Abnormal Psychology

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Abnormal Psychology

• Introduction and Historical Review

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What is Abnormal Psychology?

• Abnormal behavior is
• unusual - but not significant alone
• socially unacceptable - culture specific
• faulty perception or interpretation of reality
• personal distress
• maladaptive or self-defeating
• dangerous
• Cultural bases of abnormal behavior

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Historical Perspectives

• Demonological
• skulls with hole in forehead one interpretation
  is trephining hole was made to let out evil
  spirits. Other explanations are possible.
• Ancient Greeks
• Hippocrates (460-377 BC) saw the health of the
  mind/body dependent upon the balance of humors
  (vital fluids)

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Cont. Hippocrates
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Cont. Hippocrates

• Hippocrates classified abnormal behavior using 3
  main categories
• Melancholia depression
• Mania exceptional excitement
• Phrenitis bizarre kinds of behavior

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Cont. Historical perspectives

• Medieval times
• Resurgence of demon bases of Abnormal Behavior.
  Treatment was through exorcism.
• Renaissance (late 1400s to 1600s)
• witch hunts and the beginning of asylums.
• Modern thought
• Jean-Baptiste Pussin (from 1784 to 1802) was in
  charge of the insane ward in Paris.

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Cont. Historical Perspectives

• Phillipe Pinel became the medical director of
  the unit in 1793.
• Both men believed in more humane treatment such
  as removing the chains, getting the patients out
  into the sunshine. This treatment emerged as
  moral therapy.
• American constituents included
• Benjamin Rush and Dorothea Dix

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Cont. Historical Perspectives

• Late 1800s, care was deplorable and hospitals
  were overcrowded.
• Mid 1900s, reform came with the discovery of
  phenothiazines this led to deinstitutionalization
  and the rise of the community mental health
  center.

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Theoretical PerspectivesFrom demonology to
science

• Biological
• Emil Kraeplin ? dementia praecox (precocious
  insanity ? schizophrenia)
• manic-depressive psychosis bipolar
• classification system
• Psychological
• Jean Charcot and Joseph Breuer treated
  individuals using hypnosis.
• They influenced Sigmund Freud who developed the
  first theory of abnormal behavior.

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Cont.

• Sociocultural perspective
• Thomas Szasz
• Proposed that mental illness is a myth.
• Instead of medical model, he believed there were
  problems in living.
• Biopsychosocial perspective
• Interactionist model considers the interplay of
  biological, psychological and sociocultural
  factors.

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Research methods

• Objectives
• Description
• Explanation
• Prediction
• Control

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Scientific Method

• Formulate research question.
• Frame question as an hypothesis.
• Test the hypothesis.
• Draw conclusions.

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Ethics in research

• Informed consent.
• Confidentiality.

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Types of Research

• Descriptive
• Naturalistic observation
• Correlational
• Longitudinal
• Epidemiological
• Case study

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Cont. Research

• Experimental
• Must include
• Independent variable
• Dependent variable
• Experimental group
• Control group
• Random assignment

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Examples in Experimental Research

• Independent Variables
• Type of treatment
• Treatment factors
• Experimental manipulations ie., types of
  beverages consumed.

• Dependent Variables
• Behavioral samples ie., activity levels, measures
  of adjustment, eating or smoking behavior.
• Physiological variables
• Self-report variables

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Cont. Research

• Other variables to consider
• subjects expectations, ie., placebo
• validity
• internal validity observed changes in the
  dependent variable are related to the independent
  variable. Random assign and control for confounds
  to increase internal validity.
• External validity generalizability /? Analogue
  study
• Construct validity The degree the results
  explain the underlying theory.

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Cont. Research

• Epidemiological method
• used to determine the rate of occurrence of a
  disorder in the population.
• Kinship studies
• used to separate the influences of heredity/
  environment.
• Some examples include twin studies and adoptee
  studies.

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Cont. Research

• Case study method

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