - activating event. Ellis suggested that depression occurs when we experience a negative event for example failing an important test or ending a relationship.
B - Beliefs. Ellis belived that negative events trigger negative irrational beliefs, for example
‘Musterbation’, the belief that we must always succeed.
‘I-can’t-stand-it-itis’ the belief that it is a disaster when things go smoothly.
‘Uptopianism’ - the belief that the world must be fair and just.
C - Consequences. When an activating event triggers irrational beliefs there are emotional and behavioural consequences. For example if you believe that you must always succeed and then fail at something, the consequence is depression.
What are two strengths of Beck’s model?
It has good supporting evidence. One study assessed 65 pregnant women for cognitive vulnerability and depression before and after birth. They found that those with high congnitve vulnerability were more likely to suffer post-natal depression. This thus gives the theory better reliabity as it can be shown to work in real life.
It also has a practical application as a therapy as it forms the basis of CBT. This is because the components that make up the negative triad can be identified and challenged in CBT - so they can test whether elements in the negative triad are true. This is a strength because it gives the theory better external validity as it can be utilised.
What is a limitation of Beck’s theory?
It does not explain all aspects of depression. Depression is complex, for example some patients are deeply distressed and beck cannot explain this extreme emotion. For example some suffer hallucinations and bizarre emotion. This reduces the internal validity of the theory as it cannot explain all aspects of depression.
What is a limitation of Ellis’ theory?
It is a partial explanation of depression. Some cases of depression do follow from activating events. This is called reactive depression and it is seen as different from depression that has no obvious cause. So Ellis’s explanation only applies to some kinds of depression - which reduces its validity.
How is Beck’s CBT used to treat depression?
With Beck the patient and the therapist work together to clarify the patients problems and identify where there are negative or irrational thoughts that will benefit from the change.
The aim of these sessions is to identify thoughts within the negative triad and challenge them with the patient taking an active role in their treatment.
The patient is also encouraged to test the reality of their beliefs - by recording when somebody was nice to them or when they enjoyed an event. This is referred to as ‘Patient as scientist’.
If the patients they say the nobody is nice to them or that it is pointless the therapist can produce this.
How is Ellis’ version of CBT used to treat depression?
Ellis’ version is known as Rational Emotive Behaviour therapy (REBT). It extends the ABC model to D+E with D for dispute and E for effect.
It encourage patients to challenge irrational beliefs. for example if a patient discussed how unfair life was this would be interpreted as utopinainsim and challenge it.
These beliefs can be challenged through disputing whether there is evidence for these beliefs or whether the negative thought can be drawn from the facts.
As individuals become depressed they increasingly avoid difficult situations and become isolated - which maintains or worsens symptoms. The goal of therapy is thus to work with individuals to decrease their avoidance + isolation and increase their engagement in activities that improve mood, exercising going out to dinner etc.
What are two strengths of CBT?
It is a effective. There is a lot of evidence two support the effectiveness of CBT. One study compared CBT, antidepressants and a combination of the two when used in adolescents. After 36 weeks both the antidepressant group and the CBT group were 81% improved - whilst 86% of the antidepressants + CBT group were improved. So CBT is just effective as medication and helpful alongside it. This increases the reliability for using it as a treatment.
However the success of CBT may be down to the patient-therapist relationship. One researcher has noted that differences in therapy are quite small - it may be the quality of the relationship between patient and therapist that matters. This has been supported by many different studies.
