PSY340 ch 1 - This is a short outline of important information given throughout the first PDF

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This is a short outline of important information given throughout the first chapter of Abnormal Psychology: An Integrative Approach by David Barlow....

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Abnormal Psych Ch 1 reading notes Understanding Psychopathology - Psychological disorder: a psychological dysfunction within an individual associated with distress or impairment in functions and a response that is not typical or culturally expected o three criteria: psychological dysfunction, distress or impairment, atypical response - Psychological dysfunction: a breakdown in cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning o Knowing where to draw the line between normal and abnormal dysfunction is hard § They’re usually presented on a continuum instead of set categories Distress or Impairment - Behavior must be associated with distress to be classified as a disorder o For some disorders, suffering and distress are absent by definition § Ex: someone in a manic state o Because of this, defining psychological disorder by distress alone doesn’t work - Impairment is useful but not entirely satisfactory o Being shy vs being so shy that it’s impossible to interact with people Atypical or Not Culturally Expected - Atypical or not culturally expected is important but also hard to tell o Sometimes something can be considered abnormal because it’s different from the norm (someone being taller than their classmates), but this doesn’t mean that it’s a disorder - Your behavior is disordered if you are violating social norms o Important when considering cultural differences in psychological disorders - Harmful dysfunction An Accepted Definition - The most widely accepted definition of a psychological disorder is used in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders o Describes behavioral, psychological, and biological dysfunctions that are unexpected in their cultural contexed § This is useful if we’re taking cultures/societies into consideration o This is still a hard thing to do, so sometimes the best way we define things is looking at a “typical” profile of a certain disorder when most/all of the symptoms are agreed upon by experts § We call the typical profile a prototype • Meaning: patient may only have some features/symptoms of a disorder and still meet criteria for the disorder because they’re symptoms are close to the prototype

The Scientist-Practitioner - Very important development: adoption of scientific methods to learn more about nature of psychological disorders, causes, and treatment o Those that use this are called scientific-practitioners § They keep up with scientific developments and use up to date diagnostic and treatment procedures § They evaluate their own assessments/treatment procedures § Might conduct research (clinics/hospitals) that give new information • Ex: new “miracle cures” Clinical Description: - Usually say patients “present” with specific problem(s) or discuss the presenting problem o Presents: indicating why the person came to a clinic o Clinical Description: represents the unique combination of behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that make up a specific disorder/symptoms § Important function: see what makes disorder different from normal behavior • Ex: how many people have this disorder in the population [prevalence of a disorder] • Stats on how many cases occur = incidence of the disorder - Most disorders follow a pattern or course o Ex: schizophrenia follows a chronic course [they last a long time, sometimes lifelong] § while some mood disorders follow an episodic course [individual is likely to recover within a few months only to suffer a recurrence at a later time] o other disorders have time-limited course [disorder will improve without treatment in a pretty short time/no risk of reoccurring] - onset similar to courses o some have acute onset [they begin suddenly] o others have insidious onset [develop gradually over an extended period] § things like this are important to know. • Ex: someone with a mild disorder with acute onset that we know is time limited, we’d tell them to not bother with expensive treatment because it’ll get better soon - Prognosis: anticipated course of a disorder o “Prognosis is good” = individual will probably recover o “prognosis is guarded” = probable outcome does not look good. § Individual characteristics should be taken into account in situations like this [age, gender, sex, ethnicity, cultural norms] The Development of Biological Treatments - Insulin shock therapy o Increasing dosages of insulin until patients convulsed and became comatose § Abandoned because dangerous - Electric shock for depression?

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Grey and his colleagues stopped really trying to treat mentally ill patients because they thought they couldn’t do anything to help them; so, they hospitalized them o Once hospitalized, interest centered on diagnosis and study of brain pathology Emil Kraepelin and schizophrenia o Still useful today

The Psychological Tradition: Psychoanalytical Theory - Mind has three major parts/functions o The id § Source of our strong sexual and aggressive feelings or energies • Basically the animal within us § Energy or drive in the id is libido § Less important sense of energy is the death instinct [thanatos] § Operates according to the pleasure principle • Overriding goal of maximizing pleasure and eliminating any associated tension or conflicts • Usually conflicts with social rules/regulation § Has its own characteristic of processing info [primary process] • Emotional, irrational, illogical, filled with fantasies, preoccupied with sex, aggression, selfishness and envy § § § § § §

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The ego Part of the brain that ensures that we act realistically Operates according to the reality principle Cognitive operations are logical and reasonable and referred to as secondary process Role is to mediate conflict between the id and superego Referred to as the executive/manager of the brain

o The super ego § What we might call conscience § Represents moral principles instilled by our parents/culture § Voice that nags us when we’re doing shit wrong § Purpose: counteract potentially dangerous aggressive and sexual drives of the id Because of the conflicts are all within the mind, they’re referred to as intrapsychic conflicts

Carl Rogers’ Person-centered therapy - In terms of therapy, most influential humanist - Originated client-center therapy but became known as person-centered therapy o Therapist takes a passive role, making as few interpretations as possible § Point: give individual change to develop during the course of therapy - Unconditional positive regard: complete and almost unqualified acceptance of most of the client’s feelings and actions o Empathetic towards clients

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o Hoped-for result is that clients will be more honest with themselves and try to grow Humanistic approach has had a substantial effect on interpersonal relationships o Also emphasized the important of therapeutic relationship that was different Freud’s therapeutic Humanistic therapists believed that relationships were the single most positive influence in facilitating human growth Humanistic model didn’t contribute much to psychopathy o Only because it actually had little interest in doing research that would discover or create new knowledge o Stressed nonquantifiable experiences of the individual and reassuring that people are more different than alike Validates patient’s contributions

Biological Tradition Supernatural Tradition Psychological Tradition...