Abnormal Psychology

Criteria for Abnormal Behavior

1. Unusualness or statistical infrequency

2. Social deviance

3. Misperceptions or misinterpretations of reality

4. States of severe personal distress

5. Maladaptive or self-defeating

6. Dangerousness

Percentage of people in the US who develop disorders over their lifetime

50%

People currently affected

More than 1/5

true or false: Woman are more likely to develop psychological disorders

true

Age group most likely to develop psychological disorders

18-25

Demonological Model

The belief that abnormal behavior is the result of demonic spirits or supernatural forces

Hippocrates

Foreshadowed the medical model, arguing for biological causes of PD’s, 4 fluids

Blood

Cheerfulness

Black Bile

Depression

Phlegm

Lethargy

Yellow Bile

Irritability

Medieval Asylums

Terrible conditions, patients were sometimes put on display

Jean-Baptiste Pussin and Phillipe Pinel

Put in charge of war for “incurably insane” people, first to unchain them, Pinel continued his work

Dorothea Dix

Reformer in the US, school teacher who went around advocating for people, established a lot of mental hospitals

Benjamin Rush

American Physician, advanced humane treatment and favored the therapeutic use of occupational therapy, music, and travel

William Tuke

Reformer in England

Role of Mental Hospitals Today

Structured treatment environments, shorter stays

Deinstitutionalization

Part of the reform because the institutions were terrible but now we have a lot of people who don’t receive proper care to be able to live in their communities, lots of people with disorders on the streets, led to the development of CMHCs

Biological Perspective

Medical model, conceptualizes disturbed behavior patterns in terms of clusters of symptoms, called syndromes, that have distinctive causes to be biological in nature

Emil Kraepelin

Dementia Praecox (schizophrenia): biochemical imbalance, manic-depressive psychosis (bipolar): abnormal metabolism

Psychological Perspective

Focus on the psychological underpinnings of disorders, psychoanalytic, behavioral, humanistic, and cognitive perspectives

Jean-Martin Charcot

Teaching clinic and hypnosis, influenced a young Freud

Breuer

Anna O with hypnosis, catharsis AKA talking cure

Freud

Psychodynamic model, psychological factors causing illness lie outside conscious awareness

Sociocultural perspective

Broader perspective that takes into account social contexts, like diversity, socioeconomic level, and exposure to discrimination and prejudice, stigma of being seen as a “mental patient'“

Biopsychosocial Model

All the other ones combined, many theorists ascribe to this

4 major objectives of science

description, explanation, prediction, and control

Ethical Research

Informed consent, confidentiality

Epidemiological Model

Examine the rates of occurrence PDs in various populations or groups in order to better understand how they are distributed in a population

Kinship studies

Ex: Twins and adoptees

Blind

State of being unaware if you received the experimental treatment or placebo

Construct Validity

In experimentation: the degree to which the effects are because of the independent variable, in measurement: the degree to which the test measures it’s construct

Correlation Coefficient

A statistical measure of the strength of correlation between 2 things

External Validity

The degree to which experiment results can be generalized

General Paresis

A form of dementia resulting for neurosyphilis

Incidence

Number of new cases occurring within a specific period of time

Genotype

The set of traits specified by ones genetic code

Phenotype

An individuals actual or expressed traits

Prevalence

Overall number of cases in a population within a specific period of time

Proband

First case diagnosed with a specific disorder

Psychopathology

The scientific study of the types, causes, and treatments of psychological or mental disorders

Reversal Design

An experimental design consisting of repeated measurement of a subjects behavior through a sequence of alternating baseline and treatment phases

Single Case Experimental Design

A study where the subject is used as his or her own control, ex: Reversal design

Selection Factor

A bias where differences in the control and experimental group are due to differences in the type of people and not the independent variable

Neurons

Nerve Cells that transmit signals across the body, makes up the nervous system

Soma

Cell body, takes the messages and passes them to the axon

Dendrites

Short fibers that extend from the cell to receive messages from other cells

Axon

Trunk-like projection from the cell body in which impulses travel

Terminals

The small branch structures at the tip of axons

Myelin Sheath

Protective covering of axons that increases impulse speed

Neurotransmitters

Chemicals that transmit messages from one neuron to another

Synapse

The spaces between neurons in which neurotransmitters travel

Receptor site

Part of the dendrite structured to receive a specific neutransmitter

Dopamine

Neurotransmitter that regulates muscle contractions and learning, memory, and emotions, irregularities in dopamine may contribute to schizophrenia

