Models of Abnormality

Models of Abnormality…read more

Psychodynamic
· Mental disorder caused by psychological conflicts which originate in childhood and are unconcious
· Personality is composed of three interacting structures. When the stages of development are in conflict,
disorders arise
· Neurotic symptoms may represent compromises between these structures and reflect the stages of
development at which the conflict occured.
· Defence mechanisms serve to protect us from these conflicts.
· Id (pleasure principle, present at birth, impulsive and pleasure seeking: sexual and aggressive drives)
·Ego (reality principle, negotiates between id and superego, helps cope with reality)
· Superego (conscience and ego-ideal, governs moral judgements and feelings)
Psychosexual Stages
·Oral Stage (0 - 1) pleasure achieved through mouth
·Anal Stage (1 - 3) pleasure achieved through anal membranes
·Phallic Stage (3 - 5/6) pleasure through self manipulation of genitals
·Latency Stage (5/6 ­ 12) sexual motivations recede in importance
·Genital Stage (after puberty) pleasure through heterosexual relps
·Repression: unacceptable thoughts and impulses are pushed into the unconcious.
·Reaction formation: the opposite of an unacceptalbe impulse is expressed
·Rationalisation: socially acceptable reasons are given to unacceptable motives
·Displacement: An emotional response is redirected towards a safe object
·Projection: Unacceptable motives or impulses are transferred to others…read more

Positives of Freud
· First systematic model of abnormality that focused specifically on psychological
factors as the cause of mental disorder
· Before Freud all explanations of mental illness were in terms of physical causes or
evil spirits.
· Focused on childhood as an important thing and traumatic childhood experiences
could lead to psych disorders such as depression and anxiety
· Always important to consider the subjective feelings of the patient, to talk to them.
· Offers a more humane treatment than that offered by the medical approach…read more

Negatives of Freud
· Early years are focused on too much, lacks interest in current problems
· Theory is largely unfalsifiable
· Not based on a solid foundation of scientific research, the case studies are
unrepresentative and unreliable.
· Findings were contaminated with biases and preconceptions
· Freud focused too much on sexual factors as the cause of mental disorders
· Reductionist as he ignores bio, cog and behavioural models
· Culture specific: applies to the sexually repressed Victorian period
· Psychodynamic theory is unable to explain schizophrenia.
· Suggests people are passive victims of unconcious processes and that relief from
from their psych problems can oly be achieved with the expert input of a
psychoanalyst
· It does not work: does more harm then good. Very expensive…read more

Behavioural
· All behaviour is learned and so abnormal behaviour and disorders are also learned
· Nurture is everything and nature is ignored.
· Behaviour can be directly observed where mental processes cannot
· Through stimulus-response people learn and gradually simple behaviours combine
to produce complex behaviours
· Classical conditioning: Reflex behaviours or innate responses can be associated
with new stimuli. Pavlov and his dogs
· Operant conditioning: Positive and negative reinforcement, punishment and
neutral
· SLT: Learning through imitation. Watching and seeing the reinforcements that
others receive is enough to lead to learning. And individual does not have to be
directly reinforced themselves.…read more

Little Albert
· Watson & Rayner (1920)
· Classically conditioned an 11 month old orphan to be scared of white rats and
rabbits by pairing them with a frightening UCS such as a loud noise behind his
head.
· Little Albert then generalised the fear for white rabbits to all things white and
furry.
· Ethical issues…read more