Psychopathology- Paper 1

Definitions of abnormality

1. Statistical Infrequency

2. Deviation from Ideal Mental Health

3. Deviation from Social norms

4. Failure to Function Adequately

Statistical Infrequency

• This is deviating from the statistical norm or average

• Many individual human characteristics can be measured and be plotted on a normal distribution 

• These behaviours at either end of the distribution (2SD above and below the mean) can be considered abnormal 

• Examples: IQ, Mood, Height, Weight- all of these can be lower or higher than the ‘average’ range 

AO3 EVALUATION: Statistical Infrequency

• Does not recognise many known disorders - e.g. Schizophrenia - where behaviours and symptoms are noticeable, but not measurable.

• The ‘cut off’ point is subjective – sometimes symptoms of disorders (e.g. depression) are difficult to measure and assign a ‘statistical’ cut off point to show where help is needed. (e.g. sleeplessness, low mood)

• Cultural Relativism- this relates to characteristics of behaviour that are specific to each culture. Defining abnormal characteristics and generalising across cultures can cause an ethnocentric bias (by imposing an etic). This could misrepresent other cultures. This is a weakness of all other definitions. Defining abnormality would be best left culturally relative e.g. statistics, social norms, daily living activities, mental health characteristics 

Deviation from Social Norms

• Society sets norms and values (both written and unwritten)

• Any behaviour that deviates from these norms is considered abnormal

• For example Cannibalism or Nudity

AO3 EVALUATION: Deviation from Social Norms

• Usefulness - The definition can be used in clinical practice e.g. to define characteristics of antisocial personality disorder (e.g. failing to conform to culturally normal ethical behaviour e.g. recklessness, deceitfulness), depression, anxiety, eating disorders, OCD, schizotypal personality disorders, tourettes, etc.

• Deviance is related to context – e.g wearing a bikini on the beach vs in the classroom

• Cultural Relativism

Failure to Function Adequately

• Unable to live a ‘normal’ day-to-day life.

• Do not possess a ‘normal’ range of physical abilities, emotions or behaviours.

• Behaviours which disrupt a person’s ability to work & form/maintain relationships.

• For example- Disabilities, mood disorders, OCD/ADHD/phobias/eating disorders, etc.

Rosenhan and Seligman’s Checklist of Dysfunction:

1. Personal distress

2. Maladaptive behaviour (stops you achieving goals)

3. Unpredictable behaviour (doesn’t suit circumstances)

4. Irrational behaviour (unexplainable)

5. Cause observer discomfort

6. Deviation from social norms and values.

The more of these a person has, the more abnormal the person is viewed as 

AO3 EVALUATION: Failure to Function Adequately

• Abnormality isn’t always accompanied by dysfunction- Psychopaths can lead seemingly ‘functional’ lives (family, friends, jobs, outward behaviours) e.g. Harold Shipman / Fred & Rose West

•  Functional dysfunction- e.g. attention seeking behaviours that gain (wanted) attention

• Cultural Relativism

Deviation from Ideal Mental Health

• Jahoda defines ‘normal’ mental health characteristics.

• Abnormality is seen as anything which deviates from these characteristics.

• For example- Depression, hallucinations, anxiety 

Jahoda’s Checklist of Ideal Mental Health: 

1. No symptoms of distress

2. Rational and accurate perception of the self

3. Can self actualise

4. Can cope with stress

5. Realistic view of the world

6. Good self-esteem

7. Independent of other people

8. Can successfully work, love and enjoy leisure

The more of these you have, the more ‘normal’ you are considered 

AO3 EVALUATION: Deviation from Ideal Mental Health

• Over-demanding (unrealistic) criteria – most people can’t meet the demands of Jahoda’s checklist (therefore if you can, are you abnormal?). Plus it’s Jahoda’s subjective criteria

• Changes over time (temporal validity) – Homosexuality 50 years ago was a mental illness. 

• Cultural Relativism

Phobias

• All phobias are characterised by excessive/overwhelming fear and anxiety, triggered by an object, place or situation. The extent of the fear is out of proportion to any real danger presented by the phobic stimulus 

• Phobias are more pronounced than fears. They develop when a person has an exaggerated or unrealistic sense of danger about a situation or object (disproportionate to the actual danger)

• If a phobia becomes very severe, a person will organise their life around avoiding the thing that's causing them anxiety. 

• As well as disrupting their day-to-day life, it will also cause them considerable anguish.

Categories of Phobias

The DSM-5 categories phobias into:

• Specific phobia= irrational fear of an object e.g. animal, body part or situation 

• Social anxiety= irrational fear of a social situation such as public speaking 

• Agoraphobia= irrational fear of being outside 

Behavioural characteristics of phobias

• Panic- examples are fight, flight, freeze and faint 

• Avoidance- the avoidance must interfere with the person’s life significantly to be considered clinically diagnosable. For example, relationships or work must be affected. 

