Abnormal Psychology

1
Abnormal Psychology

• The difference between
• a psychologist and a psychiatrist

• Defining abnormal behaviour
• Approaches to the causes of abnormal behaviour
• Approaches to the treatment of abnormal behav.
• Understanding disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Multiple-personality disorder
• Schizophrenia

2
What is abnormal?

• statistical abnormality --- rare behaviours
• unconventionality --- departs from social
  standards

NORMAL
Normal (you and me)
Self-destructively odd (e.g., alcoholic)
Troublesome (e.g., reckless driver)
Objectionably odd (e.g., child abuser)
Ill (e.g., schizophrenic)
Criminal (e.g., burglar)
Sociopath
ILL
BAD
3
Mental disorder
Each of the mental disorders is conceptualized
as a clinically significant behaviour or
psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in
a person and that is associated with present
distress (a painfull symptom) or disability
(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. (American
Psychological Association, 1994, p. xxi)
4
Causes of abnormal behaviour

• Biological approach
• based on the medical model
• assumes disorders are based on physical causes
• physiological explanations
• imbalance of neurontransmitters
• e.g., too much dopamine schizophrenia
• too little dopamine Parkinsons

• Behaviourist approach
• faulty/maladaptive learning
• behaviour is the problem not physiology
• no underlying cause behaviour is variable

5
Causes of abnormal behaviour

• Cognitive approach
• disorders caused by faulty thinking habits, such
  as pessimistic or catastrophic thinking
• underlying causes cognitive processes

• Psychodynamic approach
• unconscious conflicts between id, ego, and super
  ego
• various defenses against anxiety, often rooted
  in early childhood experience

• Humanistic approach
• objective definitions are meaningless
• individuals own perceptions and experiences are
  important
• distortions of growth

6
Treatment

• Biological approach
• drugs
• tranquillizers to help relieve anxiety
• anti-depressants to help relieve depression
• anti-psychotics to help relieve hallucinations

• Behaviourist approach
• application of the laws of classical and
  instrumental conditioning
• behaviour modification
• sytematic desensitization (hierarchy of fears)
• aversive conditioning (with alcoholics)
• token economies

7
Aversive conditioning therapy for alcoholics
8
Treatment

• Cognitive approach
• changing the way patients think about
  themselves, their situations and their future.
• thought stopping
• rational-emotive therapy (faulty interpretations
  not experiences

• Psychodynamic approach
• insight gaining awareness and understanding of
  underlying conflicts which represent true
  causes
• catharsis release of associated emotions
• free association

• Humanistic approach
• insight for growth person-centered therapy

9
How can we distinguish the sane from the
insane in psychiatric hospitals?

• Participant-observation in the field
• Pseudo-patients
• Diagnosis and errors
• Labeling effects

10
Field research
Research approaches in psychology a
three-dimensional classification
Scientist as participant
True Experiment
Naturalistic observation
Scientist as observer
Laboratory research
11

• What evidence leads to being labeled mentally
  ill?
• Under psychological or psychiatric care
• Behaves dangerously to self or others
• Self declaration
• Scores on psychological tests very deviant

12

• Legal ramifications of labelling
• Not competent to stand for trial and not held
  responsible for criminal acts.
• Deprived of rights to administer ones estate.
• Possible involuntary commitment to hospital for
  court-ordered care.
• Eligible for payments from health insurance and
  medical plans.

13

• Rosenhan, D.L.
• On Being Sane in Insane Places, Science, Vol.
  179, pp. 250-258.

14
Do the main characteristics that lead to
specific diagnoses reside in the patients
themselves or, rather, in the environments and
contexts in which the observers find them?
15
Decision Structure for Signal Detection
Reality
Hit
False Alarm
Decision
Miss
Correct rejection
16
Decision Structure for Diagnostic Detection
Reality
Hit
False Alarm
Decision
Miss
Correct rejection
17
Responses to questions posed by pseudopatients
Physicians
Non-medical Faculty