Chapter 1 Abnormal Psych Clemson Brooke Bennett

Psychological disorders as a spectrum

Most behavior is not purely categorical; psychological symptoms and behavior often exist along a continuum.

Distress

One of the four characteristics used to identify psychological disorders: significant personal suffering or emotional pain.

Dysfunction

One of the four characteristics used to identify psychological disorders: impairment in everyday functioning.

Deviance

One of the four characteristics used to identify psychological disorders: behavior that departs from relevant social or cultural expectations; context matters.

Danger

One of the four characteristics used to identify psychological disorders: risk of harm to self or others.

Four Ds

Distress, dysfunction, deviance, and danger are characteristics used to help identify psychological disorders.

Context in abnormal psychology

Behavior must be interpreted in relation to family, friends, neighborhood, culture, and group expectations.

Culture

Shared behavior patterns and lifestyles that differentiate one group from another.

Culture-bound syndromes

Abnormal behaviors that are specific to a particular location or cultural group.

Socioeconomic status (SES)

In the slides, SES is discussed in terms of family income and educational achievement and its relationship with psychological disorders.

Downward drift

A decrease in socioeconomic status that can occur because impairment from a psychological disorder interferes with education or work.

Genetic predisposition

Inherited vulnerability that may contribute to the onset of a psychological disorder and difficulties in academic or occupational functioning.

DSM-5-TR

The primary diagnostic guide discussed in the course; it focuses on symptoms and the scientific basis of psychological disorders.

Clinical presentation

How a psychological disorder appears in a patient, including its observable and reported symptoms.

Etiology

The causes or origins of a disorder.

Developmental stage

A person's age or phase of development, which can change how symptoms should be interpreted.

Functional impairment

The extent to which symptoms interfere with daily life and functioning.

Prevalence

The proportion of people in a population who have been diagnosed with a psychological disorder; rates can vary across countries and cultures.

Developmental trajectory

The pattern by which common symptoms of a disorder vary according to a person's age.

Why development matters for diagnosis

Behaviors that are appropriate at one age can become problematic later; ignoring developmental differences can lead to inaccurate diagnosis.

Simone Biles example

The slides use Simone Biles' “twisties,” panic attacks, mental blocks, and withdrawal from competition to illustrate mental-health symptoms in real life.

Ancient spirit theory

Some ancient cultures believed spirits controlled the environment and aspects of human behavior.

Trephination

Creating a hole in the skull in an attempt to release evil spirits.

Organic model of illness

A model introduced in the classical period that sought bodily or physical explanations for illness rather than purely supernatural ones.

Melampus of Pilus

Introduced an organic model of illness and used treatments such as root extract and iron powder.

Hippocrates

Called the father of medicine; identified hallucinations, delusions, melancholia, and mania and emphasized environmental/physical causes.

Hysteria (historical term)

A historical term introduced by Hippocrates; later linked by Galen to the “wandering uterus” idea.

Four humors theory

Hippocrates proposed that environmental or physical factors could create an imbalance among four bodily humors.

Galen

Associated hysteria with the historical “wandering uterus” explanation.

Avicenna

Linked depression to a mixture of humors, recognized that emotional distress could contribute to physical disease, and foreshadowed humane treatment.

Witchcraft theory

During the Middle Ages, abnormal behavior was often attributed to the devil or witchcraft.

Mass hysteria

A pattern in which similar symptoms or behaviors spread through a group.

Emotional contagion

Sharing and transferring moods among members of a group.

John Weyer

A physician who helped revive more enlightened views and is described in the slides as the first physician to specialize in mental illness.

Paracelsus

Rejected demonic-possession explanations and argued that mental illness could be hereditary and some physical illnesses could have psychological origins.

Asylums

Institutions created with the intention of caring for people with mental illness but which often developed serious negative conditions and outcomes.

Philippe Pinel

Proposed that mental illnesses were often curable and advocated moving patients from warehouse-style asylums to treatment-focused facilities.

William Tuke

Along with Pinel, advocated moral treatment for people with mental illness.

Moral treatment

A 19th-century approach emphasizing respect, kindness, religion, and vocation rather than harsh confinement.

Benjamin Rush and Dorothea Dix

Figures who shaped American psychiatry and the treatment of people with mental illness.

Franz Anton Mesmer

Proposed animal magnetism and magnetic passes; his theory was debunked, but the episode helped illustrate the placebo effect.

Placebo effect

Improvement related to expectations or belief in treatment rather than the treatment's specific active mechanism; Mesmer's cures are used as a historical illustration.

Kraepelin

Helped move the field toward biological perspectives and made an early attempt to classify abnormal behavior.

Dementia praecox

Kraepelin's historical term associated with what is now called schizophrenia.

Charcot, Liébeault, and Bernheim

19th-century figures associated with work on hysteria and hypnosis.

Breuer

Associated with the “talking cure,” an important precursor to later psychotherapy.

Psychoanalysis

Freud's approach emphasizing the unconscious, personality structure, defense mechanisms, free association, transference, and insight.

