Transcript What causes abnormal behaviors?

Introduction to Psychological Disorders/Research
Methods – Chapter 1
Historical and Contemporary Views – Chapter 2
Causal Factors and Views – Chapter 3
Clinical Assessment – Chapter 4
Abnormal Psychology
Classes #1-2
Aug 25-27, 2009
Chapter 1:
What Behaviors Are Abnormal?
• How do we define what is abnormal?
– The culture’s perspective
– The generation’s perspective
– The individual’s perspective
The Culture’s Perspective
• Deviance
– Here, we are looking at the degree in which
an individual’s behavior differs from cultural
norms
• Standards of acceptability vary from culture to
culture
– But to be considered disordered, the atypical
behavior must also be disturbing to other
people
The Culture’s Perspective
• Rationally Unjustifiable
– If someone claims to be hearing mysterious
voices and claims to be talking to God (or to a
lost relative, etc) we would likely consider
there to be a problem unless they could
convince us that the voices were real…
The Generation’s Perspective
• Standards of acceptability also vary from
generation to generation
– Example: Homosexuality
The Individual’s Perspective
• Distress
•
– Does the individual feel psychological pain?
Disability
– Does the behavior interfere with the person’s
ability to function personally, socially, or
occupationally?
• Many psychologists believe this is the best
criterion for determining the normality of
behavior – does it foster individual and
group well-being?
DSM-IV Definition
• Individual perspective is most important
determinant
• Problems: How much distress or disability
constitutes a mental illness?
Research Methods
• Experimental Condition
– The condition of an experiment that exposes
participants to the treatment, that is, to one version
of the independent variable
• Control Condition
– The condition of an experiment that contrasts with
the experimental treatment
– Serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of
the treatment
Experiments
• Features
– Manipulation of an independent variable and
measurement of its effects on a dependent variable
• Strengths
– Can establish a cause-effect relationship between
independent and dependent variables
• Weaknesses
– Confounding variables may prevent valid conclusions
Reversal (ABAB) Design
• Is it really the treatment or a confounding
variable?
Blind designs…
• Single-blind design
• Double-blind design
Random Assignment
• Trademark of experiments
– Randomly assigning participants to control or
experimental groups
• Quasi-Experiments don’t do this
– Participants taken from existing groups
Direct (Naturalistic) Observations
• Features
– Observations of humans or animal behavior in the
environment in which it typically occurs
• Strengths
– Provides descriptive data about behavior presumably
uncontaminated by outside influences
• Weaknesses
– Observer bias and participant self-consciousness can
distort results
Case Studies
• Features
– Intensive examination of the behavior and mental
processes associated with a specific person or
situation
• Strengths
– Provide detailed descriptive analysis of new, complex,
or rare phenomenon
• Weaknesses
– May not provide representative picture of phenomena
Surveys
• Features
– Standard set of questions asked of a large number of
participants
• Strengths
– Gather large amounts of descriptive data relatively
quickly and inexpensively
• Weaknesses
– Sampling errors, poorly phrased questions, and
response biases can distort results
Correlations
• Features
– Statistically speaking, it refers to how strongly one
variable is related to another
• Strengths
– Allows researcher to better formulate their hypothesis
– gives ideas that we can explore further
• Weaknesses
– Data can sometimes fool us (we’ll get to this in a
second)
Correlation and Causation
Chapter 2: A Little History of Mental Illness…
• The Good Old Days
– Trephination
– Some were considered witches…
– The devil made me do it…
– Bleeding
– Ice-cold Baths
– Fear
– Drugs
The Age of Enlightenment
• Asylums
– During this time, places where the mentally ill
were cared for began to surface
– Before this, these people were treated as
criminals and put in jails or prisons
• Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem (Bedlam)
Removing the chains…
• Philippe Pinel
– Institutes a medical model – that these
psychological disorders were sicknesses
• He removed the chains from the mentally ill and
his treatment consisted in large part along the
lines of a good diet, encouragement, and the least
restrictive setting – in general, many of the
components of psychotherapy
The Modern Era
• Psychological processes
• Suggestion and hypnotism
– Franz Mesmer and mesmerism
– Jean-Martin Charcot and hysterical disorders
The Modern Era:
Positive Psychology
• The study of human strengths and optimal
functioning; can be applied to school,
work, love, & relationships
Traditional Models for Abnormal Behavior
• Psychoanalytic (Psychodynamic)
Perspective
• Behavior (Learning) Perspective
What causes abnormal behaviors?
• Psychoanalytic Explanation
– Unconscious traumas stemming from
childhood lead to illness
– Stress (anxiety) leads to illness
• Such as sexual conflicts
• Read phallic stage of Freud’s Psychosexual
Development
Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939)
• Became interested in hidden aspects of personality when
he found himself confronted with patients whose
apparent disorders made no neurological sense
– Used hypnosis and then free association
– Used free association with the patient lying on a couch and
Freud sitting out of view
• Why this set-up?
– Felt nothing was accidental – dreams, slips of tongue, slips of
pen, etc.
