Models of psychopathology: 3 ways to understand mental disorders

Although there is no unanimous definition to explain the concept known as psychopathology, within the clinic, it refers to the area of psychology and medicine that deals with the study of symptoms and / or psychological disorders that could be of a series of unusual or maladaptive behaviors and / or thoughts for the purpose of performing a nosography or classification and description of disorders psychic.

In order for there to be a correct evaluation, diagnosis and adequate treatment of the different psychopathologies, there are various models of psychopathology with this purpose.

The different models of psychopathology, although they have different perspectives at a theoretical level about what abnormal behavior is, they follow the same criteria to detect possible psychopathologies, although the different criteria have different degrees of relevance in each of the models that there are.

In this article It will be briefly explained what the main models of psychopathology consist of and the common criteria that these models have will also be seen.

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General criteria of psychopathology models

The main criteria used in the different models of psychopathology have more or less relevance depending on the conception that each one has of what a psychopathology is.

The following criteria serve to delimit the psychopathology of normality and at the same time to understand them. For any of the psychopathology models, it is important to take into account all these criteria to be able to explain when a person suffers from any type of pathology at a psychological level.

1. The statistical criterion

This criterion of the psychopathology models is based on quantifying the facts at the psychological level through the use of statistical techniques and its normal distribution in the population, such as that of the bell of Gauss.

This criterion takes into account that a psychopathology would be that which deviates from normality; in other words, whatever is rare within the population, so few similar cases are seen.

At the same time, it considers that an alteration at a psychological level is produced by a defect or an excess of some normal characteristic, so that the differences between psychopathology and normality are quantitative and, therefore, the psychopathological is that which is not infrequent but which has the same elements as what is considered to be within normality.

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2. The interpersonal or social criterion

Following this criterion of the psychopathology models, normal and healthy behaviors would be those that enable a person adapt to the environment following the habitual and expected patterns within their society and culture regarding behavior correct that the different members belonging to them must wear, which could be considered as a normality adaptive.

Therefore, behavior would be considered abnormal when it does not conform to sociocultural patterns of behavior, which makes it difficult for the individual to integrate into society.

However, this criterion is not without limitations, since society is constantly changing and the rules could change at the same time, being evident that there are some behaviors that 50 years ago were considered normal and now are not and vice versa. It should also be noted that this is not a single criterion, but is usually taken into account in conjunction with the others, for what behavior that does not conform to social norms alone is not enough to diagnose a psychopathology.

Following this model, the American psychiatrist Harry Sullivan proposed a consensual criterion in which psychopathology depended on the norms of society, that is, of the consensus that would exist within a given society at a specific time.

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3. The subjective criterion

From this criterion of psychopathology models It would be the person himself who is in charge of making the assessment regarding his own state of health as normal or if he detects any problem, in which case you should express it behaviorally and verbally to the mental health professional in charge of your care and treatment.

In the event that the person suffers from some type of dementia or a schizophrenia spectrum disorder, it is common that you have no or little awareness of suffering from it, so it will be quite difficult for you to express it.

Within this criterion, it is interesting to highlight a criterion that serves as a variant to this and that was proposed by Kurt Schneider, according to which psychopathology would be detected through the personal suffering of the patient.

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4. The biological criterion

Finally, according to this criterion of the psychopathology models psychopathology is conceived according to whether or not there is some dysfunction or alterations in the correct functioning of the organism, taking into account hereditary, biochemical, immune factors, etc.

In this case, the nomenclature of the different psychopathologies begins with the following prefixes depending on the causes:

• With the prefix "a", they are those psychopathologies in which there is some deficiency.
• With the prefix "dis", there are psychopathologies in which there are external pathogens.
• With the prefix "hyper" or "hiccup", when the balance of related processes or structures is broken.

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Main models of psychopathology

Let's see a brief summary of the psychopathology models used in the field of mental health.

1. Biomedical model

The first of the main models of psychopathology has been used since the time of Hippocrates, being the one who developed them in relation to his concept of "pathology of humors" and it was not until the nineteenth century when he managed to settle within the community scientific, thanks to the development of Kraepelin on the classification of mental illnesses, in which he related mental illnesses with problems organic.

In the 20th century, With the discovery and manufacture of drugs to treat mental illnesses, this model took on greater relevance and in the nineteenth century it is when it has finished proliferating due to the considerable increase in prescriptions of psychotropic drugs to alleviate mental illnesses, even due to above referral to mental health professionals who provide psychological therapy, despite having shown better long-term results and no effects secondary.

According to the biomedical model, a psychopathology or a mental disorder is exactly the same as any other physical illness, which is why he considers that mental disorders have an organic etiology, whether at the brain, endocrine, functional level, etc.

The biomedical model in turn developed the following concepts with led in to group psychological disorders within diagnostic categories:

• Sign: it is the objective indicator that allows detecting an anomalous process at the organic level.
• Symptom: it is the subjective indicator of an abnormal sensation at a functional or organic level, or both.
• Syndrome: it is the set of symptoms and signs that allows establishing a clinical picture for diagnosis.

From the biomedical model, when considering psychopathologies or mental disorders as a disease, the criteria are categorical (there is or there is no disease)Therefore, there is no continuum between normality and psychopathology.

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2. Cognitive model

Another model of psychopathology is the behavioral model began to develop by Wilhelm Wundt Y William James at the beginning of the 20th century, with his research on consciousness and mental activity, and managed to rise in popularity in the 1950s.

The cognitive model is a model of psychopathology in which cognitive or mental phenomena take on the utmost importance over behavior abnormal when establishing the diagnosis of a mental disorder, and that is why subjective phenomena are very relevant, so that the psychologist looks at both the content and the form of the information given by the patient in consultation.

This model focuses on studying the functioning of those knowledge processes that are anomalous.

In addition, considers the patient as an active, responsible and self-aware personTherefore, it is not at the expense of what happens in the environment, but rather has its own will to act on its own.

According to the cognitive model, for a person to enjoy good mental health, they must meet the following criteria: ability to adapt to the demands that are presented, have self-determination and autonomy, at the same time that it must have the ability to renew itself based on the changes.

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3. Behavioral model

The third of the psychopathology models is the behavioral model, which emerged in the 1960s, being a new paradigm within psychology thanks to the success that had at that time the psychology of learning, at the same time that the detractors of the biological model used to diagnose disorders emerged psychological.

Among the characteristics of the behavioral model, it is worth highlighting its objectivity, since it is a model that emphasizes quantifiable and objective phenomena, at the same time as in the relationships between behavior and the environment.

On the other hand, this model rejects the concept of disease and uses learning principles to develop its theoretical basis, so that for this model A mental problem is one that can be observed through maladaptive behaviors that have been learned through habits developed over the years. years.

For this model, abnormal behavior differs from normal in a quantitative way., so they move through a continuum, so there is no such qualitative conception of psychopathologies, in which it was only conceived that a psychopathology could be had or not.

Faced with the traditional medical diagnosis, functional analysis was proposed from the behavior model, which began to be used to perform an analysis of the behavior of patients. patients taking into account the antecedents and the context, being a tool widely used today, especially within cognitive behavioral therapy, which It is probably the psychological therapy most used by mental health professionals due to its therapeutic success and its efficacy for the treatment of various mental disorders.

The behavioral model also has put effort into experimentationTherefore, within this model, numerous studies and scientific theories have been carried out that allow explaining the causes and, consequently, the treatment of behaviors that do not conform to normality, through the analysis of different variables, development of hypotheses and contrast empirical.