PSYC380 Chapter 3 - Models of Psychopathology

Biological model

Believes that psychological abnormalites stem from malfunctioning biological functions

Genetic predispositions, imbalances in brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) or structural and functional differences in the brain and nervous system

Biological model case example

Patient H.M underwent brain surgery which resulted in memory loss, which helped scientist understand the role of the hippocampus in memory formation

Biological model treatments

Medication, Brain stimulation (electroconvlusion therapy), Psychosurgery (lobotomy, cutting corpus callosum in severe cases of epilepsy)

Strengths of biological model

New information is constantly becoming available

Treatments are very effective

Weaknesses in biological model

The research is not fully there and it does not explain everything

Side effects

Does not account for social or enviornmental factors

Psychodynamic model

Freud explained abnormal functioning by emphasizing the role of unconscious mental processes, childhood experiences and interpersonal relationships

Parts of the unconscious: Superego, ego, ID

These parts are constantly in conflict with each other, a bit of conflict is good, but an abnormal or excessive amount of conflict is what causes psychopathology

ID

Innate, unconscious desires and impulses seeking immediate gratification

Pleasure seeking impulses, self-serving

Ego

The rational, conscious part of the psyche that mediates between the id’s and superegos desires

Superego

The ethical component of personality, morals, standard of perfection that ignites guilt or shame when not achieved

Proposed developmental stages

New events and pressures at each stage, as you grow so do your Id, ego and superego

If successful → personal growth

If unsuccessful → fixation → psychopathology

Psychodynamic treatments

First to use a form of therapy

Goals: Uncover past traumas and resolve inner conflicts

Techniques: Subtly guide discussion, so patients discover underlying problems for themselves

Therapist interpretation (psychodynamic therapy)

Looks for

Resistance: Resistance to therapy

Transference: Redirecting experiences onto clinician

Dreams: Ideas, thoughts and images out of session

Catharsis (Psychodynamic therapy)

Reliving suppressed emotions from experiences

Needs to happen multiple times, not just once (this is called working through)

Strengths of psychodynamic model

Provided a new piece: first to look outside the biological perspective

Provides deep insight into unconscious processes

Highlights the lasting impact of childhood experiences on adult personality and relationships

Weaknesses of the psychodynamic model

Extremely difficult to research (cannot measure id, ego, superego)

cannot manipulate these variables

Cognitive-Behavioral model

Proposes that our thoughts, feelings, and behavior are all interconnected and influence each other. There are two dimensions, cognitive and behavioral.

THEY ALL INTERSECT WITH EACH OTHER

Behavioral dimension (Cognitive-behavioral model)

Disorder is learned through different experiences, we have

ex. going to a cliff and getting scared and from that point on being scared of heights

Classical conditioning (behavioral dimension)

Learning through association

Operant conditioning (behavioral dimension)

Consequences or rewards are associated with certain behaviors

Rewards introduced to increase behavior

Punishment introduced to decrease behavior

Modeling (behavioral dimension)

When someone sees a behavior, they might try to model it

ex. mom is afraid of dogs, children see that mom is scared of dogs, therefore they are also afraid

hitting the clown experiment

Treatments in the behavioral dimension

Relief is gained through changing learned associations (classical) or the consequences of a behavior (operant) or with corrective modeling

Systematic desensitization: Slowly desensitize person to what they are afraid of (child afraid of water, start with getting in small amounts of water and build from there)

Virtual reality

Exposure therapy

Cognitive dimension (Cognitive-behavioral model)

How thoughts influence your emotions and cause abnormal functioning

ex. you walk past your friend, and they do not say hi back to you, now you overthink and feel like no one likes you, and you start to feel sad. Even though it is very possible that your friend just did not see you.

Goal: Change people’s thoughts about those events to be more realistic

Cognitive dimension treatment

Gentle questioning of irrational thinking, training clients to recognize distorted/illogical/maladaptive self talk

Magnification (cognitive dimension)

Blowing things out of proportion (catastrophizing)

ex. thinking if you go near a snake, you are going to die

Minimization (cognitive dimension)

Inappropriately shrinking something to make it seem less important

ex. I get an A on a test, but I still believe I am not good at the subject, minimizing my accomplishment

Cognitive-behavioral model strengths

Can be researched: Basic concepts that can be measured and manipulated

Broad appeal: Makes sense to a lot of people, easy for patients to understand

Efficacious: Effective for a lot of people

Powerful force: Most popular model, 46% of clinicians use

Cognitive-behavior model weaknesses

Causation: While thoughts and behavior are linked to abnormal behavior, we do not know for sure exactly how they are linked and if they are actually the causes of each other

Fully remove thoughts?: This wants to fully remove bad thoughts, but for some people they cannot do that or do not want to do that and would rather come to terms with their thoughts

Humanistic-existential model

Integrates philosophical ideas from existentialism and humanistic psychology to focus on personal freedom, responsibility, choice, and the search for meaning in a conscious life.

Humanist view (Humanistic-existential model)

People are naturally constructive and friendly

Abnormality comes from not having self actualization

Goals: Reach self actualization, create a supportive climate for clients to look at themselves honestly and acceptingly

Self-Actualization (humanist view)

An individuals drive to realize their full potential and become the best version of themselves

Humanist views treatment

Make the client feel valued during treatment

Unconditional positive regard: Need to be viewed as worthwhile by others, so clinicians help build that up by being reassuring

Unconditional self-regard: comes from UPR, means we believe in ourselves if we do not get UPR we develop conditions that make us feel worthwhile

Accurate empathy

Genuineness

Existentialist view

Focuses on choice, needing to define ourselves in an honest way

Self-deception: Hiding from different situations, making excuses to avoid unpleasant tasks or reality, blaming past experiences for current behavior

Goal is to decrease self-deception

Existentialist view treatments

Accepting responsibility for your actions and not avoiding responsibilities/reality

We do this with a therapeutic relationship

Humanistic-existentialist model strengths

Unique client: Both emphasize the individual, clients are given lots of empathy and are shown respect, encourages clients and shows them that they can do great things

Optimistic: Increasing positive symptoms instead of decreasing negative symptoms

Humanistic-existentialist model weaknesses

Does not deal with serious mental health issues like people with psychosis or suicidal ideations

Difficult to research: Deals with abstract variables which cannot be measured

They do not believe in experimental research which means there is not a lot of research out there at all

Sociocultural model

A framework suggesting that social interactions, cultural norms, and other environmental factors play a significant role in the development of mental health and illness

Family-social perspective (sociocultural model)

Social labels and roles: How do social labels affect us and our mental health?

Social network: We all have a need for social connection and if we don’t have that we can develop abnormal behaviors, these relationships need to be meaningful

Family structures: Different types of families can affect the mental health in different ways

Family social treatments

Traditional individual therapy

Couples therapy

Family therapy

Group therapy

Support groups

Multicultural view (sociocultural model)

How do people of different cultural backgrounds experience psychopathology differently?

Believes behavior is best understood when viewed through a cultural context

Goals: Address issue that historically treatment is less efficacious for underrepresented groups

Multicultural view treatments

Sensitivity: Be more inclusive to different backgrounds

Inclusion of cultural models

Sociocultural models strengths

New contribution: More inclusive and can be applied to other models of psychology

Treatment is more successful when applied to other models of psychology

Sociocultural model weaknesses

Correlation does not equal causation

Research is very difficult to do