Chapter 1 Abnormal Behavior in Historical Context Flashcards
Psychological disorder
psychological dysfunction within an individual associated with distress or impairment in functioning and a response that is not typical or culturally expected.
Phobia
psychological disorder characterized by marked and persistent fear of an object or situation
Abnormal Behavior
- psychological dysfunction within an individual that is associated with distress or impairment in functioning and a response that is not typical or culturally expected
- May seem obvious but not easily arrived at
- No one criterion has yet been developed that fully defines abnormality - Behavior characterized as atypical, socially unacceptable, distressing to the individual or others, maladaptive, and/or the result of distorted cognition
Psychopathology
scientific study of psychological disorders
Etiology
- study of origins
- Why a disorder begins (what causes it) and includes biological, psychological, and social dimensions
Exorcism
various religious rituals were performed in an effort to rid the victim of evil spirits
Psychosocial treatment
- precursor
- Focus not only on psychological factors but also on social and cultural ones as well
- Aristotle: the influence of social environment and early learning on later psychopathology
- The importance of fantacies, dreams,and cognitions
Moral therapy
During the first half of the 19th century, a strong psychosocial approach.
Mental hygiene movement
the deplorable conditions imposed on patients with insanity, and she made it her life’s work to inform the American public and their leaders of these abuses
Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud
-The structure of the mind and the role of unconscious processes in determining behavior
Behaviorism
- John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, and B.F. Skinner
- Focuses on how learning and adaptation affect the development of psychopathology
Unconscious
- the material seemed to be beyond the awareness of the patient
- Influence on the production of psychological disorders
Catharsis
therapeutic to recall and relive emotional trauma that has been made unconscious and to release the accompanying tension
Insight
a fuller understanding of the relationship between current emotions and earlier events
Psychoanalytic model
- the most comprehensive theory yet constructed on the development and structure of our personalities.
- The structure of the mind and the distinct functions of personality that sometimes clash with one another
- The defense mechanisms with which the mind defends itself from these clashes, or conflicts
- The stages of early psychosexual development that provide grist for the mill of our inner conflicts
Id
source of our strong sexual and aggressive feelings or energies
Primary process
type of thinking is emotional, irrational, illogical, filled with fantasies, and preoccupied with sex, aggression, selfishness, and envy
Ego
ensures that we act realistically
- Mediates successfully -> we can go on to the higher intellectual and creative pursuits of life
- Unsuccessful -> the id or superego becomes too strong, conflict will overtake us and psychological disorders will develop
Superego
- conscience, represents the moral principles instilled in us by our parents and our culture
- Voice within us that nags at us when we know we’re doing something wrong
- Counteract the potentially dangerous aggressive and sexual drives of the id
- Mediate conflict between the id and the superego, juggling their demands with the realities of the world
Intrapsychic conflicts
conflicts are all within the mind
Defense mechanisms
- their conflicts produce anxiety that threatens to overwhelm the ego -> anxiety is a signal that alerts the ego to marshal
- Coping styles
Denial
Refuses to acknowledge some aspect of objective reality or subjective experience that is apparent to others
Displacement
Transfers a feeling about, or a response to, an object that causes discomfort onto another, usually less-threatening, object or person
Projection
Falsely attributes own unacceptable feelings, impulses, or thoughts to another individual or objective
Rationalization
Conceals the true motivations for actions, thoughts, or feelings through elaborate reassuring or self-serving but incorrect explanations
Reaction formation
Substitutes behavior, thoughts, or feelings that are the direct opposite of unacceptable ones
Repression
Blocks disturbing wishes, thoughts, or experiences from conscious awareness
Sublimation
Directs potentially maladaptive feelings or impulses into socially acceptable behavior
Psychosexual stages of development
- Freud also theorized that during infancy and early childhood we pass through a number of psychosexual stages of development
- Profound and lasting impact
- Developmental perspective on the study of abnormal behavior
Castration anxiety
strong fears develop that the father may punish that lust by removing the son’s penis
Neuroses
neurotic disorders; disorders of the nervous system
Ego psychology
- defensive reactions of the ego determine our behavior
- Individual slowly accumulates adaptational capacities, skill in reality testing, and defenses
- Abnormal behavior develops when the ego is deficient in regulating such functions as delaying and controlling impulses or in marshaling appropriate normal defenses to strong internal conflicts
Self-psychology
the formation of self-concept and the crucial attributes of the self that allow an individual to progress toward health, or conversely, to develop neurosis.
Object relations
- study of how children incorporate the images, the memories, and sometimes the values of a person who was important to them and to whom they were (or are) emotionally attached.
- Object: these important people
- Introjecrtion: the process of incorporation
- Introjected objects can become an integrated part of the ego or may assume onflicting rolees in determining the identity, or self
- To the extent that these varying positions have been incorporated, the potential for conflict arises.
