Year 2/A2 AQA A-Level Psychology Exam Revision Notes for Psychopathology
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Psychopathology
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AQA
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AQA Psychology for A Level Year 2
Year 2/A2 AQA A-Level Psychology exam revision notes for the option psychopathology. This is on an A3 sized paper digital paper. This has been simplified to make it easier to pick out important information and revise key notes.
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Treating phobias:
2.1 Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, The biological approach to treating OCD: Drug therapy
Systematic desensitisation [SD]
statistical infrequency and deviation from ideal mental health. Changing levels of neurotransmitters
Based on classical conditioning, counterconditioning
Statistical infrequency Low levels of serotonin are associated with OCD
• Therapy aims to gradually reduce anxiety
• Person trait, thinking, or behavior is classified as rare or statistically unusual • Drugs work to increase the level of serotonin
• Phobia is learned so the phobic stimulus [
• Be clear how rare the trait is before we classify it as abnormal Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI’s)
• CS is paired with relaxation and this beco
• Statistics is about analyzing numbers • SSRI’s prevent the reabsorption and breakdown of serotonin in the
• Reciprocal inhibition: it is not possible to b
• e.g. IQ and intellectual disability disorder; brain
same time, so one emotion prevents the
1. Average IQ = 100; IQ between 85-115 • Increases its levels in the synapse
Formation of an anxiety hierarchy
2. Only 2% have a score below 70 • Serotonin increases to stimulate the postsynaptic neuron
• Patient and therapist design an anxiety h
3. Individuals = below 70 are statistically unusual or abnormal are diagnosed • Compensates for whatever is wrong with the OCD serotonin
arranged in order from least to most frigh
with intellectual disability disorder system
• Example: an arachnophobic might ident
Failure to function adequately Typical dosage
spider as low on their anxiety hierarchy a
• Inability to cope with everyday living • Typical dosage of fluoxetine (SSRI) is 20mg although this may be most frightening [last item]
• Person may cross the line between normal and abnormal at a point where they cannot increased if it is not benefitting the patient
Relaxation practiced at each level of the hierarchy
deal with the demands of everyday life such as not being able to hold down a job • Takes 3-4 moths of daily use for SSRI’s to impact upon symptoms • Patient = first taught relaxation technique
• Rosenhan and Seligman proposed signs of failure to cope: • Can be increased e.g. 60mg a day if this is appropriate and/or meditation
1. They are no longer conform to interpersonal rules .e.g. maintaining personal Combining SSRI’s with CBT • Then work through their anxiety hierarchy
space • Drugs are often used in conjunction with CBT to treat OCD • Takes place over several sessions starting
2. They experience personal distress • Drugs reduce a patients emotional symptoms such as feeling • Treatment = successful when the person
3. They behave in a way that is irritational or dangerous anxious or depressed high on the hierarchy
• Example; intellectual disability disorder. Having a very low IQ is a statistical infrequency • Means that a patient can engage more effectively with CBT
but would not be made by this diagnosis alone. Have clear signs of the person not Alternative to SSRI’s: Tricyclics
being able to function adequately this is an example of this. • An older type of antidepressant
Deviation from ideal mental health • E.g. clomipramine
• Different way to look at normality and abnormality; what makes someone ‘normal’ and • Same effect on the serotonin system as SSRI’s but the side-effects
psychologically healthy can be more severe
• Inevitable overlap between definitions Alternatives to SSRI’s: SNRI’s
• Someone’s inability to keep a job may be seen as a sing of their failure to cope with the Flooding
• Within the last 5 years a different class of antidepressant drugs Immediate exposure to the phobic stimulus
jobs pressures so failure to function adequately, or as a deviation from the ideal of have been introduced
successfully working • Flooding involves bombarding the phobi
• SNRI’s = serotonin noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor without a gradual build up
• Jahoda listed 8 criteria for ideal mental health • Similar to tricyclics these are a second line of defence for patients
1. We have no symptoms or distress • Example; arachnophobic receiving flood
who don’t respond to SSRI’s large spider crawling over their hand unt
2. We are rational and perceive ourselves accurately
• SNRI’s increase levels of serotonin as well as noradrenaline Very quick learning through extinction
3. We self-actualize
4. We can cope with stress • Without the option of avoidance behavio
5. We have a realistic view of the world phobic stimulus is harmless through the ex
6. We have good self-esteem and lack guilt extinction
7. We are independent of other people Ethical safeguards
8. We can successfully work, love and enjoy our leisure • Flooding is not unethical but it is an unple
Deviation from social norms important that patients give informed co
• Abnormality is based on social context • Patients must be fully prepared and know
• When someone behaves differently from what they are expected to behave this may
be seen as abnormal
• Societies and social groups make collective judgments about correct behaviors in
certain situations
• Few behaviors that would be considered universally abnormal, therefore definitions =
culturally context. – includes historical differences within the same society
• e.g. antisocial personality disorder, one symptom = failure to conform to lawful and
culturally normative ethical behavior (a psychopath is abnormal because they deviate
from social norms or standards; they generally lack empathy)
2.5 The biological approach to explaining and treating
OCD: genetic and neural explanations; drug therapy
Genetic explanations
• Candidate genes
2.2 The behavioral, emotional and cognitive characteristics 1. Serotonin genes e.g. 5HT1-D
Behavioral – the way you beta are implicated in the
transmission of serotonin across
the synapse
Emotional – the way you
2. Dopamine genes are also 2.3 The behavioral approach to explaining and treating phobias
implicated in OCD Classical conditioning and operant conditioning
Cognitive – the way you 3. Both neurotransmitters have a • Orval Hobart Mowrer argued that phobias are learned by cla
role in regulating mood conditioning and then maintained by operant conditioning
• OCD is polygenic Acquisition by classical conditioning
Phobias • Different types of OCD • Classical conditioning is learning through association
Behavioral Neural explanations • UCS triggers a fear response [fear is UCR]
• Panic – may involve crying, screaming or running away • Low levels of serotonin lowers mood • Being bitten creates anxiety
• Avoidance – effort to avoid coming into contact with the phobic stimulus • Decisions-making systems in frontal lobes • NS is associated with the UCS
Emotional impaired • Being bitten by a dog – dog causes anxiety
• Anxiety and fear – fear is immediate experience when a phobic encounters or thinks about phobic stimulus (fear leads to anxiety) • Paraahippocampal gyrus dysfunction, the • NS becomes CS producing fear {fear =CR]
• Responses are unreasonable – widely disproportionate to the threat posed left Paraahippocampal gyrus is associated • the dog becomes the CS causing a CR of anxiety
Cognitive
with processing unpleasant emotions following the bite
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