Abnormal Psychology
Phase 1: Introduction
Source: Barlow, Durand & Hofmann (2018), Comer & Comer (2017), DSM-V, DSM-V-TR
Introduction
▪ To specify what makes the disorder different
o Psychological Disorder – psychological
from normal behavior
dysfunction within an individual associated with
o Prevalence – How many people in the
distress or impairment in functioning and a
population as a who have/had the disorder?
response that is not typical or culturally
o Incidence – how many new cases occurring
expected
during a given period
▪ Psychological Dysfunction – refers to a
o Course – individual pattern of symptoms
breakdown in cognitive, emotional, or
▪ Chronic – last a long time
behavioral functioning
▪ Episodic – likely to recover a few months
▪ Distress or Impairment – individual is
only to suffer re-occurrence
extremely upset and cannot function
▪ Time-Limited – disorder will improve
properly
without treatment in a relatively short period
▪ Atypical or Not Culturally Expected –
with little or no risk or recurrence
deviates from the average or the norm of
o Onset – beginning of the disorder
the culture
▪ Acute – sudden
o Psychopathology – scientific study of
▪ Insidious – gradually over an extended
psychological disorders
period of time
o Clinical/Counseling Psychologist – received
o Prognosis – anticipated course of the disorder
Ph.D. and follow a course of graduate-level
o Etiology – study of origins, why the disorder
study lasting approx. 5 years
begins
o Psy.D. – focus on clinical training and
History
de-emphasize or eliminates research training
Supernatural
o Ph.D. – integrate clinical and research training
o During the last quarter of the 14th century,
o Psychiatrists – first earn an M.D. in med
Roman Catholic Church fought back against
school, then specialize in Psychiatry
evil in the world that is believed must have
o Psychiatric Social Workers – earns master’s
been behind these disorders
in social work as they develop expertise in
o People turned to magic and sorcery to solve
collecting information relevant to the social and
their problems because they also believed that
family situation of the individual
psych disorders were the works of the devil
o Scientist-Practitioners – they may keep up
and witches
with the latest scientific developments in their
o Treatments include exorcisms, shaving the
field and utilize the knowledge in their practice
pattern of a cross in the hair of the victim’s
▪ Evaluate their own assessments and
head and securing sufferers to a wall near the
treatment procedures to see whether they
church
are effective
o Mental
depression
and
anxiety
were
▪ Conduct research that produces new
recognized as illness, although symptoms such
information about disorders or their
as despair and lethargy were often identified by
treatments, thus becoming immune to the
the church as a sin of acedia, or sloth
fads that plague our field, often at the
o Common treatments was rest, sleep, and
expense of patients and their families
health and happy environment (baths,
o Presenting Problem or Present – traditional
ointments, and happy environment)
shorthand way of indicating why the person
o Nicholas
Oresme
–
suggested
that
came to the clinic
melancholy (depression) was the source of
o Clinical Description – represents the unique
some bizarre behavior, rather than demons
combination of behaviors, thoughts, and
o Possession is not always connected with sin
feelings that make up a specific disorder
but may be seen as an involuntary and the
▪ Clinical – refers both to the types of
possessed individuals as blameless
problems or disorders that you would find in
o In the middle ages, if exorcism failed, some
a clinic or hospital and to the activities
authorities resorted to confinement, beatings,
connected with assessment and treatment
and other forms of torture as treatment
Abnormal Psychology
Phase 1: Introduction
Source: Barlow, Durand & Hofmann (2018), Comer & Comer (2017), DSM-V, DSM-V-TR
(hanging people over a pit full of poisonous
o General Paresis – psychotic patients
snakes
deteriorated steadily, becoming paralyzed and
o Mass Hysteria – whole groups of people were
dying within 5 years of onset
simultaneously compelled to run out in the
o John P. Grey – believed that the causes of
streets, dance, shout, rave, and jump around in
insanity were always physical
patterns as if they were a particularly wild party
▪ Invented rotary fan
(Saint Vitus’s Dance and Tarantism)
▪ Conditions in hospitals greatly improved
o Paracelsus – rejected the notions of
o In the 1930s, the physical interventions of
possession and suggested that the movement
electric shocks and brain surgeries were often
of moon and starts had profound effects on
used
people’s psychological functioning
o Manfred Sakel – used large doses of insulin to
Biological
convulse and temporarily comatose patients
o Hippocrates – Father of Modern Medicine
(Insulin Shock Therapy)
