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The concept of psychological abnormality through four definitions and four explanatory models. Abnormality is discussed as deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, deviation from ideal mental health, and statistical infrequency. The document also covers the biological, behavioral, cognitive, and psychodynamic approaches to explaining abnormality.
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Belfast APT 2013
What is abnormality ( definitions) 4 definitions Explaining abnormality ( models) Biological approach Behavioural approach Cognitive approach Psychodynamic approach
Deviation from social norms Failure to function adequately Deviation from ideal mental health Also : Statistical infrequency
Abnormality involves breaking social rules Depends strongly on context Norms change over time e.g. homosexuality and vary from country to country - cultural relativity Used for social control e.g. Russia, Japan Useful for identifying unexpected or ‘abnormal’ behaviour
Abnormality as inability to cope Difficult to define-affects social and work roles; loss of control, irrational, observer discomfort Always an element of value judgment ( e.g. cultural factors ,social class, minority groups) Not always ‘abnormal’; e.g. political protests, eccentricity
Abnormality as lack of ideal qualities ( eg ability cope with stress) Criteria reflect western cultural ideals e.g. personal autonomy, self-actualisation Very few people match all six criteria! Subjective (Jahoda, 1958) Useful guide
Genetic factors often important Changes to brain structure e.g. autism, schizophrenia Changes in neurotransmitters e.g. depression (decreased serotonin), schizophrenia (increased dopamine) Ignores psychological and environmental factors e.g. depression and life events. But often supported by modern scanning techniques and the effectiveness of drugs in e.g. depression
Abnormal behaviour is learnt through operant conditioning ( rewards) classical conditioning ( association) and social learning E.g. Phobias ( Little Albert) where ‘fear’ becomes associated with the ‘wrong’ object or situation. E.g. Anorexia, ‘slimness’ may be positively rewarded (operant conditioning). Impact of size zero role models
- CAUSES Abnormality caused by irrational, faulty or maladaptive thoughts and perceptions Focus on confirming evidence only e.g. to maintain depression Beck’s Depressive Triad - negative views of the world, the Self, and the future
Negative triad - negative views of self, the world, and the future Cognitive biases - arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, magnification, minimisation, internal attributions
Key is the dynamic unconscious Early childhood experiences crucial Conflict between id, ego, superego Failure to resolve psychosexual stages (anal, oral, phallic etc) can lead to fixation at that stage, or repression of memories into the unconscious; this may then emerge in adulthood as abnormality e.g. early childhood abuse is repressed and emerges as depression in adulthood
Limited patient sample Non-scientific Theories not falsifiable Multiple interpretation of cases Overemphasis on sexual development Long and expensive Treats people as complex Importance of the unconscious and childhood experiences
Complex mix of genetic, biological, social/cultural, family and individual factors (note: many females exposed to risk factors do NOT develop EDs) Any explanation must cope with upsurge in EDs over the last 20 years, and increase in male EDs. Treatment long and difficult, argues against simple biological explanation
Schizophrenia Depression Anxiety
Clinical characteristics Biological explanations Psychological explanations Don’t forget the evidence …
DSM Definition Symptoms for at least one week Signs of disturbance for at least 6 months Two out of: Hallucinations Delusions Catatonic behaviour Flat affect (no emotion) Note Two patients may have NO symptoms in common
Relation to the patient and chance of developing schizophrenia Spouse………………1. Grandchild…………..2. Niece/Nephew………2. Child……………… 9. Sibling………………7. DZ twin……………12. MZ twin………… 44. Gottesman et al., 1987 These figures are effectively concordance rates
Concordance rate for MZ twins only 40-50% - if entirely genetic, should be 100% Success of ‘expressed emotion’ approach in improving outcome for patients with schizophrenia Increased frequency of schizophrenia in lower socio-economic groups (‘downward drift’ ?) Increased frequency in first generation Afro- Caribbean immigrants – a real phenomenom? Popularity of diathesis-stress model
Evidence that rates of schizophrenia are increased by: Birth complications Living in the City as opposed to the country Spring birth Chronic cannabis abuse BUT: effects tiny compared to the genetic influence
