Understanding different models of abnormaility

1. Linda Robinson
Humanities and Social Science Access to Higher Education Page 1
Abnormal Psychology:
Assignment 2- Understanding different
models of abnormality
Defining abnormal behaviour is one of the most difficult and provocative subjects within the field of
abnormal psychology as there are a range of methodologies you can use to define abnormalities.
Abnormality is a behaviour or condition that strays from what society views as normal and
appropriate, consequently causing distress or harm to oneself or those around them.
Due to the fact that society has changed through history when defining abnormality, we are now
able to define abnormalities using many different scientific and non-scientific approaches.
However despite the fact that abnormal behaviour can be defined in more than one way, all have
their limitations; therefore generally psychologists will use a combination of the following methods
when defining abnormalities.
The classification and definition of abnormal behaviour has many successful approaches which not
only aid psychologists in correctly defining and diagnosing abnormal behaviour in a patient but also
help in explaining how these apparent abnormalities came about.
Back in Middle Ages the approach used to explain abnormal behaviour was the ‘demonological
approach’ which was based on the view that abnormal behaviour was due to religion, superstitions
and warfare; were people are possessed by evil spirits and demons. However through the centuries
approaches have developed and there are many models when explaining why we may display
abnormal behaviour including the; biological, psychodynamic, humanistic, behavioural, cognitive and
the most recent approach; socio-cultural approach.
Two of the most popular approaches in explaining why we display abnormal behaviour are the
behavioural and the biological approach.
The biological approach sees psychological disorders as symptoms of underlying physical and organic
disorders therefore any malfunction of the biological system would have a direct effect our mental
state. The biological model is also called the medical model because it treats abnormality as a
physical condition; therefore like a physical illness similarly mental illnesses can be treated in the
same way. This model uses the medical language of patient, symptoms, diagnosis, illness, disease,
treatment and cure. (Maher, 1966, cited in Rice et al, 2000, pg 155)
Different psychological disorders are believed to be caused by a variety of organic disorders usually
due to the dysfunction of the brain or nervous system, throughout the years symptoms have been
collated and classified; classifications along with their symptoms can be found in the ICD-10 and the
DSM-IV, for instance both manuals list the symptoms of depression which include loss of sleep,
appetite and loss of concentration.
The medical approach is the view of mainstream psychiatry and as stated above due to the
psychological illness being caused by underlying physical factors consequently the causes must be
physical. Such changes or illnesses may have influential factors such as genetic inheritance,
biochemistry, neuroanatomical aspects of their brain and viral infections contracted or exposed to in
the womb.

