Abnormal Psychology

what is abnormal behaviour?

• statistical infrequency

• violation of norms

• personal distress

• impairment or disability

• unexpectedness

impairment vs disability

impairment: describes underlying condition, doesn’t imply limits

disability: alters capacity to meet demands because of the impairment (gap between ability and requirements placed by environment.)

phrenology (franz joseph gall), tenets of system:

• brain is the organ of the mind, mind is composed of distinct innate faculties, and since they’re distinct, each must have its own organ in the brain.

• the size of an organ is a measure of its power.

• the skull’s surface can be read as index of psychological aptitudes and tendencies.

broca’s aphasia: paul broca (1861) and patient “tan”

• language disorder: comprehension intact, production affected

• all tan would say was “tan” → but understood words, gestures, actions

• lesion in BROCA’S AREA (inferior left frontal lobe)

WERNICKE’S APHASIA: Karl Wernicke (1876)

• fluid speech production, impaired comprehension (nonsensical speech)

• lesion in medial temporal lobe

EXECUTIVE DISORDER: Dr. John Harlow & Phineas Gage

• frontal lobe is responsible for e.g. personality and behaviour, also prosocial behaviour and interpersonal behaviour

  • executive functioning: everything that makes us goal-directed, future-oriented

• rod went through the skull, seen by Dr., “Gage was no longer Gage”

the BIRTH of NEUROPSYCHOLOGY: Norman Geshwind

• neurologist, brought back to biological understanding of abnormality

• kept logs of WWII victims → where they had head physical trauma, did puzzles to test cognition

• clock drawing → visual neglect: nothing wrong with your eyes, contralateral issue with reception of visuals

  • something amiss in PARIETAL lobe

signal detection theory

false positives & false negatives in imaging results