CHAPTER 1 Flashcards
refers to the scientific study of people who are atypical or unusual, with the intent to be able to reliably predict, explain, diagnose, and identify the causes of, and treat maladaptive behavior
abnormal psychology
what is the more sensitive and less stigmatizing term that is used to refer to the scientific study of psychological disorders?
psychopathology
defined as a psychological
dysfunction which causes distress or impaired functioning and deviates from typical or expected behavior according to societal or cultural standards
psychological disorders
what are the 3Ds included in the definition of psychological disorders
dysfunction, distress, deviance
what does dysfunction mean?
dysfunction refers to a breakdown in cognition, emotion, and/or behavior or a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning
what is distress?
it can take the form of psychological or physical pain, or both concurrently.
or
it simply refers to suffering
what is impairment?
impairment refers to when the person experiences a disabling condition “in social, occupational, or other important activities”
what is dangerousness?
Dangerousness refers to behavior that represents a threat to the safety of the person or others.
example: those with antisocial personality disorder or paranoid ideation with aggressive impulses can be considered dangerous
what is classification?
classification is the way in which we organize or categorize things
refers to the study
of the frequency of occurrence of mental disorders in a population
psychiatric or mental health epidemology
what is prevalence and what are the three ways it can be measured?
prevalence is the percentage of people in a population that has a mental
disorder
point prevalence
period prevalence
lifetime prevalence
indicates the percentage of a population that has the disorder at a specific point in time.
In other words, it is the number of active cases at a given point in time.
point prevalence
indicates the percentage of a population that has the disorder at any point during a given period of time, typically the past year
period prevalence
indicates the percentage of a population that has had the disorder at any time during their lives.
lifetime prevalence
indicates the number of new cases in a population over a specific period of time
often studied by medical and public health officials so that causes can be identified and future cases prevented.
incidence
describes when two or more mental disorders are occurring at the same time and in the same person
comorbidity
what is etiology?
etiology is the cause of the disorder
is the anticipated course the mental disorder will take
prognosis
is any procedure intended to modify abnormal behavior into normal behavior
treatment
what is stigma?
refers to when negative stereotyping, labeling, rejection, and loss of status occur
what are the three forms of stigma?
public stigma
label avoidance
self-stigma
this type of stigma takes form when members of society endorse negative stereotypes of people with a mental disorder and discriminate
against them.
example: when an employer intentionally does not hire a person because their mental illness is discovered
public stigma
what were the prehistoric and ancient beliefs about mental illness?
they saw it as the work of evil spirits and treatment included something called trephination where a trephine was used to remove part of the skull so evil spirits could escape. exorcism was also a treatment method where evil spirits were cast out through various methods.
this type of stigma takes form when people who need care avoid seeking it since they are afraid of being labeled as “crazy”
label avoidance
this type of stigma takes form when people with mental illnesses internalize the negative stereotypes and prejudice, and in turn, discriminate against themselves
self-stigma
this type of stigma takes form when stigma affects people associated with the person with a mental disorder and decide to conceal their relative’s illness
courtesy stigma
what did hippocrates say about mental disorders?
he suggested that they arose from brain pathology, or head trauma/brain
dysfunction or disease, and were also affected by heredity and classified mental disorders into three main categories – melancholia, mania, and phrenitis (brain fever)
He also described four main fluids
or humors that directed normal functioning and personality – blood which arose in the heart, black bile arising in the spleen, yellow bile or choler from the liver, and phlegm from the brain.
Mental disorders occurred when the humors were in a state of imbalance such as an excess of yellow bile causing frenzy/mania and too much black bile causing melancholia/depression.
Hippocrates believed mental illnesses could be treated as any other disorder and focused on the underlying pathology
what did plato say about the mentally ill?
he said that the mentally ill were not responsible for their own actions and so should not be punished
what were the roman’s belief about mental illness?
Asclepiades and cicero rejected the idea of the four humors and stated that melancholy arises from grief, fear, and rage
concept of “contrariis contrarius” = introducing contrasting stimuli to bring about balance in the physical and mental domain (drinking cold water while in a hot bath)
what did Galen say about mental disorders?
he said mental disorders had either physical or mental causes that
included fear, shock, alcoholism, head injuries, adolescence, and changes in menstruation
a mania in which large numbers of people had an uncontrollable desire to dance and jump which was believed to have been caused by a bite of the wolf spider
called saint vitus’s dance
tarantism
what is lycantrophy?
the belief that one was possessed by wolves or other animals and imitated their behavior
what did the Renaissance have about mental illness?
humanism developed during the Renaissance and helped continue the decline of superstitious beliefs about mental illness.
the number of asylums also started to rise during this time since the government realized that there were far too many people afflicted with mental illness to be left in private homes and patients were treated horribly
this defense mechanism occurs when we offer well-thought-out reasons for why we did what we did but in reality, these are not the real reason
example: Students sometimes rationalize not doing well in a class by stating that they really are not interested in the subject or saying the instructor writes impossible to pass tests when in reality they are not putting enough effort into learning the material
rationalization
