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Summary AQA A level psychology: Psychopathology
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AQA a-level psychology notes for the module psychopathology of paper one. Paper one notes have great depth with both AO1 and AO3. ALL TOPICS COVERED
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Psychopathology NotesContents
Defining psychological abnormality Pg 02
Phobias Pg 06
Depression Pg 10
OCD Pg 15
1
,Defining psychological abnormality
Psychopathology is the same as psychological disorders / mental illnesses and abnormality
- International Classification System for Diseases (ICD-10) 2 systems for defining and
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) classifying psychological disorders
Clinical psychologist trained to diagnose and treat mental disorders
Psychiatrist medical doctor specialized in mental disorders – can prescribe drugs
Deviation from social norms
‘Social norms’ are societies’ commonly accepted and expected standards of behavior. Can be
enforced explicitly e.g., it is breaking the law to steal, or implicitly e.g., queuing or personal space.
They provide us with a sense of ‘order’ in society.
Under this definition, behavior is abnormal if it is different to acceptable behaviour produced by other
members of that society, if it is unexpected or if it offends others.
Different cultures have different norms. They are usually age or gender based (e.g., acceptable for
young children to throw tantrums, or it is more acceptable for men to be aggressive).
Examples:
- Anti-social personality disorder: individuals lack a conscience & behave aggressively
- Homosexuality: made by societies at this time – same-sex attractions were deviant
- SZ: violate social norms, may laugh at a funeral / cry at a joke
Evaluation:
Context of the behavior
o How far individual deviates mediated by the severity of the behavior and the situation
o Most people at some time push / break social norms (context should be considered)
o Can’t be generalized to all situations, doesn’t offer accurate or complete explanation
Lack of time validity (era-dependent)
o Social norms change over time, hindsight bias
o E.g. homosexuality a mental illness until 1973, used to result in institutionalization
o Diagnoses on these grounds may have been used as a form of social control over
minority groups – excluding those who don’t conform
Cultural relativity (ethnocentric)
o Majority white population establish social norms, caution in applying this to all
o UK age of consent is 16 - Saudi Arabia extra marital sex is illegal regardless of age
o Mead’s tribes in New Guinea: Arapesh, gentle and loving / Mundugumor aggressive
o What is considered as ‘normal’ varies considerably between cultures
Sane in Insane places
o 8 sane people presented selves at psychiatric hospitals, said they had SZ
o Only true patients suspicious of pseudo patients’ identity
o Rosenhan: mental illness = labelling and controlling those who don’t ‘fit in’
o Therefore, questions validity of using this definition to define abnormality
Real world application – clinical practice
o Key characteristic of APD is failure to conform to culturally acceptable behavior
i.e., recklessness, aggression, violating rights of others and deceitfulness
o Key characteristic of SZ is failure to match cognition of others in society
Term ‘strange’ is used to characterize thinking behavior and appearance
2
, o Shows the definition is valuable in psychiatry, may lead to treatment
Failure to function adequately
Person who fails to function and cope adequately on a daily basis is abnormal. Abnormality therefore
is the failure to experience normal range of emotions and engage in normal range of behavior.
Rosenhan and Seligman (1989) suggested 7 abnormal characteristics used to identify psychological
abnormality, certain elements jointly define abnormality. Singly, they may cause no problem, but
when they co-occur they can be symptomatic of abnormality & show failure to function adequately.
Approach lets us think in degrees of normality and abnormality (not just abnormal / not)
Symptom Description
Suffering Personal suffering / distress – includes depression and anxiety
Unconventionality Unusual behavior
Maladaptive behavior Stops a person achieving goals – socially or at work (e.g. OCD)
Unpredictability Dramatic mood swings / sudden impulses
Irrational behavior Can’t be explained rationally – doesn’t make sense (e.g. paranoia)
Observer discomfort E.g., self-harming or anorexia
Violates moral standards Behavior which breaks societies expectations of morality
Evaluation:
Takes subjective personal experiences of individual
o Considers the thoughts and feelings of a person and issues they are facing
o Doesn’t make judgement based on pre-defined list of symptoms
o Useful tool for assessed
Subjective judgements needed to assess
o Leads to inaccuracies
E.g., what one may see as observer discomfort, another may not
o May not be reliable, different people will make different decisions
Categories may not always be accurate
o Maladaptive behavior may not be indicator of mental illness
E.g., it is known smoking is bad for you
Doesn’t mean smokers have psychological abnormality
o Not always able to accurately define those w mental disorders
Related to cultural ideals of how one’s life should be lived
o Likely to result in different no. of diagnoses when applied to other cultures
o It is an example of an imposed etic
o Failing to function adequately may be due to societal problems
Subcultures like immigrants may struggle to find jobs
Due to prejudice and discrimination
o Therefore, FFA not valid way of defining
Behavior’s context should be viewed
o Adequate functioning defined by social norms
o Most fail to function adequately at different points in time
E.g., after a bereavement it is hard to cope normally
Should be considered abnormal if they functioned as usual
o Definition lacks generalizability
3
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