Transcript Chapter 1, Abnormal Behavior

Chapter One
Abnormal Behavior
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIZP9Ug54M
An example…
• Virginia Tech Massacre Assailant
– What did he do? (27 k, 35 w)
– Was it abnormal?
– Why did he do it?
– Could it have been stopped?
Definition
Abnormal Psychology is the
Scientific study
of strange or unusual behavior
in order to
describe, explain, predict, & control
them.
Describe
A psychological or psychiatric evaluation
determines whether a person has:
– Lost contact with reality
– Experiences hallucinations or delusions
– Is a danger to himself or others ***
Explain
A psychological or psychiatric evaluation
looks for causes of the behavior:
– Drugs/alcohol
– Biological problems (brain tumor or chemicals)
– Social adjustment (friends, cultural differences)
Prediction
A psychological or psychiatric evaluation
tries to predict the behavior in the:
– Individual, using his background information.
– Others, who have similar backgrounds.
Control
Psychologists can control
abnormal behavior through:
–Therapy
–Hospitalization
Determining Abnormality
• Psychologists use the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR)
– Most widely used classification system
• DSM-IV defines abnormal behavior as:
– “clinically significant behavioral or psychological
syndrome or pattern that is associated with present
distress or disability or with a significantly increased
risk of suffering death, pain, disability or loss of
freedom” (APA, 2000)
Definition simplified:
A behavior that departs
from some norm and
that harms the affected
individual or others.
Determining Abnormality
• Important questions to ask:
– Distress? -- affect ability to function?
– Deviance? -- rare? Culture? Situation?
– Dysfunction? -- sudden? Living up to abilities?
– Dangerous? – to herself or others?
Contextual and Cultural Limitations
• Culture:
– Shared learned behavior transmitted from
generation to generation
– Culture is a powerful determinant of how
behavior is defined and treated
Debate:
• Cultural Universality vs. Cultural Relativism:
Origins, processes,
and manifestation of
disorders are the
same across cultures
What is universal
in human behavior?
What is
normal/abnormal
may vary from
culture to culture
How do cultural norms,
values, & attitudes relate
to behavior disorders?
Psychiatric Epidemiology
Study of Abnormal Behaviors and
factors that contribute to them.
…which includes…
• Prevalence:
– Percentage of people in a population with a
disorder at a given time
• Lifetime Prevalence:
– Total proportion of people in a population who
have ever had a disorder
• Incidence:
– Onset or occurrence of a disorder over a
period of time
Mental Disorders in America
National Institute of Mental Health
EXCELLENT resource for “Disorders
Workbook” information…
Frequency of Mental Disorders
• Gender Differences:
– Major depression is twice as common in
women.
– The lifetime prevalence rate of alcohol
dependence : twice as high in men
– Antisocial personality disorder: three times
as high in men.
– No gender differences in schizophrenia and
bipolar disorder.
Burden of Mental Disorders
• Cost and burden to society is great:
– At least 30% of adult Americans and 20% of
American children suffer from diagnosable
disorder.
– By 2020, neuropsychiatric disorders in
children will increase 50%
– Mental illness ranks higher than cancer and
other malignant diseases in how in affects
individual health and productivity.
Stereotypes
Common Myths about the mentally ill.
They…
…are always recognizable by their deviant behavior.
…have inherited their disorder.
…are incurable.
…are weak.
..suffer from a deficit.
…are unstable and potentially dangerous.
Historical Perspectives
• Prehistoric and
Ancient Beliefs:
– Demonology
treated by
trephining or
exorcism
Historical Perspectives
• Greco-Roman: Naturalistic Explanations
– Hippocrates believed deviant behavior caused
by brain pathology, the dysfunction of brain
Hippocrates first
introduced the
concept of disturbed
physiology (organic
processes or
functions) as the
basis for all illnesses,
mental and physical.
Historical Perspectives
• Middle Ages:
– Back to supernatural explanations
– Witchcraft:
• A group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts began to
display unusual behaviors: convulsive seizures, blasphemous
screaming, and trance-like states. The physicians could find no
physiological cause for the disturbing behaviors so the community
reasoned that it must be the work of Satan and the girls must be
witches. (Source: Eyewitnesstohistory.com)
Salem, Massachusetts
Historical Perspectives
• The Renaissance:
In 1492, St. Mary of
Bethlem, aka "Bedlam",
opened to receive mental
patients in England and
was famous for it's
inhumane treatment of the
mentally ill.
"The Rakes Progress", by
William Hogarh
Historical Perspectives
– The rise of humanism
• 1793 Philippe Pinel/William Tuke removed the
chains from patients to promote more humane
treatment of the mentally ill.
• 1808 Franz Gall wrote about phrenology (the idea
that a person's skull shape and placement of
bumps on the head can reveal personality traits.
• 1834 Ernst Heinrich Weber published his
perception theory of 'Just Noticeable Difference,'
now known as Weber's Law (sensory research.)
Dorothea Dix
• Instrumental in lobbying for and helping
establish:
• first state mental
hospital in Illinois (1847)
• First mental institution in
Raleigh, NC, (1849).
• first public mental hospital
in Pennsylvania (1853).
• …to name a few…
Early Causes/Treatments
• Biological Viewpoint (physical basis)
– Kraepelin
• Symptoms occur in clusters (syndromes) to
represent mental disorders, each with a unique
cause, course, and outcome.
• Classified mental disorders based on organic
causes: metabolic disturbance, endocrine difficulty,
brain disease, heredity
• Evolved into DSM (now Version IV-TR) of the APA
Early Causes/Treatments
• Psychological:
– Mesmerism, Charcot (The Nancy School) , Josef
Breuer and Sigmund Freud all used
mesmerism/hypnotism for the treatment of hysteria.
Freud gave it up quickly.
– Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud: Relief by talking
about traumatic experiences
• Cathartic method: Therapeutic use of verbal
expression to release pent-up emotional conflicts
Causes: Early Viewpoints
• Behavioral:
– Stressed conditions that evoke, reinforce,
extinguish directly observable behaviors
– Rooted in laboratory science
– Remember John Watson? B. F. Skinner?
Albert Bandura?
Contemporary Trends
• The Drug Revolution:
– “one of the great medical advances of the 20th
century” (Sue, et al.)
– Started with lithium (1949), then Thorazine.
– Reduces symptoms so therapy would work.
– Only Psychologists in AZ – NM, LA, OR allow
psychologists to prescribe.
– Success of psychopharmacology spawned
new interest in brain-behavior relationship
Implications
• The study of abnormal psychology is complex
and influenced by historical time
• No single explanation fits all situations
• Multipath model is necessary in attempting to
understand such complex processes
• Multipath model consists of following factors:
– Biological
– Psychological – Psychodynamic, behavioral,
cognitive, humanism
– Social – families, environment
– Sociocultural