Module 1 - Historical Perspectives on Psychopathology and Classification of Mental Disorder Flashcards
Define Psychological Abnormality
behaviour, speech, or thought that impairs the ability of a person to function in a way that is generally expected of him or her, in the context where the unusual functioning occurs.
Define Mental Illness
a term often used to convey the same meaning as psychological abnormality, but it implies a medical rather than psychological cause.
Define Psychological Disorder
a specific manifestation of this impairment of functioning, as described by some set of criteria that have been established by a panel of experts.
What are the Criteria for judging behaviour as abnormal?
1) STATISTICAL CONCEPT (occurs infrequently in the population)
2) PERSONAL DISTRESS
3) PERSONAL DYSFUNCTION
4) VIOLATION OF NORMS
5) DIAGNOSIS BY EXPERT
What is a flaw in the statistical concept method for defining abnormality?
1) Not all infrequent behaviours or thoughts should be judged abnormal (ie amazing athletic skill = exceptional not abnormal.)
2) It is not clear HOW unusual a given behaviour has to be in order to be considered abnormal.
True or False:
Personal Distress is an essential feature of abnormality.
False.
Distress is a FREQUENT, but not essential feature of abnormality. For example, distress is not present for all people identified as abnormal (ie antisocial personality disorder).
Wakefield argues that unless there are _____________ to the individual, it makes little sense to call behaviour abnormal.
Dysfunctional consequences.
Define Dysfunction
“failures of internal mechanisms to perform naturally selected functions” - Wakefield
What 2 things are needed to conclude that a given behaviour is disordered?
1) a scientific judgment that there exists a failure of designed function
2) a value judgment that the design failure harms the individual
(functions = what an artifact or behaviour was originally designed to do. Ie: a pen was designed to write. So if someone uses it as a weapon for self-defence - the fact that the pen failed to protect an individual would not entail a failure of its function.)
True or False:
Discomfort in an observer alone cannot count as the basis for judging someone’s behaviour to be disordered.
True.
Criminals clearly engage in behaviours that vioate social norms, but few of them meet the criteria for any disorder (even if people observing the acts are uncomfortable/consider it to be a norm violation).
True or False:
Most Psychologically abnormal people are unpredictable and dangerous.
False.
Very few people suffering from a psychiatric disorder are dangerous to others. Even psychotic patients, who are the most bizarre of all disordered people, rarely attempt to hurt anyone. Most psychologically disordered people are no more dangerous, and no more unpredictable, than are the rest of the population.
What is the most serious flaw in the “violation of norms” criterion for judging abnormal behaviour?
Social norms vary over time and place and culture.
True or False
Most psychologists attend to the medical aspects and biological foundations of disorders, although they usually also consider psychological and environmental influences.
False.
It’s most PSYCHIATRISTS (who are trained in medicine as well), that attend to the medical aspects and biological foundations. Not psychologists.
What is trephination?
The surgical procedure in which a hole is created in the skull by the removal of circular piece of bone.
Early written records indicate that _________ was popularly accepted in early human societies as the cause of madness.
Demonic possession
Does the belief in a demonological view of abnormality still exist today?
Yes.
CBC documentary In Africa featured a man named Koffi and his struggle with schizophrenia. The people in Koffi’s community believed that he was possessed by demons and chained him to a tree outside of the village for more than 10 years. Many more people are incarcerated in a similar way in this area of the continent.
Who has been called the father of modern medicine?
A) Pericles
B) Hippocrates
C) Aristotle
D) Plato
B) Hippocrates
(he denied the popular belief of the time that psychological problems were caused by the intervention of gods or demons. This represented the first recorded instance of a rejection of supernatural causes for mental illness.)
Hippocrates did not distinguish mental diseases from physical diseases. Instead, he thought that all disorders had natural causes. Although he emphasized the primacy of brain dysfunctions, Hippocrates argued that _______ could influence mental functioning.
Stress.
What is hysteria now known as/called?
Conversion disorder.
Hippocrates thought that psychological functioning resulted from disturbances of bodily fluids, or ____________ , as they were then called.
Humours.
What was the Methodism school of thought?
Regarded mental illness as a disorder that resulted either from a constriction of body tissue or from a relaxation of those tissues due to exhaustion. The head was seen as the primary site of this affliction.
True or False:
Greeks provided the first clinical observations of disorders and made the first attempts at classification.
True.
What is the name of the book that is considered to be one of the most widely read and authoritative medical texts in the history of medicine?
The Canon of Medicine
By Avicenna - Persian philosopher and physician.
Throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, people suffering from psychological disorders for the most part received what type of treatment and care?
From the clergy. In monasteries and convents. It involved prayer and a caring approach. As the idea of possession by the devil became more popular, exorcism replaced these gentle approaches.