- You tend to see the world through the eyes of the person incorporated into your self.
- Focus on how these disparate images come together to make up a person’s identity and on the conflicts that may emerge
Collective unconscious
wisdom accumulated by society and culture that is stored deep in individual memories and passed down from generation to generation
Free association
- patients are instructed to say whatever comes to mind without the usual socially required censoring
- Reveal emotionally charged material that may be repressed because it is too painful or threatening to bring into consciousness
- Couch: symbol of psychotherapy
Dream analysis
- therapist interprets the content of dreams, supposedly reflecting the primary-process thinking of the id, and systematically relates the dreams to symbolic aspects of unconsious conflicts.
- Often difficult
- Patient may resist the efforts of the therapist to uncover repressed and sensitive conflicts and may deny the interpretations
- Help the patient gain insight into the nature of the conflicts
Transference
patients come to relate to the therapist much as they did to important figures in their childhood, particularly their parents.
Countertransference
therapists project some of their own personal issues and feelings, usually positive, onto the patient.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy
- although conflicts and unconscious processes are still emphasized, and efforts are made to identify trauma and active defense mechanisms, therapists use an eclectic mixture of tactics, with a social and interpersonal focus.
- Focus on affect and the expression of patients’ emotions
- Exploration of patients’ attempts to avoid topics or engage in activities that hinder the progress of therapy
- Identification of patterns in patients’ actions, thoughts, feelings, experiences, and relationships
- Emphasis on past experiences
- Focus on patients’ interpersonal experiences
- Emphasis on the therapeutic relationship
- Exploration of patients’ wishes, dreams, or fantasies
- Significantly briefer than classical psychoanalysis
- Psychodynamic therapists deemphasize the goal of personality reconstruction, focusing instead on relieving the suffering associated with psychological disorders
Self-actualizing
- all of us could reach our highest potential, in all areas of functioning, if only we had the freedom to grow
- A variety of conditions may block our actualization
- Every person is basically good and whole, most blocks originate outside the individual - “Be all you can be!”, according to Maslow, the ultimate psychological need that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one’s potential
Person-centered therapy
- The therapist takes a passive role, making as few interpretations as possible
- Give the individual a chance to develop during the course of therapy, unfettered by threats to the self
- an approach to therapy that assumes all individuals have a tendency toward growth and that this growth can be facilitated by acceptance and genuine reactions from the therapist
Unconditional positive regard
complete and almost unqualified acceptance of most of the client’s feelings and actions, is critical to the humanistic approach
-Carl Rogers- if you don’t love yourself, you can’t love others
Empathy
sympathetic understanding of the individual’s particular view of the world
The hoped-for result of person-centered therapy
clients will be more straight-forward and honest with themselves and will access their innate tendencies toward growth
Behavioral model
- cognitive-behavioral model/ social learning model
-Systematic development of a more scientific approach to psychological aspects of psychopathology - Pavlov/skinner
Classical/Operant conditioning
Classical conditioning
- Physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) of St. Petersburg Russia
- A type of learning in which a neutral stimulus is paired with a response until it elicits that response
- Conditioning/conditioned response: a response that occurred only on the condition of the presence of a particularevent or situation (stimulus)
- Is one way in which we acquire new information, particularly information that is somewhat emotional in nature
- Quite automatic
- Law of association
Pathological behavior is learned
Associate x->y
Extinction
presentation of the conditioned stimulus without the food for a long enough period would eventually eliminate the conditioned response to the food
Introspection
- Edward Titchener (1867-1927)
- Subjects simply reported on their inner thoughts and feelings after experiencing certain stimuli
- Inconsistent and discouraging
Systematic desensitization
- individuals were gradually introduced to the objects or situations they feared so that their fear could extinguish; that is, they could test reality and see that nothing bad happened in the presence of the phobic object or scene
Behavior therapy
- Wolpe, working with fellow pioneers Hans Eysenck and Stanley Rachman in London
- Paved the way for modern-day fear and anxiety reducion procedures in which severe phobias can eliminated in as liittle as 1 day
Reinforcement
to “reward” because it connotes the effect on the behavior
Shaping
a process of reinforcing successive approximations to a final behavior or set of behaviors
-Using reinforcement to slowly get a ultimate desired behavior
Personal Distress
a disorder characterized by subjective pain and suffering whether or not the person also exhibits deviant or maladaptive behavior
Impairment
the condition of being unable to perform as a consequence of physical or mental unfitness
Not culturally expected
It deviates from the average & violates social norms
Prototype
a standard or typical example
Clinical Psychologist
Doctoral holding professionals, who follow a graduate-lever study, lasting approximately 5 years, that prepares them to conduct research, treat, diagnose, and assess psychological disorders.