Chapter 1
Abnormal
Behavior in
Historical
Context
Amber Gilewski
Tompkins Cortland Community College
What is a Psychological
Disorder?

Psychological Dysfunction


Personal Distress



Breakdown in cognitive, emotional, or
behavioral functioning
Difficulty performing appropriate and
expected roles
Impairment is set in the context of a
person’s background
Atypical or Not Culturally Expected
Response

Reaction is outside cultural norms
Classroom Activity: Distinguishing
Normal from Abnormal Behavior


Case # 1: Tom is uncomfortable
riding escalators. As a result, Tom
avoids using any escalator.
Case #2: Rachel has been caught
urinating in the corner of her
bedroom. Is her behavior
abnormal?
Historical Ideas about Abnormal
Behavior

Three Dominant Traditions

Supernatural – outside of
ourselves

Biological – deals with body

Psychological – deals with mind
The Supernatural Tradition

Deviant Behavior as a Battle of
“Good” vs. Evil


Caused by demonic possession,
witchcraft, sorcery
Treatments included exorcism, torture,
beatings, and crude surgeries

Enlightened view – natural and treatable

The Moon and the Stars

Paracelsus and lunacy
The Biological Tradition

Hippocrates: Abnormal Behavior as a
Physical Disease


Hysteria “The Wandering Uterus”
Galen Extends Hippocrates Work

Humoral theory of mental illness

Treatments remained crude
The 19th Century

General Paresis (Syphilis) and the Biological
Link With Madness




Pasteur discovered the cause – A
bacterial microorganism
Led to penicillin as a successful
treatment
John Grey, Dorthea Dix, & the reformers
Bolstered the view that mental illness =
physical illness
The Development of Biological
Treatments



Mental disorder treatment in 1930’s –
insulin, ECT, brain surgery
Joseph Von Meduna – schizophrenia
and epilepsy
Treatment of psychotic disorders in
1950’s – first effective medications
The Psychological Tradition
•Psychosocial – social/cultural factors
•The Rise of Moral Therapy – Pinel & Pussin
(France), William Tuke (England), and
Benjamin Rush (U.S.)


More humane treatment of
institutionalized patients
Encouraged and reinforced social
interaction
• Decline of moral therapy due to beliefs
about brain pathology & increase in
psychiatric patients
Psychoanalytic Theory



Freudian Theory of the Structure and
Function of the Mind (Id, Ego,
Superego)
Defense mechanisms (denial,
displacement, projection,
rationalization, reaction formation,
repression, sublimation)
Neo-Freudians – Anna Freud, Carl
Jung, Alfred Adler
Humanistic Theory

Major Players


Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers
Major Themes

That people are basically good

Humans strive toward self-actualization

Therapist conveys empathy and
unconditional positive regard
The Behavioral Model


Derived from a Scientific Approach to the
Study of Psychopathology
Classical Conditioning
(Pavlov; Watson)

John Wolpe – systematic desensitization

B.F. Skinner – operant conditioning