AQA A level psychology psychopathology revision/lesson notes
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Psychopathology
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AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS - Student Book
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Psychopathology:
Definitions of abnormality
- Statistical infrequency is when an individual in a population has a less common characteristic
- If a person is average they are seen to be normal. Below or above then they can be seen as abnormal
- P: One strength of statistical infrequency is its usefulness.
- E: It is used in clinical practice for diagnosis and as a way to assess severity of an individual's symptoms.
- E: Much better than assessing an individual on qualitative judgement as allows assessments to be
more consistent between people and avoids bias.
- L: This shows the value of statistical infrequency as it has real world application.
- P: One limitation is that infrequent characteristics can be positive.
- E: People that have a high IQ and those who score low to not suffer from depression seen as abnormal.
- E: This shows being above or below on a psychological spectrum doesn’t make someone abnormal.
- L: Therefore not sufficient alone for defining abnormality.
- Deviation from social norms is behaviour that is different from the accepted standards of behaviour in a
community or society - different in specific cultures and generations
- P: One strength of deviation from social norms is its usefulness.
- E: Antisocial personality disorder is the failure to conform to culturally acceptable behaviour
i.e. recklessness, aggression and violating the rights of others.
- E: These signs of the disorder are all deviations from social norms.
- L: This shows that the deviation from social norms has value in psychiatry.
- P: One limitation is this is different in various cultures and generations.
- E: The experience of hearing voices is normal in some cultures (as messages from ancestors) but would be
seen as a sign of abnormality in most parts of the UK.
- E: This can result in a person from one cultural group labelling someone from another group as abnormal
using their standards rather than the other person's standards.
- L: This means it is difficult to judge deviation from social norms across different cultures and generations.
- Failure to function adequately is when an individual is unable to cope with ordinary demands of
day-to-day living eg unable to maintain basic standard of nutrition and hygiene
- P: One strength is it represents a sensible threshold for when people need professional help.
- E: Most people have symptoms of a mental disorder to some degree at some time(1/4 of UK in a year)
- E: However, there are others who face more severe symptoms and can therefore seek professional help
or someone else who can see a person struggling can refer them to help.
- L: This criteria means that treatment and services can be targeted to those who need them most.
- P: One limitation is that non-standard lifestyle choices could be labelled as abnormal.
- E: Those who like to go rock climbing or mountain biking may appear to be be failing to function
adequately as they are placing themselves in danger.
- E: However these individuals have chosen themselves to deviate from social norms.
- L: This means that people who make unusual choices are at risk of being labelled abnormal and their
freedom of choice may be restricted.
- Deviation from ideal mental health is when someone doesn’t meet a set of criteria for good MH
- Jahoda suggested good mental health means no symptoms of distress, ability to self actualise,
cope with stress, realistic view of the world, good self esteem, independence of others and enjoy leisure
- This definition aims to define normal instead of abnormal. This way anyone deviating from it is abnormal
,- P: One strength of the ideal mental health criteria is that it is highly comprehensive.
- E: For example, his criteria distinguishes mental health from mental disorders.
- E: It covers most of the reasons why people might seek help in the first place.
- L: This means that ideal mental health provides a checklist against which we can assess ourselves and
others and discuss psychological issues with a range of professionals
- P: One limitation is that ideal mental health can differ between cultures.
- E: Collectivist cultures are more concerned with social groups so independence may not mean good MH.
- E: Some cultures may also see self actualisation as ‘self indulgent’.
- L: This means that it is difficult to apply the concept of ideal mental health from one culture to another.
Phobias
- Phobia an irrational fear of an object or situation
- Behavioural is a way in which a person acts
- Emotional is related to a person's feelings or mood
- Cognitive refers to the process of 'knowing', including thinking, reasoning, remembering, believing
- Behavioural: A way in which a person acts
- Panic: A person with a phobia may panic. This involves a range of behaviours including crying, screaming
or running away. Children may react slightly differently, for example by freezing, clinging or tantrum.
