Revision about Abnormality for Psychology Unit 1 for AS level

1. Disease of the mind.
Depart from what is normal.

2.  Deviation from social norms
 Failure to function adequately
 Deviation from ideal mental health
Definitions of
Abnormality

3. What is it?
 Going against accepted codes of behaviour
Examples?
 OCD
Limitations
 Context & Extremity: Situation there in
 Dominant Beliefs: Agree/Disagree
 Era-Dependant: Fashion/Trendy
 Cultures relativity
 Legal system assumes you are responsible for your
own action
Definitions of
Abnormality

4. What is it?
 Not being able to follow normal pattern of behaviour
 Observer Discomfort- Discomfort or distress on others
 Unpredictability- Don’t act how they usually act
 Maladaptive- Badly adaptive behaviour
 Irrationality- Doing something out of the blue
Example?
 Depression
 Agoraphobia: Don’t like tight spaces
 Schizophrenia(Split-Mind): The unit of ‘You’ is jumbled up.
Limitations
 Context
 May not be linked to a disorder
 Cultural relativity
Definitions of
Abnormality

5. What is it?
 Not in touch with own identity & feelings
 Not resistant to stress
 Not focused on the future
 Not function as individual
 Not show empathy & understanding towards others.
Example?
 Not caring for others pain
Limitations
 Western vs. Collectivists culture
 Few would match Jahod’s criteria
Definitions of
Abnormality

6. Situation Deviation Failure to Deviation Explanation
from Social Function from Mental
Norms Adequately Health
Stranger who sits next
to you.
YES YES Observer Discomfort
Child Abuser
YES YES No empathy
Child Genius
YES Doesn’t accept normal behaviour
Born again Christian
YES Dominate beliefs
Talk to their pets
YES YES Observer Discomfort
Stressed workers, take
time of work
YES YES Maladaptive. Doesn’t focus on future
Person In a dead end
job
YES Not reaching potential
Person who believes
they are being watched
YES Maladaptive. Irrational
Someone who washes
their hands a lot
YES YES YES Not common behaviour. Irrational.
Maladaptive. Lack of reality
Definitions of
Abnormality

7.  The biological approach: Malfunction in the
brain system. Treated same as the psychical
condition. Changed either caused by the
structure or function.
Study: Watson et al (1998)- Isolating monkeys
to their social groups.
 The psychodynamic approach: The forces that
drives into it.
 The behavioural approach: what we learn
 The cognitive approach: human memory.
What we think
Four Models of
Abnormality

8.  Strength: Use of brain scan which shows
everything in the brain. Drug treatment
targets it & it is very effective
 Weakness: Needs more explanation & details
from both sides. Drugs don’t work for eating
disorders or phobias.
Biological Approach

9.  Schizophrenia: Take Antipsychotics which
reduces the activity of the brain
neurotransmitters dopamine.
 Depression: Therapies are highly effective
although Prozac drug is used. Which
increases the activity of the brain
neurotransmitter serotonin.
 Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT): small
current which goes pass the brain. Works well
with depression.
Biological Approach

10.  Antipsychotic Drugs
 Antidepressant Drugs
 Anti-anxiety Drugs
Strength:
 Effectiveness
 Ease of Use
Limitations
 Placebo Effects
 Tackles symptoms rather than problem
 Side effects
Biological Approach

11.  Genetic Inheritance: Passed from parents. Low
Concordance (Phobias).
High Concordance rates (Schizophrenia).
 Biochemistry: shows levels of hormones &
neurotransmitters in the brain.
High levels of neurotransmitters serotonin- anxiety
Low levels – depression
 Neuroanatomy: Structure of brain.
Schizophrenics have enlarged spaces, where
there's a shortage of tissue.
 Viral Infection: Exposure to viruses in the
womb e.g. schizophrenia.
Biological Approach

12. Sigmund Freud introduced this:
 Id – Desire/ cannot control
 Ego – Balancer
 Superego – Conscious
 If Id is dominate, you want pleasure.
 If superego is dominant they might obsessive.
 Ego is the mechanism
 For example: If you hide something, you try to
put it in the unconscious part of the brain. Which
causes Denial/ displacement.
Psychodynamic
Approach

13.  Oral Stage: Under or over fed. 0-18 months
 Anal stage: Controls pleasure of having a shit. (OCD) 18 months- 3 years
 Phallic Stage: The sexes discover other genders. 4-5 years
 Latency Period: Desire for themselves is gone & for others start. 5- puberty
 Genital Stage: puberty onwards
 If these are not met, then it remains unresolved. When you get
stressed, you go back to doing it.
The Oedipus Complex- Boys
 Developed more for boys
 As there's psychical contact with moth & has desire for mother.
Father seems to be a threat so they stick to their Fathers morals.
The Electra Complex- Girls
 When a girl depends on not having a penis, creating penis envy &
wants affection of father, when closer to mother.
Psychodynamic
Approach

