Psychology CLINICAL - A-Level Year 12 Mocks

What does ideal mental health look like? Describe Jahoda’s criteria.

• We have no symptoms or distress

• We are rational and can percieve ourselves accurately

• We self-actualise

• We can cope with stress

• We hae a realistic view of the world

• We have good self-esteem and lack guilt

• We are independent of other people

• We can successfully work, love and enjoy our leisure

This enables us to look for signs of deviation from ideal mental health.

Give an example of a condition that we consider a mental health condition because it deviates from social/cultural norms.

Antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy) causes an individual to be impulsive, aggressive, and irresponsible. In other words, these people we consider to have a mental health condition because they don’t conform to our moral standards, and this behaviour is considered undesirable in most cultures.

Define deviation from ideal mental health and deviation from social/cultural norms.

• Deviation from ideal mental health occurs when someone does not meet a set of criteria for good mental health.

• Deviation from social/cultural orms concerns behaviour that is different from the accepted standards/behaviour in a community or society.

Evaluate the ideal mental health criterion.

• One strength of the ideal mental health criterion is that it is highly comprehensive - Jahoda’s criteria covers most of the reasons why we might seek help for mental health. This means that ideal mental health provides a checklist against which we can assess ourselves/others and discuss psychological issues with proffessionals.

• One limitation of the ideal mental health criterion is that it may be culture bound - different elements may not be applicable across a range of cultures. Jahoda’s criteria is firmly located in the context of the US and Europe generally. For example, the concept of self-actualisation would probably be dismissed as self-indulgent in much of the world, and there is variation on the value placed on independence (e.g. high in Germany but lower in Italy).

Evaluate deviation from social norms

• One strength of deviation is its usefulness. Deviation from social/cultural norms is used in clinical practice, for example, diagnosing someone with antisocial personality disorder depends on failure to conform to social norms. This shows it has value in psychiatry.

• One limitation is that it allows people to impose a narrow range of acceptable behaviours on others. Research has shown people are reassured by ‘typical behaviour’ and disturbed by deviations, and can be problematic if people disregard that person’s own judgement of their well-being.

What is meant by a failure to function adequately?

• When a person ceases to be mentally healthy at the point when they can no longer cope with the demands of everyday life.

• We might decide a person is failing to function adequately when they are unable to maintain the basic standards of nutrition/hygiene, or unable to hold a job/relationships.

• Some additional signs are when a person no longer conforms to standard interpersonal rules, such as maintaining eye contact when speaking and respecting personal space.

• When a person experiences severe personal distress or when their behaviour becomes irrational/dangerous to themselves or others, they are also failing to function adequately.

Describe how mental health can be defined through statistical infrequency.

• The statistical approach is useful when we are dealing with something that can be reliably measured, e.g. IQ.

• In any human characteristic, the majority of people’s scores will cluster around the mean, and the further you go above/below the mean, the fewer people wil attain that score. This is called the normal distribution.

• For example, if only 2% of people have an IQ of below 70, they are very unusual and can be labelled as having intellectual disability disorder.

Evaluate the failure to function criterion.

• One strength is that it represents a sensible threshold for when people need professional help. Most show symptoms typicl of one or more health conditions to some degree at some point. However, many people press on in the face of fairly severe symptoms. This criterion means treatment/services can be targeted to those who need them.

• One limitation is that it is open to abuse. In practice it can be hard to say when someone is really failing to function and when they have simply chosen to deviate from social norms, e.g. people who live ‘off-grid’. This means people who make unusual choices could be misdiagnosed as having mental health conditions.

Evaluate using statistical infrequency as a method of definign mental health.

• One strength is that it is useful. It is used in clinical practice as part of formal diagnosis and as a way to assess the severity of someone’s symptoms. An example of statistical infrequency being useful in an assessment tool is the BDI that indicates severity of depression.

• A limitation is that infrequent characteristics can also be positive, for example, high IQ, or someone scoring low on the BDI as lacking good mental health. This means it cannot be the sole basis for defining mental health.

Define specific phobia.

Phobia of an object/situation. Almost anything can become a phobic stimulus, but there are five subtypes, including natural, injury, animal.

Define agoraphobia.

Marked fear/anxiety lasting more than 6 months, for using public transport, being in open/enclosed spaces, standing in a crowd, leaving the home, etc.

Describe three behavioural characteristics of phobias.

1. Panic - a person with a phobia may panic in response to the presence of the phobic stimulus. This could involve crying, running away, freezing, etc.

2. Avoidance - tend to make an effort to prevent coming into contact with the phobic stimulus and this can make life hard, or hold down a job.

3. Endurance - alternative response to avoidance, and occurs when the person chooses to remain in the presence of the phobic stimulus. For example, someone with arachnophobia might choose to remain in the room with a spider on the ceiling and keep a wary eye on it rather than leaving.

Describe emotional characteristics of phobias.

1. Anxiety - phobias are classified as anxiety disorders. By definition then they involve an emotional response of anxiety, an unpleasant state of arousal. This prevents a person from relaxing and makes it difficult to experience any positive emotion. Anxiety can be long-term.

2. Fear - the immediate and extremely unpleasant response we experience when we encounter or think about a phobic stimulus - usually more intense than anxiety but shorter-term.

Emotional response is unreasonable, and is much greater than what people usually experience and disproportionate to the threat posed.

Describe three cognitive characteristics of phobias.

1. Selective attention to the phobic stimulus. If a person can see the stimulus it is difficult to look away. This is useful to survival if the stimulus is a threat, but not if the fear is irrational.

2. Irrational beliefs - may hold unfounded thoughts in relation to the phobic stimulus that can’t be easily explained and doesn’t have any basis in reality.

3. Cognitive distortions - perceptions of a person with a phobia may be inaccurate/unrealistic. For example, seeing spiders as alien and aggressive-looking.

Describe three behavioural characteristics of depression.

1. Activity levels - typically people have reduced levels of energy, making them lethargic. This can cause people to withdraw from work/education/social life. In extreme cases it can cause people to not get out of bed, but in other cases, people can become extremely agitated and end up pacing.

2. Disruption to sleep and eating behaviour - may experience reduced sleep (insomnia) or increased need for sleep (hypersomnia), and appetite may increase/decrease leading to weight changes.

3. Aggression and self-harm - often irritable, and can become verbally/physically aggressive. This can cause people to end a relationship or quit a job. This can also lead to self-harm, often in the form of cutting or suicide attempts.

Describe three emotional characteristics of depression.

1. Lowered mood - more pronounced than daily feeling lethargic/sad. People with depression often feel worthless and empty.

2. Anger - sometimes extreme, and can be directed at themselves or others. Can also lead to aggression or self-harming behaviours.

3. Lowered self-esteem - they like themselves less than usual. Can be quite extreme, and be described as self-loathing.

Describe three cognitive characteristics of depression.

1. Poor concentration - person may find themselves unable to complete a task they normally could or struggle making straightforward decisions. Likely to interfere with work.

2. Attending to and dwelling on the negative - people are inclioned to pay more attention to negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives. May recall more bad events than good ones (#glasshalfempty)

3. Absolutist thinking - situation being all-good or all bad (black-and-white thinking).