Week 1: Introduction to Abnormal Psychology Flashcards
What is a psychological disorder?
Characterised by disability, violation of social norms, dysfunction and personal distress.
What is stigma?
Negative societal beliefs of a group of individuals with a particular characteristic, potentially enabling discrimination.
According to research, which mental illnesses have the stigma of being a danger to others and unpredictable?
Schizophrenia, alcohol addiction and drug addiction (between 64.2%-77% of respondents)
According to research, which mental illnesses have the stigma of “self to blame for illness”?
SUDs
What are key elements to reducing stigma?
Education mainly.
Then understanding and acceptance.
Why does stigma exist?
- lack of understanding
- negative beliefs of MI (media sensationalism)
- origins of MI
What is demonology?
A belief from the stone age that stated that the
“troubled mind” or presentation of mental illness was caused by possession by evil spirits or the result of displeased Gods.
What was the treatment for demonology/ MI in the Stone Age?
- Laying hands and praying
- exorcism
- Trephination (holes in brain)
Somatogenesis is an early biological explanation for MI.
Describe the theory.
Hippocrates (~400BC)
- rejected demontology
- MI caused by brain - health resorted by balance of humour
- 4 humours (yellow bile, black bile, blood and phlegm).
- Mania, melancholia, phrenitis (Delirium, brain fever)
What are the two major ways in which Hippocrates early biological explanation shaped modern thinking?
- Behaviour markedly affected by bodily function
2. Illness is an indicator of chemical imbalance
Outline the history of MI during the Middle Ages (200 A.D - 14th Century)
- rise of the church
- return to supernatural explanations
- Pope Innocent & Malleus Maleficarum (demons blamed for widespread probs. in Europe)
- witch trials/ Lunacy trials of the 14th century
What was the Malleus Maleficarum?
Guide for identifying witches during the witch trials of the 14th century.
Describe the conditions of Asylums in the 1400s
-leprosariums
- “Bedlam” - most famous St Mary’s of Bethlehem in L
ondon
-poor treatments: blood letting, little food or care, spread of diseases.
Why was Pinel’s reform (Pussin’s) significant (1745-1826)?
allowed people to roam freely in asylums - problematic because this freedom was reserved for the rich.
What did Dorothy Dix introduce (1802- 1887)
introduced the Moral Treatment of patients. Caring, encouraged them to lead normal lives, talked to them.
What are the biological approaches (treatments)
Francis Galton - Eugenics - Nature Vs Nurture debate - 1800's -1900s US law prohibited ppl with MI to marry/ reproduce
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
Frontal Lobotomy
What are the biological concepts which are used to understand mental illness?
Genetics
- genotype
- phenotype
- Epigenetic
Disorders can be inherited
Disorders arise from brain disfunction
Who were the key founders of the psychological approaches to mental illness and what approaches did they found, during the following time periods:
1700’s
1800’s
1900’s
1700s
Jean-Martin Charcot - Mesmer & Charcot (Hypnosis)
1800s
Josef Breuer - The Cathartic method (Anna O - talk therapy)
1900s
Sigmund Freud - Psychoanalysis - the unconscious, defence mechanisms
Alfred Adler - the collective unconscious
Carl Jung - Individual psychology
What are the modern influences of Freudian ideologies and psychoanalysis
- Childhood experiences –> adult personality
- Unconscious influences behaviour
- Not all causes & purposes of behaviour have an obvious explanation
What developments occurred in the psychological approaches during the late 1900s and early 2000s?
late 1900’s –> behaviourism
late 1900’s/early 2000’s –> cognitive approaches
What are the origins of modern day stigma allied to mental illness.
- Initial belief of supernatural causes/ evil spirits
- poor treatment of MI - asylums, limited freedom, eugenics
