Bellwork

• In your IAN, at the top of what will be today’s notes, define normal

• In your own words

• When you are done to your partner and share with each other what you came up with

• Class share

• So…what did we determine?

Abnormal Psychology

Emerson said…

• “The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so, but we ask the reason for all evil, of pain, and hunger and unusual people.”

Abnormal psychology

• the scientific study of abnormal behavior in order to describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of functioning

Mental Disorders

• "a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and that is associated with present distress (e.g., a painful symptom) or disability (i.e., impairment in one or more important areas of functioning) or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom."--Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Ed.

National Institute of Mental Health Statistics

• According to the world health organization (WHO), 450 million people worldwide suffer from psychological disorders (2004)

• An estimated 32% of Americans suffer from a mental illness.

– 75 million

• About 6 percent, or 1 in 17 —suffer from a serious mental illness.

• In addition, mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada for ages 15-44.

• Nearly half (45 percent) of those with any mental disorder meet criteria for 2 or more disorders, with severity strongly related to comorbidity.

• Most common disorders were anxiety, phobias, and mood disorders

Think About…

• What is normal?

What makes a Behavior a Psychological Disorder?

• Many definitions have been proposed, yet none are universally accepted

• Most definitions, however, share some common features…

• “The Four Ds”– Deviance – Different, extreme, unusual– Distress – Unpleasant & upsetting– Dysfunction – Causes interference with life– Danger – Poses risk of harm

Understanding Psychological Disorders

Ancient Treatments of psychological disorders include trephination, exorcism, being caged

like animals, being beaten, burned, castrated, mutilated, or transfused with animal’s blood.

Trephination (boring holes in the skull to remove evil forces)

John W. V

erano

Models of the Causes of Psychological Disorders

• Biological model– Physiological or biochemical basis

• Psychoanalytic model– Disorders are the result of unconscious conflicts

• Cognitive-Behavioral model– Disorders are the result of learning maladaptive ways

of behaving and thinking

• Diathesis-Stress model– Biological predisposition to disorder which is triggered

by stress

Systems theory Biopsychosocial Model

Assumes that biological, socio-cultural, and psychological factors combine and interact

to produce psychological disorders.

Medical Approach

When physicians discovered that syphilis led to mental disorders, they started using medical models

to review the physical causes of these disorders.

1. Etiology: Cause and development of the disorder.

2. Diagnosis: Identifying (symptoms) and distinguishing one disease from another.

3. Treatment: Treating a disorder in a psychiatric hospital.

4. Prognosis: Forecast about the disorder.

Classifying Psychological Disorders

The American Psychiatric Association rendered a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to

describe psychological disorders.

The most recent edition, DSM-IV-TR (Text Revision, 2000), describes 400

psychological disorders compared to 60 in the 1950s.

Will be revised in 2013. Working on revisions now and they are available for

review online.

The DSM spells out the specific diagnostic criteria

• An example of this can be seen in the diagnosis of a major depressive episode.

• When diagnosing a client the American Psychological Association recommends that the clinician use a multiaxial Assessment System.

Multiaxial Classification

Are Psychosocial or Environmental Problems (school or housing issues) also present?

Axis IV

What is the Global Assessment of the person’s functioning? (GAF Scale is out of 100 with the lower the school the more limited their functionioning.

Axis V

Is a General Medical Condition (diabetes, hypertension or arthritis etc) also present?

Axis III

Is a Personality Disorder or Mental Retardation present?

Axis II

Is a Clinical Syndrome (cognitive, anxiety, mood disorders [16 syndromes]) present?

Axis I

Multiaxial ClassificationNote 16 syndromes in Axis I

Multiaxial ClassificationNote Global Assessment for Axis V

Sample

• Axis I 296.21 Major Depressive Disorder

303.90 Alcohol Dependence

• Axis II 301.6 Dependent Personality Disorder

• Axis III None

• Axis IV Recent Divorce, unemployment

• Axis V 58

Goals of DSM

1. Describe (400) disorders.2. Determine how prevalent the

disorder is.

Disorders outlined by DSM-IV are reliable. Therefore, diagnoses by different professionals are similar.

Others criticize DSM-IV for “putting any kind of behavior within the compass of psychiatry.”