psychopathology (abnormality ) you will learn about: definitions of abnormality theories of...
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PSYCHOPATHOLOGY (ABNORMALITY)
You will learn about:
Definitions of Abnormality
Theories of Abnormality
Treating Abnormality
Abnormality is…A psychological condition
or behaviour that departs from the norm or is harmful and distressing to the individual or those around them.
Behaviours that violate society’s ideas of what is an appropriate level of functioning.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
Define : Deviation from the social norms
Identify: Some of the indicators of Deviation from the social norms adequately
Identify: Two or more limitations to this definition
Definitions of Abnormality Deviation from Social Norms
Abnormal behaviour
is seen as a deviation from implicit rules about how one ‘ought’ to behave. Anything that violates these rules
is considered abnormal.
Limitations Cultural: what it Acceptable behaviour in one culture may not be acceptable in another.
Consistent through time:These ‘rules’ vary across time and across . What
was acceptable behaviour 50 years ago may not be
acceptable now,.
Limitations
Behaviour that deviates From social norms is not always considered
abnormal.
E.g. eccentric behaviour, superstitious behaviour or dressing up for charity.
LimitationsDeviations can
Become political e.g. where certain regimes use diagnosis as a means of controlling those with opposing political views
e.g. Russia
Test Your KnowledgeAnswer these questions on last weeks lesson.
Define: What is meant by social norms?Describe: The deviation from social norms
definition of abnormality?Identify: An example of behaviour which
deviates from social norms?Explain: Three limitations of this
definition?
Learning Objectives By the end of this lesson you will be able to
Define : Failure to function adequately
Identify: Some of the indicators of the failure to function adequately definition
Identify: Two or more limitations to this definition
Failure to Function Adequately
Mentally healthy people are judged as being able to operate within certain acceptable limits. If abnormal behaviour interfered with daily functioning, it may be considered abnormal.
LimitationsIt is possible that
some apparently dysfunctional behaviour is actually adaptive and functional for the individual, e.g. some anxiety disorders may lead to extra attention for the individual, and so are functional in reaching this goal.
Context – Behaviour that appears to be FFA may be normal depending on context e.g. political prisoners going on hunger strike.
Outside factors causing the behaviour – economic factors, prejudice and discrimination may prevent people from acting normally.
Coping normally – Some people namage to function normally despite being clinically diagnosed with psychological disorders.
Limitations
Learning Objectives By the end of this lesson you will be able to
Define : Deviation from mental health
Name: 4 characteristics of someone with normal mental health
Identify: Two limitations to this definition
Deviation from Ideal Mental Health
Abnormality is seen as deviating from the Ideal Person,
What is a Normal PersonJahoda – A normal person should be…
In touch with their own identity and feelings. Resistant to Stress.
Focussed on the future and self-actualisation
Autonomous individuals with an accurate idea of reality.
Empathy and understanding of others.
positive attitude towards the self,
LimitationsAccording to these
criteria, most of us are abnormal in some way.
We should instead ask how many of these need
to be lacking before a person would be
judged as abnormal.
Limitations Physical health vs
Mental Health: Why are we looking at the idea person rather than looking at the problems presented.
In Physical health we Always look at the area that is causing pain.
However, it has been argued that there are non physical reasons for mental health problems
therefore we need other methods of diagnosing it.
LimitationsCultural relativism: Jahoda’s characteristics are too westernised
Individual Cultures: Work towards individual achievements (Self actualisation)
Collective Cultures: Work towards the good of the group.
The Biological Model of Abnormality
The medical/biological model of abnormality is the most widely accepted model of mental illness, because the dominant view in psychiatry is that mental problems are illnesses to be treated much like physical illnesses.
Learning ObjectivesBy the end of this lesson you will be able to
Define : The biological model of abnormality
Identify: The four factors that may cause mental disorders
Identify: Two strengths and two weakness of the biological approach.
Janssen: Exclusively Dedicated to Mental Health
Four Possible Factors Infection: Torrey states
that schizophrenia may be linked to mothers contracting a specific strain of influenza during pregnancy. Lies dormant until hormones released during puberty.
Genetics: Research looks at twins. If one twin has schizophrenia there are high concordance rates that the other
twin develops the disorder.
Genetics determine both biochemisty and neuroanatomy
Biochemistry: Either too much or too little neurotransmitters. Schizophrenia may be the result of increased levels of dopamine.
