Essay Plans
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
