Models of psychopathology: 3 ways to understand mental disorders.

Summary of the different models of psychopathology that describe mental health problems.

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 may be caused by a series of uncommon or maladapted behaviors and/or thoughts in order to perform a nosography or classification and description of psychic disorders.

In order to have a correct evaluation, diagnosis and adequate treatment of the different psychopathologies, there are several models of psychopathology with that purpose.

The different models of psychopathology, although they have different theoretical perspectives on what is abnormal behavior, follow the same criteria for detecting possible psychopathology, although the different criteria have different degrees of relevance in each of the models.

In this article will briefly explain what the main models of psychopathology consist of, and will also look at the common and also the common criteria that these models have will be seen.

General criteria of the models of psychopathology

The main criteria used in the different models of psychopathology have greater or lesser relevance according to the conception that each one has of what a psychopathology is.

The following criteria serve to delimit psychopathology from normality and at the same time to understand them. For any of the models of psychopathology it is important to take into account all these criteria in order to explain when a person suffers from any type of pathology at the 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 their normal distribution in the population, such as the Gaussian bell.

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

At the same time, he considers that an alteration at the psychological level is produced by a defect or excess of some normal characteristic, so that the differences between psychopathology and normality are quantitative. and, therefore, the psychopathological is that which is infrequent but has the same elements as what is considered to be within normality.

2. The interpersonal or social criterion

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

Therefore, a behavior would be considered as abnormal, a behavior would be considered abnormal when it does not conform to the sociocultural behavioral models, which hinders the integration of the different members of the society.which hinders the integration of the individual into society.

However, this criterion is not without limitations, since society is constantly changing and norms 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, so that a behavior that does not conform to social norms alone is not sufficient 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, i.e., on the consensusthat is, the consensus that existed within a given society at a given time.

3. The subjective criterion

From this criterion of the models of psychopathology 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 he should express it behaviorally and verbally to the mental health professional in charge of his care and treatment.In this case, he/she should express it behaviorally and verbally to the mental health professional in charge of his/her care and treatment.

If the person suffers from some type of dementia or schizophrenia spectrum disorder, it is common for him/her to have little or no awareness of suffering from it, so it will be quite difficult for him/her to express it.

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

4. The Biological criterion

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

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

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

Main models of psychopathology

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

Biomedical model

The first of the main models of psychopathology has been used since the times of Hippocrates, who developed them in relation to his concept of "pathology of the humors".It was not until the 19th century that it managed to establish itself within the scientific community, thanks to Kraepelin's development of the classification of mental illnesses, in which he related mental illnesses to organic problems.

In the 20th century, with the discovery and manufacture of drugs to treat mental illnesses, this model took on greater relevance, and it was already in the 19th century that this model and already in the 19th century it has proliferated the most due to the considerable increase in the prescription of psychotropic drugs to alleviate mental illnesses, even over referral to mental health professionals who provide psychological therapy, despite having demonstrated better long-term results and no side effects.

According to the biomedical model, a psychopathology or a mental disorder is exactly the same as any other physical disease.Therefore, it considers that mental disorders have an organic etiology, whether at the cerebral, endocrine, functional, etc. level.

The biomedical model in turn developed the following concepts in order to group psychological disorders into diagnostic categories:

• Sign: is the objective indicator that allows the detection of an abnormal process at the organic level.
• Symptom: is the subjective indicator of an anomalous sensation at the 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 not a disease).Therefore, there is no continuum between normality and psychopathology.

2. Cognitive model

Another model of psychopathology is the behavioral model, which began to be developed by Wilhelm Wundt and William James at the beginning of the 20th century, with their research on consciousness and mental activity, and became increasingly popular in the 1950s.

The cognitive model is a model of psychopathology in which cognitive or mental phenomena become more important than abnormal behavior in establishing the diagnosis of a mental disorder, and it is for this reason that subjective phenomena are very relevant, in such a way 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 cognitive processes that are anomalous.

Likewise, considers the patient as an active, responsible and self-aware person, so he is not at the expense of what happens in the environment, but has the will to act on his own.Therefore, he/she is not at the expense of what happens in the environment, but has the will to act by him/herself.

According to the cognitive model, for a person to enjoy good mental health, he or she must meet the following criteria: ability to adapt to the demands that arise, have self-determination and autonomy, while at the same time having the capacity to renew himself or herself in response to changes.

Behavioral model

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

Among the characteristics of the behavioral model is its objectivity, since it is a model that emphasizes quantifiable phenomena. emphasizes quantifiable and objective phenomenaIt is a model that emphasizes quantifiable and objective phenomena, as well as the relationships between behavior and the environment.

On the other hand, this model rejects the concept of disease and uses the principles of learning 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.

For this model, abnormal behavior differs from normality in a quantitative way, so they move along a continuum.Therefore, it does not have the qualitative conception of psychopathologies, in which it was only conceived that a psychopathology could be had or not.

As opposed to the traditional medical diagnosis, the behavioral model proposed the functional analysis, which began to be used to analyze the behavior of patients taking into account the background and context, being a tool widely used today, especially within cognitive behavioral therapy, which is probably the psychological therapy most used by mental health professionals due to its therapeutic success and its effectiveness in the treatment of various mental disorders.

The behavioral model has also has also put a great deal of effort into experimentationTherefore, within this model, numerous scientific works and theories have been developed to explain the causes and, consequently, the treatment of behaviors that do not conform to normality, through the analysis of different variables, development of hypotheses and empirical contrast.