Brain damage: It has been shown that people with schizophrenia have enlarged ventricles in the brain which indicate shrinkage of brain tissue.
Biology/genetics distinction.
Brain activity/chemistry can be inherited e.g. depression. But
genetics are not the only cause of the problem.
Everyday experiences can also affect your brain chemistry. A combination of stress and
genetics may be needed to trigger psychopathology
This is sometimes called the diathesis-Stress model.
Evaluation of the Biological Model
Strengths:No Blame Approach – Because the cause of a
person’s illness is a result of their biology they cannot be held responsible for their behaviour.
Wealth of Scientific Knowledge – Brain scanning, drug therapies and genetics tests have all been proved as effective diagnostic tools and treatments.
Treatments can be quick, inexpensive and effective e.g. antidepressants.
Evaluation of the Biological Model
Weaknesses: Diathesis- Stress – genetics do not offer a complete
explanation.
Reductionist – It assumes that complex medical conditions can be broken down into simple biological explanations.
Stigma – People will be labelled as having a ‘mental illness’ and this can affect other aspects of their lives when they become passive and give up responsibility for their illness.
Treatments – Drugs are not effective for everyone. Research into Diagnosing Abnormality by Rosenham
Learning ObjectivesBy the end of this lesson you will be able to
Outline : How drug treatment works
Explain: The process used in Electroconvulsive therapy
Identify: Two strengths of biological therapies.
Identify: Two weakness of biological therapies.
THERAPIES FOR THE BIOLOGICAL MODEL
Used for
SchizophreniaAnd bipolar depression
Animated Minds :: The Light Bulb Thing
Drug therapyDrug therapy
Electro - convulsive Treatment
Drugs for depression1990’s, a new group of antidepressants were
introduced.
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), the most famous being Prozac, They block the reuptake of serotonin from the synaptic gap into the pre-synaptic neuron.
MAOIs block an enzyme that destroys any excess serotonin in the synaptic gap
Drugs for schizophrenia Chlorpromazine acts by reducing dopamine
activity on the brain
However there is many side effect and therefor new drugs have been developed
One of these is chlozapine, This drug work on a few different neurotransmitters, including dopamine and serotonin.
Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT)
An electric shock of 70-130 volts is given to the patient’s brain,
This would help relieve depression, however, it did produce memory loss.
Psychosurgery Involves separating or destructing brain
parts,
This is not a cure, but only relieves symptoms,
Moniz, (1930), frontal lobotomy-he would separate frontal lobes-this reduced aggression and made individuals more placid.
Strengths
• Therapy- Biological therapies help relieve conditions and are cheap and easy to take. They act fast
• Support: The world health organisation state that schizophrenics do better with the drugs than a placebo drug. However not as good as a combination of drugs and CBT.
Weaknesses
• Therapy- This also raises ethical concerns. The drugs prescribed can produce an addiction. Also, the drugs may only suppress the symptoms and not cure the disorder.
• Also, the treatments like ECT are irreversible and there is issues of fully informed consent.
• Side effects: Memory loss with ECT and increased suicide thoughts with and increased anxiety; SSRI’s
The Psychodynamic model
explains abnormality as the consequence of unresolved conflicts of childhood which are unconscious, and aims to treat mental illness by making the unconscious conscious, through the use of psychoanalysis.
Learning Objectives By the end of this lesson you will be able to
Define : The psychodynamic model of abnormality
Identify: The three different components of the personality structure
Identify: The four basic principles that explain the development of abnormality.
AssumptionsMental disorder results from psychological
rather than physical causes.
Unresolved conflicts cause mental disorder.
Early experiences cause mental disorder
Unconscious motivations cause mental disorder
Personality Structure
The id: This is the reservoir of unconscious and instinctual psychic energy including libido (life instinct).It works on the pleasure principle.
The ego: This is our conscious self. It regulates interactions with our environment and works on the reality principle.
The super-ego: this is our personal moral authority. It is
formed when the child internalises societies moral andsocial norms.
The role of conflictIntra-psychic conflict between the id ego and superego can lead to anxiety. To protect ourselves we use ego defence mechanisms.
Defence mechanisms
Activity: In your worksheet look at each of the situations and state whither the defence mechanism being used is
Repression, Displacement or Denial.
