Mental Healthcare (Essay Sample)

Mental Health
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University
Mental Health
Psychopathology is the study of social and mental disorders. There are different theoretical approaches to psychopathology. These approaches inform the different types and styles of therapy. The approaches view psychopathology idiosyncratically. Accordingly, the approaches to psychopathology encompass humanistic, psychodynamic, systematic, cognitive-behavioral and biological approaches. From a personal point of view, the most preferred approaches include the biological and the cognitive behavioral approach.
From the perspective of the cognitive behavior approach, people with mental and social disorders do not have the ability to deal with the reality of their environment and their life. The cognitive behavioral approach teaches people to deal with the reality of life (Buss & Buss, 2008). Moreover, this approach helps the patient in carrying tests pertaining to their experiences and cognitions. Furthermore, the cognitive behavioral approach is geared toward helping the patients to untie themselves and view the world and oneself from different angles. Consequently, the cognitive behaviorists target the feelings and thoughts that change the behavior of an individual. Therefore, when the thoughts and feeling are right, the behavior will be appropriate too (Herbert & Forman, 2011).
The personal favor upon this approach stems in the fact that the approach aims at establishing the root cause of mental disorders with reference to the cognition of the patient (Schmidt et al., 2012). Subsequently, the approach aims at altering the thinking patterns and feelings so as to include the aspect of reality (Herbert & Forman, 2011). With reference to Schmidt et al. (2012), as a result, this leads to appropriate thinking patterns and feelings that inform appropriate behaviors. Thus, this approach accounts for the effect of thoughts, emotions and mood on actions. The cognitive behavior approach gives rise to the cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Accordingly, this approach has proven to be effective in many mental health conditions and disorders (Schmidt et al., 2012).
In accordance with Herbert and Forman (2011), in CBT, the patient is the central point of focus. Therefore, the cognitive behavioral approach understands the importance of a patient in enhancing their healing. Subsequently, in CBT, from the commencement of the therapy, the psychiatrist trains the patient to execute the therapy on their own. The psychiatrist also heartens the patient to test the accuracy of their beliefs through assignments. Therefore, this approach empowers the patient to make necessary changes that improve their mental health (Schmidt et al., 2012).
Another approach to psychopathology that has gained personal favor is the biological approach. From the perspective on this approach, mental illnesses or abnormality is as a consequence of faults in the biological processes of the body (Buss & Buss, 2008). Consequently, the abnormality may be as a result of alterations in the functionality of the brain such as changes in the activity of the neurotransmitters. For example, schizophrenia is associated with escalated levels of dopamine while depression is allied with low levels of serotonin. Additionally, as put forth by Buss and Buss (2008), the biological approach also holds to it that some of the disorders can be inherited from the biological parents. For instance, research has proven that genetic factors play a role in the development of schizophrenia. Moreover, this approach posits that some of the mental illnesses are as a consequence of brain damage.
Consequently, like the cognitive behavior approach, the biological approach strives to establish the root cause of the mental illness. On the contrary, afterw...