What are psychological disorders?

Week 1 1/7/26 Abnormal/pathological cognitions (thoughts), behaviors and/or emotions

Determining if a behavior is abnormal can be difficult, but

Context is important.

Some contemporary criteria for psychological disorders

Deviance, Dysfunction, Distress, Danger (to self or others)

Deviance

Statistical infrequency (rarity) or deviation from the norm.

Limitations:

• Rare (gifted/ eccentric)

• Changing norms and different cultural norms (e.g., drapetomania or homosexuality)

Dysfunction

functional impairment (work, relationships, self-care, etc.)

Limitations:

• Who defines dysfunction?

• Some behaviors are dysfunctional without being considered abnormal (e.g., leading a sedentary lifestyle)

(Personal) Distress

Psychological suffering and a desire for symptoms to stop.

Limitation:

• Some abnormal behavior is not distressing.

• E.g., some delusions or antisocial behavior

Danger

Danger to oneself or others.

Limitations:

• Most people with psychological disorders do NOT present a danger to themselves or others.

• Some people are a danger to themselves or others but DO NOT have a mental disorder.

DSM

Disorders are organized based upon similar disorders

DSM uses various ways to define abnormal behavior

DISTRESS or DYSFUNCTION,

clinically significant,

Deviance alone doesn’t count

Three main categories of assessment:

-Clinical interview (structured, unstructured or semi-structured)

-Tests (e.g., intelligence, personality, mood inventories

- Observation

Assessment

the process of collecting relevant information to determine:

• How and why the person is behaving abnormally.

• How the person might be helped.

Theraputic Orientation

the way in which the clinician is trained

Reliability

the consistency of assessment measures

Validity

– A measure of the accuracy of a test’s results

test-retest reliability

the same individual getting the same results each time

interrater reliability

An individual recieves the same score, from all 4 psychologists using the same tools

face validity

does the test measure what it appears to measure?

predictive validity

A tool’s ability to predict future characteristics or behaviors

concurrent validity

The degree to which measures gathered form one tool agree with the measures gathered from other assessment techniques

Diagnosis

Based on syndromes, which are symptoms that often cluster together.

Treatment

Varies based upon the diagnosis and clinician’s therapeutic orientations.

Validity

needs Reliability

Reliability

does not need validity

History of Abnormality: Three basic perspectives

• Supernatural

• Biological (somatogenic)

• Psychological (psychogenic)

In Ancient times, there was a force of deamons from the body through methods like

trephination and exorcism

Trephination

holes drilled into the skull for deamon to exit the skull.

Hippocrates: all pathology result of an imbalance of the

Humors

Middle Ages

Demonology

Renaissance:

• Asylums (overcrowded)

• Mind could be sick like the body

• Demonological views declined

• Bedlam in 1600’s

1800’s

• Emhpasis on humane, respectful treatment

• Phillipine Pinel (France)

• Dorothea Dix (USA)

• Still no Treatments

• Became overcrowded

Early 1900’s:

• contrasting perspectives emerge Psychogenic vs. Somatogenic

Hypnosis:

• Anton Mesmer (Mesmerized)

• Josef Breuer

• Psychoanalysis

• Freud: Talk Therapy

Somatogenic Perspectives

• Emil Kraeplin- father of modern diagnostic approach

  • Syphilis→ General Paresis (Richard von Krafft-Ebbing)

• Lobotomy

  • Walter Freeman

• Not effective

• increased eugenics

Deinstitutionalization

New Medications:

• Antipsychotic drugs

• Antidepressant drugs

• Antianxiety drugs

• Pust towards deinstitutionalization, rise in outpatient care