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Detailed essay plans covering all topics in Psychopathology (AQA A-Level Psychology)
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  • Course
  • Psychopathology
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  • AQA
  • Book
  • Psychology A Level Year 1 and AS: The Complete Companion Student Book for AQA

This document covers every possible essay that may come up for Psychopathology (AQA A-Level Psychology). They are simplified and easy to learn yet still have lots of detail to ensure you achieve the highest grade possible. There are abbreviations throughout that you should understand as a psycholog...

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Document information

  • August 21, 2023
  • 9
  • 2023/2024
  • Essay
  • Unknown
  • A+

Subjects

  • psychopathology
  • ocd
  • depression
  • phobias
  • classification
  • diagnosis
  • abnormality

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Psychopathology
Paper 1 - Section D

,Definitions of abnormality

Outline and evaluate failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental
health as definitions of abnormality. Refer to Rob in your answer (16)

Para 1 → Outline: failure to function adequately (AO1) + application to Rob (AO2)
● Abnormality judged as inability to deal with the demands of everyday living
● Behaviour is maladaptive, irrational or dangerous (Rosenhan + Seligman)
● Behaviour causes personal distress and distress to others
● Rob is not coping with everyday tasks - can’t complete hw, he’s untidy
● Rob is causing others’ distress - his parents / teachers
● Rob's personal distress - feelings of anxiety, he is frightened

Para 2 → Weakness: cultural relativism (AO3)
● Definitions of adequate functioning are related to cultural ideas on how to live
● ‘failure to function’ criteria - different diagnosis to people of different cultures
● If the standard of a culture is being used to measure abnormality, another whose
culture differs are more often diagnosed with mental disorders

Para 3 → Weakness: adaptive or maladaptive (AO3)
● What may be considered abnormal may be functional for an individual
● Some make a living out of something considered dysfunctional e.g transvestism
● Abnormal behaviour may be helpful/functional for the individual e.g OCD - washing
hands makes them feel better
● Skip a class = attention from their peers - rewarding, thus functional behaviour
● Even if behaviour is abnormal the person could still be functional e.g murderers

Para 4 → Outline: deviation from ideal mental health (AO1) + application to Rob (AO2)
● Any behaviour that deviates from what is identified as ‘normal’
● Jahoda’s criteria (SPARSE) -high Self-esteem / sense of identity, accurate
Perception of reality, Autonomy, Resistance to stress, Self-Actualisation,
Environmental mastery
● The more criteria someone fails to meet, the more abnormal they are
● Rob perception of reality is not accurate - hearing voices
● Voices prevent Rob from achieving self-actualisation (affect uni chances)

Para 5 → Strengths: positive approach (AO3)
● Positive, holistic approach to diagnosis (what is / not desirable)
● Comprehensive - provides checklist, we can check ourselves and get help if needed,
helps someone understand how to improve their mental health

Para 6 → Weakness: problems with criteria (AO3)
● Criteria are too demanding / unrealistic
● Not everyone archives them - are we all abnormal?
● Cultural bias - criteria is based on western ideas so may not apply to others, e.g
more collectivist compared to individualist (still not abnormal)

,Outline and evaluate two definitions of abnormality (8)

Para 1 → Outline: statistical deviation (AO1)
● Characteristic / behaviour is ‘abnormal’ if it is rare / statistically unusual
● Statistical norms → any commonly seen behaviour / characteristic
● Deviation → any unusual behaviour or characteristic, e.g. fear of buttons
● What’s regarded as statistically rare depends on normal distribution
● An individual who falls outside the ‘normal distribution’ are perceived as abnormal
● E.g IQ - average is around 100 / you would be abnormal

Para 2 → Strengths: appropriate (AO3)
● Appropriate for many mental illnesses where statistical criteria is available
● Helps us make cut off point in diagnosis (show normal/abnormal behaviours)
● Objective, value free assessment of the level of mental disability experienced
● Statistical deviation helps show normal/abnormal behaviours and characteristics
● All assessments of mental disorders include measurement of how severe their
symptoms are as compared to statistical norms

