Mental Health & Abnormality – Understanding Psychological Disorders
Mental health and abnormality explore how psychological disorders are diagnosed, explained, and treated. This topic covers schizophrenia, depression, cognitive and biological explanations of abnormality, and key treatments like CBT vs. medication. Whether you're studying AQA, OCR, Edexcel, or Eduqas, mastering AO1 (knowledge), AO2 (application), and AO3 (evaluation) in this topic is essential for exam success. Let’s break it down into key theories, studies, and exam-ready content.
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How to Navigate This Page:
We use the 👉 icon to highlight important insights:
👉 Exam Tips – Guidance on how topics appear in A-Level exams.
👉 Key Discoveries & Impacts – Groundbreaking findings that shaped psychology.
👉 Real-World Applications – How these concepts are used in everyday life.
👉 Critical Thinking Prompts – Questions to help you develop higher-order thinking.

Core Explanations – The Foundations of Mental Health & Abnormality
1️⃣ Defining Abnormality: How Do We Diagnose Mental Illness?
There are four main definitions of abnormality used in psychology:
  • Statistical infrequency – A behaviour is abnormal if it is rare (e.g., high IQ is statistically infrequent but not necessarily abnormal).
  • Deviation from social norms – A behaviour is abnormal if it violates societal rules (e.g., antisocial personality disorder).
  • Failure to function adequately – A behaviour is abnormal if it prevents normal daily functioning (e.g., severe OCD stopping someone from leaving the house).
  • Deviation from ideal mental health – Abnormality is defined by lacking qualities of psychological well-being (e.g., low self-esteem, poor coping skills).
👉 Exam Tip: Expect exam questions asking you to compare and evaluate definitions of abnormality.


2️⃣ Biological & Cognitive Explanations of Abnormality
There are two key approaches to understanding mental health disorders:
🔹 The Biological Approach
  • Mental illness is caused by genetics, brain chemistry, and neurobiology.
  • Examples: Schizophrenia is linked to dopamine imbalances, while depression is linked to low serotonin levels.
  • Treatments: Includes drug therapies like SSRIs (for depression) and antipsychotics (for schizophrenia).
🔹 The Cognitive Approach
  • Mental illness is caused by distorted thinking patterns.
  • Examples: Depression is linked to Beck’s negative triad (negative views of self, world, and future).
  • Treatments: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) challenges negative thought patterns.
👉 Exam Tip: Be ready to compare biological vs. cognitive explanations of abnormality in AO3 evaluation questions.


3️⃣ Treatments for Mental Health Disorders: CBT vs. Medication
  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – A structured talking therapy that helps patients challenge negative thoughts and cognitive distortions.
  • Drug Treatments – Includes antidepressants (SSRIs) and antipsychotics (dopamine-blocking drugs).

✅ CBT Strengths: Long-term effectiveness, no side effects.
❌ CBT Weaknesses: Requires motivation, not effective for all disorders.

✅ Medication Strengths: Works quickly, effective for severe cases.
❌ Medication Weaknesses: Can have side effects, does not address underlying causes.

​​👉 Exam Tip: Expect AO3 evaluation questions comparing CBT vs. medication in treating mental health conditions.

Mother of Invention – Rosenhan’s "Being Sane in Insane Places" (1973)
Rosenhan’s experiment exposed flaws in psychiatric diagnosis by having pseudo-patients admitted to mental hospitals after faking symptoms.
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👉 Discovery: Even after behaving normally, pseudo-patients were not detected as fake by hospital staff.
👉 Impact: Led to major reforms in psychiatric diagnosis and DSM revisions.
👉 Exam Tip: Use Rosenhan’s study in AO2 application questions on psychiatric classification.

Exam Relevance – How Mental Health & Abnormality Appears in A-Level Exams
Mental health and abnormality are tested through AO1 (knowledge), AO2 (application), and AO3 (evaluation). Expect questions on classification, explanations, and treatments of disorders.
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  • AO1 – Knowledge: Explain definitions of abnormality, biological and cognitive explanations, treatments.
  • AO2 – Application: Apply theories to real-world cases like schizophrenia or depression.
  • AO3 – Evaluation: Strengths (scientific evidence, treatment success) vs. weaknesses (ethical issues, reductionism).

📌 Past Exam Questions:
  • "Compare cognitive and biological explanations of schizophrenia (16 marks)."
  • "Evaluate the use of drug treatments for depression (16 marks)."

👉 Key to success: Always use research studies to back up your points.

Model Exam Question & Answer
Question: "Compare cognitive and biological explanations of schizophrenia (16 marks)."

Model Answer Breakdown:
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  • AO1 (Knowledge - 6 marks)
    • Biological explanation: Dopamine hypothesis – excess dopamine linked to schizophrenia.
    • Cognitive explanation: Faulty thought processing – misinterpretation of reality.
  • AO2 (Application - 4 marks)
    • Gottesman (1991): Found high genetic inheritance of schizophrenia.
    • Beck’s cognitive model: Explains how distorted thinking leads to hallucinations.
  • AO3 (Evaluation - 6 marks)
    • Strength: Biological approach is scientifically tested via brain scans.
    • Weakness: Cognitive explanations do not explain biological factors.
    • Real-world application: Both theories have influenced treatments (CBT vs. medication).

👉 Exam Tip: High-mark answers always include research evidence & evaluation.

Key Studies & Research
Rosenhan (1973) – Being Sane in Insane Places
  • Found that psychiatric hospitals could not distinguish sane from insane individuals.
  • AO3: Exposed flaws in diagnosis but ethically questionable (deception involved).

Beck (1967) – Cognitive Theory of Depression
  • Proposed that negative thought patterns lead to depression (negative triad: self, world, future).
  • AO3: Supported by therapy success, but hard to prove causation.

Gottesman (1991) – Genetic Inheritance of Schizophrenia
  • Found 48% concordance rates in identical twins vs. 17% in non-identical twins.
  • AO3: Strong genetic evidence but does not account for environmental factors.

👉 Exam Tip: Use studies as evidence for AO1 & AO3, linking them to mental health topics.

Reflective Practice & Evaluation
✅ Strengths of the Mental Health & Abnormality Approach:
  • Scientific validity – Uses brain scans, genetic analysis, and clinical studies for diagnosis and treatment.
  • Effective treatments – Both CBT and medication have shown success in treating disorders like schizophrenia and depression.

❌ Weaknesses of the Mental Health & Abnormality Approach:
  • Reductionist – Biological explanations ignore environmental and cognitive influences on mental health.
  • Ethical concerns – Diagnosis and treatment raise issues around labelling, consent, and side effects of medication.

​👉 Critical Thinking Question: "Does diagnosing mental illness help people recover, or does it create stigma?"

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FIELD TRIP: Bedlam & The James Norris Case – Madness or Mistreatment?

🔍 Was James Norris a dangerous madman—or a victim of psychiatric cruelty?

Step inside Bethlem Royal Hospital (Bedlam) and uncover one of the most shocking mental health scandals in history. James Norris, a lucid yet heavily restrained patient, was chained to a wall for over a decade—a discovery that forced the UK government to investigate the brutal reality of psychiatric care.

💡 What you’ll explore:
✔ Psychopathology in action – What does Norris’ case reveal about historical diagnoses of mental illness?
✔ Social control or patient care? – Debate whether asylums were about treatment or punishment.
✔ The Ethics of Institutionalisation – What happens when power goes unchecked in mental health care?

📍 A-Level Relevance: Linked to Psychopathology, Institutionalisation, Social Influence & Ethics in Psychology across AQA, OCR, Edexcel & Eduqas.