Psychopathology

Statistical deviation - when an individual has a less common characteristic for example being less intelligent. However, this definition fails to distinguish between desirable and undesirable behaviour. Statistically speaking, a person with high IQ could be classified as ‘abnormal’ using this definition however the use of the term ‘abnormal’ in this context would not be appropriate.

Deviation from social norms - behaviour that is different from the accepted standards of behaviour in a community or society. However social norms can vary from culture to culture. This means that what is considered normal in one culture may be considered abnormal in another. This can create problems for people from one culture living within another culture

Failure to function adequately - when someone is unable to cope with ordinary demand of day to day living. However railure to keep a job may be due to the economic situation not to psychopathology

Deviation from ideal mental health - when someone doesn't meet a set of criteria for good mental health

Jahoda suggested that we are in good mental health if we meeting the following

• Have good self-esteem
• Self actualisation
• Realistic view of the world
• Resistance to stress
• Being independent

However very few people would be able to meet all the criteria and this suggests that very few people are psychologically healthy

Behavioural:

• Disruption to sleep
• Disreuption to eating behaviour
• Loss of energy
• Self harm

Emotional:

• Lowered mood
• Lowered self esteem
• Anger

Cognitive:

• Poor concentration
• Negative thoughts
• Absolutist thinking

Becks cognitive theory:

Beck proposed the negative triad which states when we are depressed we have negative views about the world, the future and themselves. The negative triad interacts with negative self schemas and faulty information processing to produce depressive thinking. Beck believed that depression prone individuals develop a negative self-schema. They possess a set of beliefs and expectations about themselves that are negative and pessimistic. In addition to schemas, the negative triad is also influenced by faulty information processing. Individuals with depression make logical errors in their thinking and tend to focus on certain negative aspects of a situation while ignoring equally relevant positive information.

Ellis's ABC model:

According to Ellis, depression results from irrational thoughts. Ellis believes that it is not the activating event (A) that causes depression (C), but rather that a person interprets these events unrealistically and therefore has an irrational belief system (B) that helps cause the consequences (C) of depressive behaviour

• P - good supporting evidence
• E - Grazioli and Terry assessed 65 pregnant women for cognitve vulnerablity and depression before and after birth. They found that those women who were judged to be high in cognitive vulnerablity were more likely to suffer post natal depression
• L - It shows that the cognitive approach is a valid explanation for depression

• P - Doesn't explain all aspects of depression
• E - Some sufferers of depression suffer hallucination and bizarre beliefs. Very occasionally depressed patients suffer cotard syndrome, the delusion that they are zombies
• L - These theories don't easily explain this

Cogntive behavioural therapy:

CBT aims to change the way a client thinks, by challenging irrational thought processes and this will lead to a change in behaviour as a responses to new thinking patterns. Cognitive therapists help clients to recognize the negative thoughts and errors in logic that cause them to be depressed. The therapist also guide clients to question and challenge their dysfunctional thoughts. The behavior part of the therapy involves setting homework for the client to do (e.g. keeping a diary of thoughts). The therapist gives the client tasks that will help them challenge their own irrational beliefs.

• P - It is effective
• E - A study by March et al compared the effects of CBT with antidepressants and a combination of the two. After 36 weeks, 81% of the CBT group, 81% of the antidepressant group and 86% of the group with both were significantly improved
• L - It shows that it is a valid and reliable way of treating depression without the side effects that drugs can cause

• P - doesn't work for everyone
• E - In some cases depression can be so severe that they can't motivate themselves to engage with the hard work of CBT
• L - CBT can't be used as the sole purpose of treating depression

Behavioural:

• Panic
• Avoidance

Emotional:

• Anxiety
• Unreasonable fear

Cognitive:

• Irrational beliefs

Mowrer proposed the two process model which states that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and continue because of operant conditioning

Classical conditioning:

Watson and Rayner demonstrated the concept of classical conditioning in a baby named 'Little Albert'. Whenever a rat was presented they made a loud noise. This noise is an unconditioned stimulus which creates an unconditioned response of fear. Before conditioning the rat is a neutral stimulus and during conditioning Little Albert associated the rat with the noise when they are presented together. The rat then becomes a conditioned stimulus and produces a conditioned response of fear, creating a phobia of rats in Albert.

Operant conditioning:

Operant conditioning takes place when a behaviour is reinforced or punished. Whenever we avoid a phobic stimulus it reduces fear. This negative reinforcement (when performing a behaviour stops something unpleasant happening) strengths the avoidance behaviour, and the phobia is maintained.

• P - The model is simplistic
• E - The model states that phobias simply aquire through conditioning
• E - Seligman suggests that humans have a biological preparedness to develop certain phobias because they were adaptive in our evolutionary past. For example, individuals that avoided snakes and high places would be more likely to survive and pass on their genes than those who did not
• L - the behavioural approach may not be a valid explanation and rather it is genes

• P - Doesn't consider phobias that aren't caused by trauma
• E - Ost and Hugdahl found that some people with phobias have never had an anxious experience with the object of their fear, and some have had no experience at all. For example, some snake phobics have never encountered a snake.
• L - the behavioural approach may not be a valid explanation

Systematic desensitisation:

This therapy aims to remove the fear response of a phobia, and substitute a relaxation response to the conditional stimulus gradually using counter conditioning. First the patient creates a anxiety hierarchy. This is a list of situations relating to the phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety arranged in order from least to most frightening. Then the patient is taught relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises. Lastly the patient works their way up the anxiety hierarchy. Treatment is successful when the patient can stay relaxed in situations high on the hierarchy

Flooding:

Flooding involves imediate exposure to the phobic stimulus. At first the person is in a state of extreme anxiety but eventually exhaustion sets in and the anxiety levels drop. They can't avoid it so they have no choice but to confront their fears and when the panic subsides and they find they have come to no harm the fear is extinguished

• P - Flooding isn't effective for all phobias
• E - Some phobias such as social phobias are more complex. A sufferer of a social phobia doesn't simply experience anxiety but thinks unpleasant thoughts about the situation
• L - The behavioural approach may not be a valid treatment and instead they may benefit from cognitive treatment

• P - It is more suitable
• E - The progressive structure of SD allows the patient to control the steps they must make until fear is overcome. This absence of traumatic elements makes this technique less likely to provoke abandonment of the therapy like it would with flooding
• L - It shows that SD is an effective treatment

Behavioural:

• Compulsions
• Avoidance

Emotional:

• Anxiety
• Depression

Cognitive:

• Obsessive thoughts