Psychology A Level AQA Paper Complete Set of Summary Notes
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Course
Psychopathology
Institution
AQA
This a full comprehensive set of notes, using textbook, revision booklets and the spec. These notes contain everything you need for exam. I used them and got an A*. They contain colour coding, all relevant studies and lots of evaluation
4.1.4- Psychopathology
• Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to function
adequately, statistical infrequency and deviation from ideal mental health.
The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias,
depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
The behavioural approach to explaining and treating phobias: the two-
process model, including classical and operant conditioning; systematic
desensitisation, including relaxation and use of hierarchy; flooding.
The cognitive approach to explaining and treating depression: Beck’s
negative triad and Ellis’s ABC model; cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT),
including challenging irrational thoughts.
The biological approach to explaining and treating OCD: genetic and
neural explanations; drug therapy.
,Definitions of Abnormality:
Different ideas about the causes of abnormality:
- can be inherited through genes from parents
- Neurotransmitters in the brain can influence behaviour
- originated from problems of the mind and personality
- down to incorrect learning
- Down to defective thought processes
First Definition of Abnormality - Deviation from Social Norms:
- Each society has set norms or unwritten rules for acceptable behaviour
- Many of these ‘rules’ are learnt in childhood through the socialisation process
- Behaviour that deviates from these social norms is considered ‘abnormal’
- This takes into account the desirability of behaviour
- Draws a line between what is desirable and undesirable and will label individuals
behaving undesirably as social deviants
Factors that affect deviation forms social norms:
- There are a few number of behaviours that would be considered universally abnormal
- Whether we interpret a behaviour that deviates from our social norms as ‘normal’ or
abnormal’ varies across:
- 1) culture - e.g tribal behaviour at a ritual would be normal but not in a uk shopping mall
- 2) time period - e.g. social norms changes over time - homosexuality not removed from
DSM til 1973
- 3) age - a 2 yr old having a temper tantrum is normal, but not a 30 yr old
- 4) situation - e.g. going to the toilet is normal but going in the middle of a classroom is
not
Evaluation of Deviation from Social Norms as an explanation for abnormality:
- Application Limited
- Fails to consider what is normal abnormal behaviour
- There are times when it is normal to suffer distress such as when grieving
- Needs to take a more idiographic stance when identifying abnormal behaviour
- Subjective judgement
- Someone has to judge whether someone is distressed or distressing
- Some may report they are distressed but they aren’t actually ( self-report methods
issues?)
- Highlights the importance of objective testing such as GAF and DSM
- Cultural differences
- Normal functioning as a concept varies between cultures
- Cannot be used to judge people’s behaviour from other cultures and subcultures e.g. in
new guinea there was a tradition whereby female family members would cut off a finger
as symbolism to drive away bad spirits
, - Shows that a culture relativism approach needs to applied
- Genetic interpretation:
- Abnormality is not always accompanied by dysfunction
- E.g. psychopaths can cause great harm but yet still appear normal e.g. Harold Shipman
- Assessment criteria beneficial
- Provides an assessment criteria that can be used to assess levels of abnormality
- Recognises the use of GAF and the WHODAS to identify the degrees to which
individuals are abnormal by assessing a range of factors that can contribute towards
abnormality
- Matches sufferer’s perception:
- Many people think that abnormality is due to the lack of ability to function properly
- It also recognises the personal experience of sufferers and thus allows mental disorders
to be regarded from the perception of those suffering
Ethnocentric = when you evaluate other cultures according to preconceptions originating in
the standards and customs of one's own culture
Second Definition of Abnormality - Failure to Function Adequately:
- Abnormality can be judged in terms of not being able to cope with everyday life
( failure to function adequately)
- Such people don’t experience a ‘normal’ range of emotions of participated in a
normal range of behaviours
- Functioning is considered abnormal if it causes great distress and dysfunction
- this distress can be caused to others and in the case of mental disorders the person may
not be distressed at all e.g. schizophrenics generally lack awareness that anything is
wrong but their behaviour can be very distressing to others
Functioning = going about day to day life such as eating regularly, washing clothes, going to
work, being active, communicating with others, having control of your life
Exceptions to this explanation = could be a situation where a person is not coping with
everyday life in a normal way e.g. may be content living is unwashed clothes and not having
a regular job = doesn’t cause distress to individual or others, so not appropriate to judge
Rosenman and Seligman (1989):
- Suggest that personal dysfunction has 7 features
- The more you have the more abnormal you are :
1) personal distress
- A key feature of abnormality which includes depression and anxiety disorders
2) maladaptive behaviour
- Behaviour that stops individuals from attaining life goals, both socially and occupationally
e.g. phobia of flying
3) observer discomfort
- Displaying behaviour causing discomfort to others
, 4) unpredictability
- Displaying unexpected behaviours characterised by a loss of control e.g. attempting
suicide after failing a test
5) unconventality
- Displaying unconventional behaviours
6) irrationality
- Displaying behaviour that can not be explained in a rational way
7) violation of moral standards
- Displaying behaviour that violated society’s moral standards
Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF)
- Assesses how well individuals cope with everyday life
- This scale rates the individual levels of
- 1) occupational
- 2) social
- 3) psyc functioning
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM):
- The dsm also includes an assessment of ability to function called WHODAS
- Considers 6 areas and individuals rate each item from a scale of 1-5 and given an
overall score( out of 180) = quantitative
Evaluation of failure to function adequately as an explanation for abnormality:
1) Application Limited
- Fails to consider what is normal abnormal behaviour
- There are times when it is normal to suffer distress such as when grieving
- Needs to take a more idiographic stance when identifying abnormal behaviour
2) Subjective judgement
- Someone has to judge whether someone is distressed or distressing
- Some may report they are distressed but they aren’t actually ( self-report methods
issues?)
- Highlights the importance of objective testing such as GAF and DSM
3) Cultural differences
- Normal functioning as a concept varies between cultures
- Cannot be used to judge people’s behaviour from other cultures and subcultures e.g. in
new guinea there was a tradition whereby female family members would cut off a finger
as symbolism to drive away bad spirits
- Shows that a culture relativism approach needs to applied
4) Genetic interpretation:
- Abnormality is not always accompanied by dysfunction
- E.g. psychopaths can cause great harm but yet still appear normal e.g. Harold Shipman
5) Assessment criteria beneficial
- Provides an assessment criteria that can be used to assess levels of abnormality
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