By : Oltmanns and Emery

ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGYSEVENTH EDITION

DO YOU THINK ANY OF THESE BEHAVIORS ARE ABNORMAL?

Having a “lucky” seat in an exam? Being unable to eat, sleep, or study for days

after the breakup of a relationship? Breaking into a cold sweat at the thought of

being trapped in an elevator? Refusing to eat solid food for days to stay thin? Thorough hand-washing after riding a bus? Believing government agents monitor your

phone calls? Drinking a 6-pack daily to be “sociable”?

OVERVIEW

Symptoms and signs of mental disorders are known as psychopathology.◦Pathology of the mind

Abnormal Psychology is the application of psychological science to the study of mental disorders.

The line dividing normal from abnormal is not always clear.

RECOGNIZING THE PRESENCE OF A DISORDER

Mental disorders are defined in terms of:◦Duration or persistence of maladaptive

behaviors◦Impairment in the ability to perform social and

occupational roles◦Individual experience of personal distress

DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

Insight—the ability to appreciate the extent of one’s problems or the impact one’s behavior has on other people.

Interpersonal vs intrapersonal judgments

DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

◦Statistical norms—how common or rare it is in the general population

DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

Harmful dysfunction—Jerome Wakefield

◦The condition results from the inability of some internal mechanism to perform its natural function.

◦The condition causes some harm to the person as judged by the standards of the person’s culture.

◦Not every dysfunction leads to a disorder.

DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

Harmful Dysfunction (continued)◦The DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000) definitions places

primary emphasis on the consequences of certain behavioral syndromes.Mental disorders are defined by clusters of persistent, maladaptive behaviors that are associated with personal distress (ex: anxiety or depression, impairment in social or occupational functioning).

DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

◦Culture is defined in terms of values, beliefs, and practices that are shared by a specific community or group of people. Has a profound influence on opinions regarding the difference between normal and abnormal.

Culture

◦Relativism --- the conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them.

◦What is considered normal and abnormal differs widely across cultures and over time.

◦Cultural relativism

◦Historical relativism

◦Voodoo Drapetomania

Culture

Groups representing particular social values have brought pressure to bear on decisions shaping the diagnostic manual.

WHO EXPERIENCES ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR?

Cross-Cultural Comparisons◦ All mental disorders are shaped, to some extent, by cultural

factors.

◦ Do we see eating disorders in countries where there is famine? ◦ Have depression and anxiety increased recently?

◦ No mental disorders are entirely due to cultural or social factors.

◦ Psychotic disorders are less influenced by culture than are nonpsychotic disorders.

◦ The symptoms of certain disorders are more likely to vary across cultures than are the disorders themselves.

What is the difference between normal and abnormal behavior?

The differences between abnormal and normal behavior are essentially differences in degree, (quantitative differences).

abnormal normal normal abnormal

Diagnostic Criteria for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

Depressed mood or dysphoria (a feeling of low mood, irritability, anxiety and/or despair)

Anxiety or tension Affective lability Irritability Decreased interest in usual activities Concentration difficulties Marked lack of energy Marked change in appetite, overeating or food cravings Hypersomnia or insomnia Feeling overwhelmed Other physical symptoms, i.e. breast tenderness, bloating To be considered as PMDD, symptoms must occur during the week before

menstruation and remit a few days after onset of menses. Symptoms must interfere with work, school, usual activities or

relationships. Symptoms must not merely be an exacerbation of another disorder.

Who Experiences Abnormal Behavior?

Frequency in and Impact on Community Populations◦Epidemiology: the scientific study of the frequency

and distribution of disorders within a population. Have there been increases/decreases in the diagnosis of disorders? Which ones? In specific areas? What role did gender, SES, race play?

◦Incidence: the number of new cases of a disorder that appear in a population during a specific period of time.

◦Lifetime prevalence: total proportion of people in a given population who have been affected by the disorder at some point during their lives.

WHO EXPERIENCES ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR?

Frequency in and Impact on Community Populations◦Lifetime Prevalence and Gender DifferenceThe National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) found that 46% of the surveyed people received at least one lifetime diagnosis. See page 11 Figure 1-1

Epidemiological studies consistently find gender differences for many types of mental disorders.

FIGURE 1-1 Lifetime prevalence rates for various mental disorders (NCS-R data)

Who Experiences Abnormal Behavior?

Frequency in and Impact on Community Populations

◦Comorbidity and Disease Burden The presence of more than one condition

within the same period of time. 23 percent of the people in the NCS sample had three or more lifetime disorders, and 50% were rated as being severe.

How does the impact of mental disorders compare with that of other health problems?

Epidemiologists measure disease burden by combining factors of mortality and disability.

Although mental disorders are responsible for only 1% of all deaths, they produce 47% of all disability in developed countries and 28% of all disability worldwide.

THE MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONS

Psychiatry: branch of medicine concerned with the study and treatment of mental disorders.◦Licensed to practice medicine◦Prescribe psychotropic medication

Clinical Psychology: concerned with the application of psychological science to the assessment and treatment of mental disorders.

Social Work: concerned with helping people achieve an effective level of psychosocial functioning.

Insanity and the Mental Health Field

Insanity is a legal term that refers to judgments about whether a person should be held responsible for criminal behavior if he or she is also mentally disturbed.

Is the person legally responsible for his/her crimes because of mental illness?