Abnormal Psychology: Understanding Psychological Disorders, Lecture notes of Abnormal Psychology

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What is Abnormal…anyway?

Chapter 13-Psychological Disorders

CLASS OBJECTIVES:

How do we define abnormal behavior? What are Anxiety Disorders? What are Mood Disorders? What is Schizophrenia?

What percentage of the

population would you

guess have a psychological

disorder?

The Human Perspective

One of the most important objectives for this class is for students to recognize how psychological suffering is everywhere.

You will learn about clusters of symptoms that characterize different psychological disorders, but most importantly PEOPLE suffer with these disorders everyday.

Sensitivity Please!

The language we use when

discussing psychological disorders

is very important-people are not

just their disorders!

How are people with

psychological disorders

portrayed in our culture?

Why is this front page article

acceptable?

Who’s Normal? Your neighbor has physical complaints and sees several doctors weekly.

A 22 year-old college student smokes 4- 5 marijuana joints per day, has a 3.8 GPA, has a part-time job and a solid long term relationship.

Rachel has been caught several times urinating in the corner.

A 35 year-old very happily married man enjoys wearing women’s clothes and underwear on the weekends when he and his wife go out on the town.

Who decides what’s

“NORMAL”?

WE do!

Criteria for abnormal behavior

include statistical infrequency,

dysfunction, personal distress,

and violation of norms.

None of these criteria alone is adequate for classifying abnormal behavior.

What do we call

people labeled as

abnormal?

Abnormal Psychology

Is the field of psychology concerned with assessment, treatment, and prevention of maladaptive behavior.

• “Clinical Psychology”

How are Psychological Disorders

Diagnosed?

The American Psychiatric Association

(APA) has devised a system for

diagnosing maladjusted behavior

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of

Mental Disorders

• Referred to as the DSM IV (4th^ edition)

Goals of the DSM IV

To provide a system for diagnosing disorders

To improve the reliability of diagnoses

To make diagnoses consistent with research evidence and clinical experiences.

History

The mentally ill were once subjected

to terrible conditions in “ insane

asylums ”

This resulted in Deinstitutionalization:

• This effected treatment methods
• Accounts for a large majority of the homeless population.