Chapter One Abnormal Behavior

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIZP-9Ug54M

An example… Virginia Tech Massacre Assailant What did he do? (27 k, 35 w) Was it abnormal? Why did he do it? Could it have been stopped?

Definition Abnormal Psychology is the Scientific study of strange or unusual behavior in order to describe, explain, predict, & control them.

Describe A psychological or psychiatric evaluation determines whether a person has: Lost contact with reality Experiences hallucinations or delusions Is a danger to himself or others ***

Explain A psychological or psychiatric evaluation looks for causes of the behavior: Drugs/alcohol Biological problems (brain tumor or chemicals) Social adjustment (friends, cultural differences)

Prediction A psychological or psychiatric evaluation tries to predict the behavior in the: Individual, using his background information. Others, who have similar backgrounds.

Psychologists can control abnormal behavior through: Therapy Hospitalization

Determining Abnormality Psychologists use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) Most widely used classification system DSM-IV defines abnormal behavior as: “clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that is associated with present distress or disability or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability or loss of freedom” (APA, 2000)

Definition simplified: A behavior that departs from some norm and that harms the affected individual or others.

Determining Abnormality Important questions to ask: Distress? -- affect ability to function? Deviance? -- rare? Culture? Situation? Dysfunction? -- sudden? Living up to abilities? Dangerous? – to herself or others?

Contextual and Cultural Limitations Culture: Shared learned behavior transmitted from generation to generation Culture is a powerful determinant of how behavior is defined and treated

What is normal/abnormal may vary from Debate: Cultural Universality vs. Cultural Relativism: Origins, processes, and manifestation of disorders are the same across cultures What is normal/abnormal may vary from culture to culture How do cultural norms, values, & attitudes relate to behavior disorders? What is universal in human behavior?

Psychiatric Epidemiology Study of Abnormal Behaviors and factors that contribute to them.

…which includes… Prevalence: Lifetime Prevalence: Incidence: Percentage of people in a population with a disorder at a given time Lifetime Prevalence: Total proportion of people in a population who have ever had a disorder Incidence: Onset or occurrence of a disorder over a period of time

Mental Disorders in America National Institute of Mental Health EXCELLENT resource for “Disorders Workbook” information…

Frequency of Mental Disorders Gender Differences: Major depression is twice as common in women. The lifetime prevalence rate of alcohol dependence : twice as high in men Antisocial personality disorder: three times as high in men. No gender differences in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Burden of Mental Disorders Cost and burden to society is great: At least 30% of adult Americans and 20% of American children suffer from diagnosable disorder. By 2020, neuropsychiatric disorders in children will increase 50% Mental illness ranks higher than cancer and other malignant diseases in how in affects individual health and productivity.

Common Myths about the mentally ill. Stereotypes Common Myths about the mentally ill. They… …are always recognizable by their deviant behavior. …have inherited their disorder. …are incurable. …are weak. ..suffer from a deficit. …are unstable and potentially dangerous.

Historical Perspectives Prehistoric and Ancient Beliefs: Demonology treated by trephining or exorcism

Historical Perspectives Greco-Roman: Naturalistic Explanations Hippocrates believed deviant behavior caused by brain pathology, the dysfunction of brain Hippocrates first introduced the concept of disturbed physiology (organic processes or functions) as the basis for all illnesses, mental and physical.

Historical Perspectives Middle Ages: Back to supernatural explanations Witchcraft: A group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts began to display unusual behaviors: convulsive seizures, blasphemous screaming, and trance-like states. The physicians could find no physiological cause for the disturbing behaviors so the community reasoned that it must be the work of Satan and the girls must be witches. (Source: Eyewitnesstohistory.com) Salem, Massachusetts

Historical Perspectives The Renaissance: In 1492, St. Mary of Bethlem, aka "Bedlam", opened to receive mental patients in England and was famous for it's inhumane treatment of the mentally ill. "The Rakes Progress", by William Hogarh

Historical Perspectives The rise of humanism 1793 Philippe Pinel/William Tuke removed the chains from patients to promote more humane treatment of the mentally ill. 1808 Franz Gall wrote about phrenology (the idea that a person's skull shape and placement of bumps on the head can reveal personality traits. 1834 Ernst Heinrich Weber published his perception theory of 'Just Noticeable Difference,' now known as Weber's Law (sensory research.)

Dorothea Dix Instrumental in lobbying for and helping establish: first state mental hospital in Illinois (1847) First mental institution in Raleigh, NC, (1849). first public mental hospital in Pennsylvania (1853). …to name a few…

Early Causes/Treatments Biological Viewpoint (physical basis) Kraepelin Symptoms occur in clusters (syndromes) to represent mental disorders, each with a unique cause, course, and outcome. Classified mental disorders based on organic causes: metabolic disturbance, endocrine difficulty, brain disease, heredity Evolved into DSM (now Version IV-TR) of the APA

Early Causes/Treatments Psychological: Mesmerism, Charcot (The Nancy School) , Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud all used mesmerism/hypnotism for the treatment of hysteria. Freud gave it up quickly. Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud: Relief by talking about traumatic experiences Cathartic method: Therapeutic use of verbal expression to release pent-up emotional conflicts

Causes: Early Viewpoints Behavioral: Stressed conditions that evoke, reinforce, extinguish directly observable behaviors Rooted in laboratory science Remember John Watson? B. F. Skinner? Albert Bandura?

Contemporary Trends The Drug Revolution: “one of the great medical advances of the 20th century” (Sue, et al.) Started with lithium (1949), then Thorazine. Reduces symptoms so therapy would work. Only Psychologists in AZ – NM, LA, OR allow psychologists to prescribe. Success of psychopharmacology spawned new interest in brain-behavior relationship

Implications The study of abnormal psychology is complex and influenced by historical time No single explanation fits all situations Multipath model is necessary in attempting to understand such complex processes Multipath model consists of following factors: Biological Psychological – Psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanism Social – families, environment Sociocultural