POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS

● Mental Disorders have been generally PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER

characterized by superstition, A psychological disorder is a pattern of
ignorance and fear abnormal behavior that is associated with
● Although successive advances in the states of significant emotional distress, such
scientific understanding of abnormal as anxiety or depression, or with impaired
behavior have dispelled many false behavior or ability to function, such as
ideas, there remain a number of difficulty holding a job or even distinguishing
popular misconceptions. reality from fantasy.
○ The belief that abnormal
behavior is always bizarre. It is a pattern of behavioral and psychological
○ The idea that ‘normal’ and symptoms that causes significant personal
‘abnormal’ are sharply distress, impairs the ability to function in one
differentiated. or more important areas of daily life, or both.
○ The view of mental disorders as
a hereditary stigma. PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
○ The view of genius as ‘akin to ● The field concerned with the nature
insanity’ and development of abnormal
○ The view of mentally ill behavior, thoughts, and feelings.
persons as incurable and ● The field devoted to the scientific
dangerous. study of abnormal behavior in order to
○ The belief that mental disorder describe, predict, explain, and change
is a disgrace. abnormal patterns of functioning is
○ An exaggerated fear of one’s called ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY.
own susceptibility to mental
disorder MENTAL HEALTH VS MENTAL ILLNESS
● Mental health can be described as
GENERAL REACTION OF THE PUBLIC functioning that results in productive
TO MENTALLY ILL PERSONS activities, fulfilling relationships, the
The following emotional reactions which absence of serious emotional distress
directly or indirectly determine our approach and reality distortion, and the
to mentally ill are resilience to adapt and cope with
● Fear and suspicion…..that the mentally adversity and change.
ill person may be harmful. ● Mental illness refers to any and all
● Disgust and Dislike….because the diagnosable mental disorders that (a)
mentally ill person is not clean are characterized by abnormal
● Anger and Rejection…..because the thinking, feeling, or behavior and (b)
mentally ill person annoys others. limit or prevent success, comfort, or
Sympathy and Pity happiness in one’s personal, social, or
● Amusement and laughter professional lives.
● Distrust
● Indifference

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PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER VS INDICATORS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
MENTAL DISORDER DISORDER
● psychological disorder and mental ● Psychological dysfunction
disorder are often used ● Distress or impairment
interchangeably ● Atypical response
● the term psychological disorder puts
the study of abnormal behavior PSYCHOLOGICAL DYSFUNCTION
squarely within the purview of the ● refers to a breakdown in cognitive,
field of psychology emotional,or behavioral functioning
● mental disorder (also called mental ● it interferes with daily functioning
illness) is derived from the medical ● It upsets, distracts, or confuses people
model perspective that views that they cannot care for themselves
abnormal behavior patterns as properly, participate in ordinary social
symptoms of underlying illness. interactions, or work productively

WHAT IS ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR? ● Advantages:

● We all become anxious or depressed ○ Requires little inference
from time to time, but is this ○ These type of problems often
abnormal? prompt treatment seeking
○ Anxiety in anticipation of an ● Disadvantages:
important job interview or a ○ Difficulty establishing
final examination is perfectly standards for occupational or
normal. social dysfunction
○ It is appropriate to feel
depressed when you have lost PERSONAL DISTRESS
someone close to you or when ● A behavior, symptoms, ideas, or
you have failed at a test or on emotions are abnormal if they causes
the job. the person distress
● Where is the line between normal and ● Disadvantages:
abnormal behavior? ○ Not all pathology causes
● One answer is that emotional states distress (e.g. conduct disorder
such as anxiety and depression may be or psychoses)
considered abnormal when they are ○ Difficult to determine the
not appropriate to the situation. amount of subjective distress is
○ It is normal to feel down when needed to be labeled abnormal
you fail a test, but not when
your grades are good or ATYPICAL OR NOT CULTURALLY
excellent. EXPECTED
○ It is normal to feel anxious ● Behavior, thoughts, and emotions are
before a college admissions deemed abnormal when they violate a
interview, but not to panic society’s ideas about proper
before entering a department functioning.
store or boarding a crowded
elevator

