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psycopathology
a level aqa psychology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| what are the 4 definitions abnormality? | deviation from social norms failure to function adequately statistical infrequency deviation from ideal mental health |
| deviation from social norms definition of abnormality | thinking or behaviour violates unwritten rules (social norms) about what is acceptable |
| deviation from social norms example | someone walking around practically naked however in remote Africa this would seen as normal (dependent on culture) |
| failure to function adequately definition of abnormality | being unable to cope with demands of everyday life and live independently in society |
| failure to function adequately examples | struggling to get out of bed in the morning and go to work etc. find it difficult to communicate with their family and friends |
| statistical infrequency definition of abnormality | a behaviour that statistically uncommon or not seen very often in society |
| statistical infrequency example | having an IQ of above 130 or below 70 as 95% have an IQ between this |
| deviation of ideal mental health definition of abnormality | the absence of ideal characteristics, Jahoda proposed 6 principles |
| Jahoda's 6 principles of ideal mental health | positive self view being capable of personal growth/self-actualisation independent of others (autonomous) and self regulating accurate view of reality ability to resist stress ability to master environment |
| evaluation of statistical infrequency | strength- real life application in the diagnosis of intellectual disability disorder weakness-unusual characteristics can be positive weakness-labelling someone as abnormal may not be beneficial etc. |
| Rosenhan and Seligman (1989) signs of failure to function | no longer conforms to standard interpersonal rules e.g personal space when a person experiences severe personal stress when a person's behaviour becomes irrational/dangerous to themselves or others |
| evaluation of failure to function | weakness-doesn't consider the impact of experiences on behaviour weakness-what may be seen as abnormal may be adaptive to the individual weakness- judgement on what is adequate functioning changes, subjective |
| evaluation of deviation from social norms | weakness-over time social norms and therefore what is abnormal is has changed , temporal validity? weakness-some social norms are harmful and therefore keeping to them may be abnormal to wider society weakness- context constantly changes what is normal |
| evaluation of deviation from ideal mental health | weakness-unrealistic criteria, everyone will feel stress/negativity such as grieving but this could be seen as abnormal in this definition strength- positive and holistic stance, weakness-cultural relativism, western, personal growth, self-centred etc. |
| phobias definition | an anxiety disorder which causes an irrational fear of a particular object or situation categorised into simple,social and agoraphobia |
| simple phobia | most common,fear a specific object such as spiders in arachnophobia divided into animal,injury,situational and natural phobias |
| The 4 types of simple phobias and examples | animal-arachnophobia (spiders),ophidiophobia (snakes) injury-haematophobia (blood) situational-aerophobia (flying) natural-hydrophobia (water) |
| social phobias | feelings of anxiety in social situations e.g public speaking feel like they're being judged, inadequacy and apprehension divided into performance,interaction and generalised |
| The 3 types of social phobias and examples | performance-anxiety when performing e.g eating in a restaurant interaction-mixing with others e.g an interview generalised-when others are present e.g concert |
| Agoraphobia | a fear of open/public spaces may have panic attacks/anxiety which make them feel vulnerable in open spaces can be caused by simple or social phobias |
| behavioural characteristics phobias | two characteristics- avoidance and panic e.g avoiding being near spiders, but if they face them having a high levels of stress/anxiety, sometimes they 'freeze' |
| emotional characteristics phobias | key characteristics are excessive and unreasonable fear,anxiety and panic triggered by the presence or the anticipation of a specific object/situation |
| cognitive characteristics phobias | divided into selective attention and irrational beliefs selective attention-fixated on fear irrational beliefs-e.g believing all spiders are deadly |
| depression definition | mood disorder divided into unipolar and bipolar disorder must display 5 symptoms everyday for at least 2 weeks |