- Avoidance: The person goes through a lot of effort to prevent coming into contact with the phobic
stimulus. For example, someone with a fear of public toilets may have to limit the time they spend outside
the home in relation to how long they can last without a toilet.
- Endurance: The alternative behavioural response to avoidance is endurance. This occurs when the person
chooses to remain in the presence of the phobic stimulus. For example a person with arachnophobia
might choose to remain in a room with a spider and keep a wary eye on it rather than leaving.
- Emotional is related to a person's feelings or mood
- Phobias are examples of anxiety disorders. They make it difficult to experience positive emotion
- As well as the person can experience anxiety they can also experience fear
- Fear is more intense but experiences are a shorter period than anxiety
- Cognitive: Refers to the process of 'knowing', including thinking, reasoning, remembering, believing
- People with phobias will process the phobic stimulus differently to other people
- They will give the phobic stimulus selective attention (attention on stimulus so they can react quick)
- Irrational beliefs such as the spider might jump towards me (spider may be several feet away)
- Cognitive distortion is when the perceptions of a person with a phobia may be inaccurate and unrealistic
- This is when the belief on the phobic stimulus is exaggerated to the worst outcome
The behavioural approach: Explaining phobias
- Behavioural approach - explanation for behaviour in term of what is observable and in term of learning
- Mowrer (1960) proposed the two-process model explain phobias using behavioural approach
- Two-process model an explanation for how phobias are developed by classical conditioning (association)
and then maintained due to operant conditioning (behaviour shaped due to consequences)
- Watson and Rayner (1920) created a phobia in a baby called ‘Little Albert’ who originally had no fear
- Procedure: Little Albert was given a white rat to play with. This showed that he was not afraid of the rat.
The rat was then shown to Albert alongside a loud noise by the researcher banging on an iron bar
- Findings: When the two were presented together this causes Albert to be afraid of the rat
,- The rate starts of as a neutral stimulus because it does not produce a response
- Rat is presented along with unconditioned stimulus (noise) which produces unconditioned response fear
- The neutral stimulus is associated with this unconditioned stimulus - absence of the unconditioned
stimulus the neutral stimulus produced the same response of fear
- This means that neutral stimulus is now a conditioned stimulus producing a conditioned response of fear
- This conditioning then generalises itself to similar objects. When albert was shown a fur coat, rabbit and
Santa Claus he displayed stress to all of them
- When we avoid the phobia this allows us to be calm and avoid any stress - this is an example of negative
reinforcement - causes the phobia to be maintained
Evaluation:
- P: One strength of the two-process model is its real world application.
- E: For example, psychologists have found that people can benefit from being exposed to phobic stimuli.
- E: The phobia is the avoidance behaviour so when this avoidance is prevented the phobia can be cured.
- L: This shows the value of the two-process approach because it identifies a means of treating phobias.
- P: One limitation of the two-process model is that it does not account for the cognitive aspects of phobia.
- E: For example, individuals with phobias display the key behaviour avoidance due to their irritation beliefs
of the phobic stimulus - such as thinking that a spider is dangerous.
- E: Two-process model explains avoidance behaviour - doesn’t offer any explanation for phobic cognitions.
- L: This means that the two-process model does not completely explain the symptoms of phobias.
- P: A strength of the two-process model is evidence for a link between bad experiences and phobias.
- E: For example, Ad De Jongh et al. (2006) found that 73% of people with a fear of dental treatment had
a traumatic experience involving dentistry.
- E: This can be compared to a control group of people with low dental anxiety where only 21% had
experienced a traumatic event.
- L: This confirms that the association phobias can be developed.
- P: On the other hand, not all phobias appear due to a bad experience
- E: For example, some common phobias include snake phobias but most people who are afraid don’t have
any experience with snakes let alone traumatic experience.
- E: Also, not all frightening experiences lead to phobias. Someone who has had an bad experience with a
snake may not develop a phobia of it.
