Abnormality

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Defining Abnormality

• Abnormality as deviation from the average
• statistically-based approach
• Abnormality as deviation from the ideal
• the standard toward which most people are
  striving
• Abnormality as a sense of subjective discomfort
• psychological consequences of the behavior for
  the individual

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Defining Abnormality

• Abnormality as the inability to function
  effectively
• inability to adjust to the demands of society
• Abnormality as a legal concept
• the legal view of insanity

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Models of Abnormality

• Medical model
• suggests that physiological causes are at the
  root of abnormal behavior
• Psychoanalytic model
• abnormal behavior stems from childhood conflicts

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Models of Abnormality

• Behavioral model
• abnormal behavior is a learned response
• Cognitive model
• assumes cognitions (peoples thoughts and
  beliefs) are central to abnormal behavior

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Models of Abnormality

• Humanistic model
• emphasizes peoples control and responsibility
  for their own behavior
• Socio-cultural model
• assumes behavior is shaped by family, society,
  and culture

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Classifying Abnormal Behavior

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
  Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV)
• a system devised by the American Psychiatric
  Association used by most professionals to
  diagnose and classify abnormal behavior

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Classifying Abnormal Behavior

• Five axes of the DSM-IV
• DSM is designed to be primarily descriptive and
  devoid of suggestions as to the underlying causes
  of an individuals behavior and problems

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Major Disorders

• Anxiety Disorder
• the occurrence of anxiety without obvious
  external cause, intruding on daily functioning

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Anxiety Disorders

• Phobic Disorder
• intense, irrational fears of specific objects or
  situations
• Panic Disorder
• anxiety that manifests itself in the form of
  panic attacks that last from a few seconds to as
  long as several hours

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Anxiety Disorders

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Obsession
• a thought or idea that keeps recurring in ones
  mind
• Compulsion
• an urge to repeatedly carry out some act that
  seems strange and unreasonable, even if the
  sufferer realizes it is unreasonable

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Somatoform Disorders

• Somatoform disorder
• psychological difficulties that take on a
  physical (somatic) form of one sort or another

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Somatoform Disorders

• Hypochondriasis
• constant fear of illness, and physical sensations
  are misinterpreted as signs of disease
• Conversion disorder
• involves an actual physical disturbance, such as
  the inability to use a sensory organ or the
  complete or partial inability to move an arm or
  leg

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Dissociative Disorders

• Dissociative disorder
• psychological dysfunctions characterized by the
  splitting apart of critical personality facets
  that are normally integrated, allowing stress
  avoidance by escape

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Dissociative Disorders

• Dissociative identity disorder (multiple
  personality)
• a disorder in which a person displays
  characteristics of two or more distinct
  personalities

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Dissociative Disorders

• Dissociative amnesia
• a failure or inability to remember past
  experiences
• Dissociative fugue
• an amnesiac condition in which people take
  sudden, impulsive trips, sometimes assuming a new
  identity

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Mood Disorders

• Mood disorder
• affective disturbances severe enough to interfere
  with normal living
• Major depression
• a severe form of depression that interferes with
  concentration, decision making, and sociability

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Mood Disorders

• Mania
• an extended state of intense euphoria and elation
• Bipolar disorder
• a disorder in which a person alternates between
  euphoric feelings of mania and bouts of depression

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Causes of Mood Disorders

• Learned helplessness
• a state in which people conclude that unpleasant
  or aversive stimuli cannot be controlled
• a view of the world that becomes so ingrained
  that they cease trying to remedy the aversive
  circumstances, even if they actually can exert
  some influence

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Schizophrenia

• Schizophrenia
• a class of disorders in which severe distortion
  of reality occurs
• decline from a previous level of functioning
• disturbances of thought and language
• delusions
• perceptual disorders
• emotional disturbances
• withdrawal

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Schizophrenia

• Process schizophrenia
• symptoms develop relatively early in life, slowly
  and subtly
• Reactive schizophrenia
• onset of symptoms is sudden and conspicuous
• Positive-symptom schizophrenia
• Negative-symptom schizophrenia

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Causes of Schizophrenia

• Biological causes
• dopamine hypothesis
• schizophrenia occurs when there is excess
  activity in those areas of the brain that use
  dopamine as a neurotransmitter
• Environmental perspectives
• expressed emotion
• an interaction style characterized by criticism,
  hostility, and emotional intrusiveness by family
  members

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Personality Disorders

• Personality disorder
• a mental disorder characterized by a set of
  inflexible, maladaptive personality traits that
  keep a person from functioning properly in society

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Personality Disorders

• Antisocial or socio-pathic personality disorder
• a disorder in which individuals tend to display
  no regard for the moral and ethical rules of
  society or the rights of others
• Borderline personality disorder
• a disorder in which individuals have difficulty
  in developing a secure sense of who they are

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Personality Disorders

• Antisocial or sociopathic personality disorder
• no regard for the moral and ethical rules of
  society or the rights of others
• Borderline personality disorder
• difficulty in developing a secure sense of who
  they are
• Narcissistic personality disorder
• exaggerated sense of self-importance

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The Prevalence of Psychological Disorders