Chapter 1

Question 1

Four D’s of Defining Psychological Abnormality

Answer 1

Deviance
Distress
Dysfunction
Danger

Question 2

Norms

Answer 2

Stated and unstated rules for proper conduct

Question 3

What does deviance mean in the four D’s?

Answer 3

Abnormal behaviors, thoughts, and emotions are those that differ from a society’s idea of proper functioning.

Question 4

Culture

Answer 4

A society’s history, values, institutions, habits, skills, technology, and arts.

Question 5

True or False: judgments of abnormality depend on cultural norms rather than specific circumstances.

Answer 5

False: judgments of abnormality depend on specific circumstances as well as cultural norms.

Question 6

True or False: behaviors, ideas, or emotions usually have to cause distress before they can be labeled as abnormal.

Answer 6

True: behaviors, ideas, or emotions usually have to cause distress before they can be labeled as abnormal.

Question 7

What does dysfunction mean in the four D’s?

Answer 7

Interferes with daily functioning

Question 8

Does danger need to be present in order for behaviors, thoughts, or emotions to be considered abnormal? Why or why not?

Answer 8

No, because most people who suffer from mental illness are not dangerous to themselves and/or others.

Question 9

How is the criteria for defining psychological abnormality created?

Answer 9

A society selects general criteria for defining abnormality and then uses those criteria to judge particular cases.

Question 10

Eccentricity

Answer 10

An unusual pattern with which others have no right to interfere

Question 11

Why would a society not be able to apply their definition of abnormality consistently?

Answer 11

If a behavior is too familiar among members within a society, they may fail to recognize the four D’s (deviance, distress, dysfunction, danger).

Question 12

What is an example of a behavior that has been viewed as normal but can be recognized as abnormal?

Answer 12

Excessive drinking among college students

Question 13

What are the 15 characteristics of eccentrics that were identified in Weeks (2015)?

Answer 13

1. Nonconformity
2. Creativity
3. Strong curiosity
4. Idealism
5. Extreme interests and hobbies
6. Lifelong awareness of being different
7. High intelligence
8. Outspokenness
9. Non-competitiveness
10. Unusual eating and living habits
11. Disinterest in others’ opinions or company
12. Mischievous sense of humor
13. Not married
14. Eldest or only child
15. Poor spelling skills

Question 14

Treatment/Therapy

Answer 14

A procedure designed to change abnormal behavior into more normal behavior

Question 15

What are the three essential features among all forms of therapy?

Answer 15

1. Sufferer/patient/client
2. Trained and socially accepted healer/therapist
3. Series of contacts between the therapist and the client

Question 16

In any given year, what percentage of adults in the U.S. display serious psychological disturbances and are in need of clinical treatment?

Answer 16

As many as 30%

Question 17

In any given year, how many children and adolescents in the U.S. display serious psychological disturbances and are in need of clinical treatment?

Answer 17

As many as 17%

Question 18

How was abnormal behavior viewed in ancient times?

Answer 18

Typically interpreted as victory by evil spirits and the cure for such behavior was to force the demons from a victim’s body

Question 19

Trephination

Answer 19

An operation used in the Stone Age that involved using a trephine or stone instrument to cut away a circular section of the skull

Question 20

Exorcism

Answer 20

To coax the evil spirits to leave or to make the person’s body an uncomfortable place in which to live

Question 21

What was Hippocrates’ view on illness and psychological abnormality?

Answer 21

Hippocrates believed that illnesses had natural causes and that psychological abnormality was the result of a disease arising from internal physical problems.

Question 22

What was the name of the German physician who believed that the mind was as susceptible to sickness as the body was?

Answer 22

Johann Weyer (1515-1588)

Question 23

During the fifteenth century, Gheel, Belgium, was considered a forerunner of this type of program where people from all over the world were welcomed into the community as they received psychic healing.

Answer 23

Community mental health programs.

Question 24

Asylums

Answer 24

Institutions whose primary purpose was to care for people with mental illness

Question 25

Moral Treatment

Answer 25

A nineteenth-century approach to treating people with mental dysfunction that emphasized moral guidance and humane and respectful treatment.

Question 26

Dorothea Dix, known for her lobbying efforts across several state governments in the U.S., resulted in this type of care setting for people with mental disorders.

Answer 26

Public mental hospitals or state hospitals

Question 27

What were the reasons that saw the decline of the moral treatment?

Answer 27

1. Speed with which the movement had spread
2. Moral treatment was not enough to help some individuals with mental disorders
3. Emergence of prejudice against people with mental disorders

Question 28

Somatogenic Perspective

Answer 28

View that abnormal psychological functioning has physical causes

Question 29

Psychogenic Perspective

Answer 29

View that the chief causes of abnormal functioning were psychological

Question 30

What were the two factors that led to the rebirth of the somatogenic perspective?

Answer 30

1. Emil Kraeplin’s work that physical factors, such as fatigue, were responsible for mental disorders
2. Discovery that an organic disease (syphilis) led to both physical and mental symptoms

Question 31

True or False: During the first half of the 20th century, biological approaches found numerous results supporting the viewpoint

Answer 31

False: biological approaches yielded in mostly disappointing results throughout the first half of the 20th century despite general optimism

Question 32

Eugenic Sterilization

Answer 32

Elimination (through medical or other means) of an individual’s ability to reproduce

Question 33

When did the somatogenic perspective was finally able to pay off for patients?

Answer 33

During the 1950s with the discovery of medication to treat people with mental disorders

Question 34

When was the psychogenic perspective able to gain a following?

Answer 34

When studies found that hypnotism demonstrated great potential

Question 35

Hypnotism

Answer 35

A procedure in which a person is placed in a trancelike mental state during which they become extremely suggestible

Question 36

What did Hippolyte-Marie Bernheim & Ambroise-Auguste Liebault find through their research in hypnotism?

Answer 36

Hysterical disorders could actually be induced in normal people while under hypnosis; resulted that it can cause AND cure physical dysfunction.

Question 37

Abnormal Psychology

Answer 37

Scientific study of abnormal behavior in an effort to describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of behavior

Question 38

How were people with less severe disturbances cared for before 1950?

Answer 38

Almost all took form of private psychotherapy and medication

Question 39

How were people with less severe disturbances cared for today?

Answer 39

Primary mode is primary care and more treatment is available for more kinds of problems

Question 40

What are the prevention approach strategies for promoting mental health?

Answer 40

• Correction of social conditions
• Help individuals at risk for developing emotional problems
• Utilizing positive psychology to teach coping skills