Outline and Evaluate 2 Biological Explanations of OCD
Outline and Evaluate 2 Biological Explanations of OCD The biological approach suggests that all mental illness is due to physical processes. For example, the genetic explanation of OCD suggests that the illness is inherited from parents. Therefore one of your parents have the OCD gene which they could pass on to their children. It is thoughts that the gene could then cause abnormalities in Neuroanatomical and neurochemical areas of the brain which then causes the symptoms of OCD, obsessions and compulsions to develop in this person. One strength of this explanation for OCD is that there is supporting research evidence. Firstly, Nestadt (2000) identified 80 patients with OCD and 343 of their first degree relatives, and compared them with 73 control patients who did not have mental illness and 300 of their relatives. The results showed a strong familial link with the most common form of OCD. Subsequently he found that those who had a first degree relative with OCD were 5 times more likely to have the illness themselves compared to the general population. This is supported by Carey and Gottesman (1981) who found an 87% concordance rate in identical twins for OCD, whereas schizophrenia had only a 46% concordance rate. Therefore this research suggests that there is a strong link between family history and OCD showing that is you have a relative with OCD you are more likely to
Describe and Evaluate Bowlbys theory of attachment. (12 marks)
Emily Brown Child Psychology Describe and Evaluate Bowlby’s theory of attachment. (12 marks) Bowlby’s theory of attachment is the idea that children form a two way attachment with their primary caregiver, and this relationship should be warm, intimate and continuous in order for the child to develop properly. Bowlby believed that the relationship between a mother/primary caregiver and its child was most crucial during the first 18 – 24 months of life and that is was this time that affected later socialisation. He also thought that there was a sensitive period in the first few years of life and if an attachment was not formed then it would be compensated for later. In addition he suggested the idea of monotropy, which is the suggestion that infants tend to direct attachment behaviours towards a single attachment figure, and that there is one ‘special’ bond and this is typically between a mother and its child. The attachment being two way is very important, and Bowlby believed that both parties should find ‘satisfaction and enjoyment’ from the relationship. He suggested that babies are born programmed to behave in ways that will make attachments easier to form, for example they will display behaviour that encourages attention from adults, these include smiling and cooing etc. These are known as ‘social releasers’ because the point of them is to
Discuss the view that stress is environmentally determined.
"Psychological research has provided evidence to support the view that stress can be caused by life changes. It has also provided evidence of individual differences in response to sources of stress." Discuss the view that stress is environmentally determined. Although stress is an unavoidable part of life and may not be entirely negative as it is able to increase motivation and arousal, psychological research has shown that it can be caused by life changes and can therefore be environmentally determined. Marmot et al (1997) recognised that an environment such as the workplace can cause stress. The results from lower-paid and higher-paid grades self-report questionnaires and five year follow up showed that the lower-paid grade had an overall increase in stress-related illnesses. Consent and debriefing would have been mandatory, however the sample of government civil servants was biased, which would therefore make it difficult to generalise findings. Nonetheless, Fox et al (1993) also concluded evidence that a personal in a low-control high-demand job would also suffer from stress related illness. The workplace can be deemed stressful due to environmental factors such as noise, temperature, control and workload, which are all potential sources. Life changes and daily hassles are also a cause of stress according to Holmes and Rahe (1967) retrospective study. With the social
Describe and Evaluate Research into Infradian Rhythms
Describe and Evaluate Research studies into Infradian Rhythms (24 marks) Infradian Rhythms repeat themselves over a greater period of time - rhythms that last longer than a day. For example, they may repeat themselves weekly, monthly or even annually (known as a circannual rhythm), for example, hibernation, bird migration and many reproductive cycles. As an example of a human biological Infradian rhythm, take the menstrual cycle. Several research studies have been done into Infradian rhythms, and how to regulate them. As we know, they are governed by endogenous pacemakers (internal cues) and exogenous zeitgebers (external cues). One zeitgeber that helps regulate Infradian rhythms is the release of pheromones (biochemical substances produced in the endocrine system and distributed throughout the blood, which is then released into the air. It often affects other individuals). Russell (1980) used pheromones to synchronise women's periods within a small group. He took the pheromones of one woman and applied them to a group of sexually inactive women by taking cotton pads that had been in the woman's armpit (on a daily basis), dissolving them in alcohol to remove any bacteria, and rubbing the cotton pads onto the group of women's upper lips. The same procedure was done on a control group, but the cotton pads were without pheromones. The participants didn't know whether they were
Discuss two or more explanations for the success and/or failure of dieting
'Discuss two or more explanations for the success and/or failure of dieting' Restrained eating has become synonymous with dieting. Research suggests that as many as 89% of the female population in the UK consciously restraint heir food intake at some point in their lives. Restraint theory (Herman and Mack 1975) was developed as an attempt to explain both the causes and the consequences associated with the cognitive restriction of food intake. Herman and Mack suggest that attempting not to actually eat actually increases the chance of overeating. Their study showed that the overeating shown by many dieters is actually caused by their attempts to diet. Using the preload/taste-test method, Herman and Mack gave a group of dieters and a group of non-dieters either a high or low calorie preload. The results indicated that whereas the non-dieters showed compensatory regulatory behaviour and ate less during the taste test after the high-calorie preload, the dieters consumed more in the taste test if they had had the high-calorie pre-load than the low-calorie preload. So it would appear that attempting not to eat can, paradoxically, increase the probability of eating. Similarly, Wardle and Beales (1988) carried out an experiment to investigate whether dieting resulted in overeating. They randomly assigned 27 obese women either to a diet group, an exercise group or a control group
'Life changes, no matter if they are positive or negative, are always a source of stress.' To what extent have life changes been shown to be a source of stress?
