assumptions: Abnormalities are caused
by something being wrong with your
biology
depression In link to low levels of
serotonin and schizophrenia with high
levels of dopamine
Watson 1998 isolated monkeys which
lead to a lowering of their serotonin
levels and reduced them to a state
much like depression
+ It can decrease the stigma associated with
abnormality by assuming it was not the patens
fault
Treatments = electroconvulsive therapy,
Drugs ( e.g. Depression can be treated
with tricyclic drugs)
- the drug treatments can cause
side effects
- It is also heavily reductionist
The Cognitive approach
Human behaviour is based on schemata and negative
schemata lead to negative automatic thoughts which
can lead to abnormality. faultily thought leads to abnormality
Becks model of depression: involves three
negative schemata, called the negative triad
Negative view of self, negative
view of world and negative view
of future- to the negative triad
there are three dimensions
Attributions can be internal
(their fault) or external
(circumstances), specific (one
event) or global (all events)
and stable (constant) or
unstable (vary over time)
Ellis's ABC model of depression
A: Activating event
B: Beliefs about A
Rational thought
Irrational thought
C: Consequences of B
Desirable emotions
Desirable Behaviour
Undesirable emotions
Undesirable Behaviour
ne treatment is Cognitive behaviour theropy
Clear evidence for Cognitive
approach of dysfunctional thinking
leading to depression and anxiety
disorder (panic disorder) - Clark
1986 raised heart rate
Can be the other way round =
depression leads to faultily thinking
Idea of schemata and how they develop are very vague
The behaviourist approach
Assumes maladaptive
behaviour is learnt
Classical conditioning explains
abnormality, as learning to be afraid of
something, via an early childhood
trauma
Pavlov's Dog's
experiment, conditioning
dogs to salivate when they
hear a bell due to
repeated paring with food
Operant Conditioning
Learning something when repeatedly
pared with a reward Skinners rat and
pigeon experiment
For example, if when
you are feeling 'down'
one day and everyone
was nice to you then
you may start feeling
good and associate
these things becoming
depressed
Social learning theory
Bandura and the Bobo
doll experiment in which in
children who watched an
adult assault a doll
repeated this behaviour
when playing
e.g. seeing that
your parents are
afraid of something
can cause a
phobia in the child
one treatment would be
systematic
desensitisation-
introducing something
someone has a phobia of
in small doses to
uncondition their phobia
+ treatments are usually effective
- extremely deterministic
The Psychodynamic approach
Based on Freud's work
Id (controlled by want for primary
drives), ego (conscious self, operates
on the reality principle due to the moral
rules set out by our culture) and the
super ego is the moral authority
An unresolved conflict
between these three aspect
of out personality can cause
anxiety and an abnormality
another cause of abnormality is fixation in
one of the psychosexual stages of
development
The Oral stage from birth to 18
months were babies get pleasure
from feeding
If you get fixated
(over or under fed)
during the Oral stage
can led to over
eating, smoking or
Drinking on the other
end it could led to
anorexia
The Anal stage from 18
months to 3 years of age,
were the activities revolve
around retaining and
expelling faeces, fixation in
this stage can cause OCD
The Phallic stage form 3
to four/ five years, were
difference in sex are
noticed and pleasure is
generally gotten from
genital stimulus
Boys work through
the Oedipus complex
and girls the Elektra
complex, fixation in
this stage can lead to
abnormal behaviour
One treatment
would be free
association
+ Freud was the first
psychologist to link
adult abnormality and
childhood trauma
- Freud's theories
are almost
impossible to test
and relating a few
cause studies to
everyone dose not
take individual
differences in to
account