Psychology: Psychological Disorders 1
Psychological Disorders 1:
I) Defining Psychological Disorders (psychopathology and/or mental
disorders)
A) Psychopathology - patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that are
maladaptive, disruptive, or uncomfortable for those who are affected
or for those with whom they come in contact
B) What is psychopathology depends on what a culture defines normal
and abnormal:
i) What is Abnormal?
(a) If normality is basically what most people do, then statistical
infrequency, that it doesn’t happen often/most people don’t do
it, must be a good criterion of abnormality

BUT, what about geniuses, minorities, etc… ?
(b) (Social) norm violation – norm violation criterion says that
people are abnormal when they behave in ways that are bizarre,
unusual, or disturbing enough to violate social norms/cultural
rules

BUT, what about cultural differences and just personal
quirks/eccentricities?
(c) Personal suffering - experiencing distress is the criterion that
people often use in deciding that their psychological problems
are severe enough to require treatment

BUT, we can do something infrequent, nonnormative, and
have suffering without it being a disorder/abnormal!
ii) Since each of these has limitations, the practical approach looks at
a combination of all three in terms of:
(a) What is the content of the behavior?
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(b) What is the sociocultural context in which the behavior occurs?
(c) What are the consequences of the behavior for that person &
for others?
(d) The practical approach pays special attention to impaired
functioning - Difficulty in fulfilling appropriate & expected
family, social, & work-related roles
II) Explaining Psychological Disorder
A) The Biopsychosocial Model
i) The biopsychosocial model says that mental disorders are caused
by a combination of biological, psychological, and sociocultural
factors:
(a) Biological factors (e.g., the hardware of mental disorders):

This medical model began with the Greeks (Hippocrates) who
said that bio disorders stemmed from imbalances among
four humors (bodily fluids like blood, phlegm, black & yellow
bile)

Led to thinking about abnormality as mental illness, and is
now called the neurobiological model – psychological
disorders are seen as reflecting disturbances in the anatomy
and chemistry of the brain and in other biological processes
(i)
People study these as if they’re like physical illnesses
(b) Psychological processes (e.g., the software of mental
disorders):

Psychological model - mental disorders are seen as arising
from psychological processes
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
Developed from the psychodynamic approach (Freud)’s study
of the psyche – says that disorders are a result of
unresolved, unconscious conflicts
(i) Object relations theory (today) – says that disorders are
a result of unhealthy childhood attachment

Social-cognitive approach (social learning) – says that
disorders are a result of past learning + current situation

Humanistic approach – says that disorders are a result of
healthy personal/self growth being blocked
(c) Sociocultural Contexts

Sociocultural model - Looking at mental disorders in relation
to the sociocultural context; gender, age, ethnicity, and
other social and cultural factors
(i) Culture-general disorders - Appear virtually everywhere
in the world but specific symptoms depend on culture
(ii) But there are also culture-specific forms of disorders
B) Diathesis-Stress as an Integrative Explanation
i) Biological, psychological, and socialcultural factors combine to
create a predisposition, diathesis, for a psychological disorder
ii) Diathesis-stress approach - This predisposition (diathesis)
interacts with sufficient levels of stress to trigger symptoms
(a) Think of it in terms if risk – the more risk factors for a
disorder a person has (genetic, personality traits, cultural
traditions, stressful life events), the more likely (s)he will
display a form of psychological disorder associated with those
risk factors
(b) Stress = type of risk factor
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