Extension activity2. Think of behaviour that your or your
friends might use as a defence mechanism for each Repression, Displacement and Denial
Stages of development Oral: 0-18 months. The mouth is the focus of
attention.
Anal: 18 months – 3 yrs. Gratification focuses on the anus. This is the first time the child can exert control over their environment.
Phallic: up to age 4 or 5. Gender differences are noticed. The most important feature is the Oedipus or Elektra complex.
Latency from 4/5 until puberty. Psychosexual development is static emerging at puberty focussed on potential partners rather than self.
YouTube - Fight for kisses.flv
Evaluation of Psychodynamic model
Strengths
The concept of the unconscious is widely accepted.
He was first to suggest that adult abnormality is caused in childhood.
He invented talking therapy. You can talk through your problems.
Evaluation of Psychodynamic model
He over emphasised children’s sexuality and ignored other aspects of development.
He based his theory on case studies of neurotic adults, but wrote about children’s development.
It is impossible to test scientifically especially the concepts of unconscious, id etc.
It is a product of its time – it was developed in late 19th century Vienna.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
Outline : The Psychodynamic therapy for treating psychological disorders.
Identify: Two Strengths of the psychotherapy.
Identify: Two Weaknesses of the psychotherapy.
THERAPIES FOR THE PSYCHODYNAMIC MODEL
Looks at uncounscious thoughts and childhood developmentAnimated Minds :: My Blood is My Tears
Psychodynamic Therapy
Dream Analysis
Free Association
Transferrence
Therapist Interpretation
Strengths
First talking therapy which has been the foundation of other talking therapies including CBT as well as counselling
It accepts humans as complicated beings and treats problems that have been caused during childhood.
It tries to treat the underlying cause of the disorder rather than just the symptoms.
Weakness
It takes a long time. Often appointments are 3 times a week for over 5 years.
It is also expensive with therapies costing around £45 – £60 per session.
It is not suitable for people who are unwilling to analyse their lives
There are ethical issues due to the unpleasant memories clients will have to face
THE BEHAVIOURAL MODEL
Emphasises the role of learning through operant and classical conditioning.
Watson & Raynor (1920) classically conditioned an 11 month old child known as Little Albert to fear a white rat. The responses then generalised to all fluffy animals.Activity: in pairs consider the methodological issues of this study.
Classical ConditioningInvolves unconditioned natural responses being paired with an unconditioned stimulus (bell) until this stimulus alone produces the response.
Conditioning and abnormalityClassical conditioning has been said to
account for the development of phobias.
Seligman proposed the concept of preparedness– the idea that in our evolutionary history we became prepared to develop a fear of dangerous stimuli.
Operant conditioningSkinner (1974) demonstrated thatrats could be taughtvoluntary responses by reward and punishment of behaviour.
Different patterns of behaviour are taughtthrough use of different schedules ofreinforcement.
Social Learning TheoryThis is an extension of
skinner’s work and suggests that we learn through observing another’s behaviour and it’s consequences. We imitate behaviour that we see rewarded – vicarious reinforcement.
EVALUATION OF THE BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH
Man's balloon phobia deflated live on radio (18 April 2007)
A Hertfordshire company helped cure a man live on radio of his 33-year phobia of balloons.
Paul Reason, from Welwyn Garden City, suffered from balloon fear since the age of six when his mother burst one of the party pieces in front of his face.
Mr Reason’s fear was so blown up out of all proportion that on one occasion he fainted when hundreds of balloons were released onto a dance floor at a party he was attending.
Mr Reason’s children, Sophie and Joshua, who are now allowed to celebrate birthdays and Christmas with balloons.
“The change is remarkable,” said Mr Key. “He had been on Valium for five years and he was crying in the car park before the show because he didn’t know what we were going to do.”
answer these three questions
1.Can the behavioural approach explain this phobia?
2. Does everyone who has a phobia have an incidence in their past that they can pin point as the cause?
3.Can fear of balloons be related to evolutionary adaptiveness to help survival? Why
Evaluation of the Behavioural approach
Treatments can be effective. Especially when treating phobia
There is a lot of experimental evidence supporting the behavioural model
However a lot of it has been conducted on animals or is unethical
Treats the symptoms and not the cause, underlying fear is often transferred to another object aftertreatment of the original phobia
StrengthsIt lends itself to scientific examination. If we
place a person in a situation then give them a reward we can see if their behaviour changes over time
It has been very successful in treating phobia
Support for the studies comes from the experimenton little Albert by John Watson.