Emotional Characteristics of Phobias

• Anxiety- the anxiety felt is extreme and unreasonable in relation to the situation. It is also persistent and coupled with feelings of panic and fear. 

• Fear- must be extreme and excessive. Most of the time, people recognise that the fear that makes up their phobia is excessive (i.e. is not delusional)

Cognitive characteristics of Phobias

• Irrational beliefs- resistance to rational arguments. For example, a person with arachnophobia may still feel that all spiders are dangerous and harmful, despite being aware that no spiders in the UK are actually deadly. 

• Selective attention- If a person with a phobia is presented with an object or situation they fear, they will find it difficult to direct their attention elsewhere. Therefore, a person’s selective attention will cause them to become fixated on the object they fear, because of their irrational beliefs about the danger posed.

The behavioural approach to explaining phobias

The two process model:

Mowrer (1990) proposed that phobias are learned/initiated and then maintained by two different processes. They are learned/initiated via classical condition and then maintained through operant conditioning 

Classical conditioning in phobias

• Learning through association

Key words:

• Neutral stimulus- no response (neutral to the participant/test subject)

• Unconditioned stimulus- stimulus that causes an innate/reflex response 

• Unconditioned response- the innate response to the UCS

• Conditioned stimulus- a neutral stimulus that becomes associated to a specific response over time 

• Conditioned response- a behaviour that is learned by an individual pairing a neutral stimulus with a potent stimulus 

Example from research:

• Watson & Rayner (1920) classically conditioned a fear response to a rat in Little Albert

• If a negative stimulus is associated with an object enough, then a fear of the object will eventually develop.  This association becomes semi-permanent and will cause a phobia of the object.

How can classical conditioning explain phobias?

This theory can be used to explain the acquisition of a phobia (of any NS) if the UCS is something unpleasant that triggers a fear response. This is why it is irrational to fear the NS, as it started out as a neutral stimulus. 

For example:

A fear of spiders. The spider starts out as the NS. The UCS is discomfort from a parent to the spider e.g. screaming or running away. The UCR is fear/discomfort. The CS then becomes the spider and this is paired with the CR of fear and discomfort. 

What is stimulus generalisation in relation to phobias?

generalising a fear onto other similar objects/associations. Therefore, the conditioned response is paired with more than one stimuli

What is Extinction in relation to phobias?

If an object is now a phobic stimulus caused by a negative association through classical conditioning. It will remain so for some time, but this association is not permanent. Over time, with repeated exposure to the phobic stimulus, without the negative UCS present, this association will deteriorate and eventually become extinct. 

Operant conditioning in phobias

• Operant conditioning relates to learning a certain behaviour through reinforcement and punishment (consequences)

• The maintenance of a phobia is done through the process of negative reinforcement 

Key words:

• If a behaviour is rewarded (reinforced) then it will continue or increase.

• If a behaviour is punished, then it will decrease or stop.

• Positive reinforcement = eliciting a positive state. (e.g.  gain money, gain praise, gain food). Leads to maintenance or increase of behaviour.

• Negative reinforcement = removing an unwanted negative state. (e.g. removal of being  ignored, removal of fear).  Leads to maintenance or increase of behaviour.

How does Operant conditioning prevent the extinction of a phobia?

The likelihood of a behaviour being repeated is increased if the outcome is rewarding. In the case of phobias, avoidance of the feared stimulus is rewarding (reduces fear) and therefore reinforces the behaviour. This is an example of negative reinforcement. An individual learns that avoiding their feared object completely is rewarding, so continues to do so, and therefore they would prevent extinction of the fear – so maintain the phobia long term.

AO3 EVALUATION: Behavioural approach to explaining phobias (two process model)

• Strengths- The Behavioural model allows clear predictions to be made that can be measured scientifically (mostly laboratory evidence). It is therefore a scientific, falsifiable model which adds credibility to the theory. There is also supporting evidence from the Little Albert study which adds validity to the theory 

• Weaknesses- It cannot explain how all phobias occur. Not all phobias appear following bad experiences. For example phobias of snakes appear in populations where very few people have any experiences of snakes. Also not all frightening experiences lead to phobia Therefore it is limited in usefulness as it cannot explain all phobias.  

• Reductionism- The behaviourist model is reductionist, seeing behaviour as purely a result of conditioning, reducing the explanation to simple terms. Phobia cases could be more complex than this and involve biological (heritability), psychodynamic (trauma) or cognitive (irrational beliefs) elements. An interaction with a more holistic view (involving more of these explanations) may be a more valid explanation of phobia acquisition.