'Life changes, no matter if they are positive or negative, are always a source of stress.' To what extent have life changes been shown to be a source of stress? Stress - an unpleasant state of emotional and physiological arousal that people experience in situations that they perceive as dangerous or threatening to their well-being. The word stress means different things to different people. Some people define stress as events or situations that cause them to feel tension, pressure, or negative emotions such as anxiety and anger. Others view stress as the response to these situations. This response includes physiological changes-such as increased heart rate and muscle tension-as well as emotional and behavioural changes. However, most psychologists regard stress as a process involving a person's interpretation and response to a threatening event. Stress is a common experience. We may feel stress when we are very busy, have important deadlines to meet, or have too little time to finish all of our tasks. Often people experience stress because of problems at work or in social relationships, such as a poor evaluation by a supervisor or an argument with a friend. Some people may be particularly vulnerable to stress in situations involving the threat of failure or personal humiliation. Others have extreme fears of objects or things associated with physical threats-such as snakes,
Memory Consolidation and REM Sleep.
Memory Consolidation and REM Sleep Aldous Huxley's Brave New World considers the possibility of humans learning simply by listening to recorded messages played during their sleep. Can learning really be this simple? What is the role of sleep in learning and memory? It is known that sleep exists in two phases, REM and Non REM sleep. It is speculated that Non REM sleep is the time that the body and brain use to rebuild themselves after a long period of wakefulness (1). REM sleep, however cannot be easily explained. Scientists have speculated that REM sleep performs many functions among them development of the brain, synthesis of neuro-proteins, and coordination of eye movements (1). This paper will explore one specific function of REM sleep: the role in memory consolidation. There are many theories floating around the internet, but no common truths about the mechanisms of how the brain serves to remember events of the day during REM sleep. REM sleep is a period late in the sleep cycle in which the brain and body become active, increasing heart rate and blood pressure. The eyes shudder quickly back and forth, giving this stage the name Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. Electroencephalograph patterns for REM sleep are much like those during wakefulness, and include many fast beta-rhythms (2). It may even be that the brain works harder during REM sleep than when awake (3). REM
Peer Pressure Speech
Peer Pressure Speech Go on." "Everybody's doing it." "It's only one drink." "You're such a loser." I didn't know what to do. All these voices were repeating themselves over and over in my head. I didn't want to give into them because I knew what I was doing was wrong. I didn't want everyone to think I was scared but what if my parents found out. Why was I here? Are these people really my friends if they are really doing this to me? These were the vital questions that I didn't know the answers to. I knew in my heart it was wrong but I gave in. This is usually the typical outcome of a scene like this. It is called peer pressure. It can be disguised in many different forms. In this speech I am going to look at different ways in which teenagers can be influenced by peer pressure. Many teenagers experiment with cigarettes, drugs or alcohol. It is likely that they take their first cigarette, drink or drug because of pressure from peers or friends. The influence of friends who smoke is the main reason teenagers start, although you are also more likely to start if your parents do. Cigarettes, like alcohol, are an acquired taste but over eight per cent of people who smoke in their teens become permanently hooked. Often adolescents drink to feel less uncomfortable and more relaxed with friends and peers and because they are encouraged to do so by other teenagers. Regular excessive
Classification and Diagnosis of Depression
Outline the clinical characteristics of depression (5) The clinical characteristics of depression are sad depressed mood, most of the day, nearly every day for two weeks, or loss of interest and pleasure in usual activities. There is also difficulties in sleeping (insomnia); not falling asleep initially; not returning to sleep after awakening in the middle of the night, and early morning awakenings; or, in some patients, a desire to sleep a great deal of the time. A shift in activity level and feeling lethargic or agitated is also a common symptom. Poor appetite and weight loss or increased appetite and weight gain is a physical symptom of depression. You may also experience loss of energy and great fatigue. A negative self concept, self blame and feelings of worthlessness and guilt with further evidence being difficulty in concentrating, such as slowed thinking and indecisiveness. Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide is the main symptom and finally apathy (no interest or pleasure in activities). There are two types of unipolar depression according to the classification systems. The first is major depressive disorder and the other is dysthymic disorder. Patients with MDD require five symptoms, suicidal thoughts. The symptoms are severe but can be short lived. On the other hand DD requires three or more symptoms, including depressed mood but not suicidal thoughts. Patients
Describe and evaluate the causes of mental disorders from two different approaches
There have been many attempts to explain the causes of abnormality. According to the Biological approach there are four main causes for mental disorders. The biological model says that one of the causes is our genetics. Psychologists use different types of studies to show this. Family history studies are used to compare members of the same family for the occurrence of a particular disorder like bipolar. Twin studies are used to compare monozygotic (identical) and dizygotic (non identical) twins for a particular mental disorder. Zimbardo's statistics for a genetic link for schizophrenia is 48% for MZ twins, 17% for DZ twins and 9% for siblings. This shows that it is more likely that a person will develop schizophrenia if they are a MZ twin rather than a DZ twin or sibling. A reason for this could be because MZ twins are more likely to be brought up in similar conditions than DZ twins or siblings. However, schizophrenia cannot be entirely genetic otherwise the concordance of MZ twins would be 100%. Adoption studies compare the biological parents and the adoptive parents to the child for example to test for schizophrenia or bipolar. Another cause for mental disorders according to the biological model is biochemistry. This is when there is a chemical imbalance in the brain. An example of this is low levels of serotonin can cause depression. The third cause is brain
