Accompanying lecture notes for the Week 3 PSYC 3553 lecture.

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PSYC 3553 – Psychopathology
Week 3: Perspectives on Abnormality • September 22, 2009
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What is a paradigm?
• Framework
• Set of assumptions providing guidelines for research
and practice
• Major schools of thought:
• Biological
• Psychoanalytic
• Behavioural
• Cognitive
The Biological Paradigm
• Also known as the medical or disease model
• Guiding belief: Behaviour is linked to physical
causes, brought on by malfunctioning components
of the body
• In psychopathology, mainly focuses on brain
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Biological Explanations of
Psychopathology
1. Brain anatomy: problems in brain structure
 Swelling
 Atrophy
e.g.:
 Huntington’s disease & basal ganglia (forebrain) 
motor difficulties
 Stroke & temporal lobe swelling  speech deficits
Biological Perspective:
Structural Abnormalities
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Parts of the Brain
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Biological Explanations of
Psychopathology
• Biochemistry
• Electrical impulses travel
along neurons
• Reaches the end, releases
neurotransmitters
• The chemicals will either
excites or inhibits the
nearby neurons
Examples of
Neurotransmitters
• Norepinephrine: Arousal  anxiety
• Serotonin: Mood, sleep, hunger  depression
• Dopamine: Movement, pain/pleasure, attention 
schizophrenia
• GABA: Inhibitory neurotransmitter  anxiety
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Biological Explanations of
Psychopathology
• Also, the endocrine system
• Implicated by working with neurons to release
hormones
• E.g., hippocampus, stress and the release of cortisol
• Memory impairments
Biological Explanations of
Psychopathology
3. Genetics
 Inheriting mutated or
missing genes
 Unable (yet) to identify
specific gene
 Or extent genetic factors
contribute to disorders
E.g.
 Schizophrenia & twin
studies
Biological Explanations of
Psychopathology
• Family method: relatives of the affected individual
• Twin studies: study pairs of MZ and DZ twins
• Adoption studies: study twins in/out of family home
• Linkage analysis: co-occurring genetics (e.g., eye
colour and illness)
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Biological Treatments
• Three main types of biological treatment:
• Drug therapy (1950s)
• Antianxiety drugs (anxiolytics, tranquilizers)
• Antidepressant drugs
• Antibipolar drugs (mood stabilizers)
• Antipsychotic drugs
• Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
• Psychosurgery (e.g., lobotomy)
Evaluating Biological Paradigm
• Strengths:
• Huge progress on mental illness research
• Respected and accepted by society
• Weaknesses:
• Reductionism – making it too simple
• Inconclusive evidence
• Possibility of negative/severe side effects
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The Psychoanalytic Paradigm
• Psychotherapy: social therapist-client interaction
• Sigmund Freud: father of psychodynamic theory
and psychoanalytic therapy
• Guiding belief: behaviour is linked to underlying
dynamic psychological forces of which she or he is not
aware
The Psychoanalytic Paradigm
• The id: basic urges for survival (food, water…)
• Direct gratification or by primary process thinking
• The ego: deals with reality
• The superego: conscience
• Healthy personality: compromise between these
forces
The Psychoanalytic Paradigm
• Psychosexual stages of development
• Oral stage: feeding
• Anal stage: bowel movements
• Phallic stage: genital stimulation
• Latency period
• Genital stage: adult sexual impulses
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Psychodynamic Explanations of
Psychopathology
1. Fixation at a stage
 Unsuccessful
developmental stage
e.g. – Anal retentiveness &
obsession with cleanliness
 OCD?
