2.2 Mental maps One of the maps mentioned in the description of my journey to London is the idea of the ‘mental map’. This concerns the notion that we all carry maps in our heads. When asked for directions to a place, our reply is based on a mental map which may be quite close to a ‘real’ map; or may be quite impressionistic and have more to do with our feelings and senses. Have you ever been misled by directions which told you to turn, say, second left, only to discover that the person who gave the
Exploring depression
This free advanced level course, Exploring depression, serves as an introduction to masters level study in neurosciences and mental health. Focusing on depression, you will consider key issues concerning diagnosis, causes and interventions. You will also begin to explore theoretical models, biological and psychological explanations, and look at a range of pharmacological and psychological therapies for depression.Author(s):
Exploring anxiety
This free advanced level course, Exploring anxiety, serves as an introduction to masters level study in neurosciences and mental health. Focusing on anxiety, you will consider key issues concerning diagnosis, causes and interventions. You will also learn how to evaluate news items, and to go behind the headlines and begin to explore some of the more contemporary and controversial findings within the field.Author(s):
3.4 Experiencing multiple sclerosis: a case illustration The idea of a body–world interconnection and distinction between objective and subjective body is explored further in the following extract, drawn from some phenomenological research Linda Finlay conducted on one person’s (Ann’s) lived bodily experience of having MS (Finlay, 2003). In the extract, the focus is on the process by which Finlay came to analyse what Ann’s body feels like subjectively. Her story – obtained via an in-depth interview (see Box 3 below) – emphasises the way
3.3 A body–world interconnection Our consciousness of our bodies remains fundamentally tied up with our everyday embodied activities and relationships. The body thus represents both our particular view of the world as well as our Being-in-the-world (Heidegger, 1962 [1927]). Martin Heidegger (2001) draws a distinction between corporeal things and the body, questioning whether the sense of embodied selfhood that we all possess needs to coincide with the limits of a corporeal body. The corporeal thing stops
2.3 Summary of Section 2 Mind–body dualism has been a pervasive problem since the seventeenth century. One consequence of this dualism is the way in which bodies have been treated in psychology. They have generally either been ignored or reduced to biology. However, our bodies are much more than simply biology; at the very least, they are the interface between the individual and the social world or, more radically, they are inherently social objects. There is growing recognition of the interaction between our bodie
2 Identity and the body In this section of the course you will look at the idea of a body–mind–social split in relation to the theme of identity and the body. You will then use the case study of pop singer Michael Jackson to explore the ideas of the body as an ‘identity project’.
Conclusion This course has been about understanding the idea of psychological abnormality and its implications. What we have learned is that ‘normality’ is defined in a variety of ways, and it is important to ask what model of ‘normality’ is being subscribed to when looking at ‘abnormal’ populations. Are we judging someone's behaviour according to medical, statistical or social definitions of ‘normality’? The point of giving a detailed example like that of dyslexia is to show that in pra
3.6 Reflecting on dyslexia Throughout this course, dyslexia has been evaluated as an example of ‘abnormality’, a difficulty, a problem in need of an intervention. However, research has shown that some adults with dyslexia are distinctive, not just in their difficulties, but also in their increased levels of creative reasoning compared to ‘normal’ people (Everatt 1997). West (1997) reports that Nicholas Negroponte, the founding member of the Media Lab at the world renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technolog
3.5.1 Expectancy versus effect One of the biggest problems in evaluating psychological interventions is that even if a treatment appears to ‘work’ it can still be difficult to ascertain whether the results were a consequence of the treatment itself. The improvement might have occurred anyway, with or without the treatment, or the apparent benefits might have resulted from other factors, such as being able to discuss the difficulties with a professional who understands. Any treatment can lead to expectations of i
3.4.1 Pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals? Nutraceuticals refers to the use of food supplements or herbal remedies for health purposes. For example, certain ingredients of the herb St John's Wort can be as effective in managing depression as conventional anti-depressants, with fewer negative side effects (Greeson et al., 2001). However, research also shows that this supplement can interact negatively with some commonly prescribed drugs, such as the contraceptive pill. This highlights the need for:
3.1.1 Treatment or management? In the preceding paragraph you will notice that we talked generally about the treatment of conditions, but referred to ‘managing’ dyslexia. Why did we do this? It relates to the following important general issues: Is treatment (i.e. intervention) warranted ? We mentioned this issue when we were discussing sociocultural or personal distress based definitions of abnormality. Intervention is not always desi 3.1 Thinking about intervention So far we have looked at issues relating to how we define ‘abnormal’ behaviour, and how we think about explanations. Now we will consider the more practical issue of how to approach the treatment of such difficulties. As in the previous section, we will discuss behavioural, cognitive and biological perspectives on treatment and consider specific techniques from each perspective that are applicable to the management of dyslexia. 2.5.1 Highly unsaturated fatty acids As we saw in Section 1, ‘medical’ approaches to some psychological conditions have focused on biochemistry and the use of corresponding drug treatments. Very little research of this kind has been applied to dyslexia. However, emerging evidence suggests that there may be a biochemical contribution involving abnormal metabolism of highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) – essential substances that play a key role in brain development and the maintenance of normal brain function. In f 2.3.1 Sex differences An intriguing aspect of dyslexia is the apparent excess of males who are affected. This could simply reflect referral bias – a tendency for boys to be identified as dyslexic more readily than girls. In the past, society's expectations of boys and girls were very different with respect to educational achievement. There is now much less overt stereotyping of this kind, but there may still be other reasons why dyslexia might be more readily identified in boys. For example, eviden 2.3 Biological explanations of dyslexia Some physical characteristics appear to be ‘typical’ of people with reading difficulties, although their relevance is debated. These include being male, tendencies towards left-handedness or mixed-handedness (i.e. inconsistency of hand preference across different tasks), and a variety of neurological 'soft’ signs and minor physical anomalies. We will consider each of these in detail in the sections that follow. There is also some evidence that people with dyslexia (and the 1.7.3 Differentiating dyslexia from other developmental conditions While dyslexia is distinctive, there are other developmental syndromes that often co-occur with it. Examples include: developmental dysphasia – specific difficulties with spoken language attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder – involving particular problems with concentration and/or behaviour developmental dyspraxia – developmental coordination disorder. Developmental dysphasia Developm 1.7.1 Differentiating dyslexia from other reading difficulties The idea that dyslexia is distinctive from other forms of reading difficulty is still debated. One viewpoint is that reading ability is a simple continuum, with exceptionally gifted readers at one end and people with dyslexia at the other. However, as we have already seen, dyslexia involves more than just difficulties in reading and writing. Reading difficulties must be specific and accompanied by a variable profile of cognitive abilities. It is the presence of other characteristics unrelated 1.2.2 Medical approaches to normality What did you write for ‘normal’ eyesight? The ability to see clearly without glasses? It is unlikely that you wrote down short- or long-sightedness as an example of ‘normal’ eyesight, even though they are very common. However, they are not seen as ‘normal’ because having to wear glasses is perceived as a limitation or even a form of disability. This relates to one of several so-called ‘medical models’ of normality, which centre on the idea of uniformity of physical and psychol
