...Diathesis-stress model of psychopathology is a psychological theory that attempts to explain behavior as a predisposition vulnerability together with stress from life experiences. With this model can involve a particular genetic makeup, physiology, set of cognitions, personality, or a combination of these. In infants a common disorder is autism spectrum disorder (ASD), this disorder is characterized by abnormal social and communication development, restricted interests and repetitive behavior. Individuals with autism function poorly throughout adolescents and adults, however a few seem to improve with age. No one environmental cause has been identified for this disorder to develop, researchers believe that there are multiple pathways through which autism can occur. These pathways include a variety of various environmental pollutants, toxins and viruses. Suspected causes of autism is when segments of DNA that affect neural communication have been copied too many times or too few times during cell division. This happens more often than not when the fathers are older due to the fact that in the formation of sperm, mutations and copy number variations become more common. Another theory suggested that exposure to a mercury compound (Thimerosal), this compound has formerly been used in normal childhood vaccines such as Measles, Mumps and German Measles/Rubella (MMR) This is due to the fact that children start to develop symptoms of autism during the period of time they received MMR...
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...PSYCH-205, Abnormal Psychology. PART 1: SCIENCE AND PRACTICE WHAT IS ABNORMAL? * It is behavior, specifically persistent behavior associated with cognitive, emotional, or perceptual distortions that are not socially acceptable, and are potentially dangerous. Many behaviors fit the criteria, but are not considered abnormal. Astronauts for example are not considered to be psychologically abnormal despite engaging in dangerous and persistently deviant behaviors. Legal insanity is different from a clinical diagnosis, although a clinical diagnosis will determine whether or not a person can be judged insane by a court. To define behavior as abnormal, it must meet the following standards. 1. Distressful – It is upsetting for self and others. 2. Dysfunctional – It is maladaptive, inhibits personal goals or ability to function on own. 3. Dangerous – Potentially to self or others. 4. Deviant – Is not tolerated by cultural norms and/or is statistically odd, keeping in mind context of behavior. (Religious practice gets a pass.) 5. *Duration – Behaviors, Affects and/or Cognitions are persistent regardless of circumstance over time. 6. *Detachment – Person holds beliefs or acts in ways that do not correspond to reality. (Religious practice gets a pass.) TYPES OF RESEARCH- One and two apply only to the social sciences, whereas three, four and five apply to both natural and social sciences, with exception to history, which relies solely on case studies and...
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...The present study examines the ways in which early maltreatment can negatively influence adult psychopathology. More specifically, how child abuse and neglect (physical, sexual, and emotional) can increase the chances of acquiring externalizing disorders such as antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and psychopathy in adult criminal offenders (Dargis, Newman, & Koenigs, 2015). The study also examines the effects child abuse has on developing juvenile conduct disorder, which is the diagnostic criterion for ASPD. The researchers had three predictions: 1. childhood physical abuse would correlate with all three disorders; 2. emotional and sexual abuse would relate to CD and ASPD, but only the “lifestyle and criminal” aspects of psychopathy; 3. and...
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...“Defining psychopathology (abnormal behaviour) can be difficult when it comes to mental health. Identify, explain the clinical characteristics of ONE disorder, and evaluate one biological and one psychological explanation for the chosen disorder using research evidence.” This essay will define schizophrenia and evaluate one biological and one psychological explanation of the illness. According to Cardwell and Flanagan (2004) schizophrenia symptoms are divided into positive and negative symptoms. Cardwell and Flanagan (2004) states that the diagnostic criteria from DSM IVR (2000) identifies positive symptoms as delusions, experiences of control, auditory hallucinations and disorganised thinking. The negative symptoms are affective flattening, alogia and avolition. The essay will explain difficulties of defining abnormality before evaluating the explanations for the disorder. According to Eysenck (2012) one way of defining abnormality is deviation from social norms. Eysenck (2012) defines social norms as rules of what forms of behaviour and attitudes are acceptable within a society. Therefore behaviour that does not follow accepted social patterns is considered abnormal. According to Eysenck (2012), the social deviance approach gives too much importance to behaviour and not what is going on inside a person. An example would be that of a person suffering from major depressive disorder. The person tries hard to behave in a way acceptable to the public in spite of the fact...
