OCR Psychology A Level Book 2 sample

Practice questions 1. With reference to the key research by Szasz, discuss whether the alternative explanations for mental illness support the idea that psychology is a science. [10] 2. Assess methodological issues in research into the alternative explanations of mental illness. [10] 3. Discuss the nature–nurture debate in relation to alternative explanations of mental illness. [10] Psychology as a science Both behaviourism and cognitive neuroscience aim to use objective, scientific principles. For example, the studies that support cognitive neuroscience explanations of mental illness tend to be well controlled and carried out using objective measurements, such as Kuperberg et al. ’s (2007) research using fMRI scans to investigate the neuronal basis of the language difficulties experienced in schizophrenia. In contrast Szasz argues that understanding and explaining mental illness shouldn’t be scientific—each individual case should be understood rather than labelled according to symptoms. Similarly psychodynamic explanations are regarded as more unscientific because they use case studies, such as Little Hans, which are more prone to researcher bias . Psychodynamic explanations are also unfalsifiable—it is difficult to conduct empirical research that disproves, for example, the notion of unconscious desires affecting a person’s behaviour. Falsifiability is an important principle of science—if an idea can’t be tested then we will never know if it is true or not. Conducting socially sensitive research The way we explain mental illness has implications for how we treat it and therefore research on explanations of mental illness can have a profound effect on the lives of people with a mental disorder. Research may result in treatments which help people to, for example, recover from phobias. On the other hand some treatments may be dangerous if based on erroneous explanations, such as brain surgery to treat faulty neural circuits. Szasz’s research had an enormous effect on the way people understood mental illness and was a strong challenge to the medical model . This undermined the way that psychiatrists explained mental illness and suggested quite a different approach to the treatment of mental illness. Links with debates Nature–nurture Cognitive neuroscience explanations could represent a nature position. Genes may underlie the faulty neural circuits related to mental illness, for example Mayberg’s (2003) corticolimbic dysregulation model of depression suggests that depressed people have abnormal activity in their limbic system and their prefrontal cortex . It is likely that such abnormal activity would be innately determined, supporting the view that mental illnesses such as depression are due to nature. However, it is likely that such innate systems do not always lead to depression but only when triggered by life experiences (a diathesis-stress model ), i.e. nature plus nurture . Behaviourist explanations of mental illness support the nurture side of the debate because they explain how mental illness, like any other behaviour, is learned through experiences, particularly through conditioning. Psychodynamic explanations of mental illness also support the nurture side of the debate. For example, Coffino’s (2009) longitudinal study found that the strongest predictor of adult depression was the loss of a parent between the ages of five and eight years. However, high quality caregiving before and after the loss did reduce the risk of depression in adulthood. This supports the idea that a mental illness such as depression is due to our experiences in childhood and therefore nurture. Free will /determinism The humanistic explanation supports free will because it explains how we make choices that will reduce the gap between the real and ideal self. Humanistic psychologists propose that the only route to mental health is through self-determination. All the other four alternative explanations support determinism . For example, the behaviourist approach suggests that mental illness is due to conditioning experiences, which illustrates environmental determinism . The cognitive neuroscience approach suggests that faulty neural circuits cause the cognitive dysfunctions in mental illness. This then suggests that the cognitive approach is also biologically determinist—explaining that cognitive deficits are due to neural malfunction. Freud’s psychodynamic explanations are an example of psychic determinism —that behaviour is caused by unconscious processes. Such factors are outside an individual’s control and are therefore determinist. Reductionism/holism The cognitive neuroscience explanation reduces mental illness to its simplest form—abnormal neuronal activity in various pathways of the brain. This makes it a reductionist viewpoint. Humanistic explanations are more holistic . They explain that the individual as a whole must be taken into account—the ‘self’ is a psychological entity at a higher level of explanation. Szasz shares this view that, rather than diagnosing according to a list of symptoms, the individual should be considered as a whole. Three of the debates are not discussed on this page, such as the usefulness of research. The applications described on the next spread can help when you discuss usefulness. As a class choose one debate out of the eight required in the specification. List various relevant explanations/research studies/concepts each on an individual sticky note. For example, if you chose nature–nurture you might want to write cards such as ‘behaviourism’ or ‘Little Hans’. Take a long piece of string to represent a continuum, with for example nature at one end and nurture at the other, or high versus low in usefulness. Place your sticky notes with theories, studies or concepts somewhere on this length of string to represent where it sits in the debate. Try this for as many debates as you have time for. We have only covered five of the eight debates here, and we have not made every possible link to the background and key research. This is because the aim is not to rote learn these links but to be able, in the exam, to think on your feet and construct your own. So use this information as a template—you can start by considering the three debates we have not covered. 47 Linking it together: Evaluation of research on alternatives to the medical model