INTRO TO ABNORMAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Defining Psychological Disorders
• Psychological Disorders: patterns of behaviors and/or
cognition that fit the three Ds (deviant, distressful,
dysfunctional):
• Deviant: out of the ordinary. This one is slippery at best.
• Context is the key- what is normal in one culture or situation is not in
another.
• Calling your boss out on a mistake in a U.S. business, rather than in Japan
• Having a child out of wedlock in Victorian Britain
Defining Psychological Disorders
• (The Ds cont.)
• Distressful: cause the individual concern, suffering, stress
• Sometimes the individual is not distressed themselves
• …and maybe they “should” be
• Dysfunctional: the disorder in some way impairs or negatively alters
our life
• An acute fear of airplanes keeping you from visiting your grandchildren
in Seattle
Defining Psychological Disorders
• Deviant behaviors that aren’t distressful and
dysfunctional wouldn’t be considered a disorder
•
Einstein’s wardrobe of identical outfits is deviant (out-of-theordinary)
•
•
But actually caused him less distress and allowed him to function even
more.
Would we consider the behaviors of Doc Brown from “Back to the
Future” to qualify as a disorder (according to the three Ds)?
Understanding Psychological Disorders
• The historical approaches:
• Devils, demons, exorcisms, chains, leeches, etc.
• Be thankful you live in the “modern” era.
Understanding Psychological Disorders
• Medical Model: Disorders are like diseases, they can be
diagnosed, treated, and hopefully cured.
• Treatment may occur in a hospital/medical facility (but not always)
• Just because it is the medical model does not mean that
treatment/therapy is limited to “medical” methods (drugs, surgery,
etc.)
Understanding Psychological Disorders
• The bio-psycho-social approach emphasizes the role that
external and internal forces play in determining behavior
• Some disorders appear to only impact certain societies
• Latah: hyper sensitivity to fear, automatically repeating others’
words/emotions (isolated to Malaysian and Indonesian cultures)
• Windigo Psychosis: acute anxiety about one’s being taken over by a
monster and turned into a cannibal (Native Americans in Central and
Northeastern Canada)
• Source: http://faculty.valpo.edu/jnelson/.htm (much abliged, Prof. Nelson!)
Classifying Psych Disorders
• Over time, psychologists have attempted to give labels to
certain behavior/cognition patterns
• Then those labels are grouped with other labels into various types
of disorders
• The DSM V is the go-to book in the U.S. for classifying
and diagnosing disorders.
• Put out by the APA.
Classifying Psych Disorders
• For each disorder, key symptoms are described
• But does not attempt to explain why symptoms arise
• That’s for psychologists of differing perspectives to debate!
• The DSM also has guidelines for diagnosing disorders
• (based on questionnaires, interviews, and other studies)
• Theoretically, by standardizing diagnosis methods, the DSM can
increase reliability of diagnoses.
Classifying Psych Disorders
• Many feel the DSM has gone overboard
• 60 disorders in the first edition, 400 presently.
• Some are added, some taken away, some split.
• Ex. Homosexuality has been out since 1973
• This raises the question: what current psych disorders will no longer be
labeled as such 40 years from now?
• Inclusion/Exclusion from the DSM changes because of shifting norms of what
is deviant or dysfunctional
Problems with Labels
• The labels are also stigmas themselves
• A patient may experience lower self-esteem from being diagnosed
with one
• Patient may use that as an excuse for negative behavior that they may
in fact be able to control
• The social stigma of disorder labels make it more difficult for
patients to experience more normal relationships with others.
• We tend to look down on those with disorders
• Shifts in pop-culture & even the actual names of the disorders themselves
suggest a shift away (in part) from these social stigmas