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Chapter 2
Theoretical Paradigms/models/ in Psychopathology and,
Approaching and treating Abnormality
Current views of Abnormal Behavior
What is a paradigm?

• Set of assumptions and concepts that help scientists

explain and interpret observations
Aims of theoretical viewpoints:
• Explain etiology /causes/ of abnormal behavior
• Predict the course /progress/ of disorder
• Define effective treatment
• Suggest areas of Research
 Current views of AB........

Paradigms in AB
Biological model
Psychological model
Socio –cultural model
Bio – Psycho –Social model
 Biological models of AB
.
How Do Biological Theorists Explain
Abnormal Behavior?
• Adopting a medical perspective, biological theorists view

abnormal behavior as an illness brought about by

malfunctioning parts of the organism.

• Typically, they point to a malfunctioning brain as the cause of

abnormal behavior, focusing particularly on problems in

brain anatomy or brain chemistry

 Biological models of AB
.

Sources of Biological Abnormalities Why do some

people have brain structures or biochemical activities
that differ from the norm? Three sources of biological
abnormalities have received particular attention from
clinical theorists in recent years—genetics, evolution,
and viral infections
 Biological models of AB
Genetic abnormalities as cause of AB
• Genetic models of mental disorder suggest that
psychopathology is inherited from parents, and there
is certainly evidence for the familial transmission of
many disorders
• Geneticmodels consider how genetic factors influence
an individual’s risk of developing a mental health
disorder.
• Genetic factors have been implicated in conditions as
varied as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and
depression.
Patterns of transmission from parents to children.

•=
 Biological models of AB...

Genetic factors have been implicated in conditions

like:
• schizophrenia
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Depression
• Huntington a disease of the brain
• Downs Syndrome - Trisomy-21(Chromosomal
Abnormalities)
 Bio Chemistry and Structural damage as causes of AB

• Biochemistry – an imbalance of certain neurotransmitters or

hormones might cause parts of the brain to malfunction
• Neurotransmitters travel from one neuron to another. Changes
occur in the receiving neuron’s membrane,
• Biological researchers have also learned that psychological
disorders can be related to problems in the transmission of
messages from neuron to neuron.
• Structural damage or abnormality – if the structure of the
brain is damaged or improperly formed then thinking,
emotion and behavior may change
• Studies indicate that abnormal activity by certain
neurotransmitters can lead to specific mental disorders.

• Certain anxiety disorders, for example, have been linked to low

activity of the neurotransmitter gamma-amino butyric acid
(GABA),

• schizophrenia has been linked to excessive activity of the

neurotransmitter dopamine, and depression has been linked to
low activity of the neurotransmitters serotonin and
norepinephrine.
•
Related problems/conditions of some
neurotransmitters

Acetylcholine
• Parkinson's disease-is a disease of the nervous system
characterized by trembling arms and legs, jaw tremors, muscle
rigidity, unsteady balance, general slowing of voluntary
movement, and sometimes speech impairments. Parkinson’s
disease is marked by the death of certain nerve brain cells

• Dementia

• Decrease in judgment and insight seen with aging

 dopamine

• Schizophrenia
• Parkinson’s disease
• Aberrant( abnormal) behavior
• Inhibition of release of hormone
• Dysfunctional eating patterns
Noradrenaline.
• Eating disorder
• Irritability
• Depression (decrease)
• Anxiety symptoms
• Insomnia
• Weight loss
 Structural damage to Brain
Damage to Frontal lobe
• Anxiety and concern for the future
• Impairment in recent memory
• Behavioral stagnation( unable to shift from one habit,
Bhr to another.)
• Perseveration
Damage Temporal lobe :
• Visual illusion or Hallucination
• Olfactory Hallucination less commonly reported
• Memory difficulties
 www.psychlotron.org.uk
Brain Abnormality (Structure)
 Treatment
• Psychosurgery: Surgical intervention on the brain and
typically involves cutting off the frontal lobe from the
rest of the brain.
• Developed for sever psychosis
• Side-effects of this technique included:
loss of motivation
emotional dullness.
• Psychosurgery is not used anymore but yet
recommended by some to manage some forms of
obsessive compulsive disorder
 Treatment ......
• Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT):
Developed as a treatment for Psychosis but, it did help
reduce severe depression.
• ECTs are often given to depressive patients who
haven‘t responded to medication
• ECTs are controversial
• First, it inappropriately used to punish patients who
seemed out of control
• Second, ECT can result in memory loss and difficulties
in learning new material
• Third, though effective in relieving depression, the
relapse rate is 85 percent.
• Finally, seems like a very primitive form of treatment
 Treatment .....
• Trans cranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS):
• It is suggested that TMS is likely to replace ECT as a
treatment for depression and is quite effective when given
in combination with medication
• Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS):
• considered for treating: obsessive compulsive disorder
depression
Parkinson‘s disease.
• Medication: This is the most commonly used form of
biological treatment, work by altering the activity and
amount of neurotransmitters.
• Biofeedback
 Psychodynamic perspective
Basic principles of psychodynamic theory

