ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

• A psychological dysfunction within an individual associated with distress or impairment in functioning and response with not typical or culturally expected

Distress/Impairment

• the person is upset, behavior is maladaptive

Atypical Response

• behavior deviating from the average

• not fitting the norm

PSYCHOLOGICAL DYSFUNCTION

• A breakdown in cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning

Harmful dysfunction

• If the behavior is out of the individual's control

• Found by Jerome Wakefield

CULTURAL RELATIVISM

• Behavior can only be abnormal relative to cultural norms

• There is no universal standards for abnormal behavior

OTHER INDICATIONS OF ABNORMALITY

4Ds

• Dysfunction

• Distress

• Deviance

• Dangerousness

BUTCHER’S

• Subjective distress

• Maladaptiveness

• Statistical Deviancy

• Violation of the Standards of the Society

• Social discomfort

• Uncontrollability, Irrationality, Unpredictability

• Dangerousness

THE SCIENTIST PRACTITIONER

• Mental professionals that take scientific approach in their clinical work

• Technical term for mental health practitioners

Duties:

1. Must keep up with the latest scientific developments and use the most current diagnostic and treatment procedures (Consumer)

2. They should evaluate their own assessments or treatment procedures (Evaluator)

3. Conduct research, often in clinics or hospitals, that produces new information about disorders or their treatment (Creator)

HISTORICAL VIEWS

SUPERNATURAL TRADITION

• Uses exorcism as treatment

• see disorders as evil punishment

• If exorcism doesn’t work, patient is subjected to confinement, beatings, and torture

• Mob psychology, mass hysteria, emotion contagion

• Lunacy - attributing disorders to the movement of moon and stars

BIOLOGICAL TRADITION

• Hippocrates

- believed that disorders should be treated like any other illness or disease

- Disorders may be caused by brain pathology, genetics

• Galen

- Humoral Theory: normal brain functioning was related to four bodily fluids (humors)

- Disorders may be caused by brain pathology, genetics

• General Paresis

- hallucinations and delusions are caused by an STD

- used Malaria as treatment

• John Grey

- The cause of insanity is always physical

• Manfred Sakel

- Insulin Shock Therapy

• Benjamin Franklin

- used Electric Shock to cure depression

• John von Meduna

○ Induced brain seizures for schizophrenia

PSYCHOLOGICAL TRADITION

• Role of personality, Social, and Cultural differences

• Moral Therapy

HUMANITARIAN REFORM

Philippe Pinel

• Removal of chain from mental health hospitals

William Tuke

• York Retreat

• Patients can live, rest, work in a kind atmosphere

Benjamin Rush

• Founder of American Psychology

• Moral Management

Dorothea Dix

• Mental Hygiene Movement

Clinical Description

Presenting problem

• In hospitals and clinics, we often say that a patient “presents” with a specific problem or set of problems or we discuss the presenting problem.

Presents

• Traditional shorthand way of indicating why a person came to the clinic

Clinical description

• 1st step to determine clinical description is describing the presenting problem

• Specify what makes the disorder different from other disorders

Clinical

• Refers to type of problems/disorders that you would find in a clinic/hospital and to the activities connected with assessment and treatment

Course

• Disorder follows a pattern