Lecture slides for PSYC 3553 Psychopathology (UNB Saint John), Fall 2009. Discusses defining normal vs. abnormal behaviour, stereotype and stigma, and history of perspectives on abnormality.
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Defining Abnormality
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PSYC 3553 – Psychopathology
Week 2: Defining Abnormality • September 15, 2009
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What is normal?
• What is normal behaviour and what is
abnormal behaviour?
• Why do we classify people into normal vs.
abnormal?
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Normal vs. Abnormal Behaviour
• Outside of societal norm • Mental weaknesses
• Variable in each culture • Confusing – few fit the
normal standard…?
• Can include severe harm
or violence • May not be a bad thing –
simply different
• Difficulty in abiding by
social situations • Not capable of surviving
in society
• Intentional?
• Relative categorization
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Elements of abnormality
• Deviant
• Distressful to self and/or others
• Dysfunctional or maladaptive
• Dangerous to self and/or others
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Elements of abnormality
• Unpredictable /irrational
• Violates social norms or is incomprehensible
• Inappropriate to developmental stage
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Classification of abnormal behaviour
• Can get worse if not • To help others and
treated as soon as improve understanding
possible
• Better coping
• Don’t abide by normal
rules – live by other set • Simplify the very
subjective
• Otherwise chaos
• No longer a danger
• Improve functioning
• Dispel fears of the
• Take away pain unknown
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Your Interests…
• Use of non-drug treatments, and role of drug
companies in prescribing medications
• Specific disorders: mood, anxiety, dissociative, sleep,
cognitive
• Specific populations: troubled youth, school
psychology, First Nations
• Legal determination of insanity
• Gender differences in bipolar disorder
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Your Interests…
• Murder/suicides among family members
• Differentiate between disorders (i.e., bipolar disorder
and schizophrenia)
• Why some disorders without physiological
explanation? Why are some seemingly “incurable”?
• How people are born with them – or how they
develop disorders?
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Attitudes Toward Abnormality
• Stereotypes – automatic beliefs
• Stigma – shame & disgrace
• Examples:
• Canadian Medical Assoc. Report
• Globe & Mail Breakdown Series
• Video: Mental Health Commission of Canada:
Stigma Symposium
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Attitudes Toward Abnormality
• The Rosenhan
studies
• Original study
• Slater’s update: has
anything changed?
• Why? Will it
change?
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Cultural Aspects
• “…different cultures have different
perspectives”
• Display rules for expression of some
disorders appear (e.g., depression)
• Lack of other disorders (e.g., amok)
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Cultural Aspects
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Statistics Talk
• Epidemiology: study of disease statistics
• Prevalence: # active cases in time period
• Incidence: # new cases in given time period
• Co-morbidity: co-occurring disorders
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Statistics Talk
• Lifetime prevalence: 20% of Canadians
• Point prevalence: 300,000 Canadians
• Often in adolescence/young adulthood
• $$ = at least $7.9 billion (1998)
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The Mental Health Professions
• Clinical psychologist
• Psychiatrist
• Psychoanalyst
• Social worker
• Counseling psychologist
• Psychiatric nurse
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Different Viewpoints
• Abnormality is…against social / cultural
norms
• Abnormality is…a social construction
• Abnormality is…a diseased brain
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History of Abnormality
• Demonology – spirits control us & cause
abnormal behaviour
• Methods of eviction:
• Exorcism
• Trepanning
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History of Abnormality
• Somatogenesis vs. psychogenesis
• Hippocrates: brain is central organ
• Mania, melancholia, phrenitis
• Personality: the “humours”
• Galen: more scientific approach
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History of Abnormality
• Middle Ages:
• Tarantism: uncontrollable dancing
• Lycanthropy: wolf possession
• Witchcraft: smart gals angry with society
• Treatment: exorcisms, priest spitting…
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History of Abnormality
• 1500’s: asylums
• Bethlehem (Bedlam)
• Deplorable conditions, “patient shows”
• Benjamin Rush: transition
• Moral treatment: Philippe Pinel
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History of Abnormality
• Mental hygiene movement: Dorothy Dix
• 20th century: still cycled with preference
• Deinstitutionalization: meant to be good…
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Contemporary Thought
• Early system of classification
• Emil Kraepelin: syndromes
• Empirical evidence of mental illness
• General paresis and syphilis
• Pasteur’s germ theory
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Contemporary Thought
• Mesmer: magnetism
• Charcot: hysteria
• Breuer: catharsis
• Anna O.
• Freud: psychoanalysis
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Mental Hospitals in Canada
• Medicare
• Provincial psychiatric hospitals
• Milieu therapy
• Community treatment orders (CTOs)
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Lessons of History
• Cycles of persecution, neglect and
humanitarianism
• Future generations may regard some of
our practices as cruel and inhumane
• Recent reforms may easily be reversed
during adverse conditions
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