| behavioural characteristics depression | loss of energy,sleep disturbance, changes in appetite |
| emotional characteristics depression | depressed mood/feelings of sadness, feelings of worthlessness,lack of interest/pleasure in all activities |
| cognitive characteristics depression | diminished ability to concentrate and a tendency on the negative |
| obsessive compulsive disorder definition | anxiety disorder, two main components-obsessions and compulsions 70% combined 20% obsessions 10% compulsions |
| obsessions | reoccurring and persistent thoughts |
| compulsions | repetitive behaviours |
| behavioural characteristics OCD | repetitive compulsions aimed to reduce anxiety e.g constantly washing hands because of a fear of germs |
| emotional characteristics OCD | anxiety caused by obsessions some also experience depression persistent/forbidden thoughts and ideas low mood and loss of pleasure |
| cognitive characteristics OCD | obsessive thoughts e.g fear of contamination, fear of safety, religious fears of retribution for being immoral,perfectionism thoughts occur over and over again cognitive strategies e.g constantly praying selective attention |
| Mowrer (1947) two process model | explaining phobias acquired through classical conditioning and associative learning maintained through operant conditioning |
| Watson and Rayner (1920) aim | to investigate whether a fear response could be learned through classical conditioning in humans |
| Watson and Rayner (1920) method | 11 month 'Little Albert' before noted no response to various objects such as a white rat struck a metal bar with a hammer behind his head, startling him every time he reached for the rat did this 3 times |
| Watson and Rayner (1920) results | whenever they showed him the white rat he began to cry also developed fear towards similar objects e.g a Santa beard |
| Watson and Rayner (1920) conclusion | a fear response could be induced through the process of classical conditioning in humans that can be generalised to other similar objects |
| an examples of operant conditioning reinforcing fear | always taking the stairs because of a fear of a lift is a constant avoidance this reduces anxiety and so negatively reinforces their behaviour |
| Evaluation of behavioural approach to explaining phobias | S-Watson and Rayner (1920) 'little Albert' S- application to therapy, systematic desensitisation and flooding W-ignores the role of cognition, may be caused by irrational thinking not just learning links to CBT W-Bounton (2007) evolutionary factors |
| systematic desensitisation | counter-conditioning to unlearn the maladaptive response to a situation or object by eliciting another response ( relaxation) 3 components-fear hierarchy,relaxation training and reciprocal inhibition |
| SD- fear hierarchy | rank the phobic situation from least to most terrifying |
| SD-relaxation training | breathing techniques,progressive muscle relaxation strategies or mental imagery techniques |
| SD-reciprocal inhibition | two emotional states cannot exist at the time relaxation should overtake fear |
| evaluation of systematic desensitisation strengths | S-McGrath et al (1990)75% of patients with phobias were successfully treated,especially in vivo S-Gilroy et al (2002)42 p's arachnophobia,3x45 minutes of therapy,examine 3 and 33 months later,less fearful than control S-more ethical than flooding |
| evaluation of systematic desensitisation weakness | W-not all effective in phobias not caused by experience, e.g evolutionary or innate basis |
| flooding | exposes the individual to the anxiety-inducing stimulus immediately e.g someone with a phobia of dogs placed in a room with a dog and asked to stroke the dog straight away intense,extended period of time,controlled manner unable to avoid/NR extinction |
| evaluation of flooding | S-as cost effective as others,Ougrin 2011 W-can be traumatic, purposely elicits anxiety, Wolpe (1969) patient hospitalised, many don't complete W- less effective for non simple phobias, may instead be cognitive W-symptom substitution,phobia replaced |
| Beck's cognitive triad (1963) | negative schema's and cognitive biases (e.g overgeneralisations and catastrophising) cause depression negative and irrational views about yourself,the future and the world |
| Ellis' ABC model | three stage model to explain how irrational thought lead to depression A-activating event B-beliefs C-consequences |
| activating event | an event occurs e.g passing a friend and saying 'hello' but they ignore you |
| beliefs | interpretation of the event, rational or irrational rational-friend is busy or didn't see you irrational-friend dislikes you and never wants to talk to you again |