Criticisms of the Behavioural approach
Reductionism – It explains behaviour in simple forms ignoring cognitive (perception and intelligence) and emotional contributions.
It ignores the role of genetics. In that phobia’s might be the result of too much dopamine
It is deterministic – suggesting thatall behaviour is pre-programmed through learning and there is no choice in how we act. We all however have free will.
Limitation
Reductionist: Very limited view, as it thinks we are all blank sheets with no personality or individual thought processes
Studies done on Animals: Not generalisable to humans The study that was done on little Albert was very unethical
Treats the symptoms and not the cause: Fear is often displaced onto other phobias
Learning ObjectivesBy the end of this lesson you will be able to
Define :
Identify:
Identify:
THERAPIES FOR THE BEHAVIOURAL MODEL
Systematic Desensitisation
Used forPhobiasAnimated Minds :: Fish on a Hook
What is a phobia?
An exaggerated fear of an
object or situationAccording to the
learningapproach it is a learnedresponse to a stimulus
An example in everyday life...
How Ivan became
phobic of walking in the
forest
How does SD work?
It is a step by step approach
The client learns relaxations techniques
The client works out a hierarchy of fear from the least
frightening to the most frightening
Fur
Dog
The client works through the hierarchy learning to use relaxation techniques in the presence of the feared object
THE COGNITIVE MODEL OF ABNORMALITY
Ellis and Beck
Assumptions
All behaviour is influenced by schemata; facts or beliefs held about situations, but mostly about ourselves e.g. “Iam a nice
person”.
Unhappy or traumatic experiences in childhood create negative schemata.
Negative schemata lead to negative automatic thoughts which are misplaced or false beliefs about ourselves.
Beck’s model of depressionNegative view about self, world and future
A negative cognitive Triad.
Attributional style
Behaviour is seen as internal or external in cause
‘ It’s my fault’.Or
It’s your fault
Behaviour is seen as specific or global ‘It’s only happening here and now’
Behaviour is stable or unstable ‘I must always act this way, it is appropriate’.
Ellis’ ABCActivating events: Seeing a large dogBeliefs about those events: Dogs biteConsequences: feelings and actions: Panic
Individual is in control
Free will: In contrast to the other models where something outside the individual is responsible for the abnormality
Cognitive psychologist believe it is the individual control over their own negative thinking.
People must change the way they think
Evaluation of the cognitive model
There is clear research evidence for cognitive bias and dysfunctional thinking.
Cognitive therapy is very effective.
It ignores biological and genetic factors.
The problem e.g. depression may cause the faulty thinking rather than the other way around.
Criticism for the cognitive model
Sometimes negative thoughts are an accurate view of the world. This is called depressive realism.
Learning ObjectivesBy the end of this lesson you will be able to
Outline : Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Identify: Two strengths of CBT
Identify: Two weaknesses of CBT
THERAPIES FOR THE COGNITIVE MODEL
Can be used forObsessive compulsive disorderAnimated Minds :: Over and Over (and Over) Again
CBT
Therapy is normally once a week for a period of between 6 weeks to months.
Therapist and client work together to evaluate the usefulness of thought patterns and resulting behaviour.
Therapist helps client find a more positive way of looking at life and encourages them to enjoy life by doing more things they like.
Rational Emotive Therapy
Albert Ellis: We need to challenge our irrational belief in order to change our behaviour
Logical disputing: Look at your thought patterns and see if they make sense
Empirical disputing: Try and find prove to support your irrational thoughts
Pragmatic disputing: Look at how these beliefs do not have any usefulness in our lives.
Strengths
REBT is a successful treatment: Engels et al found in a meta analysis study the REBT was very good for Obsessive-compulsive disorders and social phobia
Reliability: It can be used by all sorts of people, both normal and people with psychological disorders.
It has been successful with all age group and genders, older people and children find this therapy useful
Weakness
It does not always look at the cause of the irrational thoughts.
Reality: There are many things in a persons life which are negative and thinking of them as positive would not meet with the reality of the situation.
It takes a lot of effort to change your belief system and sometime people find it to difficult.