 The psychodynamic model is the oldest and most famous of

the modern psychological models.

 This model studies psychopathology with reference to

unconscious childhood experiences and intra psychic conflict.

• Psychodynamic theorists believe that a person’s behavior,

whether normal or abnormal, is determined largely by
underlying psychological forces of which he or she is not
consciously aware.

•
 Psychodynamic perspective

Psychodynamic theories rest on the deterministic

assumption that no symptom or behavior is “accidental”:
all behavior is determined by past experiences.
 The Psychodynamic Model
• Main assumptions:
• Psychological disorders are caused by emotional problems
in the unconscious mind
• The causes of these emotional problems can usually be
traced back to early childhood
• The relationship between child and parents is a crucial
determinant of mental health
• Freud believed that psychological conflicts could be
“converted” into physical symptoms.
 Levels of Consciousness

 Conscious is aware of immediate surroundings and

perception

 Preconscious – information is available but not currently

conscious.

 Unconscious mind – thoughts, feelings, memories, and

other information are kept that are not easily or voluntarily
brought into consciousness.

 Can be revealed in dreams and Freudian slips of the

tongue.
 Personality Structure

• Id
• ego
• Super ego
 Psychosexual Stages
• Sequence of stages through which personality
develops:
• Oral (first year of life)
• Anal (second year of life)
• Phallic (approximately ages 3-6)
• Latent (approximately ages 6-12)
• Genital (puberty and older)
• Fixation: Emotional development gets stuck at a
particular psychosexual stage
 Psychosexual Stages
• Some adult personality x- ics associated with a failure with to
progress through Freud's development stage
STAGE ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS

• Oral • Depression, Narcissism, Dependence

• Anal OCD, Obstinacy {stubborn),

Sadomasochism
• Phallic Gender identity problems,
• Anti-social personality

• Latent inadequate or excessive self-

control
• Genital Identity diffusion
 Examples of AB explained by Psychoanalysis

• If the superego becomes overly powerful, it may

create excessive feelings of guilt and lead to
depression.

• People who intentionally hurt others without

feeling guilty about it are believed to have an
underdeveloped superego.
 Behavioral Models

Assumptions of the behavioral model

• All behavior is learned through the principles of classical
conditioning (association) and operant conditioning
(reinforcement) observational learning (modeling).
• Abnormal behavior is learned in the same way and so
can be unlearned and replaced with more appropriate
learning.
• Behaviorists believe that the basic units of learning will
be the same in animals and humans.
 Behavioral Models

• Concerned with the role of learning in abnormal

behavior

• Three models:
• Classical conditioning (Ivan Pavlov)
• Operant conditioning (B. F. Skinner)
• Observational learning (Albert Bandura)
 Behavioral Models

• Phobias or excessive fears may be acquired by classical

conditioning. For instance, a person may develop a phobia for
riding on elevators following a traumatic experience on an
elevator.
• A lack of social skills, for example, may reduce our
opportunities for social reinforcement (approval or praise
from others), which may lead in turn to depression and social
isolation.
•A phobia for spiders, for example, may be learned by
observing the fearful reactions of others in real life, on
television, or in the movies.
 Behavioral treatment interventions