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● Each society establishes norms— There is no distinct or specific boundary
explicit and implicit rules for proper between normality and abnormality.
conduct.
● Behavior that violates legal norms is Behavior, thinking, and emotions are normal
called criminal. or abnormal by degree based on the extent to
● Behavior, thoughts, and emotions that which actions, thoughts, and feelings are
violate norms of psychological deviant, personally distressing, dysfunctional
functioning are called abnormal or maladaptive, and potentially dangerous to
● Conformity to norms: Statistical self or others
Infrequency or Violation of Social
Norms AN ACCEPTED DEFINITION
● A person’s behavior is abnormal if: ● In conclusion, it is difficult to define
○ it is statistically infrequent “normal” and “abnormal” and the
(deviates significantly from the debate continues.
average is above the “cutoff ● The most widely accepted definition
point” used in DSM-IV-TR and DSM V
○ very unusual describes behavioral, psychological, or
● Judgments of abnormality vary from biological dysfunctions that are
society to society. unexpected in their cultural context
● A society’s norms grow from its and associated with present distress
particular culture—its history, values, and impairment in functioning, or
institutions, habits, skills, technology, increased risk of suffering, death, pain,
and arts. or impairment
○ E.g. competition and
assertiveness = aggressive
behavior CRITERIA OF NORMALITY
● Judgments of abnormality depend on ● Efficient Perception of Reality
specific circumstances as well as on ● An Ability to Exercise Voluntary
cultural norms. Control over Behavior
○ fears and desperate ● Self-esteem and Acceptance
unhappiness occurring in the ● An Ability to Form Affectionate
days following the event Relationship
○ many painful human ● Productivity
experiences produce intense
reactions
● Advantages: THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
○ Cutoff points are quantitative
○ Social norms seem obvious and
have intuitive appeal
● Disadvantages:
○ There are few guidelines for
establishing cutoff scores
○ Number of deviations
○ Cultural relativity

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 only to suffer a recurrence of
CLINICAL DESCRIPTION the disorder at a later time.
● In hospitals and clinics, a patient ○ Time-limited (the disorder will
“presents” with specific problem or set improve without treatment in a
of problems or discuss the presenting relatively short period)
problem. ● Closely related to differences in course
● Presents is a traditional shorthand way of disorders are differences in onset
of indicating why the person came to ● Some disorders have an acute onset
the clinic. (they begin suddenly).
● Describing the presenting problem is ● It is important to know the typical
the first step in determining clinical course of a disorder so that we can
description, which represents the know what to expect in the future and
unique combination of behaviors, how best to deal with the problem.
thoughts, and feelings that make up a ● The anticipated course of a disorder is
specific disorder called the prognosis
● clinical - refers both to the types of
problems or disorders that you would HISTORY OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
find in a clinic or hospital and to the ● As we look back, we can see how each
activities connected with assessment society has struggled to understand
and treatment. and treat psychological problems, and
● One important function of the clinical we can observe that many present day
description is to specify what makes ideas and treatments have roots in the
the disorder different from normal past.
behavior or from other disorders. ● A look backward makes it clear that
● Statistical data may also be relevant progress in the understanding and
○ How many people in the treatment of mental disorders has
population as a whole have the hardly been a steady movement
disorder? (prevalence) forward.
○ statistics on how many new cases ● In fact, many of the inadequacies and
occur during a given period, such controversies that mark the clinical
as a year (incidence) field today parallel those of the past.
○ other statistics include the sex ● At the same time, looking back can
ratio—that is, what percentage help us to appreciate the significance
of males and females have the of recent breakthroughs and the
disorder—and the typical age of importance of the journey that lies
onset, which often differs from ahead
one disorder to another
● In addition, most disorders follow a ANCIENT VIEW AND TREATMENT
somewhat individual pattern, or ● Most of our knowledge of prehistoric
course societies has been acquired indirectly
○ Chronic (tend to last a long and is based on inferences made from
time, sometimes a lifetime) archaeological discoveries.
○ Episodic (the individual is likely ● Most historians believe that
to recover within a few months prehistoric societies regarded

