300 lecture

Abnormal psychology domains – behavior, thoughts, feeling, physiology 


Elements that indicate abnormal psychology

  • No consensus definition, there are elements and different views (maladaptive or disorder)

  1. Subjective distress – psychological suffering

  2. Maladaptiveness – impair important area of life (work/school/relationships)

  3. Statistical deviance – uncommon

  4. Violation of social norms – outside of cultural standards 

  5. Social discomfort – cause others to feel uncomfortable 

  6. Irrationality or unpredictability – unexpected response to stressor 

  7. Dangerousness – to self or others 

Why/how we classify psychological disorders

Standardized manuals 

  • American Psychological Association (US/CA) – DSM-5 

  • World Health Organization (rest of world) – ICD-10 (broader than DSM)


Who decides 

  • Experts in area of field, discuss potential causes, treatment, research (specific kind of anxiety disorder) 


DSM-5 definition cycle 

  1. Biological, psychological, developmental dysfunction in individual

  2. Clinically significant disturbance in behavior, emotional regulation, or cognitive function

  3. Associated with distress or disability 


Why classify – Nomenclature allows us to structure information 

  • Communicate in research/clinical (faster, easier to convey to diff doctors) settings

  • Organise meaningfully (feature of disorders, closely related) 

  • Facilitate research (causes & treatment)

  • Define what counts as “abnormal”


Disadvantages of classification

  • Social & political implications – how does society address it 

  • Stigma against people with mental illness – like when applying for a job, housing, medical care, social relationships

How research answers questions about how mental illness is treated


How to help

  • Understand disorders

  • Develop effective treatments through research 


Research is for

  • Avoiding misconception/error (wrong ideas) 

  • Adopt scientific attitude and approach to abnormal behavior 

  • Accurate info comes from good research design 


Good research design

  • Method distinguishes what is observable vs. hypothetical/inferred 


Where to get info

  • Case studies – single person behavior w experiments

  • Direct observation – observe behavior in response to stimulus

  • Psychophysiological variables

  • Self-report data 

  • Implicit behavior – perform tasks that demonstrate their belief about how closely 2 things are related to each other (IAT) 


Sampling and Generalisation

  • Individuals similar in their behavioral abnormalities – identify what’s common to the abnormality not just individual 

  • Group should mirror underlying population in important ways to generalise 

  • Large, randomly selected groups are ideal 


Criterion and comparison group 

  • One group that has the disorder and one who doesn’t, comparable in major ways 


Observational – studies things as they are, determine correlation 

Experimental – manipulate one variable (IV), seeing effect on another variable (DV)

Single-case experimental designs – make causal inferences in individual case (e.g. ABAB)


Sound, comprehensive study

  • Uses scientific approach

  • Maintain open to new ideas 

  • Respect for dignity and integrity of everyone in study, especially if struggling with psychological problems

How society’s view of mental illness influence way people with illness are treated  


Treatment in history 

  • Drill hole in skull, starvation, vegetarianism, dunk body in hot water, sensory deprivation, marriage (not removing teeth tho)


Beliefs about etiology (cause) → What treatments used, how disorders are prevented 


Good observation is timeless, but often through filter of dominant paradigm 

Interpretation of causes of behavior is biased


Demonology – early origin of mental illness

  • Supernatural theory: bad spirits dwell in person and control mind/body 

  • Treatment – ostracism (exclude to keep others safe), exorcism (make body uninhabitable), trepanning (allow devils to escape by drill hole in head) 


20th century

Somatogenic (biological) – physically wrong, disturb thought/behavior (hippocrates) 

  • 4 humors – blood, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm 

  • Imbalance of the humors (e.g. excess of black bile → melancholia)

  • Treatment – quiet lifestyle, veggie diet, exercise, celibacy, bleeding 


Psychogenic (psychodynamic) – psychological malfunction

  • Inadequate moral development – moral treatment 

  • Stuck in psychosexual developmental phase – psychotherapy

  • Reinforcement for problematic behavior – token economy 


Psychological research (behaviorism)

Other

Stigma in Canada

  • Often prevent people from seeking treatment

  • Willingness to tell others – cancer (72%), mental illness (50%)

  • Physical proximity – afraid to be around sm1 mentally ill (27%), uncertain if would socialise with friend w illness (42%)

  • Impact – think mental illness hurts economy (30%)

  • Treatment – Require treatment by professional (82%), would try to deal with it themselves (40%)


Lifetime prevalence – 46% experience psychological disorder in lifetime, most start in childhood//adolescence 


Prevalence: Number of active cases in population in given period of time (already exist)

  • Percentages, like 20% of population

  • Different types – point (right now), one-year (within the past year), lifetime (had disorder within their lifetime up to this point)

Incidence: Number of new cases in population over a given period of time 

  • Always less than prevalence