Chapter 1 Flashcards
Psychological abnormality
refers to behavior, speech, or thought that impairs the ability of a person to function in a way that is generally expected of him or her, in the context where the unusual functioning occurs.
Mental illness
A term often used to
convey the same meaning as psychological abnormality,
but it implies a medical rather than psychological cause
Psychological disorder
a specific manifestation of this
impairment of functioning, as described by some set of criteria that have been established by a panel of experts.
psychopathology
both the scientific study of psychological abnormality and the
problems faced by people who suffer from such disorders.
Attempts at defining abnormality
Statistical concept - According to this view, behaviour is judged as abnormal if it occurs infrequently in the population.
Personal distress - Many people who are considered to have a psychological disorder report being distressed
Personal Dysfunction - When behaviour is clearly maladaptive (i.e., it interferes with appropriate functioning), it is typically said to be
abnormal
Violation of norms - The behaviour and thoughts of many psychologically disordered individuals run counter to what we might consider appropriate
culturally relative
The norms
of a particular culture determine what is considered to be normal behaviour, and abnormality can be defined only in reference to these norms.
Clinical psychologists
Clinical psychologists are initially trained in general psychology and then receive graduate training in the application of this knowledge to the understanding, diagnosis, and
amelioration of disorders of thinking and behaviour.
Psychiatrists
Psychiatrists are trained in medicine prior to doing specialized training in dealing with mental disorders. This
specialized training focuses on diagnosis and medical treatment that emphasize the use of pharmacological agents in
managing mental disorders
mental hygiene movement
mental hygiene movement, which was characterized by a desire to protect and to provide humane treatment for the mentally ill
Benedict Augustin Morel (1809–1873), a Viennese physician, was the first to introduce “degeneration”
theory
This idea proposed that deviations from normal functioning are transmitted by hereditary processes and that these deviations progressively degenerate over generations.
syndromes
Kraepelin noted that certain groups of symptoms tended to occur together, and he called these groupings syndromes. These different syndromes, Kraepelin observed, could serve as a way of grouping patients who shared certain features into categories that
identified specific disorders
general paresis of the insane (GPI)
general paresis of the insane (GPI) might have acquired this
disorder by an infection. GPI (or neurosyphilis) is now
known to result from untreated infections by the syphilis spirochete (a coil-shaped bacterium). Initial infection results in a sore on the genitals and sometimes swollen lymph glands of the groin. Untreated, the spirochete does not disappear but remains in the bloodstream; after about one year, it enters
the meningeal lining of the brain and spinal cord, although it does not affect functioning at this stage. The immune system sometimes overcomes the infection at this point, but if it does not, then a decade or so later the affected person becomes
symptomatic. Mania, euphoria, and grandiosity are the first marked features of this delayed response, followed by a progressive deterioration of brain functioning (called dementia) and paralysis
Somatogenesis
(the idea that psychopathology is caused by biological factors—soma meaning “body” in Latin) not only gained prominence as a result of the success in identifying the cause
of GPI but also followed quite logically from the remarkable successes that occurred in the middle and latter half of the nineteenth century in science in general and in medicine more specifically.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
electricity to induce a
seizure in mental patients
One problem with the initial uses of ECT was that during the bodily convulsion produced by the brain seizure, some patients suffered broken limbs or cracked vertebrae.
deinstitutionalization
Due to the success of antipsychotic medications (and the advent of tricyclic antidepressants in the 1960s), the patients’ rights movement (which suggested that patients can better recover if they are integrated into the community), and U.S.
President Kennedy’s community mental health movement, a
process of deinstitutionalization was set in motion. Beginning in the 1950s, hundreds of thousands of institutionalized patients were discharged. However, because the closure of psychiatric institutions had not been balanced by a strengthening of community resources, many mentally disordered
individuals were homeless and lacked adequate support