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One of the earliest examples of a physical damage causing or attributing to a mental illness is
Harlow’s (1848) study of Phineas Gage suggests that damage to certain parts of the brain can affect
personality and memory amongst other things. Phineas Gage suffered a grotesque injury to his head
after a metal rod went through his head, however Phineas survived the accident but there was a
noticeable change in Mr Gage’s personality and traits due to the metal rod destroying part of his
brain. In 2012 after reanalysing previous studies, Jack Van Horn of UCLA’s Laboratory of
Neuroimaging (LONI) discovered that the iron rod destroyed approximately 11% of the white matter
in Gage's frontal lobe; which deals with reasoning, language and social cognition, also 4% of
his cerebral cortex; which we now know deals with personality. (www.psychology.about.com)
Psychological disorders maybe inherited from our parents also certain genes determine the chemical
balances/ imbalances and distribution of chemicals to the brain; for example people suffering from
depression have been found to have low levels of serotonin whereas people suffering from anxiety
tend to have high levels of serotonin, genes also determine the structure of the brain; the
neuroanatomical makeup of the brain.
As we know when faced with a stressor our body produces high levels of the hormone cortisol,
therefore high levels of this hormone have been found in people suffering from depression as
depression usually follows a period or prolonged period of stress.
Another cause of mental illnesses may be due to viral infections, for example Torrey’s study (Torrey
2001, cited in Cardwell and Flanagan, 2008, pg 184) suggests that the mothers of people diagnosed
as schizophrenic had all contracted a particular strain of flu whilst pregnant which had entered the
child’s brain whilst in the womb, subsequently when the child hit puberty the hormones released
activated the virus which had remained dormant, producing symptoms and traits of schizophrenia.
The medical model of diagnosis can also be illustrated when we look at the link between syphilis and
general paresis.
General paresis is a brain debilitating dementia which we now know is brought on by the untreated
infection called syphilis, however between the 16th
and 19th
century; when we were less medically
advanced, general paresis accounted for up to 20% of the patients in asylums due to the
understanding they had ‘…an inherent weakness in character or constitution..’, rather than a
physical disease which caused the mental illness. (www.frontierpsychiatrist.co.uk)
The taboo nature of this disease paired with the fact there was not yet a cure for syphilis meant that
the disease did generally go untreated, general paresis and its symptoms we now know are caused
by syphilis, however once a cause was found a cure could be made and used as a treatment. This
highlights the fact that mental illnesses may have physical causes, the discovery of penicillin as a
non-toxic treatment for syphilis means that now it rarely goes untreated; subsequently when
treating dementia sufferers nowadays, it is no longer routine anymore for doctors to test sufferers
for syphilis.
Despite the numerous studies and our greater understanding of the biological aspects of
psychological disorders which support the biological approach, there are many limitations and
disadvantages. In regards to our genetic makeup, there is a lot of evidence to support the theory
that our neurotransmitters plays a part however the evidence does not always specify the extent in
which they play therefore some evidence could be regarded as inconclusive. Another disadvantage
of using this approach is the issue of cause and effect, for example people suffering from depression
may have high levels of the adrenaline hormone but this does not mean that adrenaline causes

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depression; it could be that the cause of the increase in adrenaline is too blame, therefore the
biological changes or imbalances are a result rather than the cause of a psychological disorder/
illness. Some may say that this approach is a little more sympathetic than most as it emphases the
fact that the disorder is organic therefore is not the patients fault; relieving the patient of blame or
responsibility however this may hinder the patients recovery as they will depend on doctors to
prescribe them a prevention rather than helping to cure; or at least discover the root cause rather
than just treating the symptoms.
The treatment of these disorders using the medical approach usually consist of drug treatments,
ECT, brain surgery; which is a last resort and/or gene therapy. In order to address the changes in the
body the treatment has to include bodily changes and the altering of biochemical levels, sadly drug
treatments can lead to addiction and life threatening withdrawal symptoms, for example a certain
drug combination may alter the neurotransmitter signals and balance out the chemicals and
hormones but the cause is still always there, in turn not dealing or doing anything productive about
the actual situation that caused it.
The biological approach suggests that psychological traits are transferable and can be reduced to
biological factors, reductionism is defined as the reduction of something to its most simplest form,
however the workings of the brain in conjunction with the complex mental and emotional processes
that humans undertake are unlikely to be caused by genes and neurotransmitters alone but rather it
is the biological factors and environments that predispose people to psychological disorders. In the
case of some disorders, individuals inherit susceptibility for the disorder which develops if exposed
to difficult environmental conditions such as stress; the greater the underlying vulnerability, the less
stress is needed to trigger the disorder, this is called the diathesis-stress model; diathesis means a
constitutional disposition which is a process that naturally happens rather than it happening out of
choice.
Another approach to defining and discovering the cause of abnormalities is the behavioural
approach; this approach focuses on the theory that psychology should be the study of behaviour
rather than the inner workings of the mind. Unlike mental processes, behaviour can be directly
observed and measured. Whether behaviour is positive or negative, behaviourist’s state that all
behaviour is learned therefore can be unlearned.
The behavioural model only focuses on behaviour whether it positive, negative, internal or external;
the external displays of abnormal behaviour are more popular to focus on by behaviourists as they
are more observable. Behaviourists generally do not take feelings, thoughts or emotions into
consideration when advising treatments and therapies as the focus is always on the person’s actions
and how they behave not what they think or feel.
Behaviour is learned in by a process called conditioning, there are many processes of conditioning;
classical conditioning, operant conditioning, social learning, generalisation, discrimination and
extinction. In regards to classical conditioning, learning occurs through association, operant
conditioning focuses on positive and negative reinforcement, social learning strongly voices the
ability to learn by seeing others rewarded and punished and generalisation, discrimination and
extinction focuses on the ability to associate one thing with another by generalising then
discriminating by differentiating the individual stimuli and lastly if there is total absence of the
reinforced stimuli then the conditioned responses will slowly diminish and the response that was
learned would be extinguished.

