Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

ABNORMALITY

Outline & Evaluate definitions of Abnormality
A01

Deviation from social norms - being naked
Failure to function adequately - VIP SUMO
(violating moral standards, irrationality, personal distress, suffering, unpredictability, maladaptive
behaviour, observer discomfort
Deviation from ideal mental health - Jahoda 6 criteria IPRISA which were seen as ideal mental health
Independence, personal growth and self actualisation, reality, integration, self attitudes, ability to love

A02

One main problem with abnormality being based on social norms is that they vary from culture or
country to another meaning that they change
...
For example, in
some countries such as Russia, homosexuality is not seen as a social norm where as other places it
is
...
A limitation for using ‘failure to function adequately’
as another measure for abnormality is that there are individual differences
...
It
also depends on who ‘diagnoses’ the individual as they may be biased
...
Also with this definition, there is potential for it to be cultural bias as
people are likely to have different values depending on their culture
...


Approaches to
Abnormality

Biological Approach (Physical casues)
BING
How it affects one

Physical Causes
Biochemistry
(neurotransmitter
s in the brain e
...
g
low rate for phobias but high for schiz

Depression/Anxiety running
trait in families

A02
Gottesman & Shields - MZ twins concordance rate of 46% (share 100% DNA) where as DZ twins 14%
However, people can learn traits - can test this using adopted
Diathesis-stress model - people inherit a resistance to disorder however may develop it when exposed
to a certain environment
If one copes better with drugs, shows importance of brain chemistry
Correlational studies show comparison between disorder and environment however not cause or
effect
...

Also if risk of suicide is evident
...

Electrode placed above temple
2
...

3
...

Evaluation A02
SHAM ECT showed that it could be
placebo
Comer states that 60-70% improve
however Sackheim says 85% relapsed
within 6 months - doesn't last LT?
- People unsure of why it works and has
side effects (30% reported anxiety)

Drug therapy - Chemo
-

-

-

-

Drugs can increase/decrease
neurotransmitters (e
...
g prozac)
INCREASE
Drugs such as Anti-psychotics
DECREASE
EVALUATION A02
- WHO found that relapse rates higher
when not given drug
Drugs require little effort from patient
However, Kirsch says placebo works
just as well
Drugs only tackle symptoms not the
problem and all have side effects

Cognitive Approach (How one thinks)

Abnormality is caused by one’s thought process
(how people perceive that world around them)
Ellis ABC Model (1962)

A

CTIVATING

EVENTS
ACTIVATING EVENTS
(E
...
Cognative - identifying the irrational thinking
processes that are affecting the client
...
Homework - Tasks are given to challenge irrational
beliefs to prove them wrong
...

Use learning theory to explain why many disorders have behavioural characteristics e
...
People learn to associate e
...
By witnessing something e
...


Components of the learning theory
Classical conditioning - association
Operant conditioning - reinforcement
social learning theory - seeing others being rewarded/punished - copy
-

-

Little Albert (Case study)
11 month old
Created a conditioned response to white rat, rabbit and a monkey
Startled him with steel bar when he saw any of the three stimulus 7 times over 7
weeks
This created the conditioned response
A02 - Limitations of Behavioural approach
- Suggests people have no control over conditioning - too deterministic
- People create fears without conditioning (Seligmann - encounters that are
frequent but dangerous such as FAST MOVING TRAFFIC rarely become fears)
ignores biological factors
Experiments lack ecological validity as non realistic but helps us establish cause
and effect

Behavioural Approach (How one thinks)

TREATMENTS
-

Systematic Desensitisation
Process of GRADUALLY exposing an individual or what they feel anxious
about
...
g heights thus harder to shift
Can only really use for phobias

Psychodynamic Approach (ID, EGO AND SUPEREGO)
Psychological disorders are caused by emotional problems in the unconscious mind
...
Disorders arise when conflict between the id, ego and superego become unmanageable
...


ID: Part of our personality that demands
immediate satisfaction (selfish) from
birth
EGO: Conscious/rational part of our
personality that develops after 1 year
when infant starts to learn reality
SUPER EGO: develops at 3-6 years, our
sense of what is right and wrong
Child experiences death of parent - Ego not developed so repress feelings of sadness - Similar
event occurs in later life, feelings come back worsening
...
(subjective and as much impossible to
scientifically test)
...
g
...


Psychodynamic Approach (ID, EGO AND SUPEREGO)
Treatments

PSYCHOANALYSIS
- Making the conscious, unconscious by tracing the unconscious factors to their origins so can
deal with the abnormal behaviour

Free Association - Patient expresses their thoughts exactly as they occur even
if they seem unimportant
Dream Analysis - Froid suggests that dreams show what is going on in our
unconscious minds
...

Ink Blots - Therapist asks patient what they see in symmetrical ink blots

---