Abnormal Psych

• Psychological Disorder


  Psychological dysfunction within an individual that is associated with distress or impairment in functioning and a response that is not typical or culturally expected
• Clinical Description


  Unique combination of behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that make up a specific disorder
• Presenting Problem


  Set of problems
• Prevalence


  Number of people in the population that have the disorder
• Incidence


  Number of new cases each year
• Course


  • Chronic - lifetime
  • Episodic - individual may recover, but may possible relapse
  • Time-limited - disorder will improve in a relatively short period
• Onset


  • Acute - sudden
  • Insidious - gradual
• Prognosis


  Possible outcome
• Good prognosis


  Chance of recovery
• Bad prognosis


  Opposite of good prognosis
• Etiology


  Study of the origin of the disorder
• Historical Conceptions of Abnormal Behavior

  • Supernatural model
  • Biological Tradition
  • Psychological Tradition
• Supernatural model


  Abnormal behavior is caused by agents outside our bodies
• Psychological disorders were seen as the work of the devil and witches
• Treatments include exorcism
• Mass hysteria


  Unexplained phenomenon
• Paracelsus suggested that moon & stars had profound effects on one's psychological functioning
• Biological Tradition


  Psychological disorders could be treated like any other disease
• Hysteria = wandering uterus theory
• Humoral Theory of disorders


  Brain functioning was related to four bodily fluids or humors
• Four bodily fluids or humors

  • Blood - heart
  • Yellow bile - liver
  • Black bile - spleen
  • Phlegm - brain
• Bloodletting as a treatment, often done with leeches
• In China, unexplained mental disorders were caused by blockages of wind or the presence of cold dark wind (yin) as opposed to warm, life sustaining wind (yang); treatment include acupuncture
• John P. Grey believed that insanity is always physical and treatments included electric shock & brain surgery
• Insulin was given to stimulate appetite of psychotic patients
• Drugs


  • Rauwolfia Serpentine (reserpine)
  • Neuroleptics (major tranquilizers)
  • Benzodiazepines (minor tranquilizers)
• Emil Kraepelin was one of the founding fathers of modern psychiatry
• Psychological Tradition


  Maladaptive behavior is caused by the social and cultural influences
• Moral Therapy - treating institutionalized patients as normally as possible in a setting that encouraged social interaction
• Greek Asclepiad Temples
• Philippe Pinel & Jean-Baptiste Pussin were superintendents of La Bicetre
• Dororthea Dix started the mental hygiene movement
• Psychological Schools of Thought


  • Psychoanalytic Theory
  • Humanistic Theory
  • Behavioral Model (aka cognitive-behavioral model/social learning mode)
• Psychoanalytic Theory


  Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious, defense mechanisms, and psychosexual stages of development
• Franz Anton Mesmer


  Father of hypnosis; suggested maladaptive behavior is caused by an undetectable fluid called animal magnetism
• Jean-Martin Charcot became interested with Mesmer's methods
• Sigmund Freud worked with Charcot in France to learn about hypnosis. Upon returning to Vienna, he then teamed up with Josef Breuer
• Catharsis as treatment


  Release of emotional material
• Three major facets of Psychoanalytic Theory


  • The structure of the mind and the distinct functions of personality that sometimes clash with one another
  • The defense mechanisms with which the mind defends itself from these clashes or conflicts
  • The stages of early psychosexual development that provide grist for the mill of inner conflicts
• Id


  Source of our strong sexual and aggressive feelings of energies; operates under the pleasure principle