Psychopathology
- Created by: @jasanascu
- Created on: 22-03-17 19:40
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- Psycho- pathology
- Behaviourist approach to explaining phobias
- Classical conditioning: initiation
- UCS = UCR
- UCS + NS = UCR
- CS = CR
- Associations
- Could explain phobia of dogs if someone was bitten
- Operant conditioning: maintenance
- Rewards
- Avoidance reduces anxiety (which rewards the avoidant behaviour)
- Therefore strengthens the phobia
- Watson and Rayner
- Little Albert
- Conditioned him to fear a white rat
- Paired rat with a loud clanging noise
- Lab; artificial; ecological validity
- Unethical; distress; protection of participants
- Social learning
- Imitation
- Modelling
- Observation
- Reinforcing
- Role models
- Evaluation
- Individual differences; diathesis-stress; inherit different levels of fear; phobias occur in those with a genetic vulnerability
- Phobias don't always develop after trauma; biological preparedness; innately prepared to learn associations between things and life-threatening things; behaviourist approach can't explain all phobias
- Classical conditioning: initiation
- Behaviourist approach to treating phobias
- Systematic de- sensitisation
- RELAXATION!
- Should be relaxed before moving up de- sensitisation hiararchy
- Client and therapist make the hiararchy
- Gradually expose client to fears
- 75% effective; but techniques using the real thing are more effective than just imagination or pictures
- Fast + require less effort from patients; can help those with learning difficulties; can help a variety of people
- Flooding
- Relaxation techniques
- Patient masters the feared thing in one long session
- Body can't deal with high stress for long so eventually relaxes and then you form a new association
- Individual differences; some leave halfway through; flooding isn't effective for everyone
- Systematic de- sensitisation
- Cognitive approach to treating depression
- Challenging irrational thoughts
- Logical disputing, e.g. "Does thinking in this way make sense?"
- Empirical disputing, e.g. "What proof do you have to support your belief?"
- Pragmatic disputing, e.g. "How is this way of thinking likely to help you?"
- Homework; carry out an anxiety - provoking task to put new rational beliefs into practise to replace the irrational ones
- Behavioural activation; be active because the rewards of exercising can act as an antidote for depression
- Unconditional positive regard; not being judgemental and providing them support without expecting certain conditions to be met
- Research evidence; Ellis claimed a 90% success rate for REBT; suggested some failure was due to therapist competency
- Some may not be completely open about their feelings; individual differences
- Research evidence for behavioural activation; Babyak et al found exercising more effective at treating depression than medication alone; therefore, exercise may help relieve depression symptoms
- Challenging irrational thoughts
- Cognitive approach to explaining depression
- Beck
- Negative triad
- Self, e.g. I'm fat
- World, e.g. the world thinks I'm fat and ugly
- Future, e.g. I'm never going to be loved
- Negative schemas generally occur in childhood and develop from life events, e.g. losing a parent
- Negative triad
- Ellis
- ABC model
- A = activting event, e.g. being made redundant
- B = Belief, e.g. I wasn't good enough
- C = consequence, e.g. depression
- Negative schemas occur due to musturbatory thinking, e.g. I must do well or else I am worthless
- ABC model
- Evaluation
- Research evidence; found depressed people make more errors in tasks requiring logic; however we don't know if depression is caused by faulty thinking or whether faulty thinking is caused by depression
- Cognitive approach blames the client; good because it gives them a chance to change; however, may cause therapist to overlook situational factors
- Cognitive theory used in CBT; CBT supports theory, theory supports CBT; real life application
- Beck
- Biological approach to explaining OCD
- COMT gene
- Regulates dopamine production
- Low activity = high dopamine = OCD
- SERT gene; low activity = low serotonin = OCD
- Worry circuit! OFC alerts thalamus, thalamus alerts caudate nucleus, damaged caudate nucleus alerts OFC again
- Diathesis-stress; genetic vulnerability; some have trigger, not others, biological approach ignores environmental influences
- Research evidence from twin studies; MZ twins more likely than DZ twins to get mental illness if one twin has it; however, concordance rate is never 100%; environmental influences
- Research support for the OFC; OCR patients and relatives had reduced grey matter in the OFC; inherited anatomical structures may lead to OCD
- COMT gene
- Biological approach to treating OCD
- SSRIs, e.g. Prozac, block spaces in the pre-synaptic neuron to prevent reuptake of serotonin
- Tricyclics were one of the first anti- depressants to be developed. They're mainly used for OCD and block the reuptake of serotonin and noradrenaline
- Benzodiazepines (BZs), e.g. diazepam, are used to treat anxiety. They adjust receptors so they only accept GABA to reduce anxiety
- GABA is the body's natural form of anxiety reducer
- Research evidence; found SSRIs significantly more effective than placebos at treating OCD symptoms; however, they're not a cure and only help while taking them
- Side effects; e.g. SSRIs = headaches, Tricyclics = hallucinations and BZs can be addictive; people are safer trying a psychological treatment first e.g. CBT.
