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A level psychology aqa psychopathology
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A-level PsychologyPAPER 1 PAPER 2 PAPER 3
a. Social influence a. Approaches a. Issues and debates
b. Memory b. Biopsychology b. Relationships
c. Attachment c. Research methods c. Schizophrenia
d. Psychopathology d. Aggression
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Psychopathology is the study of mental disorders. Mental disorders, such as social
anxiety and depression, people display abnormal moods, thoughts, and behaviours that are
long-lasting.
With mental disorders, doctors rely on the patients to describe their own condition -
self-report technique, doctors diagnose mental disorders with the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is a book that describes different
mental disorders and associated symptoms.
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE ECONOMY
Studying mental disorders is beneficial, so people can be diagnosed and treatment can be
developed.
Untreated mental disorders affect individuals at their work, making them less productive and
therefore the company makes less profit which affects the economy. Untreated mental
disorders make employees not even able to go to work - absenteeism, making companies
lose money, which is bad for the economy.
Providing effective treatments, employees will be healthy and more productive, which will
benefit the company and they will hire more people and raise wages, which is again good for
the economy.
APPROACHES TO MENTAL DISORDERS
Behavioural, Cognitive and Biological approaches understand and treat mental disorders
differently.
1) Behavioural approach to phobias
2) Cognitive approach to depression
3) Biological approach to OCD
, Defining Abnormality
Before diagnosing someone with a mental disorder, we need to define abnormality. In
psychology, there are 4 different definitions of abnormality:
1) Deviation from social norms: social norms are unwritten rules of how
members of a social group are expected to behave. According to deviation from social
norms, a person is abnormal when their behaviour doesn’t follow the social norms.
A strength of the deviation from social norms explanation of abnormality is that it helps to
minimise harm to others as it considers how behaviour affects other people. If individuals
deviate from social norms it can cause harm to others, by defining these people as abnormal
they can get treatment for their behaviour, protecting other members of society from harm.
A weakness of this definition is that social norms are not fixed, 1940s smoking was
normal indoors and outdoors, and now smoking indoors is frowned upon and even banned in
some places. As social norms change over time it creates problems if deviation from social
norms is used as an explanation of abnormality to diagnose people with mental disorders.
This means what a mental disorder changes over time, meaning the classification of mental
disorders needs to be updated all the time, which isn’t practical. If the classification of
mental disorders has to be constantly updated it raises questions on the reliability of using
social norms to define abnormality. In the 1970s homosexuality was considered abnormal by
society and was classified as a mental disorder in DSM, however nowadays it is not
considered as a mental disorder anymore. Therefore using this definition of abnormality
diagnosis are not consistent over time, meaning that it lacks reliability.
Another weakness of this definition is that social norms vary depending on the culture,
then what is considered abnormal behaviour will also vary based on culture, therefore
people from ethnic minorities might be misdiagnosed as having a mental disorder
because they are judged by different cultural norms. Researchers have shown that
black-Caribbean living in the UK are much more diagnosed with schizophrenia than
black-Caribbean living in the Caribbean.
2) Deviation from ideal mental health: one way of defining abnormality is
through deviation from ideal mental health, the more a person deviates from ideal mental
health, the more abnormal they are. Marie Jahoda came up with 6 behaviours that
indicated that a person has ideal mental health. (1) Positive self-attitude, when a person
feels positive about themselves and about their abilities. (2) Behaving independently, when
a person is able to do things by themselves without relying on other people. (3)
Self-actualisation, when a person constantly learns and improves themselves. (4)
Resistance to stress, when a person is able to cope with small hassles in everyday life. (5)
Accurate perception of reality, when a person sees the world similarly to others around
them. (6) Environmental mastery, when a person adjusts to a new situation easily.
A strength of the deviation from ideal mental health definition of abnormality is that using
Jahoda’s criteria, it enables patients who are diagnosed as abnormal to set themselves clear
goals for achieving ideal mental health.
A weakness of the deviation from ideal mental health definition of abnormality is that the
criteria for ideal mental health are overly demanding, most of us can’t fulfil all the criteria all
the time but that doesn’t mean we are abnormal or we have a mental disorder.
A second weakness of the deviation from ideal mental health definition of abnormality is
that the criteria for ideal mental are difficult to measure objectively, it’s not clear what
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