Clinical psych + mental health

3 reactions to phobias

• Behavioural - panic, avoidance, endurance

• Emotional - anxiety and disproportional distress

• Cognitive - selective attention, cognitive distortions, irrational belief

Criteria for depression according to the DSM5

An individual must be experiencing 5+ symptoms in a 2 week period, and at least one symptom should be depressed mood that is clinically significant or loss of interest/pleasure.

Behavioural / Emotional / Cognitive effects of depression

Change in eating habits, loss of energy / reduced pleasure, fear, devoid of feeling / memory issues, issues concentrating, negative thinking

Criteria for OCD according to the DSM5

Patients require the presence of obsessions/compulsions. They must be time consuming or cause clinically significant distress.

Behavioural / Emotional / Cognitive effects of OCD

Compulsions e.g. repetitive acts, avoidance of triggers / Anxiety, low mood, guilt, embarrassment / obsessive thoughts

5 key terms linked to to classical conditioning

Uc stimulus, Uc response, Neutral stimulus, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response

Positive/negative reinforcement

giving something good/taking away something bad

Positive/negative punishment

Taking away something good/giving something bad

The two-process model definition

Phobias are made through acquisition and then maintenance

Acquisition in the two-process model

Phobias are acquired through associative learning. We learn to associate something we do not fear (NS) with something triggers a fear response (UCS) to therefore form a phobia.

Maintenance in the two-process model

Avoidance of the phobic stimulus reduces the person’s anxiety. Individuals are likely to repeat this avoidance beh. in the future, which maintains their phobia.

Extinction

The process by which a learned beh. disappears when it is no longer reinforced or conditioned

2 advantages of the two-process model

• There is supporting evidence to back up the two process model for phobias (little Albert study)

• It has real life applications

DIsadvantage of the two process model

It doesn’t explain phobias that weren’t gained through trauma

Systematic desensitisation

using counter-conditioning to cure phobias. The patient and therapist make a fear hierarchy to rank phobic situations from least to most terrifying. Then, the patient is taught relaxation techniques and is then exposed to the phobia when in a relaxed state

Flooding

When you expose the patient to the anxiety inducing stimulus immediately. It is done repeatedly in a safe environment where they cannot negatively reinforce their phobia. Over time, extinction will occur.

How the cognitive approach explains depression

Depression is the result of faulty thinking 

The cognitive triangle

Thoughts —> feelings —> behaviour

3 groups of faulty cognitions

Cognitive biases- depressed people are more likely to focus on negative and disregard positives in situations (overgeneralisations and catastrophising), negative self-schema and the negative cognitive triad

Beck’s negative cognitive triad

Negative views about: The self — The world — The future

Ellis’ ABC model

• A - activating event - an event or situation that triggers thoughts and emotion (getting ignored by a friend)

• B - belief - the (ir)rational thoughts and emotions you have about the event (what you believe is the reason they ignored you)

• C - consequence - Rational belief = healthy emotional outcomes. Irrational belief = unhealthy outcomes like depression (Rational - they didn’t hear you, Irrational - they hate you)

Advantage of Becks explanation

Supporting evidence - Grazioli and Terry’s pregnancy study - they assessed whether cognitive vulnerability before the birth date increased the chance of postpartum depression.

Advantage of Ellis’ explanation

It gives the patient control

Disadvantage of Ellis’ explanation

Depression doesn’t always come from a triggering event