Perspectives in Psychology

• Danger - to oneself or to others
• Deviance - violations of society's ideas about normality
     can change as societal norms change e.g. homosexuality
• Distress - experienced by person or the family
     can be quite subjective
• Dysfunction - distortion of perceptual or cognitive functioning

Believed abnormal behaviour was a consequence of spirits or Gods (supernatural forces)

Arguments such as good vs evil, God vs Devil

Augmented by public fear and anxiety - harder to challenge

Treated with exorcism, trephination

Beliefs based on Babylonian ideas

Greeks started naming and describing disorders

Hippocrates made link between brain and mental illness
   However, thought it was due to an imbalance of bodily fluids

Tried to treat mental problems by dealing with physical issues
   Supportive atmosphere, music, massage exercise, baths, sobriety, vegetarian diet

Plagues, wars,uprisings caused by the Devil

(Almost went backwards in terms of thinking)

Witch trials

Medical view started reappearing at the end of the middle ages

Asylums - hospitals and convertedd monastries
   Started as a way of treating, became twisted, stigmatised (e.g. Bedlam)

Pilgrimages

Starting treating 'mentally ill' with care, respect and dignity

Pinel - campaigned to unchain patients

Psychiatrists were called 'Alienists'

Phrenology, coma therapy, lobotomies

As recoveries dwindled, prejudices emerged

Conceptual models = frames of reference, provide a way of understanding and explaining behaviours

Have a basic aetiological assumption or hypothesis about a phenomenon

Develop when there is a consistency in types of behaviours which require an explanation

Models may persist due to plausibility, or advocates maintaining belief in it

/ Increases resistance to other views - once accepted by large population, very difficult to propose alternative views 
/ Affect who is identified as abnormal, what criteria is used, the treatment, public attitude, types of institutions used

Mind made up of Id, Ego and SuperEgo - mental illness caused by internal struggles, imbalance

Unpleasant thoughts, impulses and wishes are repressed  - causing psychological issues
   Transformed into dreams, which can be interpreted

Defense mechanisms

• Denial - motivated forgetting of distressing experiences
• Identification with the aggressor - adopting the psychological characteristics of people we find threatening
• Rationalisation - providing reasonable sounding explanations for unreasonable behaviours
• Regression - returning psychologically to a younger, safer time
• Repression - motivated forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or impulses

* Helped to understand abnormal functioning is rooted in same processes as normal functioning
/ Relies solely on case studies
/ Fails to establish guidelines
/ Little support for this approach

Treat patients with unconditional, positive regard

Dysfunction is caused by self-deception (gap between ideal self and real self)

When overwhelmed, we conform excessively, looking to others, which builds resentment

Abdicating responsibilities leads to emptiness, inauthenticity, anxiety, frustration, alienation, depression

* Optimistic

* Patients have potential yet to be fulfilled / May place (too much) responsibility on patient

Abnormal behaviour is learnt, the same as any behaviour

Classical conditioning - process of learning by temporal association
Operant conditioning - process of learning by reinforcement

* Can be tested

* Easier to treat than identify actual cause

*/ Helps people to think in different ways

/ Actual behaviour doesn't always follow basic principles

Cognition = mental processes of perceiving, recognising, conceiving, judging and reasoning
   Cognition is the centre of thought, emotions and behaviour

Upsetting or automatic thoughts, intrusive thoughts = abnormal thinking
Maladaptive or irrational assumptions guide thoughts that lead to less happiness

Illogical thinking processes 
1. Selective perception - noticing when someone is negative towards you, but not positve
2. Magnification - exaggerating the scale of the problem
3. Overgeneralisation - thinking a problem is broader than it is

* Can be tested, but mostly requires introspection

* Shown to be effective with depression, anxiety and sexual disorders

/ Narrow scope

Caused by organic defects - Behavioural genetics, genetics, biochemistry, neurotransmitters

GABA, Dopamine, Norepibephrine, Serotonin - the neurotransmitters usually affected

Treatment usually includes psychotropic drugs
 Psychoadtive drugs change neurotransmitter activity

* Helpful for range of issues

*/ Doesn't preclude any psychological interventions

/ Questions whether biology causes psychology or vice versa

Some genes have stronger links to mental illnesses (reciprocal gene-environment interaction?)
May predispose people to seek out situations that increase likelihood of disorder

