Question: "Explanations of abnormality have become increasingly dominated by the medical model" Give a brief account of the medical model and consider its strengths and weaknesses.
The Medical Model.
This definition of abnormality makes the assumption that mental illness had the same causes as physical illness. They usually affect the brains biological processes; however some mental illnesses do not follow this rule such as Alzheimer's. There are four main ways in which the medical model explains mental illnesses and they are infection, biochemistry, genetics and Neuroanatomy.
General paralysis is explained by infection as it is caused by the sexually transmitted disease syphilis. It eventually causes the person to become intellectually impaired before dying. All mental disorders can not be explained solely by infection though. A lack or excess of chemicals in the body and/or brain can also lead to behavioural changes which may be considered a mental disorder. For example neurotransmitters are chemicals responsible for communication between nerve cells, and an abnormality in these could lead to the wrong messages being transmitted. However few neurotransmitters are believed to be associated with mental disorders. Schizophrenia is also associated with biochemistry as it is thought to be due to raised dopamine levels in the brain.
Meehl (1962) and Rosenthal (1970) developed the diathesis stress theory which states that it is not an abnormality which we develop but it is a predisposition to getting it. This can be worked out by looking at a patients family background for certain disorders over many generations to look for genetic markers for a particular disorder. Disorders such as depression and alcoholism are thought to be caused or at least liked with the genetic theory. The fourth and final way of explaining mental disorders is neuroanatomy; this is to do with an abnormality in behaviour occurring due to a disruption to the normal functioning of a person.