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...Classifying Psychopathology Categorical and Dimensional Approaches 4225 Loyola University Chicago Classifying Psychopathology: Categorical and Dimensional Approaches The classification of mental disorders is a fundamental component to the science and practice of psychopathology (Widiger & Sankis, 2000). Despite this centrality, evidence supporting the distinction between healthy functioning and mental disorders remains disjointed. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) defines a mental disorder in part as “… a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction...
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...Discuss the psychodynamic approach to psychopathology. (12 marks) Psychopathology is the study of abnormality. Abnormality is a psychological behaviour that deviates from the norm or is harmful and distressing to those around them. The psychodynamic approach to psychopathology looks at what drives us to behave in a particular way. Freud believed that a mental disorder is caused by unresolved conflicts of childhood which are unconscious. According to Freud the human mind or psyche consists of the id, ego and superego and conflict between these cause anxiety. The id is the irrational part of our personality which uses the pleasure principle: it seeks to have fun. The ego is the conscious rational part of personality, it uses the reality principle. The superego is the moral sense of right and wrong. Conflict between the id, ego and superego create anxiety. The id demands gratification which causes conflict with the superego’s sense of right and wrong. The ego then must step in between the two to restore them to reality and then proceeds to defend itself against the anxiety caused by using ego defence mechanisms.examples of ego defence mechanisms are: repression, denial, projection etc. These are all part of the unconscious mind, here memories and information that are hard to bring into the conscious mind exist. This has a powerful effect on behaviour which frequently leads to distress because the person does not understand why they are acting a particular...
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...M5 ASSIGNENT2 RA 2 FP6005 Maladaptive Behavior & Psychopathology psychology/ M5 Assignment 2: RA2: Course Project Task II (Etiology and Treatment) Etiology and Treatment This assignment follows up on your M3 A2 assignment in which you made primary and secondary diagnoses and also considered some of the differential diagnoses for your chosen case. Please do the following: - Modify your diagnoses (if needed) based upon the feedback I gave or the questions I asked you to spur your thinking; - Read five (5) peer-reviewed sources on the etiology of both your primary and secondary diagnosis. - Read five (5) peer-reviewed sources on the treatment of both your primary and secondary diagnosis. - Your paper should have these sections with the headings in bold: - - introduction o etiology of primary diagnosis o Etiology of secondary diagnosis o Therapeutic modality of primary diagnosis o Therapeutic modality of secondary diagnosis o Justification of the Selected Therapeutic Modality for the Primary Diagnosis o Justification of the Selected Therapeutic Modality for the Secondary Diagnosis o Application of the Treatment for the Primary Diagnosis o Application of the Treatment for the Secondary Diagnosis. o Citations / References in APA style. **Please focus on this, as this is still an issue. - The total page should be 8-10 pages. - NOTE: The developed emphasized that you should...
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...Outline and evaluate the behavioural approach to psychopathology (12 marks) One assumption of the behavioural approach is that only behaviour is important and that this behaviour is learned through experience. The processes of this learning include classical conditioning where associations are made between one thing and the other. Operant conditioning where abnormal behaviour is reinforced or the social learning theory (SLT) where abnormal behaviours are learnt vicariously. For example, a child may observe its mother obsessively cleaning the house and being praised by the father for doing so. This consequence (e.g. praise) may be enough to initiate the same abnormal behaviour (e.g. OCD) in the child. The behaviourist approach assumes that abnormal behaviours that have been learnt can be unlearnt using the same processes (operant conditioning, classical conditioning and SLT). So, undesirable or abnormal behaviour e.g. a phobia, can be replaced with more desirable or normal behavior using therapies such as systematic desensitisation. One strength of the behavioural approach is that therapy can focus directly on the client's maladaptive behaviour. For example, if a patient suffers from arachnophobia then the treatment can be directed solely towards getting rid of the fear of spiders instead of referring to the client's previous or medical history. This shows that changing the behaviour from maladaptive to adaptive is sufficient for a cure. One...
