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,Chapter 1: Abnormal Behaviour in Historical Context
What is psychopathology?
- Psychopathology: scientific study of psychology dysfunction, mental
o Looks at theoretical underpinnings
o Ideology – how the disorder was developed, factors that contributed to development of this
disorder
o At progression – how it started, improvement, regression
o At symptomatology – all the symptoms of person with mental disorder
o Diagnosis – formal diagnosis from clinical psychologist, psychiatrist, as well as treatment for
diagnosis
- Draws on research from many different areas, bio-chemistry, pharmacology, psychology, psychiatry,
neurology
- Refers to behavioural / cognitive manifestations of these disorders
What is a psychological disorder?
- Psychological dysfunction associated with distress and / or impairment in functioning
o Behaving or thinking differently than they usually do, stresses the person out – why am I stressing,
why am I not wanting to be around people?
o Interrupts your usual day, such as not spending time with people if you usually do, sleeping more
or less, not doing hobbies you usually do, not able to complete tasks
- Involves a response that is not typical of the person / culturally expected
- May include cognitive, behavioural and or emotional elements – could be 1, 2 or all 3
Distress, impairment, and cultural context
- Distress is normal in some situations
- Dysfunctional distress occurs when person is much more distressed than others would be – such as
being in a space with a lot of fear and stress that it is impairing their functioning (eg: being stressed
when going out with friends significantly more than your friends are)
- Noticeable and pervasive (all the time) – (eg: each time I am socialising, I am experiencing this distress)
- Impairment: must be pervasive and/or significant
o Mental disorders are often exaggerations of normal processes (extreme shyness / sadness)
o Culture: consider ‘normalcy’ relative to behaviour of others in same cultural context; some
behaviour is expected in some cultures, some not
- Rule of thumb: mental disorder = harmful dysfunction
Psychological disorder
- Definition (D): behavioural, psychological, or biological dysfunctions that are unexpected in their
cultural context and associated with present distress and/or impairment in functioning or increased
risk of suffering, death, pain, or impairment
- Psychological dysfunction; distress / impairment; atypical response
Studying psychological disorders: Clinical Description
- Begins with the presenting problem
o Original complaint reported – recorded verbatim from client, and more things may be added later
on but this is where you start
o Symptoms (eg: chronic worry, panic attacks); this is what I am feeling, thinking, different to how I
normally act symptoms are picked out from what they tell us
- Description aims to:
o Distinguish clinically significant (completely changes the way the person behaves, responds to
things and manages themselves) dysfunction from common human experience
- Describe prevalence (how many people in population have the disorder) + incidence (number of new
cases over period of time) of disorders
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