Intro Flashcards
What are the consequences of defining mental illnesses?
- downplay people dealing with mental illness
- should find a threshold
- acknowledge that some level of a specific trait are abnormal
- invalidating for the person suffering from psychopathology
- also harder to decide who should get treatment
What is the statistical model of psychopathology?
Infrequent in pop
- BUT where to draw cut offs
- which dimension are relevant to abnormality
- assumes that common conditions are normal
What is the main flaw of the subjective distress model?
don’t distinguish ego ‐ dystonic conditions (those that conflict with one’s self‐concept) from ego ‐ syntonic conditions (those that are consistent with one’s self‐concept)
What is Wakefield’s definition of mental disorder?
harmful dysfunction
- dysfunction→ not performing the way it is supposed to/ not at the peak
- performance that is in contrary to design of the brain
- for Wakefield→ function of brain is to think, feel and regulate emotions
- also social component with harmful
- evolutionary dysfunction
What is Lilienfeld’s criticism of Wakefield?
- don’t know what is natural function of the brain
- natural selection depends on variability
- some disorders could be adaptations rather than maladaptation
- depression and anxiety can be adaptive to fit the context→ ex: adaptive for an abused child to be hypervigilant and anxious
