Download PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY

BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
 The nervous system
Axon
Neuron
Axon Terminal
Soma @ Cell body
Neurotransmitters
Dendrites
Synapse
 Excesses or deficiencies of neurotransmitters have
been linked to various kind of mental health
problem.
 Excesses and deficiencies of neurotransmitter
norepinephrine have been connected with mood
disorders
 Neurotransmitter acetylcholine related to
Alzheimer's disease
 Serotonin linked to various psychological disorders
including anxiety disorders, mood disorders and
eating disorders.
PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVES
The Structure of the Mind
 Conscious mind
 Preconscious mind
 Unconscious mind
The Structure of Personality
 Id
- the collection of unconscious urges and desires that
continually seek expression
- the repository of our baser drives and instinctual
impulses including hunger, thirst, sex and aggression
- pleasure principle – the way in which the id seeks
immediate gratification of an instinct
Ego
 Freud’s term for the part of the personality that mediates
between environmental demands (reality), conscience
(superego) and instinctual need (id)
 Reality principle – the way in which the ego seeks to satisfy
instinctual demands safely and effectively in the real world
Superego
- the social and parental standards the individual has
internalized; the conscience and ego ideal
- Ego ideal – the part of the superego that consists
of standards of what one would like to be
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Oral Stage (birth to 18 months)
 First stage of Freud’s theory of personality development, in which
the infant’s erotic feelings center on the mouth, lips and tongue.
Anal Stage (roughly 18 months to 3 ½ years)
 Second stage of Freud’s theory of personality development in which
a child’s erotic feelings center on the anus and on elimination
Phallic Stage (after age 3)
 Third stage of Freud’s theory of personality development in which
erotic feelings center on the genitals
 Oedipus complex and Electra complex – a child’s sexual attachment
to the parent of the opposite sex and jealousy toward the parent of
the same sex; generally occurs in the phallic stage
Latency Period (5 to 12 @ 13 years old)
 The child appears to have no interest in the other sex;
occurs after the phallic stage
Genital Stage
 Final stage of normal adult sexual development which is
normally marked by mature sexuality
Psychodynamic Perspectives on
Normality and Abnormality
 Normal as well abnormal people are driven by the irrational
drives of the id
 Normality - balance of energy among the psychic
structures of id, ego and superego.
 Abnormality – the balance of energy is lopsided
LEARNING PERSPECTIVES
 Classical Conditioning
- Ivan Pavlov (1849 – 1936)
- A response naturally elicited by one stimulus comes
to be elicited by a different, formerly neural stimulus
Unconditioned stimulus (US)
- stimulus that invariably causes an organism to
response in specific way
Unconditioned response (UR)
- A response that takes place in an organism whenever an
unconditioned stimulus occur
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
- An originally neural stimulus that is paired with an
unconditioned stimulus and eventually produces the
desired response in an organism when presented alone
Conditioned response (CR)
- After conditioning, the response an organism produces
when only a conditioned stimulus is presented
Before Conditioning
Bell
No Response
US (food)
UR (Salivation
During Conditioning
CS (Bell) –Followed by- US (Food)
After Conditioning
CS (Bell)
CR (Salivation)
UR (Salivation)
 Operant Conditioning
involves the acquisition of behaviors called operant
behaviors that are emitted by the organism and that
operate upon or manipulate the environment to
produce certain effects.
 Operant behaviors
Behavior designed to operate on the environment in
a way that will gain something desired or avoid
something unpleasant
Reinforcer
- A stimulus that follows a behavior and increases the likelihood that
the behavior will be repeated
Punisher
- A stimulus that follows a behavior and decreases the likelihood
that the behavior will be repeated
Positive Reinforcer
- Any event whose presence increases the likelihood that ongoing
behavior will recur
Negative Reinforcer
- Any event whose reduction or termination increases the likelihood
that ongoing behavior will recur
 Social Cognitive Theory
Emphasizes the ability to learn by observing a model or receiving
instructions without firsthand experience by learner
Example – phobias may be learned vicariously by observing the
fearful reactions of others in real life
HUMANISTIC-EXISTENTIAL
PERSPECTIVES
 Carl Roger, Abraham Maslow
 Self Actualization
- to strive to become all they are capable of being
To understand abnormal behavior in the
humanistic view, we need to understand the
roadblocks that people encounter in striving for
self actualization and authenticity
COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVES
 Information processing approach
storage, retrieval, manipulation, and output
- psychological disorders – disturbance of these
processes
 ABC approach
 Catastrophic Thinking
 Aaron Beck proposed 4 basic types of cognitive
errors that contribute to emotional distress:
1. Selective Abstraction
2. Overgeneralization
3. Magnification
4. Absolutist thinking
SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
 Poverty
 Social decay
 Discrimination
 Lack of economy opportunity
LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
 The biological perspective adopts a physiological
level of analysis. It examines the role that
biochemical processes such as imbalances in brain
chemistry may play in the development of
psychological disorders
 The learning perspective adopts a behavioral level of
analysis. It focuses on how our behavior is shaped by
learning experiences.
 The humanistic existential perspective adopts a
phenomenological vantage point. It explores
people’s subjective experiences
 The cognitive perspective focuses on the role of
dysfunctional thinking patterns in psychological
disorders such as irrational belief
 The psychodynamic perspective probes the
unconscious motives and conflicts that believed to
underlie psychological disorders
 The socio-cultural perspective focuses psychological
disorders in the context of the larger society.