Summary first year course Psychopathology, lecture and book
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Course
Psychopathology (421096B5)
Institution
Tilburg University (UVT)
Book
Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology
A detailed summary of the first year psychology course Psychopathology. This includes all lectures and chapters of the book Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology by Comer and Comer (9th edition).
Psychopathology - Summary, Tilburg University (8,5)
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Tilburg University (UVT)
Psychologie
Psychopathology (421096B5)
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1
Chapter 1: Introduction
Abnormal psychology: the scientific study of abnormal behavior in an effort to describe,
predict, explain and change abnormal patterns of functioning
The four Ds
- Deviance
- Distress
- Dysfunction
- Danger
Subjective and vague
Influences:
- Norms
- Culture
- Context
Any definition of abnormality may not be generalized (different in different cultures)
It is difficult to draw the line between unusual or eccentric and abnormal
Treatment or therapy: procedure designed to change abnormal behavior into more normal
behavior
- Sufferer / patient
- Trained / socially accepted healer or therapist
- Series of therapeutic contacts between the healer or sufferer
Most people need some kind of therapy
Ancient societies - abnormal behavior seen as work of evil spirits, treated with trephination and
exorcism
Greek and Roman views:
500 B.C. - 500 A.D.
- Hippocrates: 4 humors
- Treatment: vegetable diet, calm life, temperance, exercise, celibacy, bleeding
Europe in the middle ages:
500 - 1350 A.D.
- Church rejected scientific explanation
- Mental disorders had demonic causes
- Treatments: exorcism, torture, gradual hospitalization
Jonathan Weyer: the first physician to specialize in mental illness, the founder of modern
psychopathology
19th century:
- Care of people with mental disorders began to improve
, 2
- Moral treatment: Pinel and Tuke emphasized moral guidance and humane and
respectful techniques (ended in the US and Europe by the early 20th century)
Early 20th century: dual perspectives
Somatogenic perspective: abnormal functions has physical causes
- 2 factors responsible for the rebirth of this perspective
Emil Kraeplin: physical factors are responsible for mental dysfunction
New biological discoveries linked such things as untreated syphilis and general paresis
- Results were generally disappointing until effective medication was developed
People with mental illnesses were not allowed to enter the US in the early 20th century
Thomas Szasz: placed emphasis on society’s role and found mental illness to be invalid, a
myth, the deviations that society calls abnormal are simply problems in living, not sign of
something wrong with the person
Societies invent the concept of mental illness so that they can better control or change
people whose unusual patterns of functioning upset or threaten the social order
Mass madness:
- Tarantism: groups of people would suddenly start to jump, dance and go into
convulsions, all believed they had been bitten and possessed by a wolf spider (tarantula)
- Lycanthropy: people thought they were possessed by wolves or other animals, they
acted like wolves and imagined fur was growing on their bodies
State hospitals: state-run public mental institutions in the US
Psychogenic perspective: abnormal functioning has psychological causes, became widely
accepted
- Mesmer: hysterical disorders
- Freud: psychoanalysis, outpatient therapy
Recent decades and current trends:
- Negative public attitudes still exist, but there have been major changes in the last 60
years in the ways clinicians understand and treat abnormal functioning: more theories
and treatments types, more research and information, more disagreement about
abnormal functioning
New medications discovered in 1950s: antipsychotic drugs, antidepressants, antianxiety drugs -
led to deinstitutionalization and rise in outpatient care
Multicultural psychology: seeks to understand how culture, race, ethnicity and gender affect
behavior and thought
Clinical researchers:
- Discover universal laws and principles
, 3
- Search for nomothetic understanding
- Do not typically assess, diagnose or treat individual clients
- Rely on the scientific method
- Case studies: low internal and external validity
- The correlational method: used to determine the co-relationship between variables
(positive, negative, unrelated)
- Longitudinal studies: same individuals are observed on many occasions over a
long period, independent variable cannot be manipulated and random
assignment is not possible, causes cannot be pinpointed
- Epidemiological studies: reveal the incidence and prevalence of a disorder in a
particular population
Incidence: number of new cases
Prevalence: total number of cases
- Experimental method: the variable is manipulated and the effect is measured
- Analogue experiments: independent variables are freely manipulated while
ethical and practical limitations are avoided, lab subjects are induced to behave
in ways that resemble real life (Stanford prison experiment), animals often used
Protecting human participants
- Researchers primary obligation: avoid physical or psychological harm for human
participants
- IRB: the benefits of the study must outweigh the costs / risks try to ensure that each
study grants the following rights to participants
- Voluntarily
- Informed consent
- Can end participation at any time
Melancholia: extreme sadness and immobility
Chapter 2: Models of Psychopathology
The biological model: medical perspective, see abnormal behavior as an illness brought by
malfunctions of the organism, points to problems in brain anatomy and brain chemistry
(abnormal neurotransmitters or synapses, or abnormal secretion of hormones can lead to
psychological conditions)
Sources of biological abnormalities:
1. Genetics:
- Genes that contribute to mental disorders may be viewed as mistakes of inheritance:
mutations, inherited after a mutation in family line, result of normal evolutionary
principles
- Evolutionary theorist suggest: genes can contribute to adaptation and survival,
contemporary pressures may cause this genetic inheritance to be less adaptive and
leave some people prone to abnormal psychological patterns
, 4
2. Evolution: mutations, the genes that helped ancestors survive in the past might now
leave these individuals particularly prone to fear reactions or anxiety disorders
3. Viral infections: biochemical dysfunction (schizophrenia might be related to an
exposure to some virus during childhood or before birth)
Biological treatments:
Drug therapy
Psychotropic medications: drugs that mainly affect emotions and thought processes
- Antianxiety: minor tranquilizers or anxiolytics, help reduce tension and anxiety
- Antidepressant: help improve mood
- Antibipolar: mood stabilizer, help steady the mood
- Antipsychotic: help reduce confusion, hallucinations, and delusions
Brain stimulation:
- Electroconvulsive therapy ECT: electrical current of 65 to 140 volts, causes brain
seizures for a few minutes, 7 to 9 sessions needed
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation
- Vagus nerve stimulation
- Deep brain stimulation
Psychosurgery: brain surgery for mental disorders (before lobotomy, now mostly for epilepsy)
Strengths of the biological method:
- Considerable respect in the field
- Constantly producers valuable new information
- Treatments bring great relief
Weaknesses:
- Limits understanding of abnormal functioning by excluding non biological factors
- May produce significant undesirable effects (e.g. becoming dependent on drugs)
The psychodynamic model: believe that a person’s behavior, is determined by underlying
psychological forces of which they are not consciously aware
These forces are dynamic and their interaction gives rise to behavior, thoughts and
emotions. Abnormal symptoms are viewed as the result of conflicts between these forces
Deterministic assumption that no symptom or behavior is accidental
Freud: developed theory of psychoanalysis, patient Anna O. hypnosis - “talking cure”
His explanation:
- 3 unconscious, dynamic forces shape personality: instinctual needs, rational thinking
and moral standards
- Id: instinctual needs, drives and impulses, operates with pleasure principle,
fueled by libido
- Ego: seeks gratification, operates with reality principle, develops ego defense
mechanisms to control unacceptable id impulses (repression)
- Superego: operates with morality principle, the conscience
If they are in conflict, the person’s behavior may be dysfunctional
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