▪ Hippocratic Corpus (Hippocratic Oath)
o Benjamin Franklin – discovered that mild and
▪ Suggested that psych disorders should be
modest electric shock to the head produced
treated like any other disease
brief convulsion and memory loss but
▪ Psych disorders might also be caused by
otherwise did little harm
brain pathology or head trauma and could
o Joseph von Meduna – schizophrenia is rarely
be influenced by heredity
observed to individuals with epilepsy
▪ Brain is the seat of wisdom, consciousness,
o Emil Kraepelin – founding fathers of modern
intelligence, and emotion
psychiatry
▪ Also coined the word Hysteria to describe a
▪ Contributed
to
the
diagnosis
and
concept he learned about from the
classification of disorders
Egyptians
(now
Somatic
Symptoms
▪ Dementia Praecox
Disorders)
Psychological
▪ Wandering Uterus
o Aristotle – emphasized the influence of social
o Galen – adopted the ideas of Hippocrates and
environment and early learning on later
developed Humoral Theory of Disorders
psychopathology
a. Blood – heart; sanguine – cheerful and
o Moral Therapy – basic tenets included treated
optimistic
institutionalized patients as normally as
b. Black Bile – liver; melancholic – depressed
possible in a setting that encouraged and
and sentimental
reinforced normal social interaction
c. Yellow Bile – spleen; choleric – apathetic
▪ Philippe Pinel and Jean-Baptiste Pussin
and chill
– Moral Therapy in Framce
d. Phlegm – brain; phlegmatic – hot-tempered
▪ William Tuke – Moral Therapy in England
▪ Two treatments: Bloodletting and induced
▪ Benjamin Rush – Moral therapy in US
vomiting
▪ Dorothea Dix – mental health movement
▪ Robert Burton – recommended eating
o Franz Anton Mesmer – suggested to his
tobacco and half-boiled cabbage to induced
patients that their problem was caused by an
vomiting
undetectable fluid found in all living organisms
o Chinese focused on the movement of air or
called animal magnetism
“wind” throughout the body
o Jean-Martin Charcot – demonstrated some
▪ Unexplained mental disorders were caused
techniques of mesmerism were effective with a
by blockages of wind or the presence of
number of psychological disorders, and he did
cold, dark wind (yin) as opposed to warm,
much to legitimize the fledgling practice of
life-sustaining (yang)
hypnosis
▪ Treatment: acupuncture
o Freud partnered with Josef Breuer to
o Advanced Syphilis – sexually transmitted
experiment different hypnotic procedure and
disease caused by a bacterial microorganism
discovered “Unconscious” mind
entering the brain, include delusions
o Catharsis – release of emotional material
Abnormal Psychology
Phase 1: Introduction
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Source: Barlow, Durand & Hofmann (2018), Comer & Comer (2017), DSM-V, DSM-V-TR
Structure of Mind:
o Carl Jung – introduced the concept of
▪ Id - pleasure
collective unconscious, which is wisdom
▪ Ego - reality
accumulated by society and culture that is
▪ Superego – morality
stored deep in individual memories and passed
Defense
Mechanisms
–
unconscious
down from generation to generation
protective processes that keep primitive
o Alfred Adler – created the term Inferiority
emotions associated with conflicts in check so
Complex
that the ego can continue its coordinating
o Free Association – patients are instructed to
function
say whatever comes to mind without the usual
socially required censoring
o Dream Analysis – therapist interprets the
content of dreams
o Transference – patients come to relate to the
therapist much as they did to important figures
in their childhood
o Countertransference – therapist project some
of their own personal issues and feelings,
usually positive, onto the patient
Humanistic
o Self-Actualizing – highest potential, in all
areas of functioning
o Abraham Maslow – postulated Hierarchy of
Needs
o Carl Rogers – originated Person-Centered
Therapy
o Unconditional Positive Regard – the
complete and almost unqualified acceptance of
most of the client’s feelings and actions
o
Empathy – sympathetic understanding of the
Psychosocial Stages: Oral, Anal, Phallic,
individual’s particular view of the world
Latency, Genitals
Behavioral
Fixation – if we did not receive appropriate
o Classical Conditioning – type of learning in
gratification during a specific stage
which neutral stimulus is paired with response
Castration Anxiety – fear of losing penis
until it elicits that response
Oedipus Complex – battle of lustful impulses
▪
Unconditioned Stimulus – natural stimulus
towards his mother and castration anxiety on
▪ Unconditioned Response – natural or
other
unlearned response
Electra Complex – young girl wanting to
▪
Conditioned Stimulus – newly conditioned
replace her mother and possess her father
event introduced
(penis envy)
▪ Conditioned Response – response from
Neuroses – disorders of the nervous systems
the conditioned stimulus
Anna Freud – Ego Psychology (defensive
▪