Para 3 → Weakness: abnormal behaviour can be positive (AO3)
● Unusual characteristics can be positive e.g IQ 130<
● Unusual doesn’t always mean it requires treatment to return to normal
● Someone living a happy fulfilled life - no benefit being labelled abnormal e.g low IQ
● Diagnosis likely to have negative effect on how others/they view them
● Fails to distinguish un/desirable behaviour e.g obesity is statistically normal
● Some behaviours regarded abnormal even if they’re quite frequent e.g left handed

Para 4 → Outline: deviation from social norms (AO1)
● Concerns behaviour that is different from what is accepted in society
● Society sets norms for what is/not acceptable behaviour
● Behaviour which violates norms / wouldn’t normally occur are classed abnormal
● Social norms → ways most behave, established by social groups e.g wearing clothes
● Deviation → a behaviour different from how most people behave, e.g. hearing voices

Para 5 → Weakness: culture (AO3)
● Abnormality’s culturally relative - different cultures have different social norms
● Cultural relativism → social norms are culturally dependent, what is the ‘norm’ in
one society is not in another
● E.g Sexuality, religion, school, hearing voices, wearing skirts, polygamy, monogamy

Para 6 → Weakness: situational norms / context(AO3)
● Behaviour that’s abnormal/unacceptable in some context is acceptable in others
● E.g dressing up for charity events, wearing next to nothing on a beach…

[can use points from previous page / choose what to use according to marks]

, Behavioural approach: phobias

Describe and evaluate the behavioural approach to explaining phobias (16)
Describe and evaluate the two-process model as an explanation of phobias (8)
Discuss the two-process model of phobias. Refer to Max’s (16)

Para 1 → Outline: the two process model: learning (CC) / maintaining (OC) (AO1) + (AO2)
● Phobia is an irrational fear of an object / situation
● Hobert Mowrer proposed the two process model:
● Phobias are acquired / learned through association - classical conditioning
● Max: swept away by the tied (UCS) associated with sea (was NS now CS)
● Max: now max is has a fear of the sea
● Phobias are maintained through reinforcement (avoidance)- operant conditioning
● Max: refuses to go on beach holiday - avoids the sea (his phobia)
● Max: his phobia will most likely become stronger

Para 2 → Strengths: application (AO3)
● 2 process model can be used in behavioural therapies to treat phobias
● Systematic desensitisation shows possible to decondition phobias
● Gradually reduce phobic anxiety through CC / new response is learned
● Treatment is effective: suggests behavioural explanation it’s based on is valid

Para 3 → Weakness: doesn’t account for biological factors (AO3)
● Evolutionary factors may have an role in phobias, 2 processes don’t mention this
● May acquire phobias dangerous in our evolutionary past - snakes/dark (adaptive)
● Seligman called this biological preparedness - innate predisposition to acquire fears
● Rare to have fear of cars/gun (more dangerous but new) than fear of spiders
● Problem - shows there’s more to acquiring phobias than simple conditioning

Para 4 → Weakness: social learning (AO3)
● Child may see a parent be fearful of something, avoid it and so reduce their anxiety
● As parents are good models, a child may imitate behaviour
● Reinforced for avoidance, own / vicariously from seeing parent's anxiety reduced
● Reductionist as only focuses on the behaviour NOT cognition and/or affect

Para 5 → Weakness: not applicable to all / individual differences (AO3)
● Individual differences - not everybody who experiences a trauma has a phobia
● Some fears develop gradually - can’t be traced to specific conditioning incident
● Some have phobia, but never been in contact with phobia - how can it be learnt?!

Para 6 → Weakness: ignores cognitive factors (AO3)
● Cognitive aspects to phobias that can’t be explained by behaviourist theory
● Alternate explanations is the cognitive approach - phobias may be the
consequence of irrational thinking
● E.g in a lift: ‘i could become trapped and suffocate’ such thoughts create anxiety
and may trigger a phobia
● These cognitive explanations leads to cognitive therapies (CBT)
● This therapy may in some case may be more successful than behaviourist
treatments

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