Abnormal Psychology: Past and Present

Key vocabulary terms and historical perspectives from Chapter 1 regarding abnormal behavior, its history, and modern treatment trends.

Abnormal psychology

The scientific study of abnormal behavior in an effort to describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of functioning.

Deviance

Behaviors, thoughts, and emotions that differ markedly from a society's ideas about proper functioning.

Social norms

Stated and unstated rules for proper conduct within a society.

Distress

Unpleasant and upsetting behavior, ideas, or emotions usually required to label a person's behavior as abnormal.

Dysfunction

Interference with a person's ability to conduct daily activities in a constructive way.

Danger

A feature of psychological abnormality where behavior poses a risk of harm to oneself or others.

Szasz

A theorist who finds the whole concept of mental illness to be invalid, emphasizing society's role in creating the criteria to judge cases.

Treatment (Therapy)

A procedure designed to change abnormal behavior into more normal behavior; requires a sufferer, a trained healer, and a series of contacts.

Trephination

An ancient treatment for severe abnormality involving cutting a hole in the skull to force demons from the body.

Exorcism

An ancient practice used to force evil spirits or demons from the body.

Hippocrates

A Greek physician who taught that illnesses had natural causes and resulted from an imbalance of the four humors.

Humors

The four fluids Hippocrates believed must be balanced to prevent illness.

Johann Weyer

A German physician during the Renaissance who believed that the mind was as susceptible to sickness as the body.

Asylums

Institutions whose primary purpose was the care of the mentally ill, which eventually became overcrowded virtual prisons.

Moral treatment

A 19th-century approach advocated by Pinel and Tuke that emphasized moral guidance and humane, respectful techniques.

Somatogenic perspective

The view that abnormal psychological functioning has physical causes; supported by Emil Kraepelin and the link between syphilis and general paresis.

Psychogenic perspective

The view that the chief causes of abnormal functioning are psychological, popularized through hypnotism and psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis

A theory and treatment approach developed by Sigmund Freud focusing on psychological causes of abnormality.

Outpatient therapy

Treatment offered to patients who do not require hospitalization; it became the primary mode of treatment after the 1950s.

Psychotropic medications

Drugs such as antipsychotics, antidepressants, and antianxiety medications discovered in the 1950s that affect the brain.

Deinstitutionalization

The practice of releasing large numbers of patients from public mental hospitals to outpatient care starting in the 1950s.

Positive psychology

The study and enhancement of positive feelings, traits, and abilities as part of the prevention movement.

Multicultural psychology

The study of how culture, race, ethnicity, gender, and similar factors affect behavior and thought.

Managed care program

The dominant form of insurance coverage today in which the insurance company determines key care issues.