Term
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Definition
Strengths:
-No Blame. Patients are not responsible for their condition, as it is caused by physiological causes. Therefore it is considered a humane approach, which elicits a sympathetic response from others.
- Research. Lots of research has been conducted, which helps to increase the understanding of this model and supports it, although it is difficult to establish causal relationships from the findings.
Weaknesses:
- Patients are encouraged to be passive in their recovery, which creates criticism as the patients are not fully aware of the processes making them well.
- Reductionism. The approach is reductionist as it explains complex mental and behavioural processes in simple terms of brain cell activity, without taking into account, cognition or emotion. |
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Term
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Definition
Strengths:
-Influential. Freud's model was the first to establish talking therapy as acceptable. It also encouraged people to think about what influences and motivates behaviour.
Weaknesses:
-Untestable. The model is not strictly scientific, and so is impossible to test and prove. However, just because it has not yet been proved, it does not mean that it can't be proved in the future.
- Retrospective Data. Although research has shown that many people suffering from mental disorders have experienced early traumatic events, the recollections of the patients are not always reliable as they are looking back at the past. |
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Term
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Definition
Strengths:
- Ethical. It looks at the behaviour as being adaptive or maladaptive, rather than labelling individuals as abnormal.
-Focuses on Functioning. This approach helped to define abnormality as a failure to function adequately, where behaviour is maladaptive and affects the individual's ability to cope with everyday life.
Weaknesses:
- The approach only looks at outward behaviour and so overlooks the role that emotion and cognition play as causes, and that behaviour is a symptom.
-Reductionist. The approach simplifies behaviour as being caused by conditioning and imitation without looking at other factors that could cause it such as biology, emotion and cognition. |
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Term
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Definition
Strengths:
- Research has shown that many patients who suffer from mental illnesses do show patterns of irrational thought.
Weaknesses:
- The model does not explain why irrational thinking occurs and Beck said that irrational thinking may be a consequence of mental disorder rather than a cause.
- This approach puts all responsibility for the condition onto the patient, by saying that it is their thought processes that cause illness. |
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