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 abnormal behavior as the work of evil uncomfortable place in which
spirits (DEMONOLOGY). to live.
● These early societies apparently ● A shaman, or priest, might recite
explained all phenomena as resulting prayers, plead with the evil spirits,
from the actions of magical, insult them, perform magic, make loud
sometimes sinister beings who noises, or have the person drink bitter
controlled the world. potions.
● In particular, they viewed the human ○ If these techniques failed, the
body and mind as a battleground shaman performed a more
between external forces of good and extreme form of exorcism, such
evil. as whipping or starving the
● Abnormal behavior was typically person
interpreted as a victory by evil spirits,
and the cure for such behavior was to Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)
force the demons from a victim’s body ● Taught that illnesses had natural
● Some skulls from that period causes.
recovered in Europe and South ● Saw abnormal behavior as a disease
America show evidence of an arising from internal physical
operation called trephination, in problems.
which a stone instrument, or trephine, ● Believed that some form of brain
was used to cut away a circular section pathology was the culprit and that it
of the skull. resulted—like all other forms of
○ This operation was performed disease -from an imbalance of four
as a treatment for severe fluids, or humors, that flowed through
abnormal behavior—either the body: yellow bile, black bile, blood,
hallucinations, in which people and phlegm
saw or heard things not ● An excess of yellow bile, for example,
actually present, or caused mania; an excess of black bile
melancholia, characterized by was the source of melancholia.
extreme sadness and ● To treat psychological dysfunctioning,
immobility. he sought to correct the underlying
○ The purpose of opening the physical pathology.
skull was to release the evil ● He believed, for instance, that the
spirits that were supposedly excess of black bile underlying
causing the problem (Selling, melancholia could be reduced by a
1940). quiet life, a vegetable diet, temperance,
● Egyptian, Chinese, and Hebrew exercise, celibacy, and even bleeding
writings all account for psychological ● Hippocrates’ focus on internal causes
deviance this way. for abnormal behavior was shared by
● The treatment for abnormality in these the great Greek philosophers Plato
early societies was often exorcism. (427– 347 B.C.) and Aristotle (384–322
○ The idea was to coax the evil B.C.) and by influential Greek and
spirits to leave or to make the Roman physicians
person’s body an

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The Dark Ages and Demonology ○ Once again the key to cure was
● The enlightened views of Greek and to rid the person’s body of the
Roman physicians and scholars did not devil that possessed it.
prevent ordinary people from ○ Exorcisms were revived, and
continuing to believe in demons. clergymen, who generally were
● With the decline of Rome, demonology in charge of treatment during
enjoyed a strong resurgence, as a this period, would plead, chant,
growing distrust of science spread or pray to the devil or evil
throughout Europe spirit.
● From A.D. 500 to 1350, the period ○ If these techniques did not
known as the Middle Ages, the power work, they had others to try,
of the clergy increased greatly some indistinguishable from
throughout Europe. torture
● The church rejected scientific forms of
investigation, and it controlled all The Renaissance and the Rise of Asylums
education. ● During the early part of the
● Religious beliefs, which were highly Renaissance, a period of flourishing
superstitious and demonological at cultural and scientific activity (about
this time, came to dominate all aspects 1400–1700), demonological views of
of life. abnormality continued to decline.
● Once again behavior was usually ● The German physician Johann Weyer
interpreted as a conflict between good (1515–1588), the first physician to
and evil, God and the devil. specialize in mental illness, believed
● Deviant behavior, particularly that the mind was as susceptible to
psychological dysfunctioning, was seen sickness as the body.
as evidence of Satan’s influence ○ He is now considered the
● The Middle Ages were a time of great founder of the modern study of
stress and anxiety, of war, urban psychopathology
uprisings, and plagues. ● The care of people with mental
● People blamed the devil for these disorders continued to improve in this
troubles and feared being possessed by atmosphere.
him. ● Across Europe religious shrines were
● The incidence of abnormal behavior devoted to the humane and loving
apparently increased dramatically treatment of people with mental
during this period. disorders.
● In addition, there were outbreaks of ○ The best known of these
mass madness (tarantism; lycanthropy), in shrines was actually established
which large numbers of people centuries earlier at Gheel in
apparently shared delusions and Belgium, but beginning in the
hallucinations. fifteenth century, people came
● Not surprisingly, some of the earlier to it from all over the world for
demonological treatments for psychic healing
psychological abnormality re-emerged ○ Local residents welcomed these
during the Middle Ages. pilgrims into their homes, and
many stayed on to form the

