The Biological, Psychodynamic, and Behavioural approaches Flashcards
(20 cards)
What are the 5 main models used in psychopathology?
Biological, psychodynamic, social/systemic, cognitive, behavioural
What are the main characteristics of the biological approach?
Medicine and diagnosis
Mental health problems akin to physical health problems
Search for biological causes; genetic, neurotransmitters, brain development, hormones
Biological treatments
Stress diathesis model
What is the diathesis model?
Biological vulnerability interacts with particular environmental stresses which triggers disorders
Why is the biological medical model used?
Evidence found supports a genetic link to mental health
Biological treatments have been beneficial to many
How does the biological model use diagnosis on psychopathology?
Diagnosis is:
Symptom based - relies on profiles rather than underlying markers
Subjective - experiences and behaviours; we cannot easily step outside them
Rational - mental health problems inherently interpersonal - experiences and behaviours occur between people. No measurable, universal standards for what’s normal
What are some evaluative points used on the biological model?
Medical diagnoses are sometimes made without knowing the cause
Some biological conditions are extreme points on a continuum
What would it mean to find a biomedical marker of schizophrenia or depression?
Is the language of illness a helpful one?
Rates of diagnosis and prescription of psychiatric medication are on the rise in western countries - in danger of pathologising human distress? Unnecessary treatments? Removal of bereavement exclusion in DSM 5 -propagates a Western societal trend to see happiness as a right and to be intolerant of painful emotions?
What are the main characteristics of the psychodynamic approach?
Suggests that psychopathology arises from conflict
Originated by Freud and his structure of the mind;
ID - (unconscious) innate instinctual needs
Ego - (conscious) rational part of psyche
Superego - (un/conscious) integration of social norms
The approach suggests that conflicts between the id, ego, and superego create anxiety which is managed by defence mechanisms
What are examples of defence mechanisms in the psychodynamic approach?
Repression - pushing unwanted thoughts and feelings out of conscious awareness
Reaction Formation - substituting unwanted thoughts and feelings for their opposite
Projection - projecting ones own unwanted feelings or attributes onto someone else
Intellectualisation - cutting off from emotion and adopting a cerebral mind vet
What are compromise formations in psychodynamic?
A symbolic bubbling over into consciousness of unconscious conflict that has manifested - named compromise formations
What are some examples of compromise formations?
Parapraxes (slips of the tongue)
Dreams
Symptoms
What are symptoms in the psychodynamic approach?
Symptoms for Freud are similar to dreams and slips of the tongue - residues of feelings, memories or ideas that are too disturbing to be consciously acknowledged
Symptoms symbolise the hidden conflict when words can’t
What are the types of symptoms in the psychodynamic model?
Somatic (physical) symptoms - repressed emotional pain?
Obsessions/compulsions - fear of own anger/destructiveness?
Depressive guilt - subverted hostility towards a loved one?
Bingeing/self-starvation - expressions of neediness? Displaced anger?
What are main characteristics that Freud specified about in his theory of psychosexual development?
Early childhood experience is crucial in the aetiology of mental health problems
Interruption of developmental process may lead to fixation and characteristic personality patterns
Later work moved away from instincts and drives, focusing instead on interpersonal needs
Trauma or difficulty at any one stage may interrupt development
Psychopathology - fixations and or regressions to an earlier stage
What is meant by object relations in the psychodynamic approach?
Humans are fundamentally socially driven
Early relationships form the basis for internal representations of ourselves and others (“objects”)
Influence ideas and fantasies about others and how they are likely to relate to us - transference
Give rise to characteristic patterns of adult relating
What are some evaluative points that can be made about the psychodynamic model?
It revolutionised approach to understanding and treating mental health
Key ideas are generally accepted:
- childhood experiences shape adult personality and risk of mental health problems
- unconscious influences on behaviour
- use of defence mechanisms to control anxiety
Theory and tradition of psychoanalytic practice and contemporary adaptions
However:
Unscientific? Untestable? Outdated?
We have moved on from Freud although there is evidence for some
Many are clinically useful
Overly pathologising?
Models developed in a certain social and cultural context - are they generalisable?
Bridges being built between models but how do we disprove an interpretation of the unconscious
What are the assumptions of the behavioural model?
That mental health problems are learned behaviour through classical and operant condition
Focuses on elucidating (making clear) learning processes which make behaviour maladaptive
What are the approaches to treatment in the behavioural model?
Behaviour therapy
What is classical conditioning?
Learning through association - the conditioned stimuli predicts the occurrence of the unconditional stimuli e.g. Pavlov or phobias
What is operant conditioning?
Learnt behaviour because of recurring rewards/reinforcing consequences
What are some evaluative points of the behavioural model?
Can be useful to think about the function of a symptom or behaviour which may not be obvious
Psychopathology the result of normal learning processes
How easy is it to trace all difficulties to learning?
Is the language of behaviourism too simplistic to account for the complexity of mental health difficulties? Nowadays behaviourism is linked to the cognitive model