| consequences | rational beliefs lead to healthy emotional outcomes (e.g I will talk to my friend later and see if they're okay) irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy emotional outcomes (e.g I will ignore my friend and delete their number as they clearly don't like me) |
| Evaluation of cognitive approach to explaining depression | S-application to theory, CBT and REBT W-doesn't explain the origin of irrational thoughts, cannot determine which causes the other etc. W-biological approach,reductionist S-Boury et al (2001) depressed p more likely to interpret negatively |
| treating depression | CBT and REBT cognitive treatments |
| CBT | cognitive and behavioural elements cognitive-identify negative/irrational thoughts,aim to replace them with positive/rational ones behavioural-test their beliefs through behavioural experiments and homework |
| 4 components of CBT | initial assessment goal setting identifying negative/irrational thoughts and challenging these (using Beck's CBT or Ellis' CBT) homework |
| Beck's CBT | identify thoughts about themselves,their world and their future work to challenge these irrational thoughts by discussing evidence for and against them encouraged to test validity and set homework to test their thoughts |
| Ellis' REBT (rational emotive behaviour therapy) | added D (dispute) and E (effective) to ABC model challenge irrational thoughts (dispute) replace their thoughts with more effective beliefs various types of dispute-logical (question logic) and empirical (evidence) |
| Evaluation of the cognitive approach to treating depression | S-March et al(2007)CBT was as effective as SSRIs,81% improvement for both alone but 86% for combination W-requires motivation W-overemphasis on the role of cognition, doesn't take into account other reasons W- Rosenzweig(1936),talking over techniques |
| biological approach to OCD | genetic and neural explanations |
| genetic explanations of OCD | focused on identifying specific candidate genes implicated Taylor (2003) suggests as many as 203 genes may be involved in the condition and perhaps different genetic variations contribute to the types two examples are COMT and SERT |
| COMT gene | associated with the regulation of dopamine variation with results in higher levels of dopamine is more common in OCD patients |
| SERT gene | linked to serotonin and affects the transportation of the neurotransmitter low levels are common in those with OCD Ozaki et al (2003) 6/7 family members had OCD |
| neural explanations of OCD | reduced serotonin Piggott et al (1990) drugs which increase the level of serotonin in the synaptic gap are effective in treating patients with OCD higher dopamine, associated with compulsive behaviours |
| neural explanations of OCD-brain structure | abnormal brain circuits in patients basal ganglia and orbitofrontal cortex |
| basal ganglia-OCD | cluster of neurons at the base of forebrain involved in coordination of movement injuries in this area are associated with OCD |
| orbitofrontal cortex | region converts sensory info into thoughts and actions PET scans show higher activity in this area in patients with OCD when exposed to fear etc. perhaps increases conversion of sensory info to actions which results in compulsions |
| evaluation of the biological approach to explaining OCD strengths | S-Lewis (1936) 37% of patients had parents who suffered and 21% had siblings who suffered, Nestadt et al (2000) 5x more likely with a 1st degree relative S-Billett et al (1998) meta-analysis of 14 twin studies, MZ 2x more likely to both than DZ twins |
| evaluation of the biological approach to explaining OCD weaknesses | W-issue understanding neural mechanisms involved, research has also identified other areas of the brain that are occasionally involved as well, no system is consistently plays a role W-credible alternative explanations e.g two process model,reductionist |
| Treating OCD | restore chemical imbalances two types of drug therapy: antidepressant drugs and anti-anxiety drugs |
| Antidepressants when treating OCD | Choy and Schneier (2008) SSRIs are the preferred treatment option for OCD improve mood and reduce anxiety SSRI prevent the serotonin from being reabsorbed into the pre-synaptic cleft |
| Anti-anxiety drugs when treating OCD | Benzodiazepines (BZs), enhance the action of the neurotransmitter GABA which tells the brain to 'slow down' and 'stop firing' 40% of brain responds to GABA reduce anxiety |
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emsteel
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