definitions psychopathology Flashcards
what is psychopathology
psycho= mind
pathology= disease
what are the 4 definitions of abnormality
SI= Statistical Infrequency
DSN= Deviation from Social Norms
DIMH= Deviation from Ideal Mental Health
FFA= Failure to Function Adequately
ICD and DSM?
ICD= used in uk, classification
DSM= american classification system
what is DSN- Deviation from social norms
- behaving differently from people in society
- behaviour deemed abnormal if it is different
- social norms different dependent on place, culture
what are social norms
unwritten rules of society, not legal requirements
e.g. in the uk, talking to yourself in public would be an abnormality, people would question their state of mental health
what are the problems with DSN
social norms can change dependant on the society you are in
- some cultures believe that when you pass away, the spirit of the person is still with them, therefore their accepted social norm would be speaking to themselves as they believe to be talking to the spirit; no one would question it as it is part of their culture
- culturally relative
social norms can change overtime
- in dsm if you were homosexual it was classified as a mental illness until 1973
- in icd if you were homosexual it was illegal until 1960
- what was unnaceptable becomes acceptable- change ovetime
LACK TEMPORAL VALIDITY
- in russia, declared as being insane if you voiced your opinions against the government- people would citicise and question - social control
social control= getting everyone to think and behave in the same way
what does culturally relative mean
it cant be applied universally, causes problems when you see different behaviours in different cultures
what is FFA- Failure to Function Adequately
people judged as inability to deal with demands of everyday life, when they stop doing them
- people unable to perform these tasks might see behaviour as maladaptive, irrational, dangerous- causes personal distress and distress to others
how is FFA measured
WHODAS- measures health and disability across cultures
- it recognises people may have disabilities that may prevent them from doing certain things
- takes culture into account
GAF scale- rates how serious a mental health may be
- inaccurate as people with a mental illness cant tell someone what they can and cant do as they are unaware themselves
problems with FFA
- doesn’t say how long lack of functioning adequately has to be present for
- you have no awareness of the trauma you experienced it is your reality
- it does not cause personal distress but it causes distress for others
what is DIMH- Deviation from Ideal Mental Health
PRAISE marie JAHODA
Personal growth (should reach potential- self actualisation)
Reality perception (should know whats real)
Autonomy (should be independent)
Integration (should fit in with society & be able to cope with stressful situations
Self attitudes (should be positive: high self esteem)
Environmental mastery (cope in your environment)
- having absence of just one of these things- experiencing a mental disorder
- missing more than one, more profound your mental health problems will be
problems with DIMH
culturally relative- in some cultures, collectivist, focus on for the good of the wider community not for yourself, so it is only relative for individualist cultures
criteria is too demanding- if you lack one of them than you have a mental health disorder but at some point most of us will lack one of them e.g. esteem, it is unrealistic as we all have doubts
suggests at some point we have all had a mental health disorder
what is SI- Statistical Infrequency
- any behaviour that is statistically unusual or rare, could be a sign of a psychopathology
- uses quantity rather than quality
- a normal distribution curve is used
example: measuring IQ - there is a mean of 100, further you move away from the mean, the less frequent your score will be
- iq of 70 or below- something clearly and cognitively going wrong psychopathology
- bottom and top 2 %- abnormal, rare behaviour
high iq= desirable but abnormal according to SI definition
low iq= intellectual disability disorder IDD, not desirable and abnormal - score of 30 on BDI suggests depression
- people with OCD would fall into the bottom end of the distribution as approximately 1% of population have it
- depression, about 20% of population in industrial placces in the world- more common, not statistically rare, according to this defintion- not a sign of a psychopathology
positives of social norms
- easily observed
- social norms= necessity to enable people to get along most of the time
- give an alert when something might be going wrong for a specific person
- easy identification of concerning behaviour
distributions
normal and skewed distributions
negative skew= left foot
- mean median mode
- mean is lowest of scores, a few done bad
positive skew= right foot
- mode median mean
- mean is highest of scores, a few done good
normal= symmetrical
- mean median mode all in same place
mode is the highest point
