This document provides an overview of abnormal psychology and perspectives on defining mental disorder. It discusses defining mental disorder based on statistical deviation, dysfunction, personal discomfort, maladaptive behavior, and norm/value violation. Challenges with each perspective are outlined. The DSM-IV definition emphasizes distress, disability, or increased risk. Cross-cultural issues are also reviewed, depending on whether a biomedical or culturally-based view is taken of what constitutes disorder.

1. Abnormal Psychology
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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
dif ferent mental disorders?
Explanation: How do we understand mental
disorder?
Treatment: How do we treat mental disorder?

4. Why study abnormal psychology?
Abnormal behaviour is par t 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. 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?

7. 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 unser viceable, I believe that
psychiatr y could be a science. I also
believe that psychotherapy is an ef fective
method of helping people – not to recover
from an ‘illness’ but rather to learn about
themselves, others and life. ” Szasz

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

9. 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.

10. Overview of definitions that will be discussed
Mental disorder as a statistical deviation
Mental disorder as dysfunction
Mental disorder as personal discomfor t
Mental disorder as maladaptive behaviour
Mental disorder as norm or value violation

11. Mental disorder as statistical deviance
A person has a mental disorder when
their behaviour, ability, or experience
is significantly dif ferent from average.

12. Mental disorder as statistical
deviance

13. 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

14.  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.”

15. Mental disorder as a dysfunction
A person has a mental disorder when a mental
mechanism is not per forming the natural
function it was designed to per form.
Problems:
 Natural selection does not “design” mechanisms

16.  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.”

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

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

19. 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?

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

24. 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 suf fering
death, pain, disability, or an impor tant loss
of freedom.”

25. DSM-IV definition of mental disorder
“The syndrome or pattern must not be merely
an expectable and culturally sanctioned
response to a par ticular 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.”

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

27. Cross cultural issues
If biomedical, then culture influences how a
disorder impacts members of dif ferent
cultures
 Different risk
 Idiom of distress

28. 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

29. Non-Western approaches to mental disorder
Of t endo not separate psychology and
spirituality
 Disruption in relation to spirit world
Of ten based on more collective and less
individualistic conceptualizations
 Disruption in interpersonal relations

30. 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?

31. REFERENCES:
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 commentar y on “Aristotle’s
function argument. Philosophical Psychiatr y and
Psychology 7(1), 3-16.
Wakefield, J. (1992). The concept of mental disorder: On
the boundar y between biological facts and social
values. American Psychologist, 47(3), 373-388.