INTRODUCTION TO

ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY: PAST AND
PRESENT
▪ Abnormal psychology:
▪ The scientific study of abnormal behavior
in an effort to describe, predict, explain,
and change abnormal patterns of
functioning
▪ Many definitions have been proposed, yet
none has won total acceptance
WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL ABNORMALITY?
▪ Most definitions have certain features in common:

“The Four Ds”

DYSFUNCTION
DEVIANCE – – Interfering
Different, DISTRESS – with the
DANGER –
extreme, Unpleasant and person's ability
Posing risk of
unusual, upsetting to the to conduct daily
harm
perhaps even person activities in a
bizarre constructive
way
 DEVIANCE
 From what?
 From behaviors, thoughts, and
emotions that differ markedly from
a society's ideas about proper
functioning
 From social norms
◼ Stated and unstated rules for
proper conduct
◼ Examples?
 Judgments of abnormality vary from
society to society as norms grow from
a particular culture
 They also depend on specific
circumstances
DISTRESS
▪ According to many clinical theorists,
behavior, ideas, or emotions usually
have to cause distress before they can
be labeled abnormal
▪ Not always the case
▪ Examples?
DYSFUNCTION
▪ Abnormal behavior tends to be
dysfunctional – it interferes with daily
functioning
▪ Culture plays a role in the definition of
abnormality
▪ Dysfunction alone does not necessarily
indicate psychological abnormality
DANGER
▪ Abnormal behavior may become
dangerous to oneself or others
▪ Behavior may be consistently
careless, hostile, or confused
▪ Although often cited as a feature of
psychological abnormality, research
suggests that dangerousness is the
exception rather than the rule
THE ELUSIVE NATURE OF ABNORMALITY
▪ A society selects general criteria for defining
abnormality and then uses those criteria to
judge particular cases
▪ Szasz places such emphasis on society's
role that he finds the whole concept of
mental illness to be invalid
▪ Few categories of abnormality are as clear-
cut as they seem; most continue to be
debated by clinicians
DIAGNOSTIC CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM
DSM & ICD
DSM V DEFINITION OF MENTAL DISORDER
▪ "A mental disorder is a syndrome
characterized by clinically significant
disturbance in an
individual's cognition, emotion
regulation, or behavior that reflects a
dysfunction in the psychological,
biological, or developmental processes
underlying mental functioning.

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▪ Mental disorders are usually associated with
significant distress in social, occupational, or
other important activities. An expectable or
culturally approved response to a common
stressor or loss, such as the death of a loved one,
is not a mental disorder. Socially deviant
behavior (e.g., political, religious, or sexual)
and conflicts that are primarily between the
individual and society are not mental disorders
unless the deviance or conflict results from a
dysfunction in the individual, as described
above."

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TREATMENT OR THERAPY??
WHAT IS TREATMENT?
▪Once clinicians decide that a person
is suffering from abnormality, they
seek to treat it
▪Treatment, or therapy, is a
procedure designed to change
abnormal behavior into more
normal behavior
WHAT IS TREATMENT?
▪ All forms of therapy have three essential features:

A sufferer who seeks relief from the healer

A trained, socially accepted healer, whose expertise is

accepted by the sufferer and his or her social group

A series of contacts between the healer and the sufferer,

through which the healer… tries to produce certain changes in
the sufferer's emotional state, attitudes, and behavior
HOW WAS ABNORMALITY VIEWED AND
TREATED IN THE PAST?
▪ In any given year as many as 30% of adults and 19% of children
and adolescents in the U.S. display serious psychological
disturbances and are in need of clinical treatment
▪ In addition, most people have difficulty coping at various times
▪ Is this the fault of modern society?
▪ Although modern pressures may contribute, they are hardly the
primary cause; every society, past and present, has witnessed
psychological abnormality
HISTORY OF ABNORMAL
PSYCHOLOGY
HOW WAS ABNORMALITY VIEWED/TREATED IN
THE PAST?

▪Many present-
day ideas and
treatments
have roots in
the past
ANCIENT VIEWS AND TREATMENTS
▪ Ancient societies probably regarded
abnormal behavior as the work of evil spirits
▪ This view may have begun as far back as
the Stone Age
▪ The treatment for severe abnormality was to
force the demons from the body through
trephination and exorcism
▪ Trephination is the
surgical procedure in
which a hole is created in
the skull by the removal
of circular piece of bone,
while a trepanation is the
opening created by this
procedure (Stone and
Miles, 1990).
GREEK AND ROMAN VIEWS AND TREATMENTS

