Definition

1
Definition

• What is abnormal?
• Video of Ken
• How do we know when behavior is abnormal?
• When do we usually call it abnormal?

2
Abnormal Behavior?

• Implicit in the Behavior
• Deviation from Norms
• Statistical Rarity (Infrequency)
• Harmful
• Subjective Distress
• Impairment of Functioning

3
Psychological Disorder?

• Difference between disorder and abnormal
  behavior?
• Working Definition
• Behavior that results in dysfunction, impairment,
  and/or distress beyond what is culturally expected

4
Myths and Misconceptions

• No Single Definition of Psychological Abnormality
• No Single Definition of Psychological Normality
• Many Myths Are Associated With Mental Illness
• Lazy, crazy, dumb
• Weak in character
• Dangerous to self or others
• Mental illness is a hopeless situation

5
Historical Overview
6
Overview of Historical Conceptions

• Major Psychological Disorders Have Existed
• In all cultures
• Across all time periods
• The Causes and Treatment of Abnormal Behavior
  Varied Widely
• Across cultures
• Across time periods
• Particularly as a function of prevailing
  paradigms or world views
• Three Dominant Traditions Include Supernatural,
  Biological, and Psychological

7
Historical Notes

• Supernatural Explanations
• Deviant Behavior a Battle Between Good and
  Evil
• Exorcism, Torture, Crude Surgeries (?)
• Ancient Greeks
• Biological Model
• Hippocrates and Galen
• Wandering Uterus
• Humoral Theory

8
Historical Notes (2)

• Middle Ages
• Possession
• Make body uninhabitable
• St. Vitus Dance

9
Historical Notes (3)

• Renaissance
• Witch Hunts
• Astrology (Paracelsus)
• Lunatic
• Institutionalization
• Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam)

10
Historical Notes (4)

• 18th and 19th Centuries
• Moral Therapy
• Pinel, Pussin, Rush
• Dix
• Return of the Biological Model
• General Paresis
• Syphillis
• Pasteur
• Early Treatments
• Insulin/ECT

11
Consequences of the Biological Tradition

• Biological Causes (Brain)
• Mental Illness Physical Illness
• Not Psychological
• Medical View and Language
• Disease model
• Interventions
• Biological
• Insulin shock therapy, ECT, and brain surgery
  (i.e., lobotomy)
• Since 1950s medication
• Or none at all

12
Psychological Influences

• Mesmer
• Moral Therapy
• Charcot
• Psychoanalysis
• Freud
• Neo-Freudians

13
Psychological Influences (2)

• Behavioral Model
• Comparative psychology
• Pavlov, Watson, Skinner
• Humanistic Movement
• Third force
• Maslow, Rogers, Perls

14
Reconciliation?

• Multidimensional Integration
• Biopsychosocial
• Multiply Determined
• Reciprocal Causation
• What about the Supernatural Tradition?

15
Contemporary Views

• Reductionistic - Holistic
• Labeling - Antilabeling
• Psychogenic - Somatogenic
• Intrapsychic - Social
• Reality focused - Subjectivity
• Nomothetic - Idiographic
• Biological tx - Psychological tx
• Internal - External