Extinction – without CS showed long
reactions of ego, determines our behavior)
enough, the behavior could be eliminated
Heinz Kohut – focused on a theory of
o
Stimulus
Generalization – strength of the
formation of self-concept and the crucial
response
to
similar objects or people is usually
attributes of the self that allow individual to
a function of how similar these objects or
progress toward health (Self-Psychology)
people are
Object Relations – study of how children
o
Introspection – Edward Titchener; subjects
incorporate the images, the memories, and
report their inner thoughts and feelings after
sometimes the values of a person who was
experiencing certain stimuli
important to them (introjection)
Abnormal Psychology
Phase 1: Introduction
Source: Barlow, Durand & Hofmann (2018), Comer & Comer (2017), DSM-V, DSM-V-TR
John B. Watson – founder of behaviorism
o Neurons – nerve cells that transmit information
▪ Little Albert
throughout the NS
o Systematic Desensitization – patients were
o Dendrites – receive messages from other
gradually introduced to the objects or situations
nerve cells
they feared so that their fear could extinguish
o Axon – transmit impulses to other neurons
o Operant Conditioning – behavior changes as
o Synapses – connections to other neurons
a function of what follows the behavior
o Action Potentials – electric impulses where
(rewards or punishment)
information is transmitted
▪ B.F. Skinner
o Terminal button – end of axon
▪ Edward Thorndike – Law of effect (behavior
o Synaptic Cleft – space between terminal
can be strengthened or weakened)
button of one neuron and the dendrite of
▪ Reinforcement – reward
another
▪ Shaping
–
process
of
reinforcing
o Neurotransmitters – biochemicals that are
successive approximations to a final
released from the axon of one neuron and
behavior or set of behaviors
transmit the impulse to the dendrite receptors
Genes
of another neuron
o Genes – long molecules of DNA at various
▪ Excitatory – increase the likelihood that the
locations on chromosomes, within cell nucleus
connecting neuron will fire
o 46 Chromosomes, 23 Pairs, 22 Pairs of
▪ Inhibitory – decrease the likelihood that the
Autosomes, 1 pair Sex Chromosomes
connecting neurons will fire
o XX – female, XY – male
o Glial Cells – modulate neurotransmitter activity
o Dominant and Recessive
Brain
o Adverse life events can overwhelm the
o Brain Stem – lower and more ancient part of
influence of genes
the brain; essential for autonomic functioning
o Erik Kandel – speculated that the process of
such as breathing, heartbeat, etc.
learning
affects
more
than
behavior;
▪ Hindbrain – contains the medulla, pons,
environment may occasionally turn on certain
and cerebellum; regulates many autonomic
genes
activities such as breathing, heartbeat, and
o Diathesis-Stress Model – individuals inherit
digestion
tendencies to express certain traits or
▪ Cerebellum – controls motor coordination
behaviors, which may then be activated under
abnormalities associated with autism
conditions of stress
▪ Midbrain – coordinates movements with
▪ Diathesis – a condition that makes
sensory input and contains parts of reticular
someone susceptible to developing disorder
activating system (contributes to sleep,
(vulnerability)
arousal and tension)
o Gene-Environment Correlation Model –
▪ Thalamus and Hypothalamus – involves
people might have genetically determined
in regulating behavior, emotions, and
tendency to create the environment risk factors
hormones
that trigger a genetic vulnerability
o Limbic System – located around the edge of
o Epigenetics – study how your behavior and
the center of the brain
environment can cause changes that affect
▪ Hippocampus, Cingulate Gyrus, Septum,
your genes work
and Amygdala
Neuroscience
▪ Regulate emotional experiences and
o Neuroscience – how the nervous system and
expressions and, to some extent, our ability
the brain works towards understanding our
to learn and to control impulses
behavior, emotions, and cognitive processes
▪ Also involved with the basic drives of sex,
o Central Nervous System – processes all
aggression, hunger and thirst
information received from our sense organs
o Basal Ganglia – base of the forebrain,
and reacts as necessary
includes caudate nucleus
o
Abnormal Psychology
Phase 1: Introduction
Source: Barlow, Durand & Hofmann (2018), Comer & Comer (2017), DSM-V, DSM-V-TR
Damage involved changing our posture or
▪ High levels is linked to Parkinson’s,
twitching or shaking
Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s
o Cerebral Cortex – provides us with our
▪ Low levels is linked to learning and memory
distinctly human qualities, allowing us to look to
issues
the future and plan, to reason, and to create
o Gamma-Aminobutyric
Acid/GABA
–
▪ Left Hemisphere – responsible for verbal
inhibitory neurotransmitter
and other cognitive processes
▪ Inhibit the transmission of information and
▪ Right Hemisphere – perceiving the world
