AbPsych Prelims Q1

Abnormal Psychology

• Understanding the nature, causes, and treatment of mental disorders.

The DSM-5 Definition of Mental Disorder

1. A syndrome that occurs in individuals and involves clinically significant disturbance in behavior, emotion regulation, or cognitive functioning.

2. Reflects a dysfunction in biological, psychological, or developmental processes.

3. Associated with clinically significant distress or disability.

4. Must be beyond the expectable response to common stressors and losses

5. Is not primarily a result of social deviance or conflicts with society.

6. DSM-5 is a work-in-progress and has already been the subject of much controversy and debate

Psychological Disorder

• Is a psychological dysfunction within an individual associated with: distress, impairment in functioning, and a response that is not typical or culturally accepted.

• An abnormal behavior.

Psychological Dysfunction

Breakdown in cognitive, emotional , or behavioral functioning.

Personal Distress

• if the individual is extremely upset

Note: Distress and suffering are a natural part

of life and do not in themselves

constitute a psychological disorder.

Atypical or Not Culturally Accepted

• The greater the deviation, the more abnormal it is

• Deviating from the average.

suffering

malapdaptiveness

statistical deviancy

violation of the standards of society

social discomfort

irrationality and upredictability

dangerousness

the elements of abnormality

Suffering

the person experiences psychological pain

Maladaptiveness

one’s behavior interferes with one’s well being and one’s ability to enjoy work and relationships

Statistical deviancy

value judgement

violation of the standards of society

failure to follow the conventional social and moral rules of one’s cultural group

social discomfort

feeling of discomfort or uneasiness

irrationality and unpredictability

unexpected and unpredictable behavior of an individual

dangerousness

the person is a danger to himself or others

Psychopathology

• the scientific study of psychological disorders.

• within this field are:

  • specially trained professionals

  • clinical and counseling psychologists

  • psychiatrists - psychiatric social workers

  • psychiatric nurses - marriage and family therapists

  • mental health counselor

Presenting Problem

Is the first step in determining the individual’s clinical description, which represents the unique combination of:

• behaviors, thoughts, feelings that make up a specific disorder

Clinical Description

• specify what makes the disorder different from normal behavior or from other disorders

• statistical data may be relevant

  • Prevalence -

  • Incidence -

• Prevalence

• how many people in the population as a whole have the disorder?

• Incidence

• how many new cases occur during a given period

course

individual pattern

Schizophrenia

chronic course (last a long time, sometimes a lifetime

Mood disorder

episodic course (recover within a few months only to suffer recurrence of a disorder at a later time.

Time-limited course

the disorder will improve w/o treatment in a relatively short period.

Acute onset

begin suddenly

insidious onset

develop gradually over an extended period

prognosis

the anticipated course of an disorder

acute, chronic, etiology

research approaches in abpsych

acute

symptoms are short term

chronic

symptoms of a disorder that appear long in duration

etiology

• cause of a disorder, includes: bio, psycho, social

• study of origins

Agents

divinities, demons, spirits, or other phenomena such as magnetic fields of the moon or stars.

mind

(ancient greece) often called the SOUL or PSYCHE and considered separate from the body

Supernatural Tradition

• Deviant Behavior has been considered a reflection of the battle between GOOD and EVIL.

• When confronted with unexplainable, irrational behavior and by suffering, people perceived EVIL.

• All physical and mental disorders were considered the work of the devil.

DEMONS AND WITCHES

• The bizarre behavior of people afflicted with psychological disorders was seen as the work of the devil and witches

  • Treatment: Exorcism, various religious rituals were performed to get rid of the evil spirits

STRESS and MELANCHOLY

• INSANITY was a natural phenomena caused by mental or emotional stress, and that it was curable

• Mental depression and anxiety were recognized as illnesses. Although symptoms such as despair and lethargy (sin of acedia or sloth-by the church) TREATMENT: rest, sleep and a healthy environment, baths, ointment, an

MASS HYSTERIA

• A Large-scale outbreaks or bizarre behavior

• SHARED RESPONSE (MOB PSYCHOLOGY)

MODERN MASS HYSTERIA

simply demonstrate the phenomenon of EMOTIONAL CONTAGION (experience of an emotion seems to spread to those around us.

MOON and the STARS

• Movement of the moon and the stars had profound effects on people’s psychological functioning.

• Gravitational effects of the moon on bodily fluids might be a possible cause of mental disorders (LUNATIC)

• ASTROLOGY- holds that behavior and the major events in life can be predicted by the day-to-day relationship to the position of the planets. However, there is no serious evidence ever confirmed the connection

BIOLOGICAL TRADITION

Hippocrates- a disease, syphilis, and the early consequences of believing that psychological disorders are biologically based.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TRADITION

From Evil Spirits to BRAIN PATHOLOGY

PLATO

the causes of maladaptive behavior were the social and cultural influences in life

PSYCHOSOCIAL TREATMENT APPROACHES

focuses not only on psychological factors but on social and and cultural ones

MORAL THERAPy

• Treating institutionalized patients as normally as possible in a setting that encouraged and reinforced normal social interaction.

• Providing them opportunities for appropriate social and interpersonal contact. Relationships were carefully nurtured.

• Patients were well cared for, massaged, and provided with soothing music.

BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES

inherited

EMOTIONAL INFLUENCES

can affect physiological response (increased fear and anxiety)

BEHAVIORAL INFLUENCES

conditioned response

SOCIAL INFLUENCES

make direct contributions to biology and behavior (friends, family)

DEVELOPMENTAL INFLUENCES

the passage of time, many things about ourselves and our environments change

The mental health “team”

a. Clinical psychologist

b. Counseling psychologist

c. School psychologist

d. Psychiatrist

e. Psychoanalyst

f. Clinical social worker

g. Psychiatric nurse

h. Occupational therapist

i. Pastoral counselor

j. Paraprofessionals

k. Community mental health worker

l. Alcohol or drug-abuse counselor