14.  Mental Disorders result form psychological rather than
physical cause: Something else that goes in the brain. The
thought & cannot physically see what it is, but knows there’s
something in it.
 Unresolved conflicts cause mental disorders: Conscious &
unconscious parts of the brain causes anxiety when they
don’t work together
 Early experiences cause mental disorder: Experiences from
childhood effect you, when reaching teenage hood( Freud's
Psychosexual Development)
 Unconscious motivation cause mental disorders: Id- Control
over desire e.g. Rapists. Ego-Balancer. Superego- Knows
what's right & wrong. Not knowing the cause of change in
behaviour.
Psychodynamic
Approach

15.  Strengths:
 Supported by Aimsworths in the Strange Situation & the
childhood experiences & categories the child personality
stage.
 Significance of repressed materials & unconscious
processes widely accepted.
 Evidence: Freud used case studies of Adult with neurosis &
linked the disorders back to the early experiences.
 Limitations:
 Abstract concepts- difficult to research & define.
 Sexism- theory is overbalanced.
 Lack of research evidence- Theory is difficult to prove
when tested.
Psychodynamic
Approach

16.  Dream Analysis
 Free Association
 Projective Tests
Psychodynamic
Approach

17.  To uncover the conflicts repressed in the
conscious mind
 Therapist analyse the obvious content of the
dreams & interpreters the underlying
meaning which is called ‘latent content’
Psychodynamic
Approach

18.  Link memories & thought together extending
back to childhood & to lower ego defences so
repressed material can be assessed
 Therapists encourage clients to associate
thoughts with anything that enters their
mind, to encourage reflection & to identify
key terms & ideas.
Psychodynamic
Approach

19.  Uncover projected feelings & beliefs linked to
underlying anxieties
 Clients are asked what inkblots shapes mean
to them, and therapist hope to find particular
themes & anxiety
Psychodynamic
Approach

20.  Classical Conditioning: Where the phobia
develops
 Operant Conditioning: Positive Reinforcement
& Negative Reinforcement
 Social Learning Theory: Observe other
behaviour
Behavioural Approach

21.  Example: Phobias- learn to get scared of
something through experiences
 Support: Watson & Ryder. Reflex- clash of
cymbals. Associated with rabbit. Scared of
Cymbals not rabbits. (Nurture)
 Undermine: Preparedness(Seligman) Fear is
evolved as spiders are dangerous, so danger
is feared. Genetic Response. ( Nature). He
believes that its from genetics as it is from
Nature that its already biologically
programed, which can be triggered.
Behavioural Approach

22.  Example: Anxiety & Depression occurs when
you want to behaviour in a way to get
attention
 Support: Explains certain disorders e.g.
depression, from positive reinforcement &
negative Reinforcements as you get rewired
from early age & it carries on.
 Undermine: Reductionist- ignores other
aspects of psychology. Shows ways you can
get mental illness from.
Behavioural Approach

23.  Example: OCD, Eating disorders, child abuse,
role models.
 Support: Emphasis on learning environment.
Who you are influenced by
 Undermine: Kendall & Hammen (1995) don’t
know if it’s the environment or from genetics.
Nature & Nurture. Where Nature is the
environment it is by eating e.g. role models
they see & follow, where Nurture by the
influence of the parents.
Behavioural Approach

24.  Abnormality is caused by faulty thinking
 Ellis A-B-C Model
 The Individual is in control
Cognitive Approach

25.  Distorts the beliefs on yourself.
 Automatically have negative thoughts
 Schemata: what you think of a certain thing.
 Where you have an opinion of yourself and
over exaggerate
 Example: I always fall ( Not always true)
 Leads to depression/Anxiety
Cognitive Approach

26.  A: Activating Event, where something
happens
 B: Beliefs about ‘A’, which goes through
rational/irrational thoughts
 C: Consequences, where desirable emotions/
undesirable emotions leads to the behaviour
Cognitive Approach

27.  You make decisions having the right
thoughts & behaviours & could get out
of abnormality
Cognitive Approach

28. Strength
 Clear evidence of faulty thinking & beliefs in
depressions & anxiety disorders ( Clark 1986)
 Therapies based on this model are very
effective for depression & anxiety disorder
Limitation
 Blames the patient not the situational factors
 Consequence (Depression) rather than cause(Faulty
Thinking)
 Faulty thinking leads to mental illness
Cognitive Approach

29.  All or none thinking (Dichotomous Thinking):
Classifies either 1of 2 success and failure
 Arbitrary Inferences: Drawing negative conclusions
without having the evidence to support them
 Overgeneralisation: Incorrect conclusions are drawn
from little evidence
 Catastrophising: Where normal events are perceived
as disasters
 Selective Abstraction: Where person pays attention to
certain features of an event & ignores other features
that might lead to a different conclusion
 Excessive Responsibility: Taking a lot of responsibility
& blame things which happen.
Cognitive Approach