6
 world’s first “colony” of mental treated with sympathy and kindness
patients. rather than chains and beatings.
○ Gheel was the forerunner of ● Unchained them and allowed them to
today’s community mental health move freely about the hospital
programs, and it continues to grounds, replaced the dark dungeons
demonstrate that people with with sunny, well-ventilated rooms, and
psychological disorders can offered support and advice
respond to loving care and ● Pinel’s approach proved remarkably
respectful treatment (Morton, successful.
2002; Aring, 1975, 1974) ○ Patients who had been shut
● Unfortunately, these improvements in away for decades were now
care began to fade by the enjoying fresh air and sunlight
mid–sixteenth century. and being treated with dignity.
○ By then municipal authorities ○ Many improved greatly over a
had discovered that private short period of time and were
homes and community released
residences could house only a ● An English Quaker named William
small percentage of those with Tuke (1732– 1819) was bringing similar
severe mental disorders and reforms to northern England.
that medical hospitals were too ○ In 1796 he founded the York
few and too small Retreat, a rural estate where
○ Increasingly, they converted about 30 mental patients lived
hospitals and monasteries into as guests in quiet country
asylums, institutions whose houses and were treated with a
primary purpose was to care for combination of rest, talk,
people with mental illness. prayer, and manual work
○ These institutions were (Borthwick et al., 2001)
founded with every intention of
providing good care. The Spread of Moral Treatment
○ Once the asylums started to ● The methods of Pinel and Tuke, called
overflow, however, they became moral treatment because they
virtual prisons where patients emphasized moral guidance and
were held in filthy conditions humane and respectful techniques,
and treated with unspeakable caught on throughout Europe and the
cruelty. United States.
● Patients with psychological problems
Reform and Moral Treatment were increasingly perceived as
● As 1800 approached, the treatment of potentially productive human beings
people with mental disorders began to whose mental functioning had broken
improve once again. down under stress.
● In 1793, Philippe Pinel (1745–1826) ● They were considered deserving of
the chief physician in La Bicêtre individual care, including discussions
argued that the patients were sick of their problems, useful activities,
people whose illnesses should be work, companionship, and quiet

