Adult Psychopathology an der Royal Holloway and Bedford New College

Phenomology - how does it manifest

Etiology - what causes it

Course - how does it evolve

Clinical, Research or administrative settings

Biological factors eg genetics, infections and chemical imbalances lead to psychological symptoms

Aims to identify the biological problem so as to treat the psychological symptoms 

A connection has been found between schizophrenia and certain genes

the link between depression and serotonin has long since been acknowledged

there is evidence that changes to the brain structures occur with Alzheimer's

positive: can lead to focused interventions, effective treatments that deliver results fast, no guilt or judgment

negative: simplistic and ignores environmental interaction and the factors of cognition and emotion, biological causes do not exist for all conditions, those with mental health disorders are placed inn a passive role through this model, treatments can have problematic side effects and can also be intrusive

behavioral approaches focus on how behaviours are acquired through learning and environmental factors. Only observable behaviours acknowledged. The ideas here are applied using classical conditioning operant conditioning and observational learning.

Obesity, addiction, sexual behaviours et cetera

Positives: Can be extremely fast and effective for some problems, these approaches have grown to include motivation thoughts and goals

negative: some disorders can't be helped through these approaches for example schizophrenia, behavioural treatments can be insensitive and patients may resist

based on the metaphor of human brain as the computer this approach focuses on how information from the environment is processed to result in an emotional and cognitive experience

Ellis - Unhelpful cognitions and beliefs, applicable eg phobias, rational-emotive

Beck-theory of depression, triad of self the world in future

Positive: evidence for cognitive biases in those with mental health conditions for example attention bias in phobias, today the best interventions for mental health disorders are cognitive behavioral therapy based

Negatives changing people's cognitive biases and fundamental beliefs is very difficult and the person really has to want to change, they work best when combined with behavioural approaches so clearly don't cover all areas

Psychopathology comes from conflicts in the individual's unconscious, the earlier the conflict began the more severe the condition.There is a big emphasis on childhood experiences. Defence mechanisms act to defend us from the conflict