Wednesday 1 June 2011

Revision Session RE: Abnormality, Behavioural approach

Behavioural

All mental disorders are caused by faulty learning. Mainly classical conditioning (learning by association) and operant conditioning (learning by consequences).

Strengths

Some mental disorders do have behavioural causes e.g. phobias – Little Albert – Classical conditioning; Anorexia – Vicarious reinforcement

Weaknesses

Not all mental disorders have behavioural causes e.g. schizophrenia is much better explained in biological terms



If mental disorders are caused by faulty learning, the best way to treat them is to reverse the learning.

Strengths

Systematic desensitisation
Effectiveness
Appropriate

Weaknesses

Systematic desensitisation
Depends on ability to use imagination
Limited to the treatment of phobias

No comments:

Post a Comment