action potential
around us and creating images
▪ Benzodiazepines – make it easier for
▪ Lobes: Frontal, Parietal, Occipital,
GABA to attach themselves to the
Temporal
receptors of specialized neurons
▪ Prefrontal Cortex – area responsible for
▪ Reduces levels of anger, hostility,
higher cognitive functions
aggression, and perhaps even more
Peripheral Nervous System
positive emotional states
o Somatic Nervous System – controls the
▪ Decreased GABA activity = mood
muscles
disorders, anxiety, schizophrenia, ASD
o Autonomic Nervous System – regulate
o Serotonin – regulates our behavior, moods
cardiovascular system and endocrine system
and thought processes
▪ Sympathetic – fight or flight responses
▪ Low levels = less inhibition and with
▪ Parasympathetic – calms the sympathetic
instability, impulsivity and the tendency to
nervous system; rest and digest functions
overreact,
aggression,
suicide,
and
o Endocrine System – glands produce
excessive sexual behavior
hormones that is released to the blood streams
▪ High levels = interact with GABA to
▪ Pituitary – master gland
counteract glutamate
▪ Thyroid – controls metabolism and growth
▪ Selective-Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors
(thyroxine)
(SSRIs) – affects serotonin more directly
▪ Parathyroid – controls the levels of calcium
and are used to treat number of
▪ Adrenal – controls metabolism, blood
psychological disorder
pressure,
sex
development,
stress
o Norepinephrine – stimulate at least two
(epinephrine)
groups of receptors called alpha-adrenergic
▪ Pineal – releases melatonin
and beta-adrenergic receptors
▪ Pancreas – creates insulin
▪ High levels = high blood pressure,
▪ Testes – makes sperm and release
arrythmia, etc.
testosterone
▪ Low levels = anxiety, depression, ADHD,
▪ Ovaries – releases estrogen, progesterone,
headaches, memory problems, etc.
and testosterone
o Dopamine – implicated in the pathophysiology
Neurotransmitters
of schizophrenia and disorders of addiction
o Agonist – effectively increase the activity of
▪ Low levels = less motivated
the neurotransmitters
▪ High levels = more competitive, aggressive
o Antagonist
–
decrease
or
block
and poor impulse control
neurotransmitter
DSM-V
o Inverse Agonists – produces effects opposite
o Idiographic Strategy – tailoring the treatment
to those produced by the neurotransmitters
based on the information of the client
o Reuptake – neurotransmitter is released,
o Nomothetic Strategy – determining the
quickly broken down and brought back to the
general class of problems to which the
synaptic cleft
presenting problem belongs (classifying the
o Glutamate – excitatory neurotransmitters that
problem)
turns on many different neurons leading to
o Classification – any effort to construct groups
action
or categories and to assign objects or people to
▪
Abnormal Psychology
Phase 1: Introduction
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Source: Barlow, Durand & Hofmann (2018), Comer & Comer (2017), DSM-V, DSM-V-TR
categories on the basis of their shared
▪ Strives to be evidence-based
attributes or relations
▪ Attempt to eliminate the category Not
Taxonomy – classification of entities for
Otherwise Specified (NOS)
scientific purposes
o 2022: DSM-V-TR
Nosology – taxonomy of psychological or
▪ Prolonged Grief Disorder
medical phenomena
o Other Specified disorders – applied when
Nomenclature – describes the names or
symptoms do not meet the full criteria, but the
labels of the disorders that make up the
clinician stated the specific reason why it is not
nosology
met
1952: APA first published DSM-I
o Unspecified disorders – applied when
▪ Includes 106 mental disorders
symptoms do not meet the full criteria and the
▪ Distinguished personality disturbance from
clinician chose to not specify the reason to
neurosis
make more specific diagnosis
1968: DSM-II
end
▪ 182 mental disorders
▪ Strived toward an “atheoretical” approach
▪ Homosexuality was referred as Scythians
Disease
1980: DSM-III attempted to take an atheoretical
approach to diagnosis, relying on precise
descriptions of the disorders as they presented
to clinicians rather than on psychoanalytic or
biological theories of etiology
▪ DSM-III also specified and written in
detailed manner the criteria for identifying
disorder
▪ Precise descriptive format
▪ Multiaxial format (5 Axis)
▪ Clear shift from psychodynamic approach
▪ 265 diseases
▪ DSM-III-R – 292 mental disorders
1994: DSM-IV
▪ Distinction between organically based
disorders
and psychologically based
disorders
▪ 297 disorders
▪ 5 Axes
2000: DSM-IV-TR
▪ TR = Text Revision
▪ Corrected minor errors and improved the
supportive educational material
▪ Mental retardation (now called IDD)
▪ Used to have Autism (now ASD),
Asperger’s Syndrome and Childhood
Disintegrative Disorder
2013: DSM-V
▪ Removed the Axial System
▪ Designed to usher in a system of
classification wherein mental disorders exist
along spectrum