A biopsychologist will implement the biological approach to psychology in the attempt to study psychological diseases and disorders as well as in the diagnosis and treatment of individual’s that suffer from such diseases and disorders, and this will include the analysis of the disorder known as Schizophrenia. In addition, the disorders of Anorexia Nervosa and Generalized Anxiety Disorder will also be examined. Both of these disorders will be discussed within this paper, the treatment with drug therapies, the causes, and areas of the brain that is affected.…
Pathogen/disease Genetic flaw (chromosomal abnormality v. genetic mutation) Diathesis-stress model Explain and give an example of each pathway to mental illness…
The biological model compares abnormal behaviour with a disease. It assumes that all mental illnesses have a physiological cause related to the physical structure and brain. Doctors diagnose mental illness using well-established criteria. Psychiatrists also use diagnostic manuals for mental illness and compare symptoms with set classifications of illnesses. According to the biological model, mental illness is caused by one or more of the following factors; genetic inheritance, bio-chemistry and infection. The reason why genetic inheritance could be a possible cause for mental illness is due to the assumption that people have a genetic disposition to certain psychological disorders. For example, Kendler et al found relatives of schizophrenics were 18 times more likely to develop the illness than a matched control group. Bio-chemistry is also a factor that is considered as it is thought that chemical imbalances in the brain may be involved in certain mental illnesses. Neurotransmitters play an important part in behaviour. For example, an excess of dopamine has been detected in the brains of schizophrenics. This finding, however, has been assumed due to correlation which does not prove cause and effect. Infection is also thought to be a factor which could potentially cause mental illness as research suggests that some mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, may be related to exposure to certain viruses in the womb. For example, Torrey found that the mothers of many people with schizophrenia had contracted a particular strain of influenza during pregnancy. It is supposed that the virus may have entered the unborn child’s brain and remained dormant there until puberty, when other hormones may have activated it.…
5. Compare and Contrast the medical model of psychological disorders with the biopsychosocial approach to disordered behavior.…
According to the biological approach the mental disorder Schizophrenia will have an underlying physical cause such as imbalance of hormones, brain damage and infection. There is strong evidence that biological factors influence the presence of Schizophrenia.…
The goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of topics related to abnormal psychology. The primary emphasis of this course will be on classification of psychopathology and the symptoms associated with different syndromes. Second to this, emphasis will be placed on the associated course and consequences of each condition. Third, we will often discuss possible etiologies (causes) of psychological disorders. Lastly, treatment of these disorders will be discussed.…
Human behavior is complex and extremely variable among people. Some conducts of acting in the world are exposed by the population on a regular basis and seem to be well adjusted for functioning well in certain situations. Over time, understanding of and explanations for psychological disorders have gone through several significant changes. The primary statement of the medical mode is that mental, like physical, illnesses are best diagnosis and treated as medical illnesses. Psychiatry is a division of medicine, so it is not a coincidence that terms such as illness, diagnosis, and therapy or treatment are used in the context of psychological disorders.…
This course discusses the issues and controversies surrounding the meaning and categorization of psychological abnormality. We will also describe the major symptoms, hypothesized or suggested causes, and accepted treatments for major categories of mental disorder as described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association, version IV-TR, always keeping in mind the criticisms of this categorization system. The goals of the course include a deeper understanding of the nature, causes of, and current treatments for, psychopathology, and - more importantly - an appreciation for the tentative and incomplete nature of our understanding of mental illness.…
in the womb). For example, Torrey (2001) found that the mothers of many people with schizophrenia had contracted a particular strain of influenza during pregnancy. The virus may enter the unborn child’s brain, where it remains dormant until puberty, when other hormones may activate it, producing the symptoms of schizophrenia. The emergence of the medical model in the 18th century led to more humane treatment for mental patients. Until then mental illness was blamed on demons or on evil in the individual. The medical model offered a different source of blame – the illness, which was potentially treatable. However, more recent critics have claimed that the medical model is inhumane. Thomas Szasz (1972) argued that mental illnesses did not have a physical basis, therefore should not be thought of in the same way. He suggested that the concept of mental illness was ‘invented’ as a form of social control. The available evidence does not support a simple cause and effect link between mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and altered brain chemistry. For example, schizophrenia is commonly associated with an excess of the brain neurotransmitter dopamine. However, some studies of schizophrenic patients have shown reduced levels of dopamine in some brain tissues, meaning that there may be simultaneous excesses and deficiencies in different parts of the brain. There is no evidence that mental disorders are purely caused by genetic inheritance – concordance rates are never 100%. Gottersman and Shields (1976) reviewed the results of five studies of twins looking for concordance rates for schizophrenia. They found that in monozygotic twins (identical) there was a concordance rate of around 50%. If schizophrenia was entirely the product of genetic inheritance then this figure should be 100%. It is likely that, in the case of certain disorders, what individuals inherit is…
A number of these disorders can harm others or the one who is battling with the disorder. There are a number of therapies for these disorders and are different in each case. A closer look and contrast of normal and abnormal psychology is need along with mental disturbance and mental disease from a psychology position polishing off by way of a look at different therapies useful for normal and abnormal psychology.…
There are many different ways that someone can develop a mental illness behaviourist and biological are just two of them. The behaviourist model suggests that abnormal behaviours are learnt in the same way that any other behaviour is learnt-though classical and operant conditioning. Operant conditioning suggests that people learn from consequences of actions through positive and negative reinforcement –meaning learning through a consequence of an action either a consequence that is positive (have a good outcome) or negative (the removal of something bad). There are many different examples that support the view of operant conditioning these include.…
Biological and medical frameworks (sometimes referred to as the disease model) view psychological problems as resulting, in the main, from physical causes such as brain defects, hereditary factors or as the results of accidents or injury.…
Depression is a mood disorder and the biomedical model portrays one way in which it can be understood. The biomedical model focuses on biological factors alone in an attempt to explain an illness or a disorder. It describes illnesses as disturbances within the human body that can be altered and corrected. Very unlike the biopsychosocial model, it doesn’t include other factors that may contribute to a disorder such as their psychological state or their social context. The biomedical model focuses on activities within the brain alone that can cause disorders like depression. In this assignment I will explain how biological processes in the brain can arguably be perceived to cause depression.…
How do the four biological explanations fit together to explain schizophrenia or are they mutually exclusive?…
Strict speaking, disease or illness can affect only the body” hence, there can be no mental illness. Mental illness is a metaphor. Mind can be sick only in the sense that jokes are sick or economies are sick. Psychiatric diagnoses are stigmatizing labels, phrased to resemble medical diagnoses and applied to person whose behavior annoys or offends other. Those who suffer from and complain of their own behavior are usually classified as neurotic those whose behavior makes other suffer, and about whom others complain, are usually classified as psychotic.…