Lecture 1 Flashcards
What is normal?
What’s a problem when defining ‘normal’?
Societal norms impact what we view as normal
Stereotypes/schemas influence our views
Heuristics, mental shortcuts that help us make desicions and judgments
What is the internal model?
They allow us to make quick decisions BUT they can lead us to make errors as they are influenced by pre-existing schemas and don’t consider context/background
Schemas
Provide a cognitive architecture, packets/internal frameworks the build up over time and helps us to sort and process infomation
What is a person schema?
A schema for a specific individual, how do we view them based on behaviour, appearance, personality and preference
Why do we need to understand psychological disorders?
Before we can apply a diagnostic tool and treatments
By understanding them, we can organise them to be able to effectively treat the disorders
Nomenclature
A naming system, we know what to call a disorder and their symptoms
DSM - the standard classification of mental disorder, allows a consensus to be reached all around the world
What makes defining abnormal behaviour difficult?
There are lots of grey areas, some behaviours appear normal at times but of they continue can then become abnormal
e.g. universal stress and anxiety but when it become excessive
What is a social construction?
An idea that has been created and universally agreed upon by society.
Szasz (1974) argued illness only affects the body not the mind
Who argued against Szasz?
Dammann, there’s not a sharp distinction between physical and mental illness
Help-seeking
Individuals ability to seek help. This is a behavioural intention, if the intend to seek help and their attitudes align they will
Irrationality
Skeem found 15% of psychiatric patients were responsible for 68% of violent instances
Deviance
Going against a social norm, but these are different in different societies
Emotional distress
However, some disorders don’t experience emotional distress, antisocial personality disorder
And there are times when the emotional distress is normal, the 5 stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance)
Significant Impairment
Statistically below/above the norm
What are Rosnehan and Seligmans 7 features?
Suffering - some conditions are abnormal but don’t cause suffering (bipolar disorder) and some suffering is common (in pain reactions)
Maladaptiveness - behaviour that interferes with daily functioning, the more extreme the response the more likely to be labelled abnormal
Unconventional behaviour - how unusual is the behaviour, uncommon behaviour isn’t always abnormal
Unconvetional - this is subjective
Unpredictable - we expect people to be consistent, if we can predict we feel anxious, to what extent is a person in control
Irrationality - disordered speech
Observer discomfort - rules of social interactions e.g. personal space
Violation of moral and ideal standards - set by society, the degree to which we feel embarrassed
Comer 4 Ds
Deviance - behaviour that varies from what’s acceptable according to social norms
Distress - behaviour that causes suffering
Dysfunction - disordered behaviour that people cannot care for themself
Danger - behaviour that is a threat to them or others
Can we use abnormal behaviour to indicate psychological disorders?
Rosenhans study in 1973 demonstrated how easy it is for people to fake mental illness - questions the validity
Scheff (1966) labelling mental abnormality leads to stigma and a self-fulling prophecy
Legal implications of defining abnormality
McNaughton Defence, using the argument for moral insanity to receive a lesser sentence
Context Dependent
Social rules to say what is acceptable when and where
Social deviation
A behaviour that violates social norms
However prostitution violates a social norm but is it abnormal behaviour?
Changes in society causes changes in these norms
Culturally bound
Judgements vary from society to society
What 3 things should we look for in abnormality?
is the behaviour maladaptive?
does it appear deviant?
does it cause suffering?
How and why do we define abnormality?
Lots of different ways to define abnormality
deviation from social norms - this can change in different societies, what’s normal in one may be abnormal in another
statistical infrequency - just because a behaviour isn’t common doesn’t make it abnormal
by defining helps us to understand abnormal behaviour and can also help us understand normal behaviour too
