psychopathology lessons 1-7 Flashcards
what is deviation from social norms
behaviour that does is not accepted by social rules and violation of these social rules can be classed as abnormal. these can vary in different cultures. can help identify someone with mental disorder.
evaluation of deviation from social norms
disadvantages: the definition may not indicate the person has a psychological abnormality as people might just be odd or eccentric. context must be taken into account as in some situations the behaviour may be deemed acceptable and in others it may be seen as unacceptable.
advantages: distinguishes between desirable and non desirable behaviour. can protect people from the effects of abnormal behaviour and it’s damaging consequences.
what is failure to function adequately
rosenhan and seligman
based on how much a person is unable to cope with day to day life. if a person seeks psychological help they could be classed as suffering. psychologists use the global assessment of functioning scale to assess functioning. they made 7 criteria: suffering, unpredictability and loss of control, maladaptiveness, observer discomfort, vividness and unconventionality, irrationality, violation of moral standards.
evaluation of failure to function adequately
advantage: using the GAF scale means psychologists can accurately assess the degree of abnormality for patients.
disadvantages: abnormality is not always accompanied by dysfunction as some people can appear to lead a normal life but may be abnormal. eg serial killers. the seven criteria are very subjective and to what extent do they define abnormality
what is statistical infrequency
when individuals posses less common characteristics than most the population they are statistically rare.
evaluation of statistical infrequency
advantages: some less common characteristics are positive and desirable e.g high iq. judgements are based on objective scientific and unbiased data. results can indicate if someone needs psychological help.
disadvantages: it involves labelling people as abnormal even though what they have is entirely negative like low iq which could have a further negative effect on them. there is a subjective cut off point for iq.
what is deviation from ideal mental health
humanist approach which focusses on motivation and self development. jahoda has 6 criteria that all must be fulfilled to be classed as normal; autonomy, perception of reality, personal growth, integration, environmental mastery, self attitudes.
evaluation of deviation from ideal mental health
advantages: jahodas model can be viewed as productive and positive as it highlights where people should strive to be better in. it can highlight area of dysfunction to both the patient and psychologist.
disadvantages: to what extent can the criteria be judged and at what point could we say it has been met. not very objective or scientific. very few people can achieve all criteria constantly which would make everyone abnormal.
behavioural characteristics of phobias
avoidance
endurance (freeze/faint)
disruption of functioning
panic
emotional characteristics of phobias
fear
anxiety
cognitive characteristics of phobias
irrational
insight
cognitive distortions
selective attention
classical conditioning
building up an association between two different stimuli so learning takes place.
watson and reiner:
little albert had a white rat placed in front of him (neutral stimulus) they then banged two metal rods together (unconditioned stimulus). once repeatedly pairing the stimuli together multiple times when placed alone the white rat had a conditioned response
evaluation of classical conditioning
only conducted once so lacks reliability. some people have had traumatic experiences but do not have a phobia but some people are scared of things they have not interacted with before. menzies found 98% of people who had a fear of water never experienced it badly. king found that children aquire phobias when having a bad experience
behavioural approach to treating phobias
systematic desensitisation is classical conditioning with relaxing things as the unconditioned stimulus.
process: hierarchy of fear; steps to becoming desensitised. relaxation techniques such as deep breaths and muscle relaxation. gradual exposure working their way up the hierarchy of fear.
evaluation of SD
jones used SD to eradicate little peters fear of white rabbit
klosko found 87% of patients were panic free from SD compared to 50% from medication and 33% with no treatment
SD is less traumatic than flooding
it is not always practical and takes more time and money and effort. difficult to apply to every phobia