Norepinephrine

Mental processes involved in learning and memory, linked with mood disorders like depression

Serotonin

Regulation of mood states, satiety, and sleep, connected to eating disorders and depression

All or none law

The principal that a neuron fires at full strength or not at all

Resting potential

When a neuron contains more negative ions than positive inside

Action potential

When a neuron receives enough positive ions to fire

Refractory Period

Period after firing when a neuron is unable to fire

Central Nervous System

Made up of the brain and spinal cord, controls bodily and higher mental functions

Peripheral Nervous System

Made up of the somatic and autonomic nervous systems, receives and transmits messages to the CNS and from the CNS to muscles and glands

Autonomic Nervous System

Made up of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, regulates involuntary bodily processes

Sympathetic Nervous System

Mobilizes bodily resources in response to threat by speeding up heart rate and respiration and drawing from stored energy from bodily reserves

Parasympathetic Nervous System

Replenishes bodily resources by promoting digestion and bodily processes

Somatic Nervous System

Carries sensory information from sensory organs to the CNS and relays motor movement commands to muscles, controls voluntary movement

Hindbrain

Contains medulla, pons, and cerebellum

Medulla

Area of the hindbrain that regulates heart beat, respiration, and blood pressure

Pons

Area of the hindbrain involved in body movements, sleep, attention, and respiration

Cerebellum

Latin for little brain, part of the hindbrain responsible for coordination and balance

Midbrain

Contains nerve pathways connecting the hindbrain to the forebrain

Reticular Advocating System

Weblike network of neuron starting in the hindbrain through the midbrain to forebrain, regulates sleep, attention, and arousal

Forebrain

Thalamus, hypothalamus, basal ganglia, and cerebrum

Thalamus

In the forebrain, relays sensory information to higher parts of the brain, also involved in regulating sleep and attention

Hypothalamus

Tiny pea-like structure under the thalamus, regulates body temperature, emotion, and motivation, keeps you in homeostasis with sleep cycles, hunger and thirst, body temperature

Limbic system

Made up of the hypo and regular thalamus, involved in emotional processing, memory, and basic drives

Basal ganglia

Part of the forebrain that regulates postural movements (balance) and coordination

Cerebrum

Responsible for higher mental functioning, like thinking and problem solving, seat of consciousness and sense of self

Cerebral cortex

The wrinkled surface area of the cerebrum, does all the higher mental functions and sensory processing

Corpus Callosum

Nerve vibers that connect the hemispheres

Amygdala

Almond shaped, processes emotion, fear responses, and emotional memories, inside the temporal lobe

Hippocampus

Memory and spatial recognition, in the temporal lobe

Sensory Cortex

Receive and processes information from senses

Motor Cortex

Muscle control

Visual cortex

Processes information from our eyes

Auditory Cortex

Processes information from our ears

Prefrontal cortex

Higher functions, thinking, planning, judgement, and impulse control

Occipital Lobe

Primarily involved in processing visual stimuli

Temporal Lobe

Processes sounds

Parietal Lobe

Senses of touch

Liability

Risks of developing disorders

Epigenetics

The study of how the environment affects genetic expression, how these factors affect the genotype’s expression in the phenotype

Psychoanalytic theory

Theory from Freud that the roots of psychological problems involve unconscious motives traced back to childhood

Conscious part of the mind

For Freud, the part of the mind that is our present awareness

Preconscious

Part of the mind whose content lies outside present awareness but can be brought into the conscious

Unconscious

The part the mind that lies outside normal awareness, instinct

Id

Original psychic structure, present at birth, contains our primitive instincts and follows the pleasure principle

Pleasure Principle

Demands instant gratification

Ego

Psychic structure corresponding to the concept of self, reality principle, tolerate frustration, copes with frustration, self-control

Reality principle

Considerations of practicality and social considerations