Symptoms of schizophrenia have often been linked to problems with perception and attention Frith (1992) suggests that in schizophrenia, a central monitor fails to function. Because of this the person experiences their own thoughts and actions as originating outside themselves i.e. as hallucinations (inner speech) and delusions (e.g. someone is putting thoughts in their heads) Growing area linking cognition and neurology ( cognitive neuroscience ) BUT: no direct experimental evidence
Evidence for genetic factors, but concordance not 100% Good evidence for neurotransmitters (DA and others) No evidence for e.g. Freudian approaches or ‘refrigerator mothers’ EE therapy suggests sensitivity to family dynamics Token economies effective for shaping behaviour, but no evidence for a conditioning basis to schizophrenia Evidence for life stress as a factor; the diathesis- stress model probably the best combined approach
TWO TYPES Unipolar depression Bipolar depression (manic-depression)
Five out of (for at least 2 weeks) Sad, depressed mood Loss of pleasure in usual things Sleeping problems Appetite changes Loss of energy Problems in concentration Change in activity level Thoughts of death and suicide Guilt and worthlessness
Depression, plus episodes of MANIA: Increased activity level Rapid speech ‘Racing’ thoughts Inflated self-esteem Less sleep than normal Distractibility Risky activities
Depression linked to stressful events over which you believe you have no control Dogs given unavoidable shocks fail to escape when given the chance (Seligman, 1974) Similar results with humans and unavoidable white noise (Hiroto & Seligman, 1975) So, you learn that trying to cope is ‘hopeless’, and this leads to depression
Depression caused by global, stable, internal attributional style e.g. failing psychology exams…….. Internal - I am stupid Global – ‘I am bad at everything’ Stable – ‘I will always be bad at everything’
Negative Triad - negative views of self, the world, and the future Negative schemata - see world in negative ways Cognitive biases - arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, magnification, minimisation etc
Some experimental support (learned helplessness) from animal work: can it be generalised? Problem of EXTRAPOLATION Human work: Alloy 1999 - long term study of students, pessimistic cognitive style predicted first onset of major depression (17% v. 1%) and relapse (27%v6%) BUT: Depressive realism - nondepressed over- estimate their control over events
Emphasises cognitive factors Lewinsohn 1981 - NO causal link in community survey of depression and negative triad and schemata BUT…Brown 1995 - more likely to develop depression under stress if negative cognitive style
Evidence for both biological and psychological explanations Strong genetic evidence for BD Strong evidence for cognitive explanations of unipolar depression, including success of cognitive-behavioural therapy Both approaches ignore socio-economic factors (Brown and Harris, 1978; depression associated with poverty and lack of social support. Convincing animal work that social isolation leads to depression)
Anxiety is a common state that is present in most people to some extent all the time. Because of this it is CO-MORBID (occurs alongside) many other conditions (e.g. depression, eating and sleep disorders, personality disorders, schizophrenia, organic disorders etc). This means that identifying a specific cause for anxiety disorders is extremely difficult.
Fear of situations, objects, or animals, leading to high states of anxiety and in some cases full-scale panic attacks. Classified into Agoraphobia, Specific phobias (e.g. animals, natural environment such as heights or storms, or situations such as flying, tunnels etc), and Social phobia
Increased risk of social phobia in first degree relatives of phobics (Kessler, 1998); 16% compared with 5% in relatives on non-phobics 66% first degree relatives of blood-injection phobics also had it (Ost, 1989) Possibly what is inherited is highly reactive bodily arousal systems, so phobias more likely to develop Against is lack of drug effectiveness in phobias, and success of behavioural methods
Behavioural - Watson and Little Albert. UCS (fear) comes to be associated with the white rat by classical conditioning ‘Preparedness’ (Seligman); we are evolutionarily prepared to ‘fear’ certain biologically significant stimuli (e.g.snakes) which condition more easily than other stimuli (e.g. flowers- Ohman, 1976)
Psychodynamic - Freud and Little Hans: anxiety created by the Oedipal complex is unconsciously displaced onto horses, which symbolise his father. No direct evidence from this or other cases. Psychotherapy for phobias is not usually effective.
‘Preparedness’ is partly a biological explanation, based on evolutionary/inherited characteristics In general, people often find it hard to identify a single ‘conditioning’ traumatic experience But therapies based on the behavioural approach are very effective, especially for specific phobias
