OCR A-Level Psychology H567
Research Methods and Techniques
Planning and Conducting Research
Data Recording, Analysis and Presentation
Report Writing and Scientific Communication
Practical Activities and the Nature of Science
Mathematical Requirements for Research Methods
Studying and Evaluating the Core Studies: The Common Framework
Core Studies: Social Area
Core Studies: Cognitive Area
Core Studies: Developmental Area
Core Studies: Biological Area
Core Studies: Individual Differences Area
Areas and Perspectives in Psychology
Debates in Psychology
Practical Applications of Psychology
Issues in Mental Health
Child PsychologyApplied option
Criminal PsychologyApplied option
Environmental PsychologyApplied option
Sport and Exercise PsychologyApplied option
Methodological Issues and Debates Running Through Applied Psychology
Issues in Mental Health
Behaviourist and cognitive explanations of mental illness
- 3 things to know
- Component 03
Overview
Recall questions on the behaviourist explanation of mental illness including classical and operant conditioning, Little Albert, Mowrer's two-process model and social learning, and the cognitive explanation including Ellis's ABC model, irrational beliefs, Beck's negative triad, schemas and cognitive biases.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
How could a phobia be acquired through classical conditioning?
How does social learning extend the behaviourist account?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
State the central assumption of the behaviourist explanation of mental illness.
Model answer
Abnormal behaviour is learned from the environment in exactly the same way as normal behaviour, so it is maladaptive learning rather than illness.
- 2
How could a phobia be acquired through classical conditioning?
Model answer
A neutral object present at the moment of a frightening event becomes associated with that event, so the object alone comes to trigger the fear response.
- 3
Which study is used to show that a fear response can be conditioned in a child?
Model answer
Watson and Rayner's work with Little Albert, in which pairing a white rat with a sudden loud noise led the infant to fear the rat and other furry objects.
- 4
How does operant conditioning explain why a phobia persists?
Model answer
Avoiding the feared object removes the anxiety, and that relief negatively reinforces the avoidance, so the fear is never put to the test and never disconfirmed.
- 5
What does Mowrer's two-process model claim?
Model answer
It claims that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and then maintained through operant conditioning by the reinforcing effect of avoidance.
- 6
How does social learning extend the behaviourist account?
Model answer
Disordered behaviour can also be acquired by watching and imitating a model, particularly where the model is seen to be rewarded or is someone the person identifies with.
Other ways to work this
The same content, four other ways.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Every question in Issues in Mental Health, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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