General Psychology

1. Abnormal Psychology
and Life

2.  The scientific study of problematic
feelings, thoughts, and behaviors
associated with mental disorders.
 The branch of psychology that deals
with the description, causes, and
treatment of abnormal behavior
patterns.

3.  The scientific study of problematic feelings,
thoughts and behaviors associated with
mental disorders.
 Designed to ________ mental disorders.
 Evaluate
 Understand
 Predict
 Prevent
 *Treat

4.  REMEMBER:
 Just because you may have experienced one or
more of the symptoms discussed, it does not
mean that you have a disorder.
 A person may have all of the symptoms
involved in the official diagnosis or fit the
‘description’ of a disorder, but the symptoms
may not impair their ability to function or
cause personal distress. It is therefore does
NOT warrant a diagnosis of that disorder
 Example: Fetishes

5.  Deviates from the Norm
 Difficulties Adapting to Life
Demands
 Experience of Person Distress
 Defining Abnormality
 Dimensions Underlying Mental
Disorders are Relevant to Everyone

6.  Abnormal behavior pattern that
involves a disturbance of
psychological functioning or behavior.
 Psychological dysfunction associated
with distress or impairment in
functioning that is not a typical or
culturally expected response.

7.  Actions that are unexpected and often
evaluated negatively because they
differ from the typical or are unusual
behavior
 Culture defines norms (social deviance).
 Statistical Infrequency
 Faulty perceptions or interpretations of reality
 Maladaptive or self-defeating behavior (see next slide)
 Dangerousness (to self or others)

8.  Maladaptive Behavior: any behavior
that interferes with an individual’s life,
including their ability to care for
themselves, having good relationships
with others, and being able to function
well at school or work.

9.  Experience of personal distress can
spur referrals for treatment by
oneself or others, such as family
members.

10.  Psychopathologists: professionals
who study the development and
maintenance of mental problems,
as well as how they can be
prevented and treated.

11. Early theoreticians
attributed abnormal
behavior to supernatural
causes such as demon
possession. Exorcism and
trephination were primary
forms of treatment –
treatments involved
making a person an
unpleasant host for a
possessive spirit.

12.  The Supernatural Model: throughout
history, deviant behavior has been
considered a reflection of the battle
between good and evil.
 **The Demonological Perspective: the
belief that abnormalities in thoughts,
perceptions, and behavior were due to
supernatural forces, demons and evil
spirits, possession, etc.

13.  **Trephination: a harsh, prehistoric
practice of cutting (or bashing) a hole
in a person’s skull, possibly to release
demons (or pressure)

14. The development of medicine
among Egyptians and Greeks
helped replace ancient
supernatural theories with
natural ones.
Treating abnormal behavior
focused on creating
therapeutic environments via
healthy diets, exercise,
massage, and education.

15.  Hippocrates
rejected demons
and evil spirits
as causes of
abnormal
behavior, and
believed it
resulted from
dysfunction of
the brain.

16.  Humoral Theory of disorders:
imbalances of bodily “humors” are the
cause of psychological and/or physical
disease.
 Humors:
 Blood, Black Bile, Phlegm & Yellow Bile
Could this early view be related to what we now
consider chemical imbalances?

17. Before
460 BC
Exorcism, trephination 460 BC to
476 AD
Therapeutic
environments, healthy
diets, exercise, massage,
education
476 AD to
1453 AD
Prayer, holy objects,
relics, pilgrimages,
confinement, exorcism

18. During the end of the Middle Ages and
beginning of the Renaissance, natural and
scientific approaches to health and human
behavior reemerged. Asylums were built for
those with mental disorder, but generally
provided poor care and treatment.

19. The Reform Movement
introduced significant changes to
treating mental disorder and led
to a modern approach, which
includes accepting those with
mental disorder as individuals
needing treatment and applying
biomedical and psychological
methods.
Philippe Pinel was a key leader in
the movement to improve the
deplorable conditions in asylums.

20. Dorothea Dix is
credited with
helping to reform
treatment of
persons with
mental disorder in
the United States.

21.  Moral Treatment: Psychosocial approach in
the 19th century that involved treating
patients as normally as possible in normal
environments.
 Patients should be treated humanely, that
they had rights and were sick people in
need of treatment.
 Contrary to the prevailing belief that they
should have no rights, were criminals,
less than animals, or threats to society.

22. Dimensional Perspective
 Emotions, thoughts, and behaviors associated
with abnormal psychology and mental
disorder are present, to some degree, in all of
us.
 The dimensional perspective involves the
notion that people to a degree all have
symptoms such as sadness or anxiety, and
differ only in the degree, or severity, of
symptoms.

23. Prevention Perspective
 Prevention stems from the idea of mental
hygiene, which refers to the science of
promoting mental health and preventing
mental disorder through education, early
treatment, and public health measures.
 Public Health Model: focuses on promoting
good health and practices to avoid disease or
disorder

24. Types of Prevention
• Primary prevention targets groups of people
who have not developed a disorder to decrease
overall rates of a given problem.
• Secondary prevention addresses problems while
they are still manageable and before they
become resistant to intervention.
• Tertiary prevention reduces duration and
negative effects of a mental disorder after it
occurs in an individual.
Prevention Perspective

25.  The consumer perspective focuses on
developing your skills as a consumer of
scientific information on mental health that is
often presented in the popular press, as well as
applying that information to your own life.
 Diversity is a fourth theme you’ll see
throughout this text and semester. Mental
disorders can vary greatly across different
demographic categories. Multicultural
psychology examines the effects of culture on
the way people think, feel, and act.

26.  Multicultural Psychology: examines the
effects of culture on the way people
think, feel and act.

27. Stereotypes
“All people with mental
illness are incompetent.”
Prejudices
“I have a mental illness,
so I must be incompetent.”
Discrimination
“Why should I even get
a job? I’m an incompetent
mental patient.”
Self-stigma
Stereotypes
“All people with mental
illness are dangerous.”
Prejudices
“I agree, all people
with mental illness are
dangerous, and so I am
afraid of them.”
Discrimination
“I don’t want to be near
such people. Do not hire
them at my job.”
Public stigma
Public stigma may lead some people to avoid the label of
mental disorder by not seeking services that might be
helpful. Self-stigma may lead people with mental
disorder to feel incompetent and unworthy of help.

28.  Stigma can be fought by education and
promoting personal contact –
increasing contact with someone with
a mental disorder to help dispel myths
and stereotypes.