Psychopathology Notes (AQA A-Level Psychology)
This document covers all content on Psychopathology (AQA A-Level Psychology). The notes are very detailed but only include what is relevant to the course. There are abbreviations throughout that you should understand as a psychology student, but don...
,Psychopathology
The study of mental disorders in terms of their causes, development, course,
classification, and treatment
Being sane in Insane places → Rosenhan (1973)
● Pseudo-patients ‘faked’ one schizophrenia symptom to get admitted to psychiatric
hospital
● That symptom was hearing a voice saying single words e.g. thud
● All Ps were admitted (worrying in itself) but they were then instructed to act
normally
● Normal behaviour was then interpreted as ‘abnormal’ e.g. ‘writing behaviour’
● Took between 7 and 52 days to get discharged and even then with schizophrenia in
remission
Conclusion:
- Highlights the problems with identifying what is normal and abnormal
, Definitions of abnormality
Definition 1: Statistical Deviation
● 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
● Most would will be around mean - dec/incline amounts
of people away from mean
● An individual who falls outside the ‘normal distribution’
are perceived as abnormal
Example:
● IQ - intelligence
● Average IQ is 100 (most ranging from 85-115)
● Below 70 you are unusual or abnormal
● You may have a psychological disorder
Statistical infrequency (WORKSHEET)
● Standard deviation → a measure of how spread out
number are
● 68% → mean-(1xSD) to mean+1(1xSD)
● 95% → mean-(2xSD) to mean+1(2xSD)
● 99.7% → mean-(3xSD) to mean+1(3xSD)
● E.g outside this you're in the lowest 0.3% of population
Strengths:
● Appropriate for many mental illnesses where statistical criteria is available (e.g.
intellectual disability disorder)
● Objective, value free assessment of the level of mental disability experienced
● Real life application in the diagnosis of intellectual disability disorder - helps us
make cut off point in diagnosis
● 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
Limitations
● Unusual characteristics can be positive e.g IQ 130< just as unusual as 70>, wouldn’t
think super intelligence as an undesirable characteristic that needs treatment
● If something is unusual it doesn’t always mean it requires treatment to return to
normal - should never be used alone to make a diagnosis
● Someone is living a happy fulfilled life - no benefit being labelled abnormal
● Person w/ low IQ but not distressed - quite capable of working wouldn’t need a
diagnosis of intellectual disability
● Diagnosis likely to have negative effect on how others/they view them
● Fails to distinguish desirable/undesirable behaviour e.g obesity is statistically
normal but not associated with healthy or desirable
● Some behaviours regarded abnormal even if they’re quite frequent e.g left handed
● Doesn’t take into account the desirability of a characteristic
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