A-level Psychology; Psychopathology

Evaluate flooding as a type of treatment for phobias.

- Cost/time effective; Takes less time and money to cure a phobia, health services no longer have to fund longer costly therapies. - Traumatic; can cause high levels of anxiety that can cause hospitalisation, many do not complete the treatment as it is highly stressful. Patients often don't finish the treatment leading to a waste of time and money. - Can be un-effective for some phobias such as; social phobia and agoraphobias which are said to be caused by irrational thinking from an unpleasant experience and not learned through association therefore, cannot be treated using behavioural treatments.

Evaluate deviation from social norms as a definition for abnormality.

- Cultural relativism, different cultures consider what is abnormal/normal differently compared to other cultures. There is no global standard for defining what is considered abnormal/normal. Abnormality is not standardised. - Hindsight bias, Behaviors we see today as normal could have been deemed abnormal back in the past e.g homosexuality. This would have resulted in a violation of human rights if homosexuals were placed in mental health institutions nowadays as they were in the past. - Degree and Context, how far an individual deviates from social norm is mediated by degree and context. E.G someone wearing a bikini to work is considered abnormal but wearing it at the beach isn't. This fails to offer complete explanation in its own right since its reflected in degree and context.

Evaluate deviation from ideal mental health as a definition for abnormality.

- Positive approach, focuses on positive characteristics instead of negative ones. Considers whole person into account and factors that affect this and covers a broad range of criteria. - Cultural relativism, some ideas are western e.g emphasising on personal growth may be considered as self-centred in other countries that favour community over individualism. - Unrealistically high standards, according to this definition, people who don't do well in stressful situations are considered abnormal including factors out of their control E.G loss of a loved one. How many need to be absent for diagnosis to occur?

Give some behavioural characteristics of a phobia (what they do)

Avoidance behaviour, panic, freezing up, screaming, running away, etc.

What is agoraphobia?

The fear of open spaces and it can be caused by simple phobias like birds which can cause the individual to not go outside.

What is systematic de-sensitisation?

This is a behavioural therapy designed to gradually reduce anxiety using classical conditioning. Done by learning a new response to the phobic stimulus (counter-conditioning)

Define failure to function adequately as a definition of abnormality.

This will define someone as abnormal if they can no longer cope with the demands of daily life E.G maintaining basic standards of nutrition/hygiene or they can't keep a job or maintain a relationship. Rosenhan and Seligman (1989) proposed signs that someone is not functioning adequately; no longer conforms to impersonal rules/maintaining eye contact or personal space, experiences severe personal distress and behaviours that become irrational/dangerous to themselves or others.

Define deviation from ideal mental health as a definition for abnormality.

To diagnose psychological illness by the absence of psychological health, look what makes someone normal and if they don't have these characteristics then they are deemed as abnormal.

What is a simple phobia?

Where a person fears a specific thing and is the most common type of phobia.

What is a social phobia?

Where a person fears social situations such as presenting a speech in front of an audience. It makes them feel like everyone is secretly judging them.

What is meant by reciprocal inhibition in systematic de-sensitisation?

Where it is impossible to feel both afraid and relaxed at the same time. Individuals learn phobic relaxation techniques which help them relax in the presence of phobic situations.

Give some cognitive characteristics of a phobia (what they think)

fixated on the object they fear, irrational beliefs.

Evaluate systematic de-sensitisation as a behavioural treatment to phobias.

- Research to show effectiveness of the treatment; a psychologist found that 75% of patients with phobias were treated successfully with this method. They even used vivo techniques where the patient came into direct contact with their phobia instead of mentally imagining it. - It can take a long time; weeks/months if the patient has a severe phobia. They may get stuck on a stage in the hierarchy for a while and may not get over it however, as a strength, patients can go at their own pace and is ethical compared to flooding. - SD is accessible for a range of people. E.G people with learning difficulties may find some treatments hard to do as it involves reflection on thought processes while SD does not involve them and can help more people overcome their phobias.

Evaluate the two process model as a behavioural approach to phobias.

- Research to support the behavioural approach to explaining phobias; Little Albert (1920). Demonstrated the formation of a phobia in little albert and found out that Albert feared objects he didn't fear before. Although, hard to generalise results to other children and adults due to thr nature of the study; case study. - Weakness, behavioural approach does not consider cognitive aspects. Irrational thoughts can cause phobias without learning through association. Furthermore, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is said to be more successful than behavioural therapies. - The behavioural approach isn't the only way to explain phobias; the evoluntionary theory suggests some phobias such as snakes and heights can be innate as these fears could have killed our ancestors in the past and is a survival mechanic to keep us safe.

Outline the stages of systematic de-sensitisation.

- The anxiety hierarchy shown in the picture; the individual works their way started with the least feared thing to the most feared thing. The individual ranks the phobia to the least to most feared. - Relaxation; Individual is taught relaxation techniques such as breathing techniques, progressive muscle relaxation strategies or mental imagery techniques. - Exposure; The patient is then exposed to their phobic situation while relaxed and adapting relaxation techniques. The relaxation should overtake the fear as two emotional states cannot exist at the same time. The individual gradually works their way to the most terrifying phobic situation and a new response is learned, replacing the phobia.

Explain how operant conditioning maintains a phobia.

- The individual will continue to avoid the object they fear to reduce anxiety, this avoidance behaviour is negative reinforcement. The individual will most likely continue to avoid the object they fear in the future because they are negatively reinforced to.

Evaluate statistical deviation as a definition for abnormality.

- Unusual characteristics can be positive (high IQ), Statistical infrequency as a definition of abnormality needs to identify both undesirable/infrequent behaviours. E.G depression - Misdiagnosis, certain diagnosis are more common than others making some diagnosis rare/abnormal - Labelling can be a disadvantage, Label can lead to poor self image and discrimination, being labelled as statistically infrequent can cause the person more distress than the condition itself.

Outline the flooding treatment for phobias.

- individual immediately exposed to their phobia - individual is placed with their phobias for long continuous amounts of time and avoidance is no longer an option - This continues until the individual is too exhausted to feel fear . Extinction will occur soon as fear is a time-limited response - after fear, the individual will feel calm and relieved in the presence of their phobia and a new positive conditioned response is made

Define statistical deviation as a definition for abnormality.

Centres around statistics, we can judge something as normal/abnormal based on how many times we observe it. Any usual/characteristic can be viewed as normal and any other different behaviour is abnormal. E.G IQ score distribution; majority fall into 'average/normal' range while only a small percentage fall into extremely intelligent IQ/low IQ which are considered abnormal.

Give some emotional characteristics of a phobia (how they feel)

Excessive and unreasonable fear and anxiety.

Define deviation from social norms as a definition of abnormality.

It is a collective judgment about what is deemed normal and abnormal. When a person behaves differently than what society would expect. E.G wearing a bikini to work would be deemed as abnormal

Explain how a phobia can be developed through classical conditioning and learning through association.

Learning through association; (Little albert) - Loud noise (unconditioned stimulus) causes fear (unconditioned response) - Rat (neutral stimulus) and noise (unconditioned stimulus) paired together - Rat (conditioned stimulus) causes fear (conditioned response)

Briefly outline the two process theory of the behavioural approach to phobias.

Part of a two process theory, the first process includes learning a phobia through classical conditioning while the second process maintains the phobia by negative reinforcement.