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Class notes PSYC 1010
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Brief History on Views about Psychological Disorders• Stone age – people were possessed by demons/spirits and trephining allowed for their
escape
• Hippocrates (460-367 BC) - psychological functioning was due to disturbances in body
fluids called “humours”
• Europe in Middle Ages
-exorcisms were performed to drive away evil
-asylums began to appear but the mentally ill were treated inhumanely
• 18th century (age of enlightenment)
- Pinel ordered humane treatment and initiated the medical model (whose influence remains
today)
Medical Model – proposes that abnormal behavior be viewed as a disease and treated as
one (like physical illnesses)
-this eventually gave rise to psychiatry and patients were treated in mental hospitals
Defining Abnormal Behavior
•No clear-cut way of distinguishing normal from abnormal behavior
•Context must sometimes be taken into consideration
4 Major Criteria for Defining Abnormal Behavior (all have short-comings)
1) Statistical Frequency
-behavior that’s infrequent is abnormal
-definition is based strictly on numbers
Problem – not all infrequent behaviors are judged as “abnormal” (eg. exceptional athletic
ability)
2) Deviation from Social Norms Problem
-abnormality is culturally relative -norms change over time
-not all socially deviant behaviors are indicative of “abnormality” (eg. burping in public)
3) Behavior is Abnormal if it’s Maladaptive
-everyday adaptive behavior is impaired
Problem – this view makes a judgment about the consequences of behavior, which can be
subjective (eg drinking alcohol isn’t abnormal but if it interferes with daily functioning, it is)
4) Psychological Distress
- is based on a person’s subjective feeling of distress (they might not exhibit maladaptive
behavior)
Problem – distress is not always experienced by people with psychological disorders
• Normality/abnormality should be seen as a continuum.
Diagnosing
- involves matching symptoms to pre-established categories of psychological disorders
(listed in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – DSM)
- is the basis for selecting a therapy and making a prognosis
• A diagnosis can be derived from:
a) a formal and standard diagnostic interview
b) personality and projective tests
c) interview with patient’s family/friends
, • The DSM increases reliability in diagnosing (like using an answer key to grade a test)
• The DSM has undergone several revisions (disorders are added, removed, or renamed)
•Most recent revision was in 2013 (DSM-5)
•It contains 16 major categories of psychological disorders and over 300 specific disorders
Problems with Diagnosing
a) labeling may lead to a “self-fulfilling prophecy” (patient behaves in accordance to
expectations)
b) a label can lead to social stigma
c) labels can “color one’s perception” (eg, Rosenhan’s study)
Anxiety Disorders
1) Generalized Anxiety Disorder (free-floating anxiety)
-pathological worry about minor matters
-difficulty making decisions and concentrating
-headaches, fatigue, nausea, sweating
-restless, feeling on edge, difficulty sleeping
2) Phobic Disorders
a) Simple or Specific Phobia
- anxiety is in response to a specific stimulus or setting
- most common phobias –fear of animals, height, blood, flying, closed spaces, water, storms
b) Social Anxiety Disorder
- fear of being negatively evaluated by others
- examples: public speaking, eating in restaurants, going to parties
3) Panic Disorder
-repeated, sudden and unexpected attacks of extreme anxiety
-worry about when the next attack will occur
-sweating, chest pains, weakness, faintness
-feel like you’re having a heart attack
4) Agoraphobia
- fear of leaving the house alone, being in open/public spaces (parking lots, markets),
standing in line, crowds, public transportation.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Obsessions – recurrent, involuntary thoughts or images
Compulsions – ritualistic behaviors (sometimes unobservable such as counting or praying)
that one feels compelled to carry out
e.g. obsessed with the thought of germs leads to excessive/repeated hand-washing
-the compulsive behavior relieves the anxiety caused by the obsessive thoughts
• Hoarding, nail-biting, skin-picking fall under this category
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