Sigmund Freud

Founder of psychoanalysis; emphasized unconscious processes and the id, ego, and superego.

Id

In Freud's model, the personality component associated with basic drives and impulses.

Ego

In Freud's model, the component that mediates among internal drives, reality, and moral demands.

Superego

In Freud's model, the component associated with internalized moral standards.

Defense mechanisms

Psychological strategies used to manage anxiety or unacceptable thoughts and impulses.

Denial

Defense mechanism: refusing to recognize or believe the reality of a situation.

Repression

Defense mechanism: blocking anxiety-provoking thoughts or memories from the conscious mind.

Regression

Defense mechanism: retreating to an earlier stage of development or more childlike behavior.

Displacement

Defense mechanism: redirecting an unacceptable impulse toward a safer or more acceptable target.

Sublimation

A form of displacement in which unacceptable urges are redirected into socially appropriate activities.

Reaction formation

Defense mechanism: changing an unacceptable desire by adopting the opposite stance or behavior.

Projection

Defense mechanism: attributing one's own unacceptable impulse or feeling to someone else.

Rationalization

Defense mechanism: using conscious reasoning to explain away anxiety-producing thoughts, feelings, or actions.

Free association

Psychoanalytic technique in which the patient says thoughts freely to help reveal unconscious material.

Transference

Psychoanalytic process in which feelings and expectations from important relationships are redirected toward the therapist.

Insight in psychoanalysis

Awareness and understanding of unconscious conflicts; the slides describe insight as a key therapeutic ingredient.

Behaviorism

20th-century perspective emphasizing learned behavior and the idea that behavior can be learned and unlearned.

Ivan Pavlov

Associated with classical conditioning and the famous dog experiments.

Classical conditioning

Learning through association between stimuli; central to Pavlov's work.

John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner

Conducted the Little Albert study on learned fear; the slides note that such a study would violate modern ethical standards.

Little Albert study

A classical-conditioning demonstration of learned fear conducted by Watson and Rayner.

Wolpe

Associated with systematic desensitization.

Systematic desensitization

Behavioral technique that reduces fear by gradually pairing feared stimuli with a competing relaxed response.

B. F. Skinner

Associated with operant conditioning, reinforcement, and shaping.

Operant conditioning

Learning in which behavior is influenced by its consequences.

Primary reinforcer

A reinforcer tied to basic biological needs.

Secondary reinforcer

A learned reinforcer that gains value through association with other reinforcers.

Shaping

Reinforcing successive approximations toward a target behavior.

Albert Bandura

Associated with observational learning or learning by watching others.

Observational learning

Learning that occurs by observing and modeling the behavior of others.

Scientist-practitioner model

When providing treatment, psychologists rely on research findings and integrate scientific evidence with clinical practice.

Biological perspective

View that psychological disorders result from biological processes of the body, especially the brain; genetic and hereditary factors are important.

Behavioral genetics

Study of the roles of genes and environment in the transmission of behavioral traits.

Viral infection theory

Idea that prenatal or early-life exposure to a toxin or virus may contribute to later behavioral abnormalities.

Modern psychodynamic perspective

Emphasizes hidden forces, personality, the power of the past, and unconscious influences on life.

Ego psychology

Psychodynamic approach that focuses more on conscious motivations and healthy forms of human functioning.

Humanistic perspective

Perspective emphasizing subjective experience, human goodness, and motivation toward self-actualization.

Phenomenology

In the humanistic perspective, the idea that a person's subjective perception of the world is especially important.

Self-actualization

Humanistic idea that people are motivated to realize their potential.

Carl Rogers

Humanistic psychologist associated with client-centered therapy and the concept of psychological incongruence.

Psychological incongruence

In Rogers' view, mismatch within the self or experience that is associated with psychopathology.

Client-centered therapy

Rogers' humanistic therapy emphasizing genuineness, empathic understanding, and unconditional positive regard.

Behavioral perspective

View that behavior reflects an individual's learning history and that dysfunction can result from maladaptive learning.

Exposure therapy

Behavioral treatment that helps a person confront feared stimuli rather than avoid them.

Modeling

Behavioral method in which learning occurs by observing another person's behavior.

Applied behavior analysis (ABA)

A current application of behavioral principles to understand and change behavior.

Cognitive perspective

View that psychological disorders result from distorted cognitive or mental processes.

Aaron Beck

Originator of cognitive therapy and the cognitive triad model of depression.

Cognitive triad

Negative views of the self, the world, and the future described by Beck in depression.

Cognitive therapy

Therapy directed at modifying distorted thought processes.

Cognitive behavioral perspective

Focuses on reciprocal relationships among thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

CBT triangle

Thoughts affect feelings and behavior; feelings affect thoughts and behavior; behaviors affect thoughts and feelings.

Sociocultural perspective

Emphasizes that symptom expression and diagnosis must be understood in social and cultural context, including race/ethnicity, gender/sex roles, and SES.