Defining and classifying psychological disorders

Abnormal psychology

is the psyhcological study of mental illness

How do we know if someones behaviour is abnormal?

if their behaviour is maladaptive.

Maladaptive

cause distress to oneself or others, impair day-to-day functioning, or increase of injury or harm to oneself or others

Asylums

residential facilities for the mentally ill

eARLY CLASSIFICATION OF MENTAL ILLNESSES (1800s)

mental illnesses were classified as mania (hallucinations, excessive energy) or melancholia (depression, anxiety)

Medical Model in Psychiatry

views mental illness like physical conditions, as setts of symptoms, causes and outcomes

• aims to change physiological processes to alleviate symptoms

Kraeplin’s Classification system

Grouped symptoms to identify patterns, curable conditions, and thos elikely to worsen.

• he classified psyc disorders into 13 groups including 2 related to psychosis.

Psychosis

an individual has difficulties distinguishing between what is real and what is imagined.

APA statistical manual

created to standardize mental illness classification globally

• not accurate initially

Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM)

• during world war II created a standardized manual to aid in the diagnosis of disorders

Most current version of the DSM

DSM-5-TR

• MARCH 2022

• 19 categoies of mental illness each with subtypes

Austism spectrum disorder (ASD)

a developmental disorder associated with poor social skills that may be accompanied by intellectual impairments.

• asbergers is now mild autism in the manual.

Challenges with classifying mental disorders

• who has a disorder in the first place?

• clinician makes subjective descions about whether or not a client exhibits symptoms and if they are severe

• several disorders share symptoms

• the criteria to be diagnosed can be off by one symptom

Culture-bound syndromes

expressions of distress that are recognized across a given culture that tend not to appear outside that culture.

• ex) ataque de nervous

• anxiety rates higher in latin countries, middle for US and Canada low for east asian.

• schizophrenia higher in african and afro-carribean places

• to give a better diagnosis include cultural formulation into some diagnosis.

ADHD

a developmental disorder in which children show inappropriate levels of hyperactivity and impulsivity while also having problems maintaining their attention on people or activities.

• ADHD diagnosis—> you need minimum 6 symptoms

M’Naughten rule

should a person who commits a crime be unable to recognize that the crime is morally or legally wrong due to mental disorder, they should be found not guilty in a course by reason of insanity.

In Canada —> Mental disorder defense

claims that the defendant was in such an extreme. Abnormal state of mind when committing the crime that they could not discern that the actions were legally or morally wrong. 

What was kraeplin’s major contribution to psychology and psychiatry?

• He created the first detailed system for classifying different psychological disorders.

In the legal system, the term “insanity” means

• that an individual could not distinguish between right and wrong when they broke a law.