Syllabus Changes

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Syllabus Changes

• Due date of hypotheses and references is Oct 11th
• Syllabus changes
• No somatoform and dissociative disorders
• Lectures and textbook overlap
• My experience
• Research credits
• 1 bonus point per 1 hour added to final average,
  up to 4 points. Student must do brief write-up
  too.

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Introduction to Psychopathology
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Defining Abnormal

• Psychological Dysfunction
• in cognitive, emotional, and/or behavioural
  functioning
• Limitations?
• Subjectivity severity, frequency
• What constitutes dysfunction?
• Distress or Impairment
• Limitations?

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Defining Abnormal

• Atypical or Unexpected Cultural Response or
  characteristics
• Limitations?

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Defining Abnormal

• Textbook integrates 3 concepts
• Behavioral, emotional, or cognitive dysfunctions
  that are unexpected in the cultural context and
  associated with personal distress or substantial
  impairment in functioning (p. 4)

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DSM-IV-TR

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
  Disorders, 4th edition (text revision)
• Widely accepted system for classifying
  psychological problems and disorders
• DSM-IV-TR contains diagnostic criteria for
  categories of symptoms that
• Are grouped together under categorical labels
• Often occur together

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In-Class Exercise What is Abnormal?

• Imagine youre a psychologist and a new patient
  enters your office for the first time
• Case examples
• Discuss
• Disorder or not?
• Need more info?

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Case 1 Lisa

• 19 years old
• Strong religious beliefs forbid participation in
  much of contemporary pop culture
• Contrary to her religious teachings, Lisa
  believes strongly that the stars and planets
  control her destiny and that she is able to
  communicate with the spirits of the dead.
  Sometimes these communications distract her. She
  thinks she could be more productive at work
  without these communications but she still gets a
  lot of work done.
• Lisas church believes that the end of the world
  is imminent she has been peacefully preparing
  for Armageddon.

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Case 2 Paul

• 25 years old
• History of becoming sexually aroused by the sight
  of womens underwear
• In past, was very concerned about being ridiculed
  if others discovered his secret desires
• Recently, he has attended fetish nights at
  local clubs and met likeminded individuals
• Currently dating a woman who is comfortable with
  his sexual desires
• He can speak and behave openly in his current
  relationship

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Case 3 Jane

• 43 year-old Chinese-Canadian
• Physically abused by father
• Complaints weak nerves, physical pain, fatigue
• History of crushes on celebrity rock stars
• Considerable time and money spent on crushes and
  fantasies
• Newest crush has coincided with increased
  physical symptoms and impairments in ability to
  perform job
• Enjoys feelings of overwhelming love that she
  experiences when she thinks about her newest crush

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A few key points

• Subjectivity
• Continuous rather than categorical nature of
  symptoms

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Homosexuality

• Small group exercise
• AGREE DISAGREE CANNOT REACH A DECISION
• Homosexuality is normal.
• Having a homosexual friend or neighbor is OK by
  me.
• It's OK for homosexuals to be teachers, including
  teachers of children.

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Exercise (Contd.)

• AGREE DISAGREE CANNOT REACH A DECISION
• Families with homosexual parents should be
  portrayed in some children's books.
• It's OK for homosexual couples, or even single
  homosexuals, to raise children.
• I would vote for a homosexual who was running for
  president.
• It would be OK by me if one or more of my
  children were homosexual.
• It would be OK by me if I found out that my
  parent was homosexual.

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The Scientific Study of Psychopathology

• Scientist-practitioners conduct, consume,
  evaluate clinical research and engage in clinical
  practice
• Clinical research focuses broadly on 3 aspects of
  psychological disorders

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The Scientific Study of Psychopathology Example

• Specific phobias
• Danger cognitions involved in all three areas
• The three areas inform theory

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Freuds Psychoanalytic Theory

• Freudian theory of the structure function of
  the mind
• Structure of the mind
• Id (pleasure principle irrational, sex drive)
• Ego (reality principle logical and rational)
• Superego (moral principles parents/culture
  conscience)

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Freuds Psychoanalytic Theory, cont.

• Conflict between 3 structures causes distress
• Defense mechanisms protect against this distress
• Defense mechanisms
• Denial
• Repression
• Fantasy
• Reaction formation
• Projection
• Intellectualization
• Displacement
• Suppression
• Sublimation

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Examples

• Group task
• Give an example for four (or more) of the defense
  mechanisms from events in the media, your life,
  or your friends or families lives.

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Freud limitations and impact

• Evidence was based on case studies
• Foundation of modern coping research

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Defense mechanisms and modern coping research

• Emotion expression
• AKA emotional disclosure
• Pennebakers disclosure paradigm
• Initially guided by inhibition/disinhibition
  theory
• Defense mechanisms?

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• Trauma Disclosure
• I would like you to write for three about an
  upsetting experience youve gone through. In
  your writing, I want you to really let go and
  explore your very deepest emotions and thoughts.
  Whatever you choose to write, it is critical that
  you really delve into your deepest emotions and
  thoughts. Ideally, I would also like you to write
  about significant experiences or conflicts that
  you have not discussed in great detail with
  others. You might tie your personal experiences
  to other parts of your life. How is it related to
  your childhood, your parents, people you love,
  who you are, or who you want to be? Again, in
  your writing, examine your deepest emotions and
  thoughts. Also, when you write, dont worry about
  grammar, spelling, or sentence structure these
  things are not important.

• Control Condition
• I want you to write for three minutes about a
  specific topic. The most important thing is that
  you describe the specific event or object in
  detail without discussing or exploring your
  emotions or feelings about the topic. In todays
  writing, I want you to describe your dorm room.
  The most important thing in your writing is that
  you describe your living room accurately and
  objectively without describing or exploring your
  emotions. Also, when you write, dont worry about
  grammar, spelling, or sentence structure these
  things are not important.

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Emotional disclosure

• Research Design
• Participants engage in a disclosure or no
  disclosure control writing task for 4 days for
  15 min each day
• Physical health and psychological well-being is
  monitored before and after

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Effects of disclosure

• Physical health
• Immunological functioning
• Physician visits
• Psychological effects
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Life satisfaction
• Behavioral outcomes
• GPA
• Re-employment

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Pennebakers disclosure paradigm (contd.)

• What drives these effects?
• Maybe not disinhibition?
• Greenberg et al.
• A mastery experience
• Narrative formation
• Emotional processing
• Methodological limitations

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Possible methodological Confounds

• Whats a confound?
• Possible confounding mechanisms of disclosure
  (Markowitz, Purdon, Oakman, 2007)
• Expectancies
• Cognitive dissonance
• Demand characteristics
• Task resentment
• Confounds or meaningful processes?
• My current research