– Classic Freudian setting and Iceberg Theory of the Mind
• Our access to what goes on in our mind is very limited
• The majority is in our unawareness
What causes abnormal behaviors?
• Learning Explanations
– Behavior is learned
• Classically conditioned behaviors
– For example: a traumatic experience is paired with a
neutral stimulus…later on just the NS can produce fear
• Behaviors that result from operant conditioning
– Rewards and/or punishments
 These help people to learn appropriate
behaviors and to unlearn inappropriate ones
Chapter 3:
Causal Factors and Viewpoints
• Biological Perspective
• Cognitive-Behavioral Perspective
• Sociocultural Perspective
• Family Systems Perspective
What causes abnormal behaviors?
• The Physiological Explanations
– Types of problems in the brain
• Chemical imbalances
–Levels of neurotransmitters may be too
high or too low
• Malformed or damaged brain structures
–Can cause too much or too little activity in
the brain thus leading to abnormal
behaviors
What causes abnormal behaviors?
• Genetics and biological traumas
– Diathesis-stress model
• A person has a predisposition to develop an
illness but it may remain dormant unless
triggered by something (stressors)
– Biological traumas
• Physical illnesses or diseases can cause
abnormal behaviors to develop
–For example: if a pregnant woman has
the flu, her baby is at a higher risk for
schizophrenia
The Physiological Approach
• Treatment
– Drugs
– Surgery
What causes abnormal behaviors?
• Cognitive Explanations
•
– Abnormal behaviors are the result of incorrect
beliefs – faulty thinking
• Example: Phobia of a small lovable dog–
why? All dogs are dangerous
– Cognitive Restructuring
• Get patients to test their hypothesis
• Prove it wrong
Note:
– Often, the cognitive and learning approaches are
combined (cognitive-behavioral therapy)
What causes abnormal behaviors?
• Sociocultural Explanations
– Focuses on the role social and cultural factors
play in abnormal behaviors…
• Which behaviors are labeled abnormal
–One cultures terrorist is another’s hero
• Levels in that culture
–Number of stressors can lead to more or
less abnormal behaviors
• Influences what symptoms develop
–For example: “Going postal”
What causes abnormal behaviors?
• Family Systems explanations
– Role of family in development of abnormal
behavior
– Illness of the individual is seen as the result of
a dysfunctional family unit
– Family treatment in addition to individual is
usually recommended in these cases
• Example: Eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia)
Clinical Assessment
Chapter 4
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders
• DSM-I (1952)
• DSM-II (1968)
• DSM-III (1980)
• DSM-IIIR (1987)
• DSM-IV (1994)
• DSM-IV-TR (2000)
Diagnostic systems for
abnormal behavior
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM-IV)
– Main Objectives:
• Reliability
–Consistent diagnoses
• Validity
–Correct diagnosis
DSM-IV:
The current system
• Assumptions about the causes of disorders
are not used in making diagnoses
• Manual attempts to describe problems not
interpret them
DSM-IV:
The current system
• Diagnoses are made on five separate axes:
– Axis 1: Clinical Disorders except Personality Disorders
and Mental Retardation
– Axis 2: Personality Disorders and Mental Retardation
– Axis 3: General Medical Conditions
– Axis 4: Psychosocial and Environmental Problems
– Axis 5: Global Assessment of Functioning
• Individuals are given a GAF rating from 1-100 where the
lowest ratings indicating the most severe problems that could
cause dangers to themselves or others
DSM-IV:
The current system
• Advantages of DSM-IV classification:
– No longer the communication problems of the pre1950’s
– Allows us to figure out how many people are suffering
from these disorders (statistics are now available)
– Specific symptoms for each diagnosis are clearly
listed
– Decision trees
– Set of questions leading to correct diagnosis
– The distinctive categories in the DSM-IV contribute to
the planning of treatment programs and facilities
DSM-IV:
The current system
• Disadvantages of DSM-IV classification:
– Loss of individual’s uniqueness when labeled
• Refer to whole individual, when they should
refer only to one particular aspect of the
individual
• Example: he has schizophrenia might be
better than saying he’s a schizophrenic
– Characteristics may be attributed to
individuals that they do not possess
• Example: Not all schizophrenics hallucinate
Disadvantages of DSM-IV
classification…
• Diagnostic categories are imperfect
– Differences in clinical judgments
Factors contributing to clinical
judgment disagreement and error
• Client factors
– Patients often describe their problems
differently on separate occasions
• Clinician differences
– Differences in training and theoretical
orientation
– Use of different assessment techniques
– Type of facility
– Patient overload
DSM-IV:
The current system
• The number of disorders listed has been
•
•
increased
Research indicates that almost half (48%) of our
population will suffer from a mental disorder at
some time during their lives
With the numbers this high…
– The stigma associated with disorders may be
subsiding
– The understanding and sensitivity hopefully will
increase
Credits
• http://www.iit.edu/~cc/Success%20in%20College.ppt#291,3,Positive
Psychology