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42065
Abnormality
Description
Psychology Mind Map on Abnormality, created by Katie Mortley on 09/04/2013.
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psychology
psychology
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Katie Mortley
, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by
Katie Mortley
over 11 years ago
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Resource summary
Abnormality
Definitions of Abnormality
Deviation from Social Norms
Standards of acceptable behaviour are set by a social group (i.e social norms)
Anything that deviates from acceptable behaviour is considered abnormal
What is acceptable may change over time
Limitations
Susceptible to abuse, e.g excluding nonconformists or political dissenters
Deviance is hard to identify because it is related to context and degree
Cultural Relativism- DSM includes culture bound syndromes, acknowledging cultural differences in what is considered 'normal'
Failure to Function
Not being able to cope with the demands of everyday life e.g got to work, eat in public, wash
Abnormal behaviour interferes with day-to-day living
Individual judges when their behaviour becomes 'abnormal'
Limitations
Who judges? Patient may feel quite content even when their behaviour is clearly dysfunctional
Apparently dysfunctional behaviour may sometimes be adaptive e.g depression elicits help from others
Cultural Relativism- what is considered 'adequate' differs from culture to culture so may result in different diagnoses when applied across cultures
Deviation from Ideal Mental Health
Jahoda: suggested using the same criteria as for physical illness, i.e absence of signs of health
Six categories: self attitudes, self actualisation, integration, autonomy, accurate perception of reality, mastery of environment
Limitations
A matter of degree- few people experience all these positive criteria, therefore would be considered 'abnormal'
Mental illnesses do not always have physical causes, so are not the same as physical illness
Cultural Relativism- Jahoda: her criteria reflects individualist cultural ideals, e.g autonomy
Treating Abnormality- Biological Therapies:
Drugs
Conventional antipsychotics used to combat the positive symptoms of schizophrenia.
They work by blocking the action of dopamine in the brain
Antidepressants increase availability of serotonin e.g by blocking its reabsorption (SSRIs)
Anti-anxiety drugs e.g BZz increase effect of GABA
Strengths
Effective e.g better than placebos in treatment of schizophrenia
Relatively easy to use
Best used in conjunction with psychotherapy
Limitations
Kirsch et al: placebo just as effective
tackles symptoms not problem
Side effects e.g SSRIs linked to anxiety or increased aggression
ECT
Used for severe depression
unconscious, relaxed patient given 0.6 amps for 1/2 sec seizure
3-15 treatments
Unilateral/bilateral
not clear why it works, may alter action of neurotransmitters
Strengths
can prevent suicide, benefits greater than risk
Comer: effective, 60-70% patients improve
Sackheim et al: claims 84% relapse within 6 months
Limitations
some patients recover even with 'sham' ECT, suggesting extra attention's important
Sde effects e.g memory loss + increased levels of fear + anxiety
Ethics
50% of patients not well-informed about procedure
Treating Abnormality- Psychological Therapies
SD- Systematic De-sensitisation
Developed by Wolpe (1950)
form of CBT used to treat phobias and axiety
How does it work? gradual exposed to or imagines the threatening situation under relaxed conditions until anxiety reaction is gone
Why does it work? the 2 responses of relaxation and fear are incompatible, therefore you can't be relaxed and still fearful
Evolution: Early days, patients directly confront fear, recently patient simply imagines the source of anxiety
Evaluation
Strengths
Quick + little effort
Only option e.g learning difficulties
Research shows it's successful
McGrath et al (1990): 75% patients with phobias respond
Capafons et al (1998): those who underwent it reported lower levels of fear compared to control group
Limitations
'Symptom Substitution
May appear to resolve but suppressing symptoms may present others
Ohman et al (1975): not effective in phobias related to evolution e.g heights/dark/dangerous animals
ethical issues- psychologically distressing
CBT- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Ellis (1957): developed REBT a form of CBT
What does it do? helps client understand irrationality and helps them substitute it
How does it work? Tries to change self-defeating thoughts and so make people happier and less anxious
How does it work? ABCDEF model
D- disputing irrational beliefs
E- new Effects the patient wishes to achieve
F- Further action e.g homework, deliberately attracting intolerable events
Evaluation
Strengths
Engles (1993): meta analysis, shows it effective e.g OCD + social phobia
Useful in variety of settings e.g clinical populations + non
evidence long term effects are better than of drugs
cost effective + quicker
no side effects
in conjunction with drugs- less chance of relapse
Limitations
Irrational environments
only works if patient is willing
Ethical issues, telling someone their belief is faulty
no object to measure improvement
Psychoanalysis
1: Free association
how? patient expresses thoughts exactly how they occur
Why? Freud believed they linked to unconscious factors
2: Therapist Interpretation
therapist listens to patients listening for clues and causes
Shares interpretations with patient
patients often resist by recreating feelings and conflicts and transfer onto therapist
3: Working Through
discuss reasons for problems + find ways to improve situation
not brief- meet up 5 times a week for months/years
4: Insight
patient gets understanding of unconscious motivations for abnormal behaviour
allows them to overcome it without transfer
Evaluation
Strengths
Bergin (1971): 10,000 patient histories, estimated 80% benefited compared to eclectic
Tschuchke et al (2007): 450 patients, found longer the treatment, better the outcomes
Limitations
Based on Freuds theory- could be wrong?
Eysenck (1986):countered by spontaneous remission and placebo treatment
could lead to creation of false memories
too much reliance on memory- Loftus (1995) proves its not reliable
Ethical issues- distressing material
Psychological Approaches to Psychopathology
Psychodynammic
The Mind:
conflicts occur between ids desire for immediate gratifications and superegos desire to maintain moral standards and ideals
If conflicts are unsettled it may cause abnormality
Conflicts can cause anxiety and the ego defends itself using defence mechanisms
Defence Mechanisms
Repression: burying traumatic memories in the unconscious, therefore not remembering the event
Displacement: unconsciously moving impulses away from a threatening situation to a less threatening object
Projection: unconsciously attributing your own undesirable characteristics onto others
Psychosexual Development
Oral: obtaining satisfaction orally i.e. eating
Problems: Teething, weaning
Anal: obtaining satisfaction anally i.e. withholding and expelling faeces
Problems: Toilet training
Phallic: genitals are a key source of satisfaction
Problems: Oedipus complex
Latent: sexuality repressed, girls and boys spend little time together
Problems: Bullying
Genital: Sexual pleasure in genitals
Major conflicts over gratifications in one or more stages may result in mental disorder
in times of stress a person may regress to an earlier stage, this is called fixation.
missing a stage can also cause mental disturbance
Evaluation
Strengths
highlights psychology in mental illness
identifies childhood experience as a factor
reduces blame from the person
Limitations
over emphasis on past
non-scientific
ignores culture and social factors
Assumes behaviour isdefined by sex and gender
false memory syndrome
Cognitive
Abnormality is caused by faulty and irrational cognitive processes
These thoughts are normally automatic, so are difficult to ignore and illogical or irrational
most often applied to patient with anxiety and depression
Beck (1976): identified the term cognitive triad to refer to a cycle of unusually negative thoughts in depressed patients
The self, future, world
Ellis (1962): developed ABC model
A-activiating event
B-belief
C-consequences
this approach suggested that there is faulty or irrational thinking linking these three parts of the model
Evalutation
Strengths
focuses on peoples experiences and feelings
gives person responsibility to increase power and change
Limitations
limited to certain mental disorders
ignores other possible causes
no causal relationship
ethics, telling a person their beliefs are faulty
implies the person is responsible
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