- L: This shows that the association alone can’t explain the development of phobias - limited application.
The behavioural approach: Treating phobias
- Systematic desensitisation (SD) is a behavioural therapy designed to reduce an unwanted response, such
as anxiety. SD involves drawing a hierarchy of anxiety-provoking situations related to a person's phobic
stimulus, teaching the person to relax while exposing them to their different phobic situations
- An example of classical conditioning but learning a different response - known as counterconditioning
- There are three processes involved in SD:
- Anxiety hierarchy - discuss what triggers anxiety on phobic stimulus - arrange least to most frightening
- Relaxation: By being afraid and trying to relax one emotion prevents the other (reciprocal inhibition) They
will go through exercises to get the client to relax such as imagine your on the beach or meditation
- Exposure: The treatment is successful when client can stay relaxed in situations of high anxiety hierarchy
- P: One strength of systematic desensitisation (SD) is evidence for its effectiveness.
- E: Gilroy et al. (2003) followed up 42 people who had SD for spider phobia in three 45-minute sessions.
- E: 3 and 33 months, SD group were less fearful than control group treated by relaxation without exposure.
- L: This means that SD is likely to be helpful for people with phobias.
, - P: A strength of SD is that it can be used to help people with learning disabilities.
- E: People with learning disabilities often struggle with cognitive therapies with complex rational thought.
- E: They may feel confused and distressed by alternative treatment flooding due to its traumatic nature.
- L: This means that SD is often the most appropriate treatment for people with learning disabilities who
have phobias - used on a wider range of people
- Flooding is a behavioural therapy in which a individual is exposed to an extreme form of a phobic stimulus
in order to reduce anxiety triggered by that stimulus - a small number of long therapy sessions
- Instead of counterconditioning (producing a different response) this process is extinction and focuses on
no longer producing the original conditioned response - fear
- This is because without avoidance the client learns that the stimulus is harmless
- The client is given the option between SD or flooding and gives full consent before the procedure
- P: One strength of flooding is that it is highly cost-effective.
- E: For example, flooding can work in one session.
- E: This is better as it could take up to ten sessions for SD to achieve the same result as flooding in one.
- L: This means that more people can be treated at the same cost with flooding than with SD.
- P: One limitation of flooding is that it is a highly unpleasant experience.
- E: Research has found participants and therapists rate flooding significantly more stressful than SD.
- E: This raised issues because due to the traumatic nature of flooding it led to more dropout rates than SD.
- L: This suggests, overall, therapists may avoid using this treatment.
Depression
- Depression is a mental disorder characterised by low mood and low energy levels
- Behavioural are ways in which people act.
- Emotional is related to a person's feelings or mood
- Cognitive refers to the process of 'knowing', including thinking, reasoning, remembering, believing.
Behavioural are ways in which people act.
- Activity levels: reduced levels of energy causes people to withdraw from work, education and social life
more agitated, struggling to relax or could pace up and down a room
- Disruption to sleep and eating behaviour: reduced sleep (insomnia) or an increased need for sleep
(hypersomnia) Appetite and eating may increase or decrease leading to weight gain or loss
- Aggression and self-harm: irritable, verbally/physically aggressive, cutting or suicide attempts.
- Emotional is related to a person's feelings or mood
- Lowered mood: They can feel 'worthless' and 'empty'
- Anger: frequently experience anger - directed at self or others
- Lowered self-esteem: This can be quite extreme, with some people hating themselves
- Cognitive refers to the process of 'knowing', including thinking, reasoning, remembering, believing
- Poor concentration: unable to stick with a task as they usually would, or they might find it hard to make
decisions that they would normally find straightforward.
- Dwelling on the negative: pay more attention to negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives
- Absolutist thinking most situations are not all-good or all-bad, but when a person is depressed they tend
to think in these terms
The cognitive approach: Explaining depression
- Cognitive approach is an approach which focuses on how our mental processes (thoughts, perceptions,
attention) affect behaviour
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