PSYCH 2AP3 Lecture Notes - Epigenome, Classical Conditioning, Psych
10 Jan 2014
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Document Summary
The things that people say and do they aren"t just symptoms they are the disorder! Abnormal behaviour acquired by learning then generalized inappropriately ! Reinforcement / classical conditioning rather than genetically acquired! All we would need to do is just change their behaviours for treatment - change reward. Disorders: anxiety disorders, phobias! conditions to produce extinction or relearning! Abnormality results from social pressures - poverty, unemployment etc! The poor have a higher prevalence of the disorder than the wealthy in many cases! Crime, violence, illness increased in times of economic challenge! Problem: reduced popularity since 1980s bc lack of explanatory mechanisms - how do you explain how mental disorders come from these circumstances? it was unknown! There is no obvious therapeutical treatments - you can"t change their environment or give them a drug to change anything! The shift in the social climate - more conservative us political system doesn"t like the idea that society is the cause of mental disorders!
