Daily Outline Causal Factors in Abnormal Behaviors

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Daily Outline Causal Factors in Abnormal
Behaviors

• Biopsychosocial Perspective
• Ethical Issues
• Paradigms of Abnormal Psychology
• Biological, Psychoanalytic, Behavioral,
• Cognitive, Humanistic, Sociocultural

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What Is the Biopsychosocial Perspective?

• Understanding everyday actions and human
  behavior requires attention to various forces
• biological
• psychological
• social

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Possible Physiological Factors in Mental Illness

• Genetics
• Brain chemistry
• Damaged anatomy
• Illness

• Brain atrophy
• Hormones
• Germs
• Injury to brain
• Tumors

The belief that physiological factors cause
disorders leads to a medical model for treatment
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Possible Psychological Factors in Mental Illness

• Stress
• Early childhood problems
• Low-self esteem
• Loss
• Ineffective coping skills
• Loss of trust

• Poverty
• Lack of support systems
• Poor peer relationships
• Guilt
• Shame

The belief that psychological factors cause
disorders leads to a therapeutic approach to
treatment
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Possible Social and Cultural Factors in Mental
Illness

• Economics
• Cultural expectations
• Social stereotypes

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Ethical Issue in Clinical Psychology

• Client confidentiality (privacy)
• Client informed consent for treatment
• Civil commitment
• American Psychological Associations Code of
• Professional Ethics
• Legal Standards for Practice

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Paradigms of Abnormal Psychology

• Biological
• Psychoanalytic
• Behavioral
• Cognitive
• Humanistic
• Sociocultural

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Biological Paradigm

• Based on the idea that physiological processes
  are responsible for abnormal behavior
• Looks at genetics, illness, disease, drug
  effects, and toxicity

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Experimental Research Terminology

• Independent variable manipulated variable
• Dependent variable observed variable
• Experimental group receives the independent
  variable
• Control group receives no treatment or receives
  a placebo
• Placebo fake treatment that subject believes to
  be genuine

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Psychoanalytic Paradigm

• Uses unconscious conflicts and childhood
  experiences to understand abnormal behavior
• Developed by Sigmund Freud
• Three levels of mental functioning
• conscious
• preconscious
• unconscious

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Behavioral Paradigm

• Based on the idea that abnormal behavior develops
  through principles of learning and interaction
  with the environment
• Theories of learning include
• classical conditioning
• operant conditioning
• modeling

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Principles of Operant Conditioning

• Positive reinforcement
• consequence is pleasant and increases frequency
  of behavior
• used to get behavior to continue
• Negative reinforcement
• cessation of stimulus increases frequency of
  behavior
• used to get behavior to continue by removing
  something unwanted or unpleasant

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Principles of Operant Conditioning

• Punishment
• consequence is unpleasant and decreases the
  frequency of behavior
• used to eliminate or reduce behavior
• Extinction
• pleasant consequence is withheld to decrease the
  frequency of behavior
• used to eliminate or reduce behavior

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Behavioral Paradigm A Quiz

• Decide whether each action represents
• positive reinforcement
• negative reinforcement
• punishment
• extinction

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Behavioral Paradigm

• Putting a dog outside right after an accident
• Taking an aspirin when you have a headache
• Giving heroin users clean needles to prevent AIDS
• Giving a child 5 for each A on a report card
• Not talking to your spouse because she forgot to
  do the dishes
• A child cleaning her room to stop her parents
  from nagging her about it
• Sending an unruly child to the principals office

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Cognitive Paradigm

• Based on idea that attributions and perceptions
  are the cause of abnormal behavior thinking and
  processing information leads to action
• Important concepts
• attributions
• appraisals
• beliefs
• expectancies

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Humanistic Paradigm

• Emphasizes personal independence, freedom to
  choose, and control over ones own destiny
  optimistic about human nature
• Important concepts
• self-concept
• unconditional positive regard
• self-actualization

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Sociocultural Paradigm

• Looks at combination of factors on development of
  abnormal behavior
• culture
• society
• ethnicity
• class
• gender
• religion
• sexuality