Introduction to Abnormality Flashcards
What is meant by abnormality?
Abnormal psychology is concerned with understanding the nature, causes, and treatment of mental disorders. At the heart of abnormal psychology is the difficulty as to how we define abnormal from normal
Elements of abnormality? (7)
Suffering: Maladaptivness: Deviancy: Violation of the Standards of Society: Social Discomfort: Irrationality and Unpredictability: Dangerousness:
Define suffering
Suffering: We commonly think about abnormality involving suffering. For example individual living with anxiety or depression will often identify it causes suffering, such as distressing thoughts and/or feelings. However, in the case of a bi-polar manic phase, individuals would not identify that they are suffering, instead they may indicate feeling wonderful with expansive energy.
Maladaptiveness
Maladaptivness: Most commonly we see maladaptivness as part of a mental disorder when it causes a clinically significant impact on an individual’s life (e.g., not being able to go to school, work).
Deviancy
Deviancy: When something is statistically rare and undesirable we are more likely to consider it abnormal.
Violation of the standards of society
Violation of the Standards of Society: When individuals fail to adhere to formal or informal rule of their culture we are more likely to ascribe their behaviour as abnormal.
Social Discomfort
Social Discomfort: When individual violate social norms (e.g., personal distance, crying or shouting on the train) we are likely to see their behaviour as abnormal.
Irrationality/unpredictability
Irrationality and Unpredictability: When we see individuals acting in an unusual way e.g., having disorganized speech/behaviours we are likely to classify them as abnormal, unless the circumstances/environment explain this. For example an actor on stage acting out a play, etc.
Dangerousness
Dangerousness: When individuals are at risk of self-harm or harming others, this can be a sign of abnormal behaviour.
Mental Disorder (DSM-5)
A mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by 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.
Why do we need classification system?
Provide nomenclature that allows information structuring
The disadvantages of classification
Loss of individual’s information
Stigma and stereotyping associated with diagnosis
Self-concept impact
How does culture affect the view of what is considered normal?
Certain forms of psychopathology highly specific to certain cultures
Examples of psychopathology specific to cultures
Taijin kyofusho—in Japan
Anxiety about body or bodily functions offending others
Ataque de nervios—in Latinos and Latinas especially from the Caribbean
Loss of control including crying, trembling, screaming often after a stressful event
Point-prevalence
Refers to the estimated proportion of actual, active cases of the disorder in a given population at a given point of time.
One-year prevalence
A count of everyone when experienced a particular disorder (e.g., depression) at any point in time throughout a 1 year period.
Life-time prevalence
the number of people what have had a particular disorder at any time in their lives
Incidence
refers to the number of new cases that occur over a given period of time (typically 1 year). Incidence figures are typically lower than prevalence figures because they exclude already existing cases
Lifetime prevalence of having any DSM disorder?
46.4% but does not include all disorders
1 year and lifetime prevalence of having any anxiety disorder (US)
1 yr= 18.1 % lifetime= 28.8 %
1 year and lifetime prevalence of having any mood disorder (US)
1 = 9.5 lifetime 20.8
1 year and lifetime prevalence of having any substance abuse disorder (US)
1 = 3.8 lifetime = 14.6
1 year prevalence of having any DSM disorder (US)
26.2
Most common individual disorder in US
Major depressive disorder
1 year and lifetime prev (US) major depressive disorder
1 year = 6.7 lifetime = 16.6
2004 - 2005 percentage of AUS pop with mental disorder?
11 %
Where is the vast majority of treatment?
outpatient basis
What are viewpoints
are theoretical constructions devised to orient psychologists in the study of abnormal behaviour
What viewpoint are many theorists pushing for?
biopyschosocial
Biological viewpoint
Mental disorders as diseases
Impact of the biological viewpoint
drugs as treatment, severely altering the disease
Psychosocial Viewpoints (5)
Psychodynamic Behavioural Cognitive-behavioural Humanistic Existential
How does the psychodynamic perspective see anxiety and defense mchanisms playing a role
The ego often deals with neurotic or moral anxiety by resorting to irrational protective measures referred to as ego-defense mechanisms
Cognitive-behavioural
concentrating on how thoughts and information processing can become distorted and lead to maladaptive emotions and behaviour
Cognitive-behavioural clinicians attempt to alter their patients’ maladaptive cognitions
through attributions, attributional style and schemas
Attributions
the process of assigning causes to things that happen
Attributional Style
– a characteristic way in which an individual may tend to assign causes to bad or good events
Schema
an underlying representation of knowledge that guides the current processing of information
The sociocultural viewpoint is concerned with the social environment as a source of:
Vulnerability to mental disorder
Resistance to mental disorder
Sociocultural risk factors for various disorders (4):
Low socioeconomic status
Unemployment
Being subjected to prejudice and discrimination
Social change and uncertainty
initial clinical assessment an attempt is made to (3)
Identify the main dimensions of a client’s problem
Predict the likely course of events under various conditions
Establish baselines for psychological functions so that the effects of treatment can be measured
Goals of psychological assessments (4)
- Identifying and describing symptoms
- Determining the chronicity and severity of problems
- Evaluating the potential causal factors in the person’s background
- Exploring the individual’s personal resources that might be assets in treatment
Three types of assessment
Assessment of the physical organism:
Physical exam (e.g., EEG, CAT scan)
Neuropsychological examination (e.g., Halstead-Reitan battery)
Psychosocial assessment:
Interview/direct observation
Assess Social environment, stressors (past and present), etc
Psychological tests (e.g., Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale [WAIS])
Ethical issues in assessment (5)
- Potential cultural bias
- Theoretical orientation of the clinician
- Underemphasis on the external situation
- Insufficient validation
- Inaccurate data or premature evaluation
Advantages of classification (3)
The introduction of order
The enabling of communication
The enabling of statistical research
Insurance issues
Three basic approaches to classifying abnormal behaviour
- categorical - dimensional - prototypical
Categorical
a patient is healthy or disordered, but there is no overlap
Dimensional
the patient may fall along a range from superior functioning to absolutely impaired functioning
Prototypical
a conceptual entity depicts an idealized combination of characteristics, some of which the patient may not have
What type of classification system does the DSM aim to use and often end up using instead?
The DSM aims to use the categorical approach, yet often uses the prototypical approach
