Test 1 Flashcards
Abnormal behaviour
Abnormality is usually determined by the presence of several characteristics at one time such as:
- Statistical infrequency
- Violation of norms
- Personal suffering
- Disability or dysfunction
- Unexpectedness
statistical infrequency
- Behaviours that occur rarely or infrequently in the general population.
- Normal behaviour implies that the behaviour does not deviate much from the average.
- Can be found in an absence or an excess
violation of norms
A behaviour that defies or goes against social norms; it either threatens or makes
anxious those observing it; relative to one’s culture/group. (Causes some sort of emotional response, shock, concern, etc.).
- What is the norm in one culture may be abnormal in another.
E.g., Anti-social behaviour of the psychopath violates social norms and is threatening to others.
personal suffering
A behaviour that creates personal suffering, distress, or torment in the person.
E.g., Psychopaths are often not distressed by their behaviour (but they cause personal suffering to those around them -> we need to look at both)
disability or dysfunction
refers to a breakdown in cognition, emotion, and/or behavior.
E.g., someone experiencing delusions that they’re an omnipotent deity would have a breakdown in cognition because thought processes are not consistent w/ reality
unexpectedness
A surprising or out-of-proportion response to environmental stressors can be considered abnormal.
E.g., expect a person to be sad if they lost a loved one to cancer, but someone who’s rich experiencing chronic anxiety over their financials might be considered abnormal
early demonology
demonology: the doctrine that an evil being, (devil), may dwell within a person and control their mind and body.
There was a belief that abnormal behaviour was caused by possession and its treatment involved exorcism.
trepanning of skulls
Burr holes are a modern technique used to relieve pressure on the brain when fluid builds up -> they used to do this thinking that it would remove demons from peoples’ brain, could see the effect it had to help the person, but had the wrong assumption about the reality behind the procedure.
Hippocrates
Father of modern medicine
- Separated medicine from religion, magic, and superstition
- Rejected belief that the gods sent physical diseases and mental disturbances as punishment
- Insisted that illnesses had natural causes thus should be treated like other illnesses
somatogenesis vs psychogenesis
Somatogenesis - Mental disorders are caused by abnormal functioning in the soma (physical body); identify disturbances in physical functioning resulting from either illness, genetic inheritance, or brain damage or imbalance.
Psychogenesis - Mental disorders have their origin in psychological malfunctions; Psychogenic theories focus on traumatic or stressful experiences, maladaptive learned associations and cognitions, or distorted perceptions.
early classification of mental disorders
Hippocrates classified mental disorders into mania, melancholia, and phrenitis or brain fever. The balances of those fluids led to overall wellbeing & imbalances in the four humours resulted in mental health conditions:
- blood = changeable temperament – too temperamental, we have to get rid of the blood via bloodletting
- black bile = melancholia
- yellow bile = irritability and anxiousness
- phlegm = sluggish and dullness
Philippe Pinel
the primary figure in the movement toward humanitarian treatments of the mentally ill.
- believed patients should be treated with dignity (W/ Jean-Baptiste Pussin)
- treated patients as sick rather than as beasts (unchained them from their beds)
- permitted walks around the grounds
- provided counsel and purposeful activity
*If they were rich.
psychopathology stems from “affections moral” or passions
passions include:
anger, hate, wounded pride, seeking vengeance, disgust with life, and irresistible tendencies toward suicide
moral treatment
became known from sympathetic and attentive treatment principles established by Pinel and Tuke: patients had close contact with attendants; residents lived as normal lives as possible; took responsibility for themselves within the constraints of their disorders.
Dorothea Dix
Boston schoolteacher shocked by deplorable conditions, became interested in the conditions of patients in mental hospitals and she campaigned to improve the lives of people with mental illness
Emil Kraepelin
created a classification system to establish the biological nature of mental illnesses. Proposed two major groups of severe mental diseases:
- Dementia praecox (early term for schizophrenia)
- Manic-depressive psychosis (now called bipolar disorder)
*Importantly, Kraepelin’s early classification scheme became the basis for the present diagnostic categories
general paresis and neurosyphilis
general paresis: steady physical & mental deterioration, delusions of grandeur & progressive paralysis w/ no recovery
neurosyphilis: brain effect that can develop within 10 years of being infected w/ syphillis (found that patients w/ psychiatric manifestations were being misdiagnosed. Patients were experiencing what outwardly looked like mental illness, but found they actually had neurosyphilis. Led to discoveries for somatogenisis -> things in our bodies that are affecting what’s happening in our brains
*Led to the germ theory of disease established by Louis Pasteur
The Montreal experiments
originally to find a cure for schizophrenia.
- conducted illegal human experimentation to determine whether drugs & psychological techniques could be used for the purposes of mind control
psychosurgery
the selective surgical removal or destruction of nerve pathways for the purposes of influencing behavior; also called lobotomies - man named Walter Freeman traveled across the country visiting mental institutions, performing lobotomies & spreading his views/methods to institution staff
The Duplessis Orphans
orphanages became psychiatric hospitals.
- children were falsely diagnosed w/ mental illnesses & “mental deficiencies”
- many of these children endured abuse & “treatments” reserved for psychiatric patients
- they were then kicked out on the street & they were homeless & scarred
Deinstitutionalization
the replacement of long-stay psychiatric hospitals w/ smaller, less isolated community-based alternatives for the care of mentally ill people
- between 1960 and 1976, the capacity of Canadian mental hospitals went from about 50000 beds to 15000
- throughout this time care of people w/ mental illnesses was shifted from hospitals to the community
- many ppl who were deinstitutionalized lead lives of poverty & homelessness
Transinstitutionalization
def: the moving of mental health clients from one institution to being dependent on another type of institution
- there are many more mentally ill people in jails & prisons rather than in hospitals
- in 2004-2005 there were 300% more patients w/ serious mental illnesses incarcerated in jails & prisons than in hospitals
- in Canadian prisons, rates of mental illness detected at intake have doubled between 1997 and 2008
mental health literacy
created to refer to the accurate knowledge that a person develops about mental illness & its causes & treatment
stereotypes - cognitive
- fixed overgeneralized and oversimplified beliefs about a person or a group of people based on assumptions about the group
- how we categorize and label people
prejudice - affective
- negative and unjust feelings & attitudes toward individuals/groups based on reinforced misinformation about a social group
discrimination - behaviour
- negative and unjust treatment of individuals based on our stereotypes and prejudices
scapegoat theory
the tendency to blame someone else for one’s own problems, a process that often results in feelings of prejudice towards the person or group that one is blaming
the impact of stigma
- increased isolation and loneliness
- fear and rejection
- loss of self-esteem
- difficulty making friends
- denial of adequate housing, loans, jobs
- creates an unwillingness to seek help
- self-stigma
how many canadians experience serious mental health problems each year?
1 in 5 or 20%
what are the gender stats of mental health?
- higher rates of mood, anxiety, and eating disorders among women
- higher rates of substance abuse among men
what are the age stats of mental health?
Nearly 70% of young people w/ a mood or anxiety disorder report onset before age 15
Romanow Report (2002)
47 recommendations including:
- include some homecare services for case management and intervention services
- develop a national drug agency
- provide an emergency drug program to help those w/ severe mental illnesses
- establish a program to support informal caregivers who assist the mentally ill in critical times
Kirby Report (2006)
2 key recommendations:
- creation of the Canadian mental health commission (Also promote reform w/ mental health institutions & educate adults about mental health conditions)
- creation of the 10-year Mental Health Transition Fund (offer support to the provinces/territories to support mental health conditions – we’re still working on getting this in place today)
