Summary of the course 'Psychopathology' - passed with 8.5 (2021/22)
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Course
Psychopathology (421096B5)
Institution
Tilburg University (UVT)
This is a summary of the course Psychopathology, incl. all course material but primarily focused on the book. Studied exclusively from it. Follows the exact lecture order of the course.
Chapter 1 – Past and the present
Psychopathology, maldjustment, emotional disturbance or mental illness
Abnormal psychology – scientific study of abnormal behaviour undertaken to
describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of functioning
Clinical scientists – gather info so they can describe, predict and explain the
phenomena
Clinical practitioners – detect, assess and treat abnormal patterns of functioning
4 DS – deviant, distressing, dysfunctional, dangerous
Deviance
Norms – stated and unstated rules for proper conduct
Abnormal behaviour – behaviour, thoughts and emotions that break norms of
psychological functioning
Culture – history, values, institutions, habits, skills, technology and arts of one
society
Judgments of abnormality depend on specific circumstances
Distress
does not have to be present always
Dysfunction
interferes with daily functioning
Danger
to oneself or others
not really a rule
Thomas Szasz – mental illness is a myth – ''problems in living'' not sth actually
wrong within the person
abnormality – requires intervention, eccentricity – unusual pattern with which others
have no right to intervene, odd or whimsical behaviour
Treatment (therapy) – procedure designed to change abnormal behaviour into more
normal behaviour
Therapy:
1. sufferer – seeks relief from the healer
2. healer – trained, socially accepted
, 3. series of contacts between 1 and 3 – tries to produce certain changes in the
sufferer's emotional state, attitudes, behaviour
- cure an illness – patient, teachers of more functional behaviour – client
Ancient views and treatments
- abnormal behaviour – victory by evil spirits, cure is forcing demons out of the
body
Trephination – a stone instrument (trephine) – used to cut away a circular
section of the skull – to release the evil spirits
exorcism – treatment for abnormality – forcing evil spirits to leave, done by a
shaman – praying, insulting spirits, performing magic, making the person drink
potions, or whipping and starving them
Greek and Roman
- Hippocrates – fluids or humors (body chemicals that influence mental and
physical functioning) – yellow bile (mania), black bile (melancholia), blood and
phlegm
- internal causes for abnormal behaviour (also Plato and Aristotle)
Europe in the Middle Ages
- distrust of science
- Satan's fault
- mass madness – large number of people who shared absurd false beliefs and
imagined sights or sounds – tarantism (suddenly jumping and going into
convulsions) – bit by a tarantula – dance tarantella
- lycanthropy – possessed by animals
- treatment in hospitals due to the growth of cities
Renaissance and the rise of Asylums
- Johann Weyer – mind is suspectible to illness like the body, founder of the
modern study of psychopathology
- Gheel in Belgium – ''colony'' of mentyl patients, community mental health
programs
- hospitals converted to asylums – institutions whose primary purpose was to
care for people with mental illness – became virtual prisons due to overflowing
of patients
- Bedlam in London
Nineteenth century – reform and moral treatment
- Bicetre – asylum reform – Philippe Pinel – allowed patients to move on
hospital grounds, they were not in chains and were in sunny rooms –
improvement – also broight to female patients
- also York Retreat
- moral treatment – emphasized moral guidance and humane and respectful
techniques – spreading in the US by Benjamin Rush – father of American
psychiatry
, - Dorothea Dix - campaign for more humane laws – state hospitals – state-
run public mental institutions in the US
- however decline due to overcrowding, underfunding, changed view of mental
illness, inefficient care
Early 20th century
1) somatogenic perspective – view that abnormal psychological functioning
has physical causes
- like Hippocrates – Emil Kraepelin
- syphilis – general paresis – disorder with mental symptoms, irreversible –
physical causes of abnormal functioning
- many medical treatments – tonsillectomy, hydrotheraphy, lobotomy
- eugenic sterilization – elimination of the ability of individuals to reproduce
2) psychogenic perspective – view that chief causes of abnormal functioning
are psychological
- hypnotism – patient placed in a trancelike mental state during which he or
she becomes extremely suggestible
- Mesmer – mesmerism – for treatment of hysterical disorders – controversial –
hypnotism – can both cure and cause a physical dysfunction (Bernheim and
Liebault) – can cause false memories
- psychoanalysis – Freud – emphasizes unconscious psychological forces as
the cause of psychopathology – also developed the technique – outpatient
therapy – office sessions of about an hour
Recent decades and current trends
- psychoztopic medications – drugs that mainly affect the brain and reduce
many symptoms of mental dysfunction – antipsychotics, antianixiolitics,
antidepressants
- deinstutionalization – due to the invention of drugs, releasing hundreds of
thousands of patients from mental hospitals
- private vs public hospitals
- outpatient care – not in mental institutions
- community mental health approach
Treatment of people with less severe disturbances
- before 1950s – private psychotherapy – individuals meet with a self-
employed therapist for counseling services – now it is more available due to
insurance
- development of programs for specific psychological problems – therapists
concentrate in one area
Emphasis on prevention and promoting mental health
- prevention – interventions aimed at deterring mental disorders before they
can develop – helping individuals at risk, and trying to correct social
conditions
, - positive psychology – the study and enhancement of positive feelings, traits
and abilities – happiness is the topic receiving most attention, only one third
of adults is ''very happy''
Multicultural psychology
- examines the impact of culture, race, ethnicity and gender on behaviours and
thoughts, and focuses on how such factors may influenc e the origin, nature
and treatment of abnormal behaviour
Insurance coverage and its influence
- managed care program – health care coverage in which the insurance
company largely controls the nature, scope and cost of medical or
psychological services – disliked by both patients and therapists
- reimbursements are lower than for physical issues – apparently fixed by parity
law and ACA (Obamacare)
Leading theories and professions nowadays
- biological, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic-existential, socioculturalm
developmental psychopathology schools of thought - neither one dominates
the field
- at first treatment was only offered by psychiatrists, but now it is also offered by
clinical psychologists
- clinical researchers expand knowledge
Technology and mental health
- effect
- antisocial behaviour, worse attention spans
- there are good (more support, trust, leading active social lives) and bad (peer
pressure, social anxiety) parts of networking
- telemental health – use of various technologies to deliver mental health
services without the therapist being physically present
What do clinical researchers do?
- general, or nomothetic, understanding of abnormality
- scientific method – collecting and evaluating information through careful
observations
- variables
- case study, experimental and correlational method
- hypotheses – hunches or predictions that certain variables are related in
certain ways
Case study
- detailed account of a person's life and psychological problems (The Three
Faces of Eve)
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