e.g. – Neurotic anxiety
e.g. – Moral anxiety
Psychodynamic Explanations of
Psychopathology
2. Resolving the Oedipal/Electra complex
• Freud claimed that resolving the complex was
critical…
• …to superego development
• …to future romantic relationship success
• …to future views of intimacy and expression of
sexual desires
Psychodynamic Explanations of
Psychopathology
3. Coping with anxiety – defense mechanisms
• Repression
• Denial
• Projection
• Regression
• Rationalization
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Variations on Freudian Theory
• Ego theorists
• Emphasize the role of the ego; consider it independent
• Self theorists
• Emphasize unified personality over any one component
• Object-relations theorists
• Emphasize human need for interpersonal relationships
Psychodynamic Therapies
 Classical psychoanalysis: Gain insight into repressed conflicts
and resistances
 Ego analysis: Use classical techniques but focus more on
current living conditions
 Brief psychodynamic therapy: Short-term, target specific
problems
 Interpersonal therapy: Emphasis on present relationships with
others
Assessing Psychoanalytic Paradigm
• Strengths:
• Elevated psychological theories and “internal forces” as
possible cause of illness
• First to apply theory and techniques systematically to
treatment – monumental impact on the field
• Weaknesses:
• Unsupported ideas (anecdotal evidence)
• Lead the client into focusing on certain experiences
• Difficult to research
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Cognitive & Behavioral Paradigms
• Guiding beliefs:
• Behavioural: abnormal behaviour is learned and
maintained over a time period
• Cognitive: abnormal behaviour results from how a
person attends to, interprets, and uses available
information
• Looking at overt behaviour versus internal
processes
Behavioural Explanations of
Psychopathology
• Classical & operant conditioning, modeling
• John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner, Albert Bandura
• Classical conditioning – Pavlov, Watson
• Events become associated in time, so person reacts
same way to both events
e.g.:
• Phobias – the Little Albert experiment
Example: Classical Conditioning
US UR
Gong Fear
US NS UR
+
Gong Rabbit Fear
CS CR
Rabbit Fear
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Behavioural Explanations of
Psychopathology
2. Operant conditioning – Thorndike, Skinner
Behaviour associated with reward will be repeated: law of effect
Shaping - successive approximations
e.g.: Conduct disorder and aggressive behaviour
Behavioural Explanations of
Psychopathology
3. Modeling – Bandura
• “Copying” others’ actions
• Attention, retention,
reproduction, motivation
e.g.: Learning from parents…
• …addictive behaviours
• …phobias
Behavioural Therapies
• The goal: identify behaviors causing problems and
replace them with more appropriate ones
• Classical conditioning: systematic desensitization
• Operant conditioning: token economies
• Modeling: role playing
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Assessing Behavioural Paradigm
• Strengths:
• Powerful force in the field
• Rooted in empiricism
• Significant research support for behavioral therapies
• Weaknesses:
• Too simplistic
• Unrealistic
• Downplays role of cognition
Cognitive Explanations of
Psychopathology
 Schemas: past experiences shape interpretation
 Maladaptive thinking
 Faulty assumptions and attitudes
 Illogical thinking processes
e.g.: overgeneralization – “Bad things ALWAYS happen to
me”
 e.g.: Depression
Cognitive Therapies
• Beck’s cognitive therapy
• Recognize and restructure their thinking
• Ellis: rational emotive therapy
• Eliminate self-defeating beliefs – “musts” & “shoulds”
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Assessing Cognitive Paradigm
• Strengths:
• Clinically useful and effective therapies
• Focuses on a uniquely human process
• Research-based
• Weaknesses:
• Singular, narrow focus
• Overemphasis on the present
• Verification of cognition is difficult
Integrative Approaches to
Psychopathology
• General framework for psychopathology
• …while also allowing for specification of
factors especially relevant to a particular
disorder
• Often called “eclectic”
• Take strengths from each model, use in combination
Integrative Approaches to
Psychopathology
• The biopsychosocial model
• Interaction of genetic, biological, developmental,
emotional, behavioral, cognitive, social, and societal
influences
• The diathesis-stress approach
• Diathesis = predisposition (bio, psycho, or social)
• Asserts that a predisposition to a disorder is triggered
by an environmental stressor
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