• Exposure
• Systematic Desensitization
• Aversion therapy
• Contingency management
• Token Economies
• Social skill training
Carl Rogers
Erik Erikson
Sigmund Freud
Watson
Guess who they are?
Margaret Mahler
Abraham Maslow
Albert Bandura
Aaron Beck
Karen Horney
 Humanistic model

• This model argued that the essence of humanity is free

will, the view that human behavior is not caused by either
internal or external events, but by the choices we make
voluntarily.
• In many respects, the humanistic paradigm was a
reaction against determinism, the scientific view that
human behavior is caused by potentially knowable
factors (an assumption made by the other paradigms).
• Because free will, by definition, is not predictably
determined, it is impossible to conduct research on the
causes of abnormal behavior within the humanistic
paradigm.
 Humanistic model
• Rogers held that abnormal behavior results from a
distorted concept of the self

• Rogers believed we become anxious when we sense

that our feelings and ideas are inconsistent with a
distorted self-concept that mirrors what others expect us
to be

• Because anxiety is unpleasant, we may deny to ourselves

that these feelings and ideas even exist. And so the
actualization of our authentic self is become annoyed.
 Cognitive Models

• Cognitive theorists study the cognitions—the thoughts,

beliefs, expectations, and attitudes—

• Cognitive theorists believe that our interpretations of the

events in our lives, and not the events themselves,
determine our emotional states.
 Cognitive Models
• Albert Ellis: a prominent cognitive theorist, believed
that troubling events in themselves do not lead to
anxiety, depression, or disturbed behavior. Rather, it is
the irrational beliefs we hold about unfortunate
experiences that foster negative emotions and
maladaptive behavior.

• Albert Ellis: has proposed an ABC system to explain

how this process works.
 Cognitive Models
A: refers to an activating event
B : refers to the individuals belief about the event
C : Emotional or behavioral reaction to the event/ Consequences
The situation can be diagrammed like this:
ACTIVATING EVENT BELIEF CONSEQUENCES

• Elis suggest that most problems stem from certain core

irrational beliefs:
• I must be loved and approved of all the time
• Things must always right
• I must be competent at every thing
• Life should always treat me fairly
 Cognitive Models...
Aaron Beck:
Psychological disorders are often associated with
specific patterns of Faulty or distorted thinking.

In Depression, for example, the distorted or faulty

thoughts center on pessimistic view of the self, the
world, and the future – the negative triad as Beck call
it.

Beck stresses the four basic types of cognitive

distortions that contribute to emotional distress:
 Cognitive Models...
1. Selective abstraction. People may selectively abstract
(focus exclusively on) the parts of their experiences
that reflect on their flaws( errors) and ignore evidence
of their competencies.
For example, a student may focus entirely on the one
average grade received on a math test and ignore all
the higher grades.
2. Overgeneralization. People may over generalize from
a few isolated experiences.
For example, a person may believe he will never marry
because he was rejected by a date.
 Cognitive Models...

3. Magnification. People may blow out of proportion, or

magnify, the importance of unfortunate events.
For example, a student may catastrophize a bad test
grade by jumping to the conclusion that he/she will flunk
out of college and her life will be ruined.
4. Absolutist thinking. Absolutist thinking is seeing the world
in black-and-white terms, rather than in shades of gray.
For example, an absolutist thinker may assume that a
work evaluation less than a total excellent is a total
failure.
These faulty thoughts operate automatically, with out the
person’s being aware of them.
 Therapy

• Cognitive-Behavioral therapy
• Rational Emotive therapy
 Biopsychosocial Models

• Integration of:
• Biological
• Social
• Psychological
• Examines contributions of multiple factors representing
biological, psychological, and socio cultural domains, as well as
their interactions, in the development psychological disorders.
• Abnormality caused by:
• Interaction of these factors – no one cause
• Relative importance of each factor depends on
individual and environment
 Bio-psycho-social Models
(1) The bio contributing factors included genetics, viruses,
bacteria and structural defects;

(2) the psycho aspects of health and illness were described in

terms of cognitions (e.G. Expectations of health), emotions
(e.G. Fear of treatment) and behaviors' (e.G. Smoking,
diet, exercise or alcohol consumption);

(3) the social aspects of health were described in terms of social

norms of behavior
 Reading assignment

• Psycho social causal factors

• Socio cultural causal factors