This document provides an overview of key concepts in the study of abnormal psychology. It discusses how mental disorder is defined, categorized, explained and treated. Several definitions of mental disorder are presented, including statistical deviation, dysfunction, personal discomfort, maladaptive behavior and norm violation. Problems with each definition are outlined. The document also notes the DSM-IV definition and issues around studying mental disorder across cultures. The goal of the field involves carefully defining mental disorders and seeking to understand, classify and treat them.

1. Abnormal
Psychology
PSYC 3140 3.0D(F)

2. What are we studying?
 Abnormal
Behaviour
 Psychopathology
 Mental Disorder
 Mental Illness
 Deviant Behaviour

3. The study of mental disorder
involves:
 Definition: What do we mean by
mental disorder?
 Classification: How do we distinguish
between different mental disorders?
 Explanation: How do we understand
mental disorder?
 Treatment: How do we treat mental
disorder?

4. Why study abnormal
psychology?
 Abnormal behaviour is part of our
common experience
 Lots of unanswered questions and
complexities
 Preparation for future careers
 www.apa.org/students/

5. Mental Health Professionals
 Clinical
Psychologist
(Ph.D., C. Psych.)
 Psychiatrist (M.D.)
 Psychiatric Social
Worker (M.S.W.)
 Psychoanalyst
 Therapist

6. Obtaining Personal Help
 Room 145 Behaviour Science
Building 416.736.5297

7. What do we mean by mental
disorder?
 Who has a mental disorder?
 Mass murders?
 People who want to cut off their arms
and legs?
 People who can’t pay attention and
concentrate?

8. Is the concept of ‘Mental
Disorder’ problematic?
 “I should like to make clear, therefore, that
although I consider the concept of mental
illness to be unserviceable, I believe that
psychiatry could be a science. I also believe
that psychotherapy is an effective method of
helping people – not to recover from an
‘illness’ but rather to learn about
themselves, others and life.” Szasz

9. Why clarify the definition of
mental disorder?
 Influences what is seen as
pathological
 Influences explanation, classification
and treatment
 Clarifies the role of professionals

10. Why clarify the definition of
mental disorder?
 Safe-guard against abuses
 Clarify contentious cases

11. Two broad ways to define
mental disorder
 In general, the concept of “mental
disorder” can be defined as:
A biomedical, culturally independent,
value-free concept
 Or as a social, culturally relative,
value-based concept.

12. Overview of definitions that
will be discussed
 Mental disorder as a statistical
deviation
 Mental disorder as dysfunction
 Mental disorder as personal
discomfort
 Mental disorder as maladaptive
behaviour
 Mental disorder as norm or value
violation

13. Mental disorder as statistical
deviance
 A person has a mental disorder when
their behaviour, ability, or experience
is significantly different from average.

14. Mental disorder as statistical
deviance

15. Mental disorder as statistical
deviance
 Problems:
 We want to use the term disorder to
describe some conditions that are
statistically frequent
 “positive” deviations are not
distinguished from “negative”
deviations
 we do not want to call all “negative
deviations a disorder

16.  Uggo Betti:
 “Allof us are mad. If it weren’t for the
fact that every one of us is slightly
abnormal, there wouldn’t be any point
of giving each person a separate
name.”

17. Mental disorder as a
dysfunction
 A person has a mental disorder when
a mental mechanism is not performing
the natural function it was designed to
perform.
 Problems:
 Natural
selection does not “design”
mechanisms

18.  Sedgwick (1982):
 “Allsickness is essentially deviancy
from some alternative state of affairs
which is considered more desirable…
The attribution of illness always
proceeds from the computation of a
gap between presented behaviour (or
feeling) and some social norm.”

19. Mental disorder as a
dysfunction
 Problems cont:
 For many mechanisms there is a wide
range of adaptive functioning across
people and situations (fear response).

20. Mental disorder as a
dysfunction
 Problems cont:
 Many things that we want to call a
disorder might actually be adaptive
reactions.

21. Mental disorder as personal
discomfort
 A person has a mental disorder if they
experience personal distress.
 Problems:
 What about the person who abuses
drugs or believes they are receiving
messages from outer-space – without
experiencing distress?

22. Mental disorder as
maladaptive behaviour
 A person has a mental disorder if they
engage in behaviour that prevents
them from meeting the demands of
life.
 Problems:
 There may be situations that people
should not adapt to
 This approach emphasizes “fitting in”
as being ultimately important

23. Mental disorder as norm or
value violation
 A person has a mental disorder if they
have experiences and exhibit
behaviours that are inconsistent with
the norms and values of society.
 Examples:
 Behaviour that is harmful to oneself or
others
 Poor reality contact
 Inappropriate emotional reactions
 Erratic behaviour

24. Mental disorder as norm or
value violation
 Problems:
 What if violation is result of external
circumstances
 Such a criteria can seem too arbitrary
and open to abuse

26. DSM-IV definition of mental
disorder
 A mental disorder is “conceptualized
as a clinically significant behavioural
or psychological syndrome or pattern
that occurs in an individual and that is
associated with present distress or
disability or with a significantly
increased risk of suffering death, pain,
disability, or an important loss of
freedom.”

27. DSM-IV definition of mental
disorder
 “The syndrome or pattern must not be
merely an expectable and culturally
sanctioned response to a particular
event, for example, the death of a
loved one.”
 “It must currently be considered a
manifestation of a behavioural,
psychological, or biological
dysfunction in the individual.”

28. Cross cultural issues
 How one thinks about the role of
culture depends on your definition of
mental disorder

29. Cross cultural issues
 If biomedical, then culture influences
how a disorder impacts members of
different cultures
 Differentrisk
 Idiom of distress

30. Cross cultural issues
 If culturally based, then influences
what will be considered a disorder
 Behaviour or experience may not be a
“disorder” in all cultures

31. Non-Western approaches to
mental disorder
 Often do not separate psychology and
spirituality
 Disruption in relation to spirit world
 Often based on more collective and
less individualistic conceptualizations
 Disruption in interpersonal relations

32. The study of mental disorder
involves:
 Definition: What do we mean by
mental disorder?
 Categorization: How do we classify
mental disorder?
 Explanation: How do we understand
mental disorder?
 Treatment: How do we treat mental
disorder?

33. Further exploration:
 Linienfeld, S. O., & Marino, L. (1995). Mental
Disorder as a Roschian Concept: A critique of
Wakefield’s “Harmful Dysfunction” analysis.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104(3), 411-
420.
 Szasz, T. (2000). Second commentary on
“Aristotle’s function argument. Philosophical
Psychiatry and Psychology 7(1), 3-16.
 Wakefield, J. (1992). The concept of mental
disorder: On the boundary between biological
facts and social values. American
Psychologist, 47(3), 373-388.