The contemporary views of psychopathology include biological approaches, psychological approaches, and behaviorism. Biological approaches include the study of genetics and biological treatments. Psychological approaches differ as they focus on psychoanalysis therapy. Behaviorism addresses aspects such as classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and modeling.
Biological Approaches: General paresis and syphilis were significant to the evidence of mental illnesses being biological. The symptoms of general paresis included progressive paralysis and the deterioration of physical and mental abilities. It was also noted that people with general paresis also had syphilis with biological causes. These biological causes resulted in psychopathology being able to gain credibility. Galton was an original researcher of genetics on twins which led to the idea that mental illnesses could be inherited and the eugenics movement which enforced sterilization to prevent undesirable characteristics appearing within the population. The study of genetics also led to the worldwide theme of nature versus nurture. Biological treatments included insulin-coma therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and prefrontal lobotomy. Electroconvulsive therapy involved shocking patients to induce epileptic seizures while prefrontal lobotomy involved destroying tracts that connected the frontal lobes to different parts of the brain
Psychological Approaches: Mesmer was an early practitioner of hypnosis that proposed that hysteria was caused a disruption of a universal magnetic fluid in the body and used rods and stares to influence the fluid to induce a behavioral change. Charcot then supported Mesmer’s work by legitimizing hypnosis as a form of treatment for hysteria. Breuer used the hypnosis to elicit the cathartic method of releasing emotional tension caused by previous emotional trauma in Anna O. Freud is the father of psychoanalysis who proposed that the mind is divided into the id, ego, and superego with all three structures continuously being in conflict with one another. Defense mechanisms were used to solely protect the id from anxiety. The structures of the mind are categorized into the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is biological and unconscious and seeks immediate gratification. The ego is primarily conscious and mediates between the demands of reality and the demand of the id’s need for immediate gratification. The superego is a person’s conscience and develops as a person incorporate parental and societal values. There are various forms of people exhibiting and using defense mechanisms that allow people to feel more comfortable with situations they may be dealing with. These defense mechanisms include repression, denial, projection, displacement, reaction formation, regression, rationalization, and sublimation. Psychoanalytic therapy involves a therapist listening to core emotional and relationship themes in order to understand early childhood experiences, the patterns in current relationships, and the nature of key relationships. Transference is also used in psychoanalytic therapy where an analyst is responded to similar ways as previously towards important people in an individual’s past. However, there is little research on psychoanalytic theory’s causes and treatment of psychological disorders. Freud’s work further influenced areas of psychoanalysis that includes how childhood experiences shaped adult personality, the unconscious influence on behavior, and how the causes and purposed of human behavior are not always obvious. Freud’s psychoanalysis is still practiced today.
Behaviorism: The concept of behaviorism focuses on observable behavior with an emphases in learning and is still influential today through behavioral therapy. Behaviorism is categorized into three types of learning. That include classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and modeling. Pavlov studied classical conditioning in which there are four components that include an unconditioned stimulus, an unconditioned response, a conditioned stimulus, and a conditioned response. An example of classical conditioning would be a meat powder is the unconditioned stimulus with salivation as an unconditioned response that is then followed by a bell ringing as the conditioned stimulus with a conditioned response of salivation. Extinction occurs if a conditioned stimulus is not followed by an unconditioned stimulus and causes the conditioned response to disappear. Operant conditioning was first studied by E. Thorndike by learning through consequences and observing the law of effect that led to the conclusion that a behavior will be repeated it if is followed by positive outcomes and will not be repeated if it is followed by negative outcomes. B.F. Skinner then proposed the principle of reinforcement which included positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and intermittent reinforcement. Modeling involved learning through watching and imitating other people’s behaviors and can occur without the use of reinforcement. Modeling can either increase or decrease various types of behavior that was demonstrated by Bandura and Menlove’s study that showed modeling reducing children’s fear of dogs. The importance of cognition is the impact of how an individual’s thought will affect their feelings and behaviors. Cognitive research became popular in the 1960’s and focused on the study of cognitive behavioral therapy in which the goal is for a person to work on controlling their thoughts while cognitively changing their thoughts, actions, feelings, and behaviors.