Behavioural Therapy

Here is the presentation from today's lesson.

Complete your notes on systematic desensitisation (in detail) and other behavioural therapies (more briefly) including their strengths and limitations, for Thursday's lesson please.

Drugs

“Outline and evaluate the use of drugs to treat depression and schizophrenia” 6 marks AO1 (describing how the drugs work) + 6 marks AO2 (evaluating them - strengths and limitations).

Bring this essay to Thursday's lesson if you haven't already given it in.

You won't be asked specifically about depression or schizophrenia in the exam, but it's useful to have some specific examples to illustrate your answer with. It's worth knowing for example that a popular group of anti-depressant drugs are known as SSRIs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) and that these work by boosting the levels of serotonin (a neurotransmitter associated with mood, amongst other things) by slowing the rate at which nerve cells re-absorb it.

Drug therapy is the only therapy that really helps with schizophrenia (which is something good to say about it) but it's far from an ideal treatment, only really helping with some of the symptoms and producing nasty side effects. For some people, drug treatment for depression appears to be a complete cure, but not for others, and some psychologists criticise the 'medicalisation' of depression.

Eyewitness testimony conclusion

Today we concluded the eyewitness testimony section. We looked at age and eyewitness testimony and filled in the following worksheet about age & EWT and the own-age bias. We also summarised the entire topic using mind maps. The powerpoint on factors affecting eyewitness testimony is here.

I set another homework essay and this is due in two weeks time - Thursday 7th December:

'Describe and evaluate the working memory model'  (12 marks)

You need to describe each component of the model in turn together with the research evidence that supports their existence. Evaluate this research as you go along and then evaluate the model as a whole. You can compare it favourably to the multi-store model if you wish but don't describe the multi-store model as this isn't creditworthy.

ECT and Psychosurgery

Our abnormality topic concludes with a look at the therapies used by each approach to abnormality. There are two biological therapies you must be able to describe and evaluate - Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and drug therapy (also known as pharmacotherapy or chemotherapy). Psychosurgery is also worth knowing, particularly as the ethical issues that apply to this rather extreme case can be used to evaluate the other therapies that you might be asked directly about.

For example, a criticism of drug therapy is that it doesn't really solve the problems patients have, they simply remove some of their troublesome symptoms (this is probably particularly true in the case of schizophrenia). In a similar way frontal lobotomies didn't really address the symptoms patients with schizophrenia or extreme anxiety had, but they made them much easier to manage - are modern antipsychotic drugs simply chemical lobotomies? If so, at least their effects are reversible...

Homework was to make detailed notes on psychosurgery and ECT - we will look at drugs in detail next lesson. You need to cover the following:

• ‘6 mark’ and ‘3 mark’ descriptions – what is it and how does it work? 
• How effective is it? For what disorder(s)? 
• What are its strengths? 
• What are its limitations? 
• What ethical issues arise?

Here is the presentation from last lesson - there is a lot more detail here than you need.

The Cognitive and Psychodynamic models of abnormality

The cognitive model of abnormality states that it's not the problems we encounter in life that cause us to become mentally unhealthy, but the way we think about them. Unlike other explanations for psychopathology, this leaves quite a lot of room for Free Will (it is a less Determinist approach) - you, the individual, can take control and learn to think in a more positive way.

Here is the presentation.

An essay - 'Describe and evaluate the cognitive model of abnormality' - 6 marks AO1 for describing + 6 marks AO2 for discussing strengths and limitations - is now overdue!

We have also re-examined the psychodynamic model, and in particular Freud's theory of abnormality. This also stresses mental causes of abnormality (remember, the biological model deals with physical causes, and the behavioural model with 'non-mental learning' - simple learning that we can study in animals) but here the idea is that the causes of psychopathology are buried in the subconscious thanks to defence mechanisms like repression.

Here is the presentation.

You need to know all four models, and the three definitions of abnormality (DSN, FFA and DIMH) for your test which is now on Thursday.

Work I set for today (as I am ill):

Read the chapter in your textbook on treating abnormality and answer the following questions briefly in note form:

• What is ECT?
• How do drugs that treat depression work?
• What is systematic desensitisation?
• What is CBT?
• What is psychoanalysis?

These are the five therapies that complete our Abnormality / Psychopathology topic. 

ECT is a biological therapy involving electric shocks - how exactly it works is not well understood, but you can find out (and learn) what it stands for, and how it is carried out, and what it is used to treat.

Hundreds of different drugs are used to treat psychological problems - this is the main biological therapy in use today. Find out what one anti-depressant does to the chemical balance of the brain.

SD is an example of a behavioural therapy - it is most commonly used to treat phobias. How?

CBT is the most common psychological (meaning not-biological) therapy used in this country. What does it stand for? What does it typically involve?

Psychoanalysis is the original 'talking therapy' developed by Freud - what is its aim? How is this achieved?

Eyewitness testimony

Can evidence from eyewitnesses be relied upon in court? Is it accurate? What factors affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony? Do some people have better eyewitness testimony than others?

We have been looking at the work of Elizabeth Loftus and colleagues investigating these questions. This is one area of psychology in which research has informed public and legal policy, and we have seen why. The intro ppt is here and the ppt summarising the relevant studies is here.