Psychopathology flashcards

Psychopathology is the study of mental disorders, their causes, and their treatments. Students must understand how we define abnormality using four key definitions: statistical infrequency, deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, and deviation from ideal mental health. Each definition has strengths and limitations. Students also need to understand three specific disorders: phobias, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), including their behavioural, emotional, and cognitive characteristics. For each disorder, students must know the relevant psychological explanation and its corresponding treatment: the behaviourist approach and systematic desensitisation or flooding for phobias, the cognitive approach and cognitive behavioural therapy for depression, and the biological approach and drug therapy for OCD.

1. Card 1

   What is the statistical infrequency definition of abnormality?

   Behaviour is considered abnormal if it is statistically rare in the population. A low IQ score, for example, falls outside the typical range and would be classed as abnormal.

2. Card 2

   Give one limitation of the statistical infrequency definition of abnormality.

   Some rare characteristics, such as high intelligence, are actually desirable, so statistical rarity alone does not determine whether something is truly abnormal or harmful.

3. Card 3

   What does 'deviation from social norms' mean as a definition of abnormality?

   Behaviour that violates the unwritten rules of a society or culture is considered abnormal. These norms vary across cultures and change over time, making this definition culturally relative.

4. Card 4

   What is the 'failure to function adequately' definition of abnormality?

   A person is considered abnormal when they cannot maintain everyday functioning, such as holding a job or maintaining relationships, often causing distress to themselves or others.

5. Card 5

   Who proposed the 'deviation from ideal mental health' definition, and what does it involve?

   Marie Jahoda proposed this definition. It identifies characteristics of good mental health, such as self-actualisation and autonomy, and considers anyone lacking these as abnormal.

6. Card 6

   What are the three behavioural characteristics of phobias?

   Avoidance of the feared stimulus, endurance with extreme anxiety when exposed to it, and disruption to daily life, such as refusing to leave the house to avoid the feared object.

7. Card 7

   How does classical conditioning explain the acquisition of phobias?

   A neutral stimulus becomes associated with a frightening event, creating a conditioned fear response. Watson and Rayner demonstrated this with Little Albert, conditioning a fear of white rats.

8. Card 8

   What is systematic desensitisation and how does it treat phobias?

   A therapy based on reciprocal inhibition, where the patient is gradually exposed to the feared stimulus while relaxed, working through an anxiety hierarchy until the fear response is extinguished.

9. Card 9

   What are the cognitive characteristics of depression?

   Negative thinking patterns, including Beck's negative triad of negative views about the self, the world, and the future, along with poor concentration and thoughts of worthlessness or suicide.

10. Card 10

    How does cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) treat depression?

    CBT challenges irrational negative thoughts and replaces them with more balanced thinking. The therapist and client work together to identify cognitive distortions and test them against reality.

11. Card 11

    What are the main characteristics of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)?

    Obsessions are persistent, unwanted intrusive thoughts causing anxiety; compulsions are repetitive behaviours performed to reduce that anxiety, such as excessive hand-washing or checking.

12. Card 12

    How does the biological approach explain OCD, and what treatment does it suggest?

    Low levels of serotonin are linked to OCD. Drug therapy using SSRIs increases serotonin availability in the brain, reducing the frequency and intensity of obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours.

• Many students confuse flooding and systematic desensitisation, wrongly describing flooding as gradual when it actually involves immediate, prolonged exposure to the feared stimulus at full intensity.
• Students often state that statistical infrequency is always a bad thing, forgetting that some statistically rare traits like exceptional intelligence are positive and not considered abnormal.
• A common error is claiming that CBT is used to treat phobias and that systematic desensitisation treats depression, when in fact each treatment is linked to a specific disorder and its corresponding explanation.

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