This mini-lesson covers the Edexcel Psychological Problems topic: what we mean by mental health, unipolar depression and addiction, their biological and cognitive explanations, and treatments including antidepressants and CBT.
Work through each screen, answer the questions as you go and collect ⭐ stars. Every fact here is anchored to a named study or theory on the Edexcel GCSE Psychology (1PS0) Psychological Problems topic. Press Start when you're ready.
Psychological problems · mental health
Defining mental health
Ideas about what counts as a mental health problem change over time and across cultures.
Definitions can be based on deviation from the norm, failure to cope with daily life, or clinical diagnosis using manuals.
Edexcel focuses on two problems: unipolar depression and addiction.
Mental health problems have individual effects (e.g. relationships, work) and social effects (e.g. cost to society).
Quick check
Effects on society
?Which of these is an effect of mental health problems on society rather than the individual?
Depression
Unipolar depression & the cognitive explanation
Unipolar depression involves persistent low mood, loss of interest, and changes in sleep and appetite.
Biological explanation: low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin.
Cognitive explanation:negative thinking — people focus on negatives and blame themselves, using faulty thought patterns.
Beck described a negative triad: negative views of the self, the world and the future.
Quick check
Cognitive explanation
?The cognitive explanation of depression focuses mainly on:
Depression · treatment
Antidepressants & CBT
Depression can be treated biologically or cognitively:
Antidepressants (SSRIs) block the reuptake of serotonin, leaving more in the synapse to lift mood.
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) identifies and challenges negative thoughts and replaces them with more realistic ones.
CBT tackles the cause (thinking patterns) while drugs treat the symptoms; often they are combined.
Sort it
Sort: depression or addiction?
Tap a description, then tap the problem it belongs to.
🔁 Both / general
😞 Depression
🎲 Addiction
Quick check
How SSRIs work
?SSRIs treat depression by blocking serotonin reuptake. The result at the synapse is that:
Addiction
Addiction & how it is explained
Addiction is a lack of control over a behaviour or substance despite harm. Edexcel covers:
Biological explanation: genetic vulnerability and the brain's reward system (dopamine).
Learning explanation: addiction is learned and maintained through reinforcement — the rewarding effects encourage repetition.
Treatments can be biological (e.g. drug therapy) or behavioural (e.g. aversion therapy pairing the behaviour with something unpleasant).
Match it
Match the disorder idea
Tap a description on the left, then its matching term on the right.
Statement
Answer
Quick check
Explaining addiction
?According to the learning explanation, addiction is kept going mainly because the behaviour is:
Depression · evaluating treatments
Evaluating the treatments
Each approach has trade-offs:
Antidepressants: quick and easy, but treat symptoms and can cause side effects.
CBT: tackles negative thinking and lasts longer, but needs time and commitment.
Often the two are combined.
Addiction · evaluating explanations
Explaining addiction
Addiction has more than one explanation:
Biological: genes and the brain's reward system (dopamine).
Learning: reinforcement keeps the behaviour going.
Most psychologists accept a combination of biological and learned factors.
Recap
The big ideas to know
Mental health: definitions change over time; individual and social effects