ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY EXAM 1 NOTES CHAPTER 1 ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT MYTHS AND MICONCEPTIONS ABOUT ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR There is no single definition of psychological abnormality No single definition of psychological normality WHAT IS A PYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER Psychological Dysfunction Personal Distress o Breakdown in cognitive emotional or behavioral functioning o Difficulty performing appropriate and expected roles o Impairment is set in the context of a person s background Atypical or not culturally expected response Example hearing voices or hallucination seeing spirits All disorders do not necessarily cause impairment or distress ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR DEVINED A Psychological Dysfunction Associated with Distress or Impairment in Functioning that is not Typical or Culturally Expected Response The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual DSM IV o DSM contains diagnostic criteria Psychopathology is the scientific study of psychological disorders Abnormal behavior needs to be understand in its contexts THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY Mental health professionals The PH D s Clinical and counseling psychologists The Psy D s Clinical and counseling Doctors of Psychology o o o M D s psychiatrists o M S W s psychiatric and non psychiatric social workers o MN MSN s psychiatric nurses United by the Scientist Practitioner Framework THE SCIENTIST PRACTITIONER MODEL Producers of research Consumers of research Evaluators of their work using empirical methods They conduct research and be a consumer or the research They benefit from it They practice it Mental health professionals are Consumers of science they enhance the practice Evaluators of science determining the effectiveness of the practice Creator of science CLINICAL DESCRIPTION Begins with the Presenting Problem This is the area of the patient s concern This is the problem that they present to the mental health professional o Description aims to distinguish clinically significant dysfunction from common human experience o Might not always be the issue at hand o The nurse or physician will ask for a more detailed description and get more information Tell me more about that How often is this happening Describe prevalence and incidence of disorders Prevalence is the rate of the disorder in a population How often It occurs within a group of people Incidence is the rate of the disorder during a given period of time Could also be the number of cases during a given time o o o o o o Describe onset of disorders o When did it start o Acute v insidious onset Describe course of disorders Acute sudden It came out of nowhere Insidious gradual onset o What kind of patter does the pattern follow o Episode time limited or chronic Episodic does it come in waves Time limited happened once for a few days then never happened again Chronic has happened over a long period of time Cannot go a certain amount of time without having something happen CAUSATION TREATMENT AND OUTCOME What factors contribute to the development of psychopathology Study of Etiology how did it happen How did it start What s the cause o o Biological influences psychological influences social Etc o Prognosis The expected outcome The prognosis may be good with treatment The prognosis might be bad if the person has been in rehab 6 or 7 times and has seen no improvement How can we best improve the lives of people suffering from psychopathology o o Study of treatment development Includes pharmacologic psychosocial and or HISTORICAL CONCEPTIONS OF ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR Major psychological disorders have existed In all cultures o o Across all time periods The causes and treatment of abnormal behavior varies widely o Across cultures o Across time periods o As particularly as a function of prevailing paradigms or would views Three dominant traditions include Supernatural o o Biological o Psychological The thing that has changed regarding abnormal disorders is our understanding THE SUPERNATURAL TRADITION Deviant behavior as a battle of Good vs Evil o Deviant behavior was believed to be caused by demonic possession witchcraft sorcery o Treatments included exorcism torture beatings and crude surgeries The moon and Stars o Paracelsus and lunacy THE BIOLOGICAL TRADITION Hippocrates equated Abnormal behavior with physical disease o Deviant or abnormal behaviors were physical diseases that should be treated with medical techniques that were at their disposal Not burning and the stake or exorcisms o Described Hysteria as The Wandering Uterus because they were usually found in females Galen extends Hippocrates work o Responsible for the Humoral theory The belief that the behaviors and actions of the body were caused by bodily fluids which he called humors Believed that imbalances were caused by too much or too little of these 4 fluids Blood found in the heart Black Bile Spleen Yellow bile thought Liver Phlegm thought to be found in the brain Similar to the idea that depression is caused by too little serotonin Treatments remained crude If you had too much blood they would be leeched Galenic Hippocratic Tradition Foreshadowed modern views linking abnormality with brain chemical imbalances o o THE 19 T H CENTURY General Paresis Syphilis and the biological Link with madness o Associated with several unusual psychological and behavioral symptoms o o o Bolstered the view that mental illness physical illness and should be treated as such Pasteur discovered the cause a bacterial microorganism Led to penicillin as a successful treatment John Grey and the Reformers Phillip Pinel o o French psychiatrist in the 1700s Coined 5 forms of insanity Mania Melancholia with delirium Melancholia without delirium Dementia Idiotism Emile Kraepelin o Known as the father of the classification system of mental disorders o Made a vast number of observations of his and other and published a 2 volume book that contained a medical classification system First comprehensive system o o Defined 2 major groups of mental illnesses Manic depressive psychoses Dementia Praecox schizophrenia o Further divided into 18 specific mental disorders CONSEQUENCES OF THE BIOLOGICAL TRADITION Mental illness physical illness o Used brain surgeries shock therapies and medications o Very crude methods THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TRADITION The Rise of Moral Therapy o o Involved more humane treatment of institutionalized patients Encouraged and reinforced social interactions Proponents of Moral Therapy o Dorothea Dix Philippe Pinel and Jean Baptiste Pussin o o William
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