Could use gene therapy in the future

Links abnormal psychology to social class - patterns show various in different cultures

Societies undergoing major change usually show higher numbers of mental illness

Prejudice and discrimination based on race, sex or age makes health and life satisfaction harder

/ Research sometimes inaccurate or difficult to interpret

/ Studies failed to support predictions

/ WEIRD

No model is consistently superior to others
All factors are relevant
There are predisposing (genes) and precipitating factors (experience)

Predisposition + environmental stressors --> development of disorder

Environmental stressors = prenatal trauma, abuse, family conflict, significant life changes

Stout, 2004

Mentally ill seen as incapable of caring for themselves

Institutionalised programmes diagnose and treat disorders
   Mentally ill receive care in hospitals and are seen by specially trained staff

Funds allocated to communities - build institutions, train staff, support research

Model often assumes that there is a connection between physical and mental diseases
Assumes pathological processes are genetic, biophysical or psychogenic

Heredity - acknowledged as important determinant of biological and psychological make-up
1. Hereditary disposes people to act in a certain way
2. Genetic factors are primary or exclusive determinates

Some genes have stronger links to mental illnesses (reciprocal gene-environment interaction?)
May predispose people to seek out situations that increase likelihood of disorder

Genetic contribution provide te conditions that could alloe psychopathy to occur
Environment can play factor in probability of triggering the disorder

Could use gene therapy in the future

• Family-risk method
  Greater relationship between trait and closeness of  blood ties, the higher the incidence of trait
• Pedigree method
  May uncover tentative relationships
• Twin study
  Can determine genetic vs environmental effects

• Adoption studies
  Compares children who have different genetics but same foster home
  If incident rate of disorder is higher, genetic transmission can be inferred

Environmental influence important, but genetic structure determines behaviour
   Genetic transmission, enzymatic control, mutative effects

Genetic vulnerability - biological characteristics interact with noxious environment

Characterised by quest for toxic agent which is necessary and sufficient to produce mental illness

Genetics could be responsible for aberrant structures or changes in neurochemistry of neurotransmitters
   (used for communication and mediation in CNS)

Current emphasis on identifying deficiencies in neurochemistry

Imbalance of monoamines --> schizophrenia??
Elevated levels of dopamine and norepinephrine metabolites found in schizophrenia patients

Strong links of hyperactivity and childhood psychosis
Assumption that descriptive differences in peripheral measures have aetiological implications

Ethical considerations have prevented direct experimental measures
Poor diagnostic agreement

Assumes aetiology of abnormal behaviour is in brain structures that are inherited, congental or acquired

Defects, insults or damage the brain provide physical basis for disordered thinking and behaviour

Brain lesions caused by cooling, radiation, electrolysis or chemical means have been used for studies
   Can't go round putting in lesions (ethics) but can use those who have lesions for epilepsy

Can use electrical stimulation for investigations
   Can cause extra tissue damage
   Need to consider the intensity of stimulation

EEG records electrical activity of the brain by uing elctrodes
   Not useful for diagnosing psychiatric conditions
   Can measure cerebral activity evoked by sensory stimulation (associated with psychopathology)

Diagnostic inaccuracies, confounding effects of institutionaliztion, incomplete understanding

Cortical response associated with attention

Marked by slow rise in negative potential when anticipating presentation of stimuli

Thought of as reflecting a transitory state of increased arousal, terminated after response is made

Skin conductance can be used to measure brain activity
   measures the change in skin resistance as a result of sweat-gland activity

Freud - Every human act occurs as a function of prior mental events and not chance

Anxiety stems from fear of punishment for expressing instincual drives, guilt for not following societal norms and dangers of real world
   Tension state determined by external factors - danger signal and motivator to reduce stress

Relationship between ego and id gives rise to neurosis

Little empirical support for this model

Carl Jung - collective unconscious
   Abnormal behaviour = inability to integrate personality

Alfred Adler - environment and social factors
   Abnormal behaviour = inferiority complex

Harry Stack Sullivan = disordered interpersonal relationships

Focuses exclusively on external variables as determinants for abnormal behaviour

Believe in potenc of cultural mores, social systems, economic influences, unique life experience