7
 ● The person most responsible for the such as fatigue, are responsible
early spread of moral treatment in the for mental dysfunction.
US was Benjamin Rush (1745–1813), ● One of the most important discoveries
an eminent physician at Pennsylvania was that an organic disease, syphilis,
Hospital. led to general paresis, an irreversible
○ Limiting his practice to mental disorder with both physical and mental
illness, he developed symptoms, including paralysis and
innovative, humane approaches delusions of grandeur (Richard von
to treatment (Whitaker, 2002) Krafft-Ebing,1840–1902)
● Dorothea Dix (1802–1887) made ○ Fritz Schaudinn (1871–1906), a
humane care a public and political German zoologist, discovered
concern in the US. that the microorganism
○ She went from state legislature Treponema pallida was
to state legislature speaking of responsible for syphilis, which
the horrors she had observed in turn was responsible for
and calling for reform. general paresis
○ From 1841 until 1881, Dix
fought for new laws and greater The Psychogenic Perspective
government funding to the view that the chief causes of abnormal
improve the treatment of functioning are psychological
people with mental disorders. ● Roman statesman and orator Cicero
○ She personally helped establish (106– 43 B.C.) held that psychological
32 of these state hospitals, all disturbances could cause bodily
intended to offer moral ailments.
treatment (Bickman & Dokecki, ● Greek physician Galen believed that
1989) many mental disorders are caused by
fear, disappointment in love, and other
The Decline of Moral Treatment psychological events
● This perspective did not gain much of
a following until studies of hypnotism
ALTERNATIVE MODELS FOR demonstrated its potential.
ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR ● Hypnotism is a procedure that places
people in a trancelike mental state
The Somatogenic Perspective during which they become extremely
the view that abnormal psychological suggestible.
functioning has physical causes ○ It was used to help treat
● Two factors were responsible for this psychological disorders as far
rebirth. back as 1778, when an Austrian
● One was the work of an eminent physician named Friedrich
German researcher, Emil Kraepelin Anton Mesmer (1734–1815)
(1856–1926). established a clinic in Paris
○ In 1883 Kraepelin published an ○ His patients suffered from
influential textbook which hysterical disorders, mysterious
argued that physical factors, bodily ailments that had no
apparent physical basis.

8
 ○ Several scientists believed that ● In the 1950s researchers discovered a
Mesmer was inducing a number of new psychotropic
trancelike state in his patients medications—drugs that primarily
and that this state was causing affect the brain and alleviate many
their symptoms to disappear. symptoms of mental dysfunctioning.
● By the late nineteenth century, two ● They included the first antipsychotic
competing views had emerged. drugs, to correct extremely confused
● Because hypnosis—a technique relying and distorted thinking;
on the power of suggestion—was able to ○ antidepressant drugs, to lift the
alleviate hysterical ailments, some mood of depressed people
scientists concluded that hysterical ○ antianxiety drugs, to reduce
disorders must be caused by the power tension and worry
of suggestion—that is, by the mind—in ● When given these drugs, many patients
the first place. who had spent years in mental
● In contrast, other scientists believed hospitals began to show signs of
that hysterical disorders had subtle improvement.
physiological causes. ● Hospital administrators, encouraged
by these results and pressured by a
THE CURRENT TRENDS growing public outcry over the terrible
● Some recent surveys found that: conditions in public mental hospitals,
○ 43 percent of respondents began to discharge patients almost
believe that people bring on immediately
mental disorders themselves ● Since the discovery of these
○ 35 percent consider such medications, mental health
disorders to be caused by sinful professionals in most of the developed
behavior nations of the world have followed a
○ 19 percent point to a lack of policy of deinstitutionalization,
willpower or self-discipline as a releasing hundreds of thousands of
cause (NMHA, 1999; Murray, patients from public mental hospitals.
1993). ● community mental health approach -
● The past 50 years have brought major emphasis on community care for
changes in the ways clinicians people with severe psychological
understand and treat abnormal disturbances
functioning.
● There are more theories and types of HOW ARE PEOPLE WITH LESS SEVERE
treatment, more research studies, more DISTURBANCES TREATED?
information, and, perhaps for these ● Psychotherapy
reasons, more disagreements about ● Rehabilitation Programs
abnormal functioning today than at
any time in the past

HOW ARE PEOPLE WITH SEVERE

DISTURBANCES CARED FOR?

9
CHAPTER SUMMARY
● Abnormality can be characterized in
various ways. None of the
characteristics hold up perfectly but,
together, they provide framework for
understanding abnormality.
● Throughout history there have been
differing views on the cause of
abnormal behavior. Generally,
abnormal behavior has been attributed
to outside forces (demonology), bodily
factors (somatogenesis), or mental
factors (psychogenesis)
● Contemporary views are based largely
on the somatogenic and the
psychogenic viewpoints.
● The way different societies understand
abnormal behavior strongly affects the
way they treat it.
● Past methods of treating abnormal
behavior have varied and often, been
inhuman. However, they may not have
been as bad as portrayed nor are
current practices as enlightened as
sometimes depicted

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