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Classical conditioning can be illustrated by the example of the study by Watson and Raynor, (1920)
were a boy known as Little Albert was allowed to play with a white rat over a long period of time,
the boy had no fear of the rat and enjoyed playing with it, one day when Little Albert reached out to
play with the rat the experimenters made a loud noise by striking a steel bar with a hammer, this
frightened and scared the boy so after this process was repeated, Albert became scared of the rat
and avoided it as best as he could; Albert had been conditioned into fearing rats. Classical
conditioning always involves a level of association between two stimuli’s, in the case of Little Albert
the two stimuli’s were the rat and the introduction of the noise, originally it was the noise that made
Albert upset but because the noise only occurs when the rat appears the fear Albert has of the noise
is now extended to the other stimuli; the rat. Albert is classically conditioned and eventually he is
scared of the a rat without the presence of any loud noise, we could even presume that Albert may
in the future show signs of fear or distress by anything white and furry.
Operant conditioning on the other hand focuses on positive and negative reinforcement and that
psychological disorders are caused when a negative or maladaptive behaviour is rewarded, positive
reinforcement encourages certain behaviours by means of reward or gratification, meanwhile
negative reinforcement focuses on the removal of something unpleasant depending on behaviour,
positive reinforcement increases the probability of the repetition of certain behaviours.
For example if a child finds that they receive attention if they wet the bed they may continue to wet
the bed despite knowing it is wrong, these kinds of traits may seem harmless but they could be
mirrored in their behaviour when they reach adult life whether it be self-harming or sexual
promiscuity in order to gain and satisfy their need for attention, whereas using the method of
operant conditioning the parents would not reward the child with attention but would reward the
child when they did not wet the bed even punishing or scolding the child, encouraging the extinction
of the maladaptive behaviour.
According to the findings of Skinner ( 1948) study; (www.simplypsychology.org )which focused on
Thorndike’s theory of ‘Law and effect’; in which he placed a hungry rat inside a box, if the rat
pressed a lever a food pellet would drop out so after this happening repeatedly the rat knew that as
long as he pressed the lever he could eat, additionally as long as food pellets were produced the rat
would always press the lever due to the positive reinforcement, however if the food pellets didn’t
materialise after pressing the lever the rat would soon stop pressing the lever; consequently
rewarded behaviour is likely to be repeated whereas unrewarded or the introduction of a punisher
would slowly see this behaviour extinguished.
The behavioural model suggests that abnormal behaviour is learned in the same way as normal
behaviour in turn abnormal behaviour can be the result of positive or negative reinforcement for
example; the ability to succumb to the temptation of drugs could be due to the ‘nice’ feeling gained
when intoxicated or high therefore it encourages you to repeat this behaviour as addicts are always
‘searching for that original high’ they had from their first hit despite the obvious downfalls of non-
recreational drug use.
However if someone is lacking in positive reinforcements, this in conjunction with an excess of
stressors and punishments may trigger disorders such as depression. Depression usually follows a
major or traumatic life change such as redundancy, lack of social inclusion, which may result in
isolation, shame and stigma induced lack of self-worth; these kind of abnormal responses are a

