1. ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY SEVENTH EDITION
By : Oltmanns and Emery

2. DO YOU THINK ANY OF THESE BEHAVIORS ARE ABNORMAL?
Having a “lucky” seat in an exam?
Being unable to eat, sleep, or study for days after the breakup of a relationship?
Breaking into a cold sweat at the thought of being trapped in an elevator?
Refusing to eat solid food for days to stay thin?
Thorough hand-washing after riding a bus?
Believing government agents monitor your phone calls?
Drinking a 6-pack daily to be “sociable”?
DO YOU THINK ANY OF THESE BEHAVIORS ARE ABNORMAL?

3. Symptoms and signs of mental disorders are known as psychopathology.
Pathology of the mind
Abnormal Psychology is the application of psychological science to the study of mental disorders.
The line dividing normal from abnormal is not always clear.
OVERVIEW

4. RECOGNIZING THE PRESENCE OF A DISORDER
Mental disorders are defined in terms of:
Duration or persistence of maladaptive behaviors
Impairment in the ability to perform social and occupational roles
Individual experience of personal distress

5. DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
Insight—the ability to appreciate the extent of one’s problems or the impact one’s behavior has on other people.
Interpersonal vs intrapersonal judgments
DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

6. DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
Statistical norms—how common or rare it is in the general population
DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

7. DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
Harmful dysfunction—Jerome Wakefield
The condition results from the inability of some internal mechanism to perform its natural function.
The condition causes some harm to the person as judged by the standards of the person’s culture.
Not every dysfunction leads to a disorder.
DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

8. DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
Harmful Dysfunction (continued)
The DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000) definitions places primary emphasis on the consequences of certain behavioral syndromes.
Mental disorders are defined by clusters of persistent, maladaptive behaviors that are associated with personal distress (ex: anxiety or depression, impairment in social or occupational functioning).
DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

9. DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
Culture is defined in terms of values, beliefs, and practices that are shared by a specific community or group of people. Has a profound influence on opinions regarding the difference between normal and abnormal.
DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

10. Historical relativism
Relativism --- the conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them.
What is considered normal and abnormal differs widely across cultures and over time.
Cultural relativism
Historical relativism
Culture

11. Voodoo Drapetomania

12. Groups representing particular social values have brought pressure to bear on decisions shaping the diagnostic manual.
Culture

13. WHO EXPERIENCES ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR?
Cross-Cultural Comparisons
All mental disorders are shaped, to some extent, by cultural factors.
Do we see eating disorders in countries where there is famine?
Have depression and anxiety increased recently?
No mental disorders are entirely due to cultural or social factors.
Psychotic disorders are less influenced by culture than are nonpsychotic disorders.
The symptoms of certain disorders are more likely to vary across cultures than are the disorders themselves.
WHO EXPERIENCES ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR?

14. What is the difference between normal and abnormal behavior?
The differences between abnormal and normal behavior are essentially differences in degree, (quantitative differences).
abnormal normal normal abnormal

15. Diagnostic Criteria for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
Depressed mood or dysphoria (a feeling of low mood, irritability, anxiety and/or despair)
Anxiety or tension
Affective lability
Irritability
Decreased interest in usual activities
Concentration difficulties
Marked lack of energy
Marked change in appetite, overeating or food cravings
Hypersomnia or insomnia
Feeling overwhelmed
Other physical symptoms, i.e. breast tenderness, bloating
To be considered as PMDD, symptoms must occur during the week before menstruation and remit a few days after onset of menses.
Symptoms must interfere with work, school, usual activities or relationships.
Symptoms must not merely be an exacerbation of another disorder.
Diagnostic Criteria for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

16. Who Experiences Abnormal Behavior?
Frequency in and Impact on Community Populations
Epidemiology: the scientific study of the frequency and distribution of disorders within a population. Have there been increases/decreases in the diagnosis of disorders? Which ones? In specific areas? What role did gender, SES, race play?
Incidence: the number of new cases of a disorder that appear in a population during a specific period of time.
Lifetime prevalence: total proportion of people in a given population who have been affected by the disorder at some point during their lives.
Who Experiences Abnormal Behavior?

17. WHO EXPERIENCES ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR?
Frequency in and Impact on Community Populations
Lifetime Prevalence and Gender Difference
The National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) found that 46% of the surveyed people received at least one lifetime diagnosis. See page 11 Figure 1-1
Epidemiological studies consistently find gender differences for many types of mental disorders.
WHO EXPERIENCES ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR?

18. FIGURE 1-1 Lifetime prevalence rates for various mental disorders (NCS-R data)

19. Who Experiences Abnormal Behavior?
Frequency in and Impact on Community Populations
Comorbidity and Disease Burden
The presence of more than one condition within the same period of time. 23 percent of the people in the NCS sample had three or more lifetime disorders, and 50% were rated as being severe.
Who Experiences Abnormal Behavior?

20. How does the impact of mental disorders compare with that of other health problems?
Epidemiologists measure disease burden by combining factors of mortality and disability.
Although mental disorders are responsible for only 1% of all deaths, they produce 47% of all disability in developed countries and 28% of all disability worldwide.

21. THE MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONS
Psychiatry: branch of medicine concerned with the study and treatment of mental disorders.
Licensed to practice medicine
Prescribe psychotropic medication
Clinical Psychology: concerned with the application of psychological science to the assessment and treatment of mental disorders.
Social Work: concerned with helping people achieve an effective level of psychosocial functioning.
THE MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONS

22. Insanity and the Mental Health Field
Insanity is a legal term that refers to judgments about whether a person should be held responsible for criminal behavior if he or she is also mentally disturbed.
Is the person legally responsible for his/her crimes because of mental illness?
Insanity and the Mental Health Field