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...Outline and Evaluate the Behavioural Approach to Psychopathology The behaviourist approach assumes that all behaviours are learnt. It suggests that there are three ways in which this learning can happen, these are classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning. The first method is classical conditioning this is when behaviour is learnt through association; via a stimulus and a response. This is an explanation for phobias, an abnormal behaviour can be learned by associating an environmental stimulus; a dog, with a biological response; fear and pain when bitten by the dog. Therefore, every time a person previously bitten by a dog sees a dog, they experience the same fear they felt when being bitten. Thus, the person would develop a phobia of dogs. Another example is, the fear of small spaces, this may develop if fear is felt in a situation involving a small space – an elevator for example. Therefore a past distressing event in the elevator may lead to associating fear with small spaces. The second way is operant conditioning, this is when behaviour is learnt through positive reinforcement; rewarded by a pleasant outcome or a negative reinforcement; rewarded by the removal of the unpleasant condition. This can be associated to abnormalities like anorexia for example. If a person is dieting and they then begin to gain compliments from the weight loss, these compliments act as a positive reinforcement and they will carry on behaving the same way. If this were to...
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...The biological approach states that psychological disorders are physical illnesses, and that the cause may be one or more of the following: brain injury, infection, neurotransmitters or genetics. Accidental brain damage can lead to psychological disorders. Some examples are, a degeneration or malformation of brain cells can cause memory loss often present in Alzheimer’s disease. Korsakoff’s syndrome occurs when alcohol and drugs damage part of the brain involved with memory. We are familiar with the idea that bacteria or viruses causing physical illnesses, e.g. flu or meningitis, however it seems that infection can also cause mental illnesses. For example, influenza has been linked to schizophrenia. Torrey found that the mothers of schizophrenic people had contacted a particular strain of influenza during pregnancy. The virus may enter the unborn child’s brain where it is dormant until puberty, when other hormones activate it, producing schizophrenic symptoms. Neurotransmitters are thought to be out of balance in the nervous systems id individuals with certain psychological disorders/ mental illnesses. Depression has been associated with decrease availability of serotonin, and has also been associated with higher than normal levels of the cortisol hormone. Images of the brain have measured the action of neurotransmitters and associated illness like depression, (Mann et al. 1996). Important new genetic research has highlighted the possibility that some people may be genetically...
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...Japonism From the 1860’s uklyo-e Japenese wood block prints, became a source of inspiration for many European impressionists painters in france and elsewhere. Artists were especially affected by the lack of perspective and shadow, the flat areas of strong colour, the compositional freedom in placing the subject off-center, with mostly a low diagonal axis to the background. Unlike other varieties of orientalism, Japonism mostly involved Western artists using elements of Eastern styles in work showing their own culture; if only because of the difficulty of travel, there were relatively few artists attempting Eastern scenes in a Western style. Much of the Japanese art, which found it's way across the seas to Europe and America was of the ukiyo-e. At first this consisted mainly of prints produced by the artists of the time, but as Western appreciation for the art form increased, the work of the Edo Period masters became increasingly sought after by collectors. To western observers the work of the Edo Period epitomized the Japanese tradition, unlike modern prints, which were already showing the influence of Western art. The man who can be seen as the first true champion of Japonism was the French impressionist painter and etcher Félix Bracquemond . Around 1856 Bracquemond discovered a set of Hokusai's manga sketches in Paris and was soon extolling their virtues to his circle of friends and acquaintances. Through his efforts artists such as Manet, Pierre Bonnard, Henri de...
