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PSYCHOPATHOLOGY - Coggle Diagram
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
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ELLIS'S ABC MODEL
AO1
ELLISS proposes that everyone holds unique beliefs about our world that determine our reactions to situations.
he says depression is not caused by negative life events but by irrational thoughts triggered by the life event.
A- negative event
B-irrational belief
C-unhealthy negative emotion
AO3
-not clear if faulty cognitions are a cause of effect of depression
-negative cognitions can just be an accurate view of the world= depressive realism
-study: when p's are manipulated into having negative assumptions they became more anxious and depressed.
TREATMENT- CBT
AO1
CBT = changes the way clients think- challenges irrational thought processes and creates new thinking patterns.
-our thoughts determine our feelings and behaviour.
-clients get set homework by the therapist- tasks to help them. challenge their irrational thoughts.
CBT is used when a clients faulty thinking is effecting their life in a negative way.
AO3
strengths:
-has been effective in treating depression- longer lasting results than drugs
-client feels empowered as they are helping themselves and involved.
-tends to be short- 3-6 months.
limitations:
-depressive realism
-study: when p's were manipulated into having negative thoughts they were more likely to become more anxious and depressed.
BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH TO PHOBIAS
CHARACTERISTICS OF PHOBIA
AO1
phobias= type of anxiety disorder, a persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable.
symptoms are either:
behavioural= the stimulus is avoided or responded to w anxiety, avoidance causes negative reinforcement.
emotional= exposure to the phobic stimulus produces a rapid anxiety response.
-cognitive= the person is aware that the anxiety levels in relation to the feared thing is unreasonable.
DSM has 3 categories of phobias:
AGORAPHOBIA- fear of open spaces
SOCIAL PHOBIA- intense fear of social situations
SPECIFIC PHOBIAS- fear of a specific object.
TREATMENT- SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION
AO1
systematic desensitisation- behavioural therapy based on classical conditioning, aims to remove the fear response of phobia and substitute a relaxation response instead.
3 phases to treatment:
- patient is taught relaxation techniques.
- patient creates a fear hierarchy starting at stimuli that create the least anxiety and building up to most anxiety provoking.
- patient works their way up the hierarchy whilst practising the relaxation techniques.
usually 4-6 sessions
exposure can be done by either:
-in vitro- the client imagines exposure to the phobic stimulus
-in vivo- the client is acc exposed to the feared stimulus.
in vivo techniques tend to be more successful.AO3
practical issues
-in vitro relies on client being able to imagine the fearful situation- not always effective.
-quite a slow process
theoretical issues
-not effective in treating serious mental disorders like depression or schizophrenia.
-studies show the relaxation isn't important its just the exposure.
empirical evidence
ROTHBAUM- used SD w ppl who were afraid of flying- found anxiety levels were lower than those of a control group who had not done SD.
ethical issues
SD creates high levels of anxiety when p's are initially exposed.
TREATMENT- FLOODING
AO1
flooding- works by exposing the patient directly to their worst fear. aims to expose the sufferer for an extended period of time in a safe controlled environment.
-fear is a time limited response, eventually exhaustion sets in and anxiety levels begin to drop and the fear is extinguished.
it prevents negative reinforcement through escape or avoidance.
AO3
-can be dangerous and if not careful can increase the patients fear.
-the success of the method confirms the hypothesisis that phobias are so persistent because the object is avoided irl.
-WOLPE- forced girl w fear of car into car and drove her around for hours- initially she reached high levels of anxiety but eventually her fear completely disappeared.
BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT- DRUGS
drugs that mainly affect neurotransmitters other than serotonin are of little or no value in treating OCD.
AO3
-studies using drugs have shown a reduction in dopamine levels is positively correlated with a reduction in OCD symptoms.
-experiments the inject animals w dopamine increasing drugs cause the animals to show OCD type behaviours.
-SOOMRO ET AL found that SSRI were significantly better than placebos in reducing symptoms in 17 trials.
limitations= research results relating to serotonin are varied- there is a great deal of contradictory research.
success of drug treatment doesn't necessarily mean biochemicals are the cause of OCD.
eg aspirin works for treating a headache but this doesn't mean a headache was caused by the lack of aspirin.
THE TWO PROCESS MODEL
AO1
-phobias are the result of classically conditioned association between an anxiety provoking unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and a previously neutral stimulus.
E.G. a child gets bitten by a dog and forms a fear of dogs bcos of the pain- due to generalisation the child is scared of all dogs.
OPERANT CONDITIONING can explain how the phobia is maintained= the avoidance of the feared object lessens the feeling of stress which is rewarding, the rewarding feeling is negative reinforcement and the phobia is maintained.
AO3
WATSON & RAYNER- used classical conditioning to create a phobia in Little Albert- associated white rat with loud noise.
SELIGMAN- suggests humans have biological preparedness to develop certain phobias to survive.
OST & HUGDAHL- claim that nearly half of ppl w phobias have never had an anxious encounter w feared object.
-cognitive approach criticises behavioural approach bcos doesn't take into account mental processes