Chapter One Examples and Definitions of Abnormal BehaviorDefining Abnormal Behavior • Personal Distress– subjective discomfort/distress • Statistical Deviance– relative frequency of specific condition in general population • Social Non-Conformity – violation of moralstandards – observer discomfort– situational/cultural contextWhat is Mental Illness? • Mental illness is a natural, fuzzy concept• Thomas Szasz: myth of mental illnessDefinitions• “Harmful Dysfunction” (Wakefield)• A condition is a mental disorder only if:– it results from failure of some internal mechanism to perform its “natural” function– it causes harm to the person as judged by standards of that person’s culture– Symptoms – thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that indicate a mental disorder– Syndrome– a group of symptoms that tend to co-occur and are assumed to have a common etiology– Additional Considerations– duration– impairmentThe Role of Culture• Zeitgeist = “spirit of the times”– drapetomania (out)– homosexuality (out)– pathological gambling (in)Cultural Relativity (Etic vs Emic)• Etic perspective (outsider)– Emphasis on universals among human beings from a position outside the culture of interest• Who decides what is abnormal?• Historically, it has been Western social scientists imposing theirstandards of normality• Now, we are starting to acknowledge that this is an ethnocentric cultural bias that may not be the best representation of reality• Emic perspective (insider)– Examines behavior from within a culture, using culture-specific criteria– Requires understanding cultural norms and cultural meaning of subtlebehaviorsCultural Influences on Prevalence (Weisz, 1987)• Problem Suppression-Facilitation Model– culture suppresses (via punishment) some behaviors– culture facilitates (via modeling and reinforcement) other behaviors• Adult-Distress-Threshold Model– culture determines adult thresholds for different types of child problemsHow often does abnormal behavior occur?• Epidemiology– study of the frequency and distribution of disorders within a population• Comorbidity– manifestation of more than one disorder (at same time)• Incidence– the number of new cases of a disorder that occur in a population within a specific time period• Prevalence– the total number of active cases (old and new) present in the population at a given time• Lifetime prevalence– the total number of people in a given population who have been affected by the disorder at some point in their livesChapter TwoCauses of Abnormal Behavior: A Systems Approach • What is a Paradigm? A set of shared assumptions about: • the substance of a theory • how scientists should collect data and test theoretical propositions 4 Basic Psychological Paradigms: Paradigmatic Focus • Biological à Bodily functions and structures• Psychodynamic à Unconscious mind• Cognitive-Behavioral à Observable behavior• Humanistic à Free will4 Basic Psychological Paradigms: Inborn Human Nature• Biological à Competitive, but some altruism• Psychodynamic à Aggressive, sexual (Freud’s id in psychoanalytic theory)• Cognitive-Behavioral à Neutral, a blank slate• Humanistic à Basic goodness4 Basic Psychological Paradigms: Cause of Abnormality• Biological à Genes, neurochemistry, physical damage• Psychodynamic à Early childhood experiences• Cognitive-Behavioral à Social learning• Humanistic à Frustrations of society Systems Theory: Definition• No one paradigm offers the “right” approach: Systems • theory integrates evidence from the biological, psychological, and social domains• Embraces multiple influences on behavior, including the best elements of each of the 4 paradigms Systems Theory: DefinitionThe centerpiece of systems theory is:Holism: whole = more than the sum of its partsExample: playing a sport in which the team must work together (e.g., basketball, volleyball)The opposite of holism is:Reductionism: whole = sum of its parts; focuses on smaller and smaller units Example: playing a sport in which the team must work individually (e.g., gymnastics, wrestling)Systems Theory: Causality• Diathesis-Stress Model• Diathesis: existing vulnerability that precedes stressor• Stress: any event that triggers the onset of disturbance• A diathesis may or may not be biological, and a stressor may or may not be environmental• Equifinality: different causes for same disorder Death of parentLoss of jobChange in brain chemistry• Multifinality: same causal factor but different outcomes Earthquake Levels of Analysis• Systems theory integrates evidence from biological, psychological, and social domains of behavior (not additive)• Different paradigms operate at different levels of analysis when explaining human behavior: e.g., neuron, individual, couple, family, community, cultureMisinterpretation of Biological Perspective• “Biology CAUSES psychological factors” This is misleading…• Biology can be influenced by psychology • Biological causes do not necessarily require biological treatment • Today most psychologists view disorders as being caused by multiple factors• Biology does not necessarily form the basis of psychological factors or cause psychological factors to exist or develop• Social/psychological factors can cause changes in brain structures, hormones, & neurotransmitter function• Also misleading to say that 50% of psychology is due to biological factors, and 50% is due to social factors…Multi-dimensional Model• In this course, we will adopt a multi-dimensional approach to discussing psychopathology• 1) The interaction between various factors is more important • 2) Intervening on one level can influence another• Gene-environment interactions (G x E):• Genes and environment may both be having an important influence ona behavior, with their influence being more than additive• In other words, having both does not mean you are just twice as likely to engage in a behavior… it’s actually much more likely• Gene-Environment Correlations (rGE):• Genes and environments are not “randomly” put together. Environments and genes are often likely to come in particular pairs at more than chance levelsIllustration of G x E• Genotype vs. Phenotype• Biological Paradigm: Behavior Genetics • There are three different approaches to studying