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...All behaviours are learned through processes of classical and operant conditioning. • Classical conditioning- learning by association. For example, Little Albert had a fear of sudden loud noises as all children do. In this case, at the same time he was given a rat and the loud noise started which later made him to associate the rat with a sudden noise. Although he also showed a fear of a rat even when there was no noise at all. But before the experiment Little Albert showed no fear at a rat which means that the fear was learned. • Operant conditioning – learning through reinforcement. If a behaviour is rewarded it is much more likely to be repeated again and again. For example, if a child starts to scream and goes into a panic attack parents will receive a lot of attention which will be of course rewarding for them. This can after lead to the behaviour to be repeated in the future. But this can also be seen as an abnormal way of getting what the human wants. However, behaviourists are focusing only on the influence of external factors which means that they didn’t look at the factors such as genetics. The model has made a variety of treatments but they don’t always address straight to the causes of abnormality but only changing the symptom. Also, it is absolutely impossible to explain many phobias because this model is told that learning needs to be direct and personally experienced. But this criticism is not very reliable because nowadays SLT proposes that a child can...
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...Describe and evaluate the biological method of psychopathology (12 Marks) By Amy Smith The biological model (which is also known as ‘the somatic model’) assumes that all psychological disorders are physical illnesses. This model of psychopathology labels mental disorders like this and therefore has both positive and negative outcomes. The biological model states that the causes of mental disorders are normally down to one or more of the following four; genetics, neurotransmitters, infections and brain injury. Neurotransmitters are when there is too much or too little of a particular neurotransmitter such as an increased level of dopamine can lead to schizophrenia. People can increase their dopamine levels by taking drugs such as cocaine which therefore is why schizophrenia is linked so much with cocaine. A piece of research which I have studied is the Gottesman study. This was the study of the meta-analysis twins. Gottesman studied approximately 40 twins (monozygotic and dizygotic twins) and found that the monozygotic twins had a 48% chance of developing schizophrenia if one twin had schizophrenia already, however in dizygotic twins there was only a 17% chance. This piece of research proves that genes are a reason for developing psychological illnesses. The treatments associated with the biological method are drugs such as medication to change the neurotransmitter levels in the brain which can therefore relieve symptoms of the mental illnesses. Another treatment is psychosurgery...
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...Classifying Abnormality Paper Alycia Moss PSY/410 September 7, 2011 Laurie Rhia Classifying Abnormality Paper Many efforts have been made to try to classify abnormal behavior, by utilizing some type of diagnostic categorizing system. These efforts have progressed from methods that vaguely lists disorders, to more thorough, modern methods, like DSM- IV- TR, this method lists numerous amounts of different mental disorders. Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, abnormal/maladaptive behavior. Psychopathology is a term commonly used in psychiatry whereas pathology relates to disease progressions. The standard classification system for psychopathology is the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual (DSM-1). The DSM is a manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association, listing the official diagnostic classifications of mental disorders. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DMS-1) is the official manual listing psychiatric and psychological disorders. This manual was published by the American Psychiatric Association in 1952, takes its coding scheme from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which is a diagnostic manual for all medical diseases. The DSM was commonly used by physicians/medical professionals, insurance companies and many courts systems. Courts used the DSM to define and diagnose mental disorders, and the diagnostics code that was attached to the case would regulate insurance reimbursements...
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...THE BIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO PSYCHOPATHOLOGY Approaches to psychopathology are based on different views of the CAUSE of abnormality. The models have different views about how abnormality comes about in the first place Assumptions of the biological model • Abnormality is caused by physical factors – as all behaviour is associated with changes in brain function, abnormal behaviour will be caused by changes in either the structure or function of the brain. - For example in terms of the structure of the brain (neuroanatomy) a damaged hypothalamus has been linked to anorexia - In terms of the function of the brain, neurotransmitters and hormones have been linked to psychopathology, e.g. low levels of serotonin have been lined to depression. • Abnormality is inherited – the genetic view is that there are abnormal genes that are inherited, i.e. passed down from parents to children, even though they may not be shown in every generation. Family, twin and adoption studies are used to establish concordance rates (this shows the extent to which members of the same family share a particular characteristic) to test for genetic predispositions as an explanation of abnormality. - For example Holland et al (1988) found a 56% concordance rate for identical twins (MZ) and only a 5% concordance rate for non-identical twins (DZ) in anorexia nervosa which supports the idea of a genetic basis for abnormality. Evaluation of the biological model Strengths ...
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