48 CHAPTER 2
Psychological Factors in Psychological Disorders
Both of the Beale women had idiosyncratic ideas and inclinations. For instance,
Little Edie, in talking about World War II, expressed an unusual view about who
should be soldiers and sent off to fi ght a war—people who are not physically healthy
and hardy. With such people as soldiers, she claimed, the war would be over sooner
(Maysles, 2006). In addition, Big Edie was known to command Little Edie to change
her attire, repeatedly, up to 10 times each day (Maysles, 2006). Psychological fac-
tors, such as learning, can help to account for people’s beliefs and behavior. Could
aspects of Big Edie and Little Edie’s views and lifestyle have been learned? And how
might their emotions—such as Big Edie’s fear of being alone or Little Edie’s resent-
ment of her mother’s control—infl uence their thoughts and behavior? Let’s examine
the role that previous learning, mental processes and contents, and emotions can
play in psychological disorders.Behavior and Learning
As we saw in Chapter 1, psychological disorders involve distress, impaired func-
tioning, and/or risk of harm. These three elements can be expressed in behaviors,
such as occurs when people disrupt their daily lives in order to avoid feared stimuli
or when they drink too much alcohol to cope with life’s ups and downs. Many
behaviors related to psychological disorders can be learned. As we shall see, some
psychological disorders can be explained, at least partly, as a consequence of one of
three types of learning: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observa-
tional learning.Classical Conditioning
In a landmark study of an 11-month-old infant, known as “Little Albert,” behav-
iorists John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920) demonstrated how to produce
a phobia. The researchers conditioned Little Albert to be afraid of white rats,
using the basic procedure of Pavlovian conditioning (see Chapter 1), except in
this case the refl exive behavior was related to fear rather than salivation. To do(involved in attention and the fight-or-flight response), gluta-
mate (involved in registering pain and the formation of new
memories), GABA (involved in anxiety and motivation), and
endogenous cannabinoids (involved in emotion, attention,
memory, appetite, and the control of movements).- Neurotransmitters can bind to different types of receptors;
the type of receptor a neurotransmitter binds to determines
its effect. - Neuronal communication can go awry when (1) neurons
have an abnormal number of dendrites or receptors, affect-
ing sensitivity to neurotransmitters in the synaptic cleft;
(2) sending neurons release abnormal amounts of neu-
rotransmitter into the synapse; (3) reuptake of neurotrans-
mitter molecules does not operate correctly. - Hormones, produced by glands in the endocrine system, often
function as neuromodulators; an important hormone related to
some psychological disorders is cortisol. - Genes can influence the development of psychopathology.
Complex inheritance best explains the influence of genes
on psychological disorders. Scientists who study behavioral
genetics seek to determine the roles of genes, the environ-
ment, and their interactions in both normal and abnormal
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Heritability is an esti-
mate of how much of the variation of a characteristic across
a population, in a specific environment, is determined
by genes. - Behavioral geneticists may use twin and adoption studies to
determine the relative infl uences of genes and environment.
Twins are either monozygotic or dizygotic. The environment
can affect genes by infl uencing when—and which—genes are
turned off and on. Genes can affect the environment in three
ways: (1) passive interaction, (2) evocative interaction, and
(3) active interaction.
Classical conditioning
A type of learning that occurs when two stimuli
are paired so that a neutral stimulus becomes
associated with another stimulus that elicits
a refl exive behavior; also referred to as
Pavlovian conditioning.