Abnormal Psychology

Module 47Mr. Ng

Abnormal PsychologyUnit 13

Psychological Disorders• Psychological Disorders: persistently

harmful thoughts, feelings, and actions.• Behavior is seen as deviant,

distressful, and dysfunctional.• Deviant: Different from most people• To be a disorder deviant behavior

must cause the person distress.

Psychological Disorders• Ancient ways to get rid of

psychological disorders:–Exorcism–Confinement & Beatings–Burnings–Castration–Other brutal “therapies”

Drilling holes to let “evil spirits” escape!

Psychological Disorders• Medical Model: In 1800s,

psychological disorders were classified as sicknesses and needed to be treated.• Mental Illness (Psychopathy) can be

diagnosed based on their symptoms and cured through therapy.

Psychological DisordersAttention-Deficit Hyperactivity

Disorder (ADHD)• Inattention – distractibility,

forgetfulness, disorganization.• Hyperactivity – fidgeting,

restlessness, excessive talking.• Impulsivity – difficulty taking turns,

interrupting, blurting out.

Psychological Disorders• ADHD can cause social, academic,

and work place problems.• Can be treated with drugs, most

commonly with Ritalin. • Is it over diagnosed? Is long term

use of drugs harmful?

Defining Abnormal Behavior• Currently diagnosed using

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM 5):• Used for classifying

psychological disorders.• Published by American Psychological

Association

Defining Abnormal Behavior• DSM-5 replaced DSM IV-TR’s old

multi-axis system. Textbook is outdated!

No longer use the 5 axes, but are covered in DSM 5.

Defining Abnormal Behavior• DSM 5 lists the various disorders (18

areas) including:–Personality disorders–Schizophrenia spectrum–Bipolar disorders–Anxiety disorders–Feeding and Eating disorders–Many more…

Defining Abnormal Behavior• Critics of DSM 5 say that it labels

people and once we do that, we view that person differently.• Better to study root causes instead

of studying a category.• Labels can cause bias – student

labeled “gifted” or “slow” can effect how teachers and staff treat them.

Defining Abnormal BehaviorRosenhan Experiment:

• David Rosenhan (1929 – 2012) conducted a study titled “On being sane in insane places”.• Used healthy people to gain

admission to 12 psychiatric hospitals. (Including himself)• Conducted this in 12 different

psychiatric hospitals across country

Defining Abnormal Behavior• All faked hallucinations.• All were admitted and diagnosed

with psychiatric disorders.• All were told to get released on their

own.• All acted normal after admission and

told staff they felt fine.

Defining Abnormal Behavior• All were forced to admit to having a

mental illness and to take drugs as a condition of their release.

• Spent an average of 19 days in ‘care’.

• 7 out of 8 were diagnosed with schizophrenia.

• Hospital staff were adamant that they were mentally ill.

Defining Abnormal BehaviorPart 2

• An angry hospital challenged Rosenhan to send pseudo patients and see if they could detect them.• Out of 193 new patients, the staff

identified 41 as pseudo patients.• Rosenhan sent no one.

Defining Abnormal Behavior• Conclusions

• Rosenhan concluded “it is clear that we cannot distinguish the sane from the insane in psychiatric hospitals”.• Criticized reliability of psychiatric

diagnosis.• Experiment led to a movement to

reform mental institutions.

Psychological Disorders• 450 million people worldwide suffer

from psychological disorders.• 1 in 7 Americans suffered a mental

disorder. (1 in 6 in England)• Poverty is a predictor of mental

disorder. • Those below the poverty line are

twice as likely to suffer.

Serial Killers• Serial Killers: A person who has

murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between murders.• Motives are usually based on

psychological gratification.• Not the same as mass murder or

spree killing.