Individual Differences:
Psychopathology (abnormality)
AQA A Unit 2
• To understand the basic principles of the
behavioural approach to psychopathology.
• To recap the learning theories, classical
conditioning, operant conditioning and
social learning.
• To discuss the behavioural methodologies.
• To evaluate the behavioural approach.
Experiment
You are going to make your partner learn to blink when they
hear a noise.
Everytime you hear me tap the desk with the ruler blow a
puff of air onto the side of your partners eyes to make them
blink.
Do this 5 times, then on the 6th time that I tap the desk with
the ruler DO NOT blow on your partners face, but watch to
see if they blink even without the air puff.
Behavioural Approach
• Our behaviour is determined
by our experiences.
• Through learning we know
how to behave in the correct
way.
• However abnormality is a
result of developing
maladaptive behaviours
through the same learning
experiences.
Basic Principles
• Behaviour is important – nothing
else.
– Responses an individual makes to their
environment are key.
– Behaviours can be external (cleaning
behaviours in OCD)
– Or Internal (feelings)
• But for behaviourists the focus is on
external – observable behaviours.
Basic Principles
• Abnormal behaviours are learnt in
the same way as normal behaviour.
– E.g. phobias
Classical
conditioning
Operant
Conditioning
Social learning
Basic Principles
• The learning environment may
reinforce problematic/abnormal
behaviours.
– E.g. Depressive behaviours = help from
others.
– Avoiding phobic stimulus = reduced
anxiety.
– Seeing a celebrity on drugs praised &
idolised.
Learning Theories
Classical
Conditioning
UCS =
unconditioned
stimulus
UCR =
unconditioned
response
CS = conditioned
stimulus
CR =
conditioned
response
Watson’s Experiment on
Little Albert
Conditioning of a phobic response.
Generalisation from the
initial conditioned
stimulus can also lead to
maladaptive behaviours
extending.
•Every time someone flushes a toilet in the
apartment building, the shower becomes
very hot and causes Peter to jump back.
Over time, Peter begins to jump back
automatically after hearing the flush,
before the water temperature changes.
•People receiving chemotherapy often vomit
during or shortly after the procedure. After
several chemotherapy sessions, people begin
feeling sick at the sight of the treatment room.
Big Bang Theory Operant
Conditioning Clip.
Operant Conditioning
• Skinner (1938) – ‘behaviour is shaped and maintained by
its consequences’.
• We perform a range of natural random and voluntary
behaviours in any given situation. Whether we repeat
these behaviours and how often we repeat them
depends on their consequences.
Psychological disorders are the
result of rewarding maladaptive
behaviours.
This initial reward of the behaviour
makes the behaviour adaptive at the
time, but later it may become
maladaptive.
Principles of Operant
Conditioning.
Skinner proposed some principles of operant conditioning in
animals and humans.
Reinforcement =
Reinforcers are consequences that
strengthen behaviour.
They encourage repetition of the
behaviour.
Punishment =
Punishments/punishers weaken
behaviour. They make it less
likely the behaviour will be
repeated.
Principles of Operant
Conditioning.
There are also 2 types of reinforcement, positive reinforcement
and negative reinforcement. Both of these strengthen
behaviour.
Positive
Reinforcement =
Strengthens behaviour by providing
a reward or pleasant consequences.
Negative
Reinforcement =
Strengthens behaviour by removing
or stopping an unpleasant
experience. Skinner demonstrated
this using an electrified grid.
Social
Learning
• Observation & imitation.
• Vicarious reinforcement.
• Our social environment can influence the
development of abnormal behaviours.
• E.g anorexia & media role models.
• When we see disorders running in families
genetics and social learning can be hard to
disentangle.
Treating Phobias
• Flooding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkae
Vrs7-ZA&NR=1
• Systematic Desensitisation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMZ5o
2uruXY&NR=1