Abnormal Psychology

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Chapter 1

• Abnormal Psychology

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What do we mean by abnormal behavior

• Elements of abnormality
• Suffering
• Maladaptiveness
• Deviancy
• Violation of standards of society
• Causing social discomfort
• Irrationality and unpredictability

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• The Four Ds
• Deviance Different, extreme, unusual
• Distress Unpleasant upsetting
• Dysfunction Causes interference with life
• Danger Poses risk of harm

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Definition of Abnormality

• No consensus
• The continuum of behavior and thought processes
• Extremes most likely to be abnormal

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Classification of Mental Disorders

• Advantages

• Disadvantages

• Structures information
• Common language
• Promotes research
• Directs treatment
• Suggests prognosis
• Delimits domain of professional expertise
• Delimits insurance reimbursement

• Loss of information/detail
• Stigmatizing
• Stereotyping
• Labeling
• Self-fulfilling prophecy

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The DSM-IV Definition of Mental Disorder

• A clinically significant behavioral or
  psychological syndrome or pattern
• Associated with distress or disability (i.e.,
  impairment in one or more important areas of
  functioning)
• Not merely an expectable and culturally
  sanctioned response to a particular event (e.g.,
  the death of a loved one)
• Considered to reflect behavioral, psychological,
  or biological dysfunction in the individual

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Classifying Abnormal Behavior

• Wakefield defines a mental disorder as a
  condition that
• Causes significant distress or disability
• Is not merely an expectable response to a
  particular event
• Is a manifestation of mental dysfunction

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• Ultimately, each society selects the general
  criteria for defining abnormality and then uses
  those criteria to judge particular cases
• Szasz argues that, because of the influence of
  culture, the whole concept of mental illness is
  invalid
• Deviations called abnormal are only problems
  of living
• Societies use the concept of mental illness to
  control those who threaten social order

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Culture and Dysfunction

• Presentation of a disorder affected by culture
  examples
• China depression focus on the physical rather
  than emotional
• The culture of religion belief in evil spirits

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Epidemiology The study of the distribution of
mental disorders

• Prevalence number of actual cases in any given
  time period
• Incidence number of new cases occurring in a
  given time period
• http//www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-nu
  mbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america.shtmlIntr
  o
• NIMH The numbers count Mental Disorders in
  America

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Historical Views of Abnormal Psychology

• Demonology, Gods, and Magic
• Hippocrates and Early Medical Concepts
• Later Greek and Roman Thought
• Middle Ages
• Renaissance
• Early Asylums
• Humanitarian Reform
• Mental Hospitals in 20th Century

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Demonology, Gods, and Magic

• Most of our knowledge of prehistoric societies
  has been acquired indirectly, is based on
  inferences from archaeological findings, and is
  limited
• Most historians believe that prehistoric
  societies regarded abnormal behavior as the work
  of evil spirits
• May have begun as far back as the Stone Age
• The cure for abnormality was to force the demons
  from the body through trephination and exorcism

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Ancient skull with holes from trephination
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Greek and Roman Views and Treatments

• 500 B.C. to A.D. 500 A.D.
• Many psychological disorders were identified
• Hippocrates believed that abnormality was a
  disease arising from internal physical problems
• He looked to an unbalance of the four humors
• His suggested treatment that attempted to
  rebalance

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Europe in the Middle Ages Demonology Returns

• A.D. 500 1350
• With the rise of clergy came the downplay of
  science
• Abnormality was again seen as a conflict between
  good evil
• The incidence of abnormality increased
  dramatically as outbreaks of mass madness
  occurred
• Earlier (largely discarded) treatments such as
  exorcism re-emerged
• At the close of the Middle Ages, demonology began
  to lose favor again

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The Renaissance and the Rise of Asylums

• A.D. 1400 1700
• German physician Johann Weyer believed that the
  mind was as susceptible to sickness as the body
• Weyer is considered the founder of modern study
  of psychopathology
• Patient care improved as demonological views
  declined

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The Renaissanceand the Rise of Asylums

• Shrines devoted to loving care of the mentally
  ill were established and one, at Gheel, became a
  community mental health program of sorts
• This time also saw a rise of asylums
  institutions whose primary purpose was care of
  the mentally ill
• The intention was good care, but because of
  overcrowding they became virtual prisons

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The Nineteenth Century Reform and Moral
Treatment

• As 1800 approached, asylums were reformed into
  places of care
• Pinel (France) and Tuke (England) advocated moral
  treatment care that emphasized humane and
  respectful treatment
• In the US, Benjamin Rush (father of American
  psychiatry) and Dorothea Dix (Boston
  schoolteacher) were the primary proponents of
  moral treatment

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Contemporary Views of Abnormal Behavior

• Biological discoveries
• General paresis and syphilis
• Brain pathology
• Development of Classification Systems
• Emil Kraepelin
• Views on Causation
• Psychological
• Psychoanalysis

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The Early Twentieth Century Dual Perspectives

• As the moral movement was declining in the late
  1800s, two opposing perspectives emerged
• The Somatogenic Perspective
• Abnormal functioning has physical causes
• The Psychogenic Perspective
• Abnormal functioning has psychological causes

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The Early Twentieth Century The Somatogenic
Perspective

• Two factors responsible for rebirth of this
  perspective
• Emil Kraepelins textbook argued that physical
  factors (like fatigue) are responsible for mental
  dysfunction
• Several biological discoveries were made, such as
  the link between untreated syphilis general
  paresis
• This approach, while creating optimism, lead to
  few positive results until the 1950s, when a
  number of effective medications were discovered

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The Early Twentieth Century The Psychogenic
Perspective

• Rise in popularity of this perspective was based
  on work with hypnotism
• Franz Anton Mesmer and hysterical disorders
• Sigmund Freud father of psychoanalysis
• Unconscious processes at the root of abnormality
• The psychoanalytic approach had little effect on
  the treatment of severely disturbed patients in
  mental hospitals

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Psychology as a Science Pioneers

• Wilhelm Wundt 1879, Leipzig Germany
• Structuralism
• J. McKeen Cattell
• Student of Wundt, brought structuralism to US
• Williams James Functionalism, Harvard 1875
• G. Stanley Hall 1883 Johns Hopkins
• Sigmund Freud clinical approach psychoanalysis
• Behavioral perspective
• Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike, Skinner

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Behavioral Perspective

• Based on Classical and Operant Conditioning
• Pavlov learning by association
• Skinner expansion of Thorndikes Law learning
  by consequences

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Sources of Information

• Case study
• Direct observation
• Psychophysiological variables
• Self-report data
• Advanced ways to study behavior

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Studying the World as It Is Correlation
(observational) Research Designs

• One must be aware that if two variables are
  correlated, there could be multiple possible
  reasons for this
• The directionality problem
• Variable A could cause variable B
• Variable B could cause variable A
• The third variable problem
• Variable A and variable B could both be caused by
  variable C
• Variables A and B could both be involved in a
  complex pattern of variables influencing A and B
  in similar ways

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Studying the Efficacy of Therapy

• Should a treated group show significantly more
  improvement than an untreated group, one can have
  confidence in the treatments efficacy
• If one treatment has already been established as
  beneficial, comparative outcome research has much
  to recommend it
• What are problems associated with outcome
  research?

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Single-Case Experimental Designs

• Single-case experimental designs (e.g., ABAB
  designs) can also be used to make causal
  inferences in individual cases

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Principles of a Sound, Comprehensive Study

• A scientific approach
• Openness to new ideas
• Respect for the dignity, integrity, and growth
  potential of all persons, especially those whose
  current functioning may be compromised by
  psychological problems