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Humanities and Social Science Access to Higher Education Page 5
result of low positive reinforcements and high negative reinforcements, unpleasant experiences and
punishments.
As behaviourists are focused on behaviour, in regards to treatment and therapies they involve
modifying or changing that particular behaviour, unlike the medical approach were a doctor would
prescribe you a pill; the behavioural approach aims to teach or help you to unlearn certain abnormal
characteristics of inappropriate or maladaptive behaviour. Methods include systematic
desensitisation and aversion therapy which are based on classical conditioning theory and behaviour
modification programmes which focuses on rewarding good behaviour and with-holding rewards if
behaviour is maladaptive or abnormal. For instance if we use the example of Little Albert,
hypothetically speaking if the therapy of systematic desensitisation was used, Albert may have been
reconditioned into feeling at ease around the rat as there would be no associated negative stimuli
and maybe the association of ‘nice things’ or positive reinforcement may make Little Albert feel
comfortable and after some time maybe even Little Albert might not link the rat to fear but to
enjoyment, relaxation and his phobia would be extinguished.
Additionally another approach is the changing of behaviour with the association of something
unpleasant, this is called aversion therap. Aversion therapy is often used to treat addicts and their
addictions; as the association of something horrid, like impairment of taste, sickness inducing drug
or even electric shock makes addicts associate these bad things with their addiction therefore the
association will stop the maladaptive behaviours and habits which have been learned then
unlearned by positive and negative reinforcement.
A fictional example of this is the film ‘A Clockwork Orange’ were the main character is restrained
and his eyes are prised open, whilst on a nausea inducing drug the patient is made to watch violent
and sadistic films in order to associate the horrible feelings he was experiencing with any desire,
craving or notion to commit violence or harm therefore eventually modifying his behaviour from one
of loving gratuitous violence to not even being able to defend himself or engage in any kind of sexual
activity due to the aversion therapy. Another interesting fact is that whilst restrained and forced to
watch these images, ‘Alex’ the main character developed a severe aversion to his favourite song
“Beethoven Ninth Symphony” due to it being played very loud and constantly throughout the
aversion therapy sessions. (en.wikipedia.org)
Like all approaches to abnormality whether defining or explaining the causes and symptoms and
treatments there are always limitations and downfalls. Despite the behaviourist approach seeming
to be science based as their approach focuses on things you can see and measure; additionally
creating solid empirical evidence which can be the foundation of other studies, it minimises the
notion that psychological disorders are the product of underlying brain dysfunctions and biochemical
imbalances making this approach somewhat too simplistic and vague, basing all factors of abnormal
behaviour on some kind of conditioning. Additionally the majority of the studies have been
undertaken on rats, putting humans on the same pedestal as a rat which would exclude the
difference in thoughts, feelings and the complexity of humans in comparison to the chosen
participants in the study. (Heather, 1976) stated that behaviourists ‘reduce man to a thing…’
ultimately many other factors. (www.psychologypapers.org)
Many believe that this model fails to provide an adequate explanation for psychological disorders as
it ignores the underlying causes and just deals with the behaviour as according to behaviourists,

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behaviour is the problem. One of the biggest limitations would be the ethical issues raised, for
example Little Albert would not be exposed to that kind of treatment nowadays in accordance with
ethical guidelines and also the effectiveness of aversion therapy could be called into question as the
effects are usually confined to the therapists office therefore treatments are sometimes short-lived
and the abnormal behaviour resurfaces.
There are many approaches that can be used to treat abnormal and maladaptive behaviours and not
one can be universally concrete in supporting their theories as there are always limitations. Each
perspective is valuable in understanding and treating abnormal behaviour, also different
perspectives are more appropriate under differing conditions bearing in mind issues such as the
financial and ethical implications of chosen treatment or therapy.

7. Linda Robinson
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References
Maher, 1966, cited in Rice, Haralambos, Jones, Foreman and Askam, 2000, pg 155, Printed by
Scotprint, Haddington, East Lothian.
(Accessed 12.01.13)
Torrey, 2001, cited in Cardwell and Flanagan, 2008, pg 184, printed in Singapore by KHL Printing Co.
Pte Ltd.
(Accessed 12.01.13)
Watson and Rayner, 1920, cited in Cardwell and Flanagan, 2008, pg 188, printed in Singapore by KHL
Printing Co. Pte Ltd.
(Accessed 12.01.13)
http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html
(Accessed 14.01.13)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludovico_technique
(Accessed 14.01.13)
http://www.psychologypapers.org/critical-review-hornstein-1992-heather-1976.html
(Accessed 14.01.13)
http://frontierpsychiatrist.co.uk/general-paralysis-of-the-insane-and-psychiatrys-only-nobel-prize/
(Accessed 20.01.13)
http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/phineas-gage.htm
(Accesses 21.01.13)