Task 2

I would conduct a study using a questionnaire, which would investigate happiness.

Questionnaires are useful as they can be sent to a wide variety of people, which increases
the population validity and generalisability of the results. Also, questionnaires are useful as
they allow a large amount of people to answer the same questions in a short space of time,
and they are quite simple to make, which reduces the expenses of the study. Also, the
results often come in relatively fast. However, questionnaires do lack reliability as
participants can lie about their answers which reduces the internal validity of the results.
Furthermore, questionnaires often do not obtain enough detail from participants, and so
results often lack contextual information.
One closed question that I would use if I was conducting a study using a self-report method
to investigate happiness is “Do you have a pet?”, and another is “Do you exercise?”. I would
ask these questions as past research suggests that having pets and doing exercise leads to
an increase in happiness compared to those without pets and who don’t do exercise. Closed
questions are useful as they give quantitative data which is easy to analyse and is objective,
however they do not often give qualitative data and so can be considered less detailed and
not descriptive of how participants feel about the subject of the investigation. In my own
experience of conducting a study regarding quantity of sleep and school grades, I found that
closed questions are easier to analyse, however lack detail to the reasoning behind the
given answer, and so are less detailed.
One open question that I would ask is “What time of day do you feel happiest?” as it would
allow us to find an average time at which people are more likely to feel happy. Another
open question I would ask is “What type of weather do you feel happiest in?”, to find out
more detail about the participants in the study. Open questions allow for qualitative data to
be collected, which allow for more detail to collected and gives more insight about the
participants feelings on the topic. However qualitative data is often subjective, which leads
to lower reliability and can often be harder to analyse, and so having both open and closed
questions is a good idea in order to get as much detail as possible in the study, and to
increase reliability.
One rating scale question that I would use on the 4-point Likert scale is “How happy do you
feel on an average day?”, which would give an average suggestion of how a person feels.
The Likert scale allows for quantitative data to be collected, which is easy to analyse, and
can easily be turned into graphs which show the results clearly. Also, by using a 4-point
Likert scale, participants cannot choose the middle option, and must choose an answer on
either side of the centre, which increases internal validity. Furthermore, Likert scales are
easy to use, and they are fast and quick to collect responses from the participants. However,
Likert scales only produce quantitative data, which means that there is a lack of detail in the
answers given, which could lead to wrong conclusions being drawn. I would use a semantic
differential scale that had the adjective ‘Depressed’ on one end and the adjective ‘Ecstatic’
on the other, as these words are opposites and allow for a wide range of emotional
difference. A semantic differential scale allows participants to fully express how they feel
about the subject matter and the question asked. The polar options of the scale require the
participant to give a specific response reflecting their emotive perceptions about the subject
matter. However, the results are subjective and so lack validity, and it is more difficult and
time consuming to analyse.
Task 3
1) One historical view of mental illness is that of Hippocrates, who believed that the four
humours, black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm, combine to make up one’s
personality. It was considered that a healthy personality had a balance of the four
humours, and disorders were attributed to an imbalance or an excess in one of the four
humours. To treat the imbalance between the humours, clinicians would purge the
patient using laxatives and bloodletting.  
2) Hippocrates’ view of mental illness would suggest that Ali has an imbalance of the four
humours, more specifically an increase of blood, which was associated with courage,
hopefulness and playfulness. However, it could also be a decrease of black bile, which
was associated with quietness, introvertedness and seriousness, or a decrease in
phlegm, associated with calmness, peacefulness and patience. If it was an increase in
blood, suggested treatment would be bloodletting, to reduce the quantity of blood in
the body and to balance out the four humours, and to allow Ali to have what was
considered a healthy personality. 
3) a) Two historical views which have a similarity are Humoral Theory and the Somatogenic
approach. Both views suggest that mental illness is dependent on physical explanations.
Humoral Theory suggests that mental illness is due to an imbalance of the four humours,
whereas the Somatogenic approach suggests that mental illness can be explained in
terms of abnormal brain structure and abnormal levels of neurotransmitters.  
b) Two historical views which have a difference is Prehistorical views with a supernatural
explanation, and the Psychogenic approach. The supernatural explanation suggests that
abnormal behaviour was attributed to witchcraft, religion and demonic possession, as
well as a punishment for wrongdoings. This contrasts to the Psychogenic approach
which suggests that mental illnesses are due to unconscious processes in the brain
which have a profound influence on our behaviour.  
4) a) One way of defining abnormality is the failure to function adequately, in which the
inability to function adequately causes distress and suffering for the individual and
possibly those around them. 
b) One weakness of defining abnormality as the failure to function adequately is that
this approach is related to cultural ideas of how one’s life should be lived. The criteria
deciding whether a person can adequality function is likely to result in different
diagnoses when applied to people from different cultures, because the standard of one
culture is being used to measure another. 
c) One issue of defining abnormality in relation to ethnocentrism is deviation from social
norms. This definition explains that what is considered ‘normal’ is determined by how
society expects us to act. In any society there are standards of acceptable behaviour set
by the social group, and anyone who deviates from these socially created norms is
considered abnormal. The issue of defining abnormality as deviation from social norms
is that each society and culture would have a different expectation of acceptable
behaviour, and therefore cannot be generalised to the population. This also means that
standards in one culture may be deemed abnormal by those of different culture.  
5) One way of categorising mental disorders is using the ICD-10, specifically chapter V,
which includes sections covering disorders of psychological development and mental
and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance abuse. Within chapter V there
are 11 subcategories, such as mood affective disorders and delusional disorders.