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An array of mental health disorders exist within England alone, with 1 in 4 people said to experience a mental health problem each year. With such a high prevalence of mental health disorders, the need to correctly study, diagnose, and treat these disorders is paramount. This is where psychopathology comes in. But what is psychopathology? Let's find out.
Study of the brain, Canva
Psychopathology is the study of psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety and phobias. The key to diagnosing these disorders is a person's behaviour. If someone behaves abnormally they may have a psychological condition. There are different approaches to treating psychological disorders: behavioural, biological and cognitive.
Psychopathology is defined using abnormal (maladaptive) behaviour, but how do we define behaviour as abnormal?
Abnormal behaviour is statistically infrequent. If behaviours deviate from the population enough, these behaviours can then be deemed abnormal. Some psychopathologies are not as rare as they once were, however, and this comes from improved diagnostic tools and better education.
Only 1% of people can touch their nose with their tongue so that behaviour is abnormal. IQ is another example, so low IQ or high IQ can be seen as abnormal, however, those with a higher IQ are generally not seen as having a negative trait, so we can see why statistical infrequency is not a concrete measuring tool.
Abnormal behaviour may also deviate from social norms, such as someone pushing into the front of a queue. Social norms are unwritten and are tolerant to cultural differences:
If one culture normally covers their hair or face, it would not be seen as abnormal. However, those outside of that culture may deem it abnormal. Individuality may also be frowned upon.
Abnormal behaviour may also prevent proper function. They cannot function or cope with daily life challenges. However, abnormal behaviour doesn't account for psychopaths, for instance, who technically display abnormal behaviour but function optimally in society.
Those who have depression may not feel well enough to go to work every day. These behaviours are frowned upon by observers. This is highly subjective, however, as what is unacceptable to some is not unacceptable to others.
Finally, abnormal behaviour is that which deviates from ideal mental health, like becoming anxious every time you leave the house.
Ideal mental health has six features: environmental mastery, resisting stress, positive self attitudes, autonomy, accurate reality perception, and self-actualisation.
Individuality is the focus here (holistic approach) and is inherently a western concept due to the focus on individuality. This is hard to achieve for some, however, and has issues with being widely applicable.
Psychopathology is the study of these abnormalities and their associated mental health disorders. Here, we have established focus areas for your exams.
Fear becomes a mental disorder when it begins to affect our lives and our ability to function. We can identify when fear has become a phobia through identifying behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics.
A behavioural characteristic of a phobia would be avoidance of the object, an emotional characteristic would be high levels of anxiety around the object, and a cognitive characteristic would be irrational beliefs about the object.
An example of a phobia includes:
Arachnophobia, the fear of spiders.
Top tip! There are numerous ways to treat phobias but for your exams, you will need to know the behavioural approach which uses conditioning and desensitisation to help patients.
Depression is a low mood that lasts for an extended period of time and affects your everyday life. There are many types of depression and different ways of treating it such as medication and therapy. Again, identifying depression involves behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics.
For instance, weight loss would be a behavioural characteristic, low mood would be an emotional characteristic, and poor concentration would be a cognitive characteristic of depression.
An example of depression includes:
Seasonal Affective Disorder, depression caused by changes in weather and light throughout the year.
Top tip! For your exam, you will need to know the cognitive approach to depression, which treats depression by addressing and changing your thought processes.
OCD is a mental illness that causes recurrent thoughts and compulsions which interfere with everyday activities. These are beyond the sufferer’s control, take up a significant part of their day and aren’t enjoyable.
For instance, excessive checking is a behavioural characteristic, anxiety caused by these excessive checking behaviours is an emotional characteristic, and recurring thoughts of worst-case scenarios are cognitive characteristics.
An example of OCD includes:
Thinking that if you don’t turn the lights on and off in your house before you go to bed, your family will die is an example of OCD.
Top tip! For A-Level Psychology, you will study the biological approach to explaining and treating OCD using drug therapies.
Each approach – behavioural, emotional, and cognitive – addresses certain areas or symptoms when trying to treat the disorder.
The symptoms of psychopathology are disputed. Some think that psychopathology can be identified through deviation from social and statistical norms. Others think that an inability to deal with everyday life and poor mental health are signs of psychopathological conditions such as OCD, depression and anxiety.
No. Psychopathology simply refers to the scientific study of mental disorders such as phobias. Being a psychopath is a type of psychological disorder characterised by a lack of empathy and antisocial behaviour.
No. In many cases the definitions of psychopathology are culturally and temporally dependent, meaning that not all definitions of psychopathology are universal.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Psychopathology is the scientific study of psychological disorders.
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