Psych 155b: Human Adjustment

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Psych 155b Human Adjustment Maladjustment

• Dr. Kimberley Clow
• SSC 6421
• kclow2_at_uwo.ca
• http//instruct.uwo.ca/psychology/155b/

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Read Your Course Outline!

• Cant have antirequisites
• Psych 150, 251E, 253E, 257E, 350F/G
• Textbook
• Sue, Sue, Sue (2003). Understanding Abnormal
  Behaviour. 7th Edition
• TA Jennie Ward
• Contact Jennie to go over exams
• jward9_at_uwo.ca

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Evaluation

• 3 exams
• Test1 and Test2
• 30 each Non-Cumulative
• Final Exam
• 40 Cumulative
• 4 Grading options
• Test1 30 Test2 30 Final 40
• No Test1 Test2 30 Final 70
• Test1 30 no Test2 Final 70
• No Test1 no Test2 Final 100
• Your grade is calculated in all 4 ways and I take
  the option that works BEST for you

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Lecture Overheads
http//instruct.uwo.ca/psychology/155b/

• Lecture overheads are available on the class
  website BEFORE class
• Print them out and bring them to class
• Spend class time TAKING NOTES on the details I
  talk about that arent in the overheads
• The overheads are not a replacement for coming to
  class
• Just using the overheads is not sufficient
  preparation for exams
• They are tools to help you take BETTER notes not
  a replacement for note taking

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Lecture Schedule
Date Topic Chapter
January 5 Introduction 1
January 12 Theoretical Approaches 2
January 19 Anxiety Disorders 5
January 26 Mood Disorders 11
February 2 Test 1
February 9 Schizophrenia 13
February 16 Personality Disorders 8
February 23 Reading Week N/A
March 1 Dissociative Disorders 6
March 8 Somatoform Disorders 6
March 15 Test 2
March 22 Eating Disorders 16
March 29 Mental Disorders Aging 15
April 5 Law Ethics 18
Exam Period Final Exam
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Abnormal Psychology

• The scientific study of abnormal behaviour, with
  the objective to
• Describe
• Explain
• Predict
• Control
• So what are abnormal behaviours?

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The Movies
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Myths of Abnormal Behaviour

• The following are common myths about those
  suffering from mental illness
• Easily recognized as deviant
• Disorder due to inheritance
• Incurable
• Weak willed
• Never contribute to society
• Always dangerous

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What is Abnormal Behaviour?

• Abnormal behaviour departs from some norm and
  harms the affected individual or others
• Conceptual Definitions
• Practical Definitions
• Surgeon General DSM-IV Definitions

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Conceptual Definitions

• Statistical Deviation
• Deviations from Ideal Mental Health
• Multicultural Perspectives
• Cultural Universality
• Cultural Relativism

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Practical Definitions

• The 4 Ds
• Discomfort
• Deviance
• Dysfunction
• Danger

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Surgeon General DSM-IV

• A clinically significant behavioural or
  psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in
  an individual and that is associated with present
  distress (e.g., a painful symptom) or disability
  (i.e., impairment in one or more important areas
  of functioning) or with a significantly increased
  risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an
  important loss of freedom

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History

• Ancient Beliefs
• Demonology
• Exorcism
• Trephining
• Naturalistic Explanations
• Hippocrates
• Four Humours

• Return to the Supernatural
• Mass Madness
• Tarantism
• Witchcraft

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Reforms

• Humanism
• People are sick not possessed
• Need to be treated with dignity
• Reform Movements
• Moral Treatment
• Shift from prison to hospital
• Biological View
• Organic explanation for abnormal behaviour
• Drug revolution

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Frequency of Mental Disorders
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Psychology Student Syndrome

• Many psych students find that the various
  disorders apply to them
• Abnormal behaviour is not qualitatively different
  from normal behaviour
• Many of us will exhibit similar symptoms
• Behaviours are only problematic when they harm or
  interfere with your daily functioning
• Diagnosing friends and romantic partners may lead
  to conflict

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Mental Health Professions

• Who studies abnormal behaviour?
• Clinical Psychologist
• Ph.D. and internship
• Psychiatrist
• M.D. and internship
• School Psychologist
• M.A. or Ph.D.
• Social Worker
• M.S.W.

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Who Do People Go See?
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Diversity Multiculturalism

• Social Conditioning
• e.g., gender stereotypes
• Cultural Values
• Interpret complaints with culture in mind
• Sociopolitical Influences
• Different experiences affect what is abnormal
• Bias in diagnosis

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Diagnosing Abnormal Behaviour

• Multiaxial approach
• Clinical disorders
• Personality disorders
• General medical conditions
• Psychosocial environmental problems
• Level of current functioning

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An Example of Classification

• Mark
• Axis I Clinical Disorder
• Alcohol Abuse
• Axis II Personality Disorder
• Paranoid
• Axis III General Medical Condition
• Cirrhosis
• Axis IV Psychosocial Environmental Problems
• Problems with primary support group (divorce)
• Occupational problems
• Axis V Level of Current Functioning
• 54 (moderate difficulty in social occupation
  functioning)

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Interrater Reliability
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Issues of Classification

• Hinders
• By stigmatizing patients
• Because different labels can mean different
  things to different people
• By biasing how we see the patient
• By focusing on one point in the patients
  development
• Patient may outgrow the label

• Helps
• To making treatment decisions
• To communicate among clinicians
• Research
• advancing knowledge of disorders
• diagnosis as a first step to understanding
  mechanisms and developing treatments

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Assessment

• Observation
• Self-Report Inventories
• Biological Measures
• Psychophysiological Measures
• Neuroimaging Techniques
• Projective Tests
• Rorschach Ink Blots
• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

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Rorschach Ink Blots
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(No Transcript)
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Scoring

• Look at the following factors
• Location
• Determinants
• Popularity of response
• Content
• Form
• Generate hypotheses based on patterns of
  responses, recurrent themes, and
  interrelationships among scoring categories

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Thematic Apperception Test - TAT
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(No Transcript)
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Interpretation

• Murrays concepts
• Need
• Press
• Thema
• Basic Assumptions
• Person is identifying with the protagonist in the
  story
• They are projecting their personality onto the
  protagonist