500 B.C. to 500 A.D.

Philosophers and physicians

offered different explanations and
treatments for abnormal behaviors

Hippocrates believed and taught that

illnesses had natural causes
• Looked to an unbalance of the four
fluids, or humors
• Suggested treatments attempted to
“rebalance”
EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE AGES: DEMONOLOGY
RETURNS
500 – 1350 A.D.
The church rejected scientific
forms of investigation, and it
controlled all education
• Religious beliefs dominant
• Abnormality was seen as a
conflict between good and evil
• Some of the earlier
demonological treatments
reemerged
At the close of the Middle Ages,
demonology and its methods began
to lose favor again
THE RENAISSANCE AND THE RISE OF
ASYLUMS
1400 – 1700 A.D.
Demonological views of
abnormality continued to
decline
German physician Johann
Weyer believed that the mind
was as susceptible to sickness
as the body
The care of people with mental
disorders continued to improve
in this atmosphere
THE RENAISSANCE AND THE RISE OF
ASYLUMS
▪ Across Europe, religious shrines were devoted to the
humane and loving treatment of people with mental
disorders
▪ This time also saw a rise of asylums – institutions
whose primary purpose was care of the mentally ill
▪ Good care was the intention, but became virtual
prisons due to overcrowding
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: REFORM AND
MORAL TREATMENT
▪ As 1800 approached, the treatment of
people with mental disorders began to
improve once again
▪ Pinel (France) and Tuke (England)
advocated moral treatment – care that
emphasized moral guidance and
humane and respectful techniques
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: REFORM AND
MORAL TREATMENT
 By the end of the nineteenth century, several factors
led to a reversal of the moral treatment movement:
 Money and staff shortages
 Declining recovery rates
 Overcrowding
 Emergence of prejudice
 By the early years of the twentieth century, the
moral treatment movement had ground to a halt;
long-term hospitalization became the rule once
again
THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY: DUAL
PERSPECTIVES
▪ As the moral movement was declining in the late 1800s, two
opposing perspectives emerged:
THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY: THE
SOMATOGENIC PERSPECTIVE
▪ Two factors were responsible for the rebirth of this
perspective:
▪ Emil Kraepelin argued that physical factors (such
as fatigue) are responsible for mental dysfunction
▪ Despite the general optimism, biological approaches
yielded mostly disappointing results throughout the
first half of the twentieth century, until a number of
effective medications were finally discovered
THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY: THE
PSYCHOGENIC PERSPECTIVE
▪ The rise in popularity of this perspective was based
on work with hypnotism:
▪ Friedrich Mesmer and hysterical disorders
▪ Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis
▪ Freud and his followers offered treatment primarily
to patients who did not require hospitalization – now
known as outpatient therapy
▪ By the early 20th century, psychoanalytic theory
and treatment were widely accepted
 CURRENT TRENDS

▪ It would hardly be accurate to say that we know live in an period of

great enlightenment about or dependable treatment of mental
disorders

43% of people sur veyed believe that people bring mental health disorders upon
themselves and 35% consider mental health disorders to be caused by sinful behavior

STILL…

The past 50 years have brought major changes in the ways clinicians understand and
treat abnormal functioning
HOW ARE PEOPLE WITH SEVERE
DISTURBANCES CARED FOR?
▪ In the 1950s, researchers discovered a
number of new psychotropic medications:
▪ Antipsychotic drugs
▪ Antidepressant drugs
▪ Antianxiety drugs
▪ These discoveries led to
deinstitutionalization and a rise in outpatient
care
HOW ARE PEOPLE WITH SEVERE
DISTURBANCES CARED FOR?
▪ Outpatient care has now become the primary mode
of treatment
▪ When patients do need institutionalization, it is
usually short-term hospitalization, and then,
ideally, outpatient psychotherapy and medication
in community settings
▪ The approach has been helpful for many
patients, but too few community programs are
available in the U.S.; only 40 to 60% of those with
severe disturbances receive treatment of any
kind
HOW ARE PEOPLE WITH LESS SEVERE
DISTURBANCES TREATED?
 Since the 1950s, outpatient care has
continued to be the preferred mode of
treatment for those with moderate
disturbances
this type of care was once exclusively
private psychotherapy,
HOW ARE PEOPLE WITH LESS SEVERE
DISTURBANCES TREATED?
Epidemiology
• Study of distribution of
diseases, disorders, or health-
related behaviors in a given
population
PREVALENCE

Typically
expressed as
Number of percentages
active cases in
population
during any
given period of
time
INCIDENCE

Incidence
figures are
Number of new typically lower
cases in than prevalence
population over figures
given period of
time
A GROWING EMPHASIS ON PREVENTING
DISORDERS AND PROMOTING MENTAL HEALTH
▪ The community mental health approach has given
rise to the prevention movement
▪ Many of today's programs aim to:
▪ Correct the social conditions that underlie
psychological problems
▪ Help individuals at risk for developing disorders
▪ Prevention programs have been further energized
by the growing interest in positive psychology –
the study and enhancement of positive feelings,
traits, and abilities
MULTICULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY
▪ In response to growing diversity in the U.S.,
this new area of study has emerged
▪ Multicultural psychologists seek to
understand how culture, race, ethnicity,
gender, and similar factors affect behavior
and thought and how people of different
cultures, races, and genders may differ
psychologically
 WHAT ARE TODAY'S LEADING THEORIES
AND PROFESSIONS?
Sociocultural Psychoanalytic
▪ One of the most
important
developments
in the field of Humanistic-
abnormal existential
Biological

psychology has
been the growth
of theoretical
perspectives, Cognitive Behavioral

including:
WHAT ARE TODAY'S LEADING THEORIES
AND PROFESSIONS?
▪ One final key development in the study and
treatment of mental disorders has been a
growing appreciation of the need for
effective research

▪ Clinical researchers have tried to determine

which concepts best explain and predict
abnormal behavior, which treatments are
most effective, and what kinds of changes
may be required