- Definitions of abnormality
- Statistical infrequency
- Normal distribution curve
- People outside of two standard deviations from the mean are considered abnormal
- E.g. some people have really high IQs and others have really low IQs
- It's sometimes appropriate; e.g. IQ tests can detect intellectual disabilities; useful applications
- Some abnormal behaviour is desirable; e.g. high IQs; doesn't distinguish between desirable and undesirable behaviour
- Cultural relativism!
- Deviation from social norms
- Behaviour that differs from social norms is classed as abnormal
- Implicit norms = social standards
- Explicit norms = laws
- Distinguishes between desirable and undesirable behaviour
- Social norms vary over time; e.g. homosexuality was illegal and classed as a mental disorder, now it is widely accepted; therefore the criteria for mental disorders change over time too
- Cultural relativism!
- Failure to function adequately
- Based on individual's ability to cope with everyday life
- They're classed as abnormal if they cannot deal with everyday life
- E.g. can't maintain acceptable hygiene or get up in the morning
- People have to make judgements; e.g. a patient may be alright with not washing hands but it may make their relatives uncomfortable; individual differences in opinions
- Cultural relativism!
- Deviation from ideal mental health
- PRAISE
- P = physical growth, i.e. reaching full potential (self actualisation)
- R = reality perception. Does the person know what's real and what's not?
- A = autonomy; should be independent
- I = integration; should fit in with society
- Deviation from these criteria mean you're classed as abnormal
- S = self-attitudes; should have high self-concept and esteem
- E = environmental mastery; should cope in environment, work and relationships
- Deviation from these criteria mean you're classed as abnormal
- This suggests most of us are abnormal; how many people need to be lacking before a person would be judged as abnormal? it's out of proportion; it's also difficult to measure her criteria
- Deviation from ideal mental health
- PRAISE
- P = physical growth, i.e. reaching full potential (self actualisation)
- R = reality perception. Does the person know what's real and what's not?
- A = autonomy; should be independent
- I = integration; should fit in with society
- Deviation from ideal mental health
- Many of these ideas are culture-bound; CULTURAL RELATIVISM; self- actualisation applies to individualist not collectivist cultures
- Statistical infrequency
- Mental disorders
- DSM: the manual of mental disorders and symptoms
- Phobias:
- Anxiety disorder
- Excessive fear/panic = emotional characteristic
- Avoidance and fight or flight response = behavioural characteristic
- Cognitive characteristics include: Irrational thinking, but patient understands it is irrational
- Depression
- Mood disorder
- Emotional characteristics include: sadness, feeling empty, worthless or hopeless
- Behavioural characteristics include: reduced or too much exercise and reduced or too much sleep
- Cognitive characteristics include: negative self-concept, pessimistic and irrational negative thoughts
- OCD
- Anxiety disorder
- Emotional characteristics include: anxiety, distress, embarrassment, shame, disgust, etc.
- Behavioural characteristics include: repetitive and/or irrational behaviours
- Cognitive characteristics include: recurrent and intrusive thoughts or impulses that are uncontrollable
- Behaviourist approach to explaining phobias
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