9/2/25 History of psychopathology + the post-Freud world

Father of Behaviorism

John Watson, 1930

• “Give me a dozen healthy infants… and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select…”

Where did behaviorism come from?

Developed partly in response to critiques of psychoanalysis and concerns about the impossibility of measuring constructs like id and ego

What assumption is behaviorism based on?

All behavior (normal and abnormal) is learned in response to the world around us

• this also means that psychopathology is also learned and can be treated through learning as well

What is behaviorism focused on?

careful observation of behavior

Classical conditioning

originally developed by Pavlov

• Subject + US → UR

• US + CS → UR

• Subject + CS → CR

Classroom candy toss

US: candy

UR: happy to have candy

CS: noise

CR: expecting candy

Watson’s fear experiment- Little Albert

used principles of classical conditioning to create a phobia in a 10-month old baby

• paired loud noise with exposure to white rat, creating association between noise and white rat

• baby didn’t eventually just fear rats but generalized this fear to anything white and furry

Conclusion/significance of the Little Albert experiment

fear can be learned (or unlearned)

How can fear be unlearned?

experiment by Mary Cover Jones

• worked with Peter, a toddler who was naturally afraid of rabbits

• Jones brought a rabbit each day for small periods of time to Peter, helping him form pleasant associations with rabbits

• Also brought in other children who liked rabbits and were unafraid of them

• Over time, Peter’s fear of rabbits dissipated

Conclusion/significance of the Mary Cover Jones experiment

we can learn and acquire emotions

Operant conditioning

developed by B.F. Skinner

• behaviors, including symptoms of psychopathology, can be developed in response to enviro

• reinforcement: anything that increases likelihood of a behavior being repeated

• punishment: anything that decreases likelihood of a behavior being repeated

• positive: something is added to a situation that will change behavior

• negative: something that is omitted from a situation that will change behavior

4 ways reinforcements and punishments can be used

1. reinforcement x positive: something added to increase likelihood

2. reinforcement x negative: something is taken away to increase likelihood

3. punishment x positive: something is added to decrease likelihood

4. punishment x negative: something is taken away to decrease likelihood

Reinforcement schedules

continuous: reinforcement is given after every instance of the desired behavior

• easier to shape or create a desired response this way

intermittent: reinforcement occurs only some of the time

• harder to extinguish or eliminate a desired response this way

Behaviorism’s impact today

forms the core of many effective treatments for psychopathology

• e.g. treatments for depression, anxiety, ED, substance use and abuse

contributes to our understanding and theory of why disorders emerge and symptoms are maintained

• any behavior, no matter how seemingly problematic or disadvantageous, must be reinforced to be repeated

Treatments and behaviorism

key to treatment becomes removing the reinforcement for problem behaviors

• behavioral treatment is often combined with focus on changing cognitions or thoughts

CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) is the leading treatment for most forms of psychopathology today

Strengths of behaviorism

• easily observable and measurable (concrete, quantifiable behaviors)

• explains the emergence of problem behaviors to the enviro/world around you

• examines how seemingly illogical associations can explain behaviors

• understand antecedents and consequences of behaviors

Drawbacks of behaviorism

• not fully comprehensive (no inclusion of genetics, brain biology, life experiences, history, etc.)

Where did humanism come from?

emerged in the mid 1960s in response to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis

• critiqued behaviorism as failing to view people as individuals with their own thoughts and feelings

• critiqued psychoanalysis as being too deterministic, over-emphasizing early/childhood experiences

Central concepts of humanism

sense of self, individual potential, personal growth

• people are more than their experiences

• people have free will and agency over their experiences

• people have needs that must be fulfilled and honored

Carl Rogers

key figure in humanism

• client-centered therapy (aka person-centered therapy)

• client is in a state of incongruence due to lack of alignment between real self and ideal self

Carl Rogers: 3 necessary and sufficient conditions for change

1. unconditional positive regard: therapist fully accepts the client without judgment

2. empathetic understanding: therapist really “gets” the client, understanding who the client is and what is going on in their world

3. genuineness: therapist is their authentic self while communicating with the client

What aspect of psychoanalysis is genuineness in response to?

Freud’s idea that the therapist should be a “blank slate”, therapists should be careful not to interject their personality and feelings into sessions because transference is bad

How do we see Rogers’ conditions now?

necessary but not sufficient for change

Paradigms

psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and humanism are examples of paradigms

• aka a framework for understanding/viewing/studying psychopathology, including its causes and presentation

Biological paradigm

nowadays termed neuroscience, aka understanding the role of the brain and nervous system in behavior, emotion, and cognition

• both historical and current

Central nervous system

made up of brain and spinal cord

• processes info from senses and enviro, and reacts

spinal cord: primary fx is to send messages to and from the brain to other parts of the body

Neuron

type of cell that receives and sends messages from the body to the brain and back to the body

• coated in myelin

• neurotransmitters: chemicals made by the body and stored in axons

  • released by the axons and involved in sending an electrical impulse to the dendrites of the next neuron

• synaptic cleft: space between neurons

• action potential: an electrical impulse that can move across the synaptic cleft from neuron to neuron

2 categories of neurotransmitters

1. excitatory: increase the likelihood that the connecting neuron will send an action potential

   • e.g. glutamate (main)

2. inhibitory: decrease the likelihood that the connecting neuron will transmit an impulse

   • e.g. GABA (main)

Other important neurotransmitters

Monoamines (e.g. dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin)

How do psychotropic medications work?

they are pharmacologic treatments for psychopathology that generally work by changing how neurotransmitters operate in the brain

Basic structure of the brain

• hindbrain

• cerebral cortex

• limbic system

Hindbrain

most primitive, least complex, develops first

• cerebellum, pons, medulla oblongata

• regulates blood pressure, heart rate, temp (these are all fully developed at birth)

Cerebral cortex

wrinkly stuff covering your brain, about as thick as 2-3 dimes

• develops last and controls higher-order processes (memory, thought, language, awareness, attention, vision, judgment)

• made up of 4 lobes/regions

4 lobes of cerebral cortex (all communicate with each other)

1. frontal (higher order cognitive fx)

2. temporal (auditory info, language comprehension, memory)

3. parietal (sensory info from body, touch, temp, pain)

4. occipital (visual info, color, shape, motion)

Prefrontal cortex

part of the frontal lobe

• controls executive fxing (judgment, reasoning, planning, behavioral inhibition, impulse control)

• very last part of your brain to develop

Limbic system

set of structures underneath the cortex

• amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, septum

• “emotional” center of brain: fear, arousal, responsible for processing emotionally relevant info

Integrative approach to psychopathology

no single paradigm is sufficient to explain the breadth and presentation of psychopathology

• psychopathology is related to many factors:

  • brain structure

  • neurochemistry

  • significant life experiences

  • environments past and present

  • genetics