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Abnormal Psychology

Defining Abnormal Behavior

• Behavior that is personally disturbing or disabling, or culturally so deviant that others judge it as maladaptive, inappropriate, or unjustifiable.

Demonology• Through much of our history, one who

behaved abnormally was thought to be possessed by demons.

• Hippocrates challenged this belief in the 5th

century B.C. – He believed that mental illness was due to an imbalance of chemicals in the body.

Demonology• In the middle ages, demonology returned

many people were tortured and killed that exhibited abnormal behavior.

• The Inquisition – a million or more people tried, convicted, and executed as being possessed.

• In the Salem, Massachusetts colony 20 colonists were identified as witches and killed.

6 Scientific Approaches• As science evolved, alternate explanations of

abnormality replaced the demonological model.

• These perspectives closely parallel those theoretical approached discussed in the personality unit.

• No one approach is necessarily right. Each tries to assess the etiology or cause of the behavior

1. Psychodynamic Approach

• Sees abnormal behavior as stemming from intrapsychic conflict – dynamic interactions between the id, ego, and superego will determine behavioral outcomes.

• If the id dominates, behavior will be unrestrained, uninhibited, and impulsive with no thought to social norms.

• If superego dominates, abnormal restrictions on behavior, guilt, etc.

2. Humanistic Approach

• Abnormal behavior comes from two sources:– People are too sensitive to others’ opinions– People are unable to accept their own

selves.• Low self regard and insufficient unconditional

positive regard from others aggravating their behaviors.

3. Behavioral Approach

• Abnormal behavior results from the same process that normal behavior does, namely classical or operant conditioning

• John Watson & Little Albert

4. Cognitive Approach

• Abnormal behavior results from distorted thinking

• For example, phobias come from distorted belief that something will cause death or great harm, when in fact, it would cause neither.

• Therapy would be based on changing the distorted thinking

5. Biological Approach

• Abnormal behavior stems from physiological processes, particularly in the nervous system and the brain.

• For example, imbalances in neurotransmitters• Medication is often used for therapy

6. Biopsychological Approach

• Combined approach that recognizes the interaction between biological, psychological and social factors

• The diathesis-stress theory suggests that people have predispositions to mental health disorders. When the stress of the environment increases, so too, does the person’s natural inclination to exhibit those disorders.

Classifying & Diagnosing Abnormal Behavior

• International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10)

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV-R)

• Used by clinicians to diagnose mental problems.

• Atheoretical (lists symptoms) – makes no attempt to explain causes.

The Five Axes of DSM-IV-R

• Axis I – includes clinical syndromes or the major mental health disorders such as:– Schizophrenic disorders– Somatofrm disorders– Sexual disorders– Depressive disorders– And others


• Axis II – Lists personality disorders that may coexist with Axis I disorders


• Axis III – Lists physical disorders that may precipitate or interact with psychological conditions


• Axis IV – Lists the severity of psuchological stressors in the individual’s environment


• Axis V – Provides a global assessment of a person’s level of functioning

Critics • Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz –

– The Myth of Mental Illness (1960) – "If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks

to you, you have schizophrenia. If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; If you talk to the dead, you are a schizophrenic.“

– While people behave and think in ways that are very disturbing, this does not mean they have a disease. To Szasz, people with mental illness have a "fake disease," and these "scientific categories" are in fact used for power controls.


– Schizophrenia is "the sacred symbol of psychiatry" and, according to Szasz, is not really an illness. To be a true disease, the entity must somehow be capable of being approached, measured, or tested in scientific fashion.

– According to Szasz, disease must be found on the autopsy table and meet pathological definition instead of being voted into existence by members of the American Psychiatric Association.


– Mental illnesses are "like a" disease, argues Szasz, putting mental illness in a semantic metaphorical language arts category. Psychiatry is a pseudo-science that parodies medicine by using medical sounding words invented over the last 100 years. To be clear, heart break and heart attack belong to two completely different categories.


– Psychiatrists are but "soul doctors", the successors of priests, who deal with the spiritual "problems in living" that have troubled people forever.

– Psychiatry, through various Mental Health Acts has become the secular state religion according to Thomas Szasz. It is a social control system, which disguises itself under the claims of scientificity.

Critics • David Rosenhan - On Being Sane in Insane

Places (1972) • Rosenhan recruited eight, sane volunteers -

five men and three women - to secretly gain admission to twelve hospitals using false names and occupations. No hospital staff were in on the ruse.

Critics • The admissions worked as follows. The

pseudopatient would call the hospital for an appointment, and then present to the admissions office complaining that they had been hearing voices.

Critics • "Asked what the voices said, he replied that

they were often unclear, but as far as he could tell they said 'empty,' 'hollow,' and 'thud.' The voices were unfamiliar and were of the same sex as the pseudopatient. Such symptoms are alleged to arise from painful concerns about the perceived meaninglessness of one’s life. It is as if the hallucinating person were saying, 'My life is empty and hollow.'

Critics • Each patient was admitted with the diagnosis

paranoid schizophrenia.• Upon admission, each patient immediately

refrained from acting anything but normal and never again indicated having heard voices.

• It took anywhere form 7 to 52 days to be released from the hospital, and then with the diagnosis of schizophrenia in remission, not cured.

Mood or Affective Disorders

• Major depression (also called clinical depression or unipolar depression)

• Seasonal affective disorder(S.A.D.)• Bipolar disorder (manic-depression)

Major Depression• Characterized by deep sadness, feelings of

hopelessness or worthlessness, loss of energy, changes in appetite and sleep patterns and suicidal thoughts.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.)

• Characterized by symptoms similar to major depression but triggered by changes in the seasons. Reduced levels of light during the winter months seem to be the main cause and intensive light exposure is a major treatment approach.

Bipolar Disorder• Characterized by sudden shifts in mood, from

deep depression and listlessness to extreme euphoria, optimism and energy. Some sufferers cycle through such changes much more quickly and unexpectedly than others; some often return to a kind of baseline state with relatively no symptoms, while others are either manic or depressed pretty much all the time.

Explanations of Mood Disorders

• Psychodynamic Explanations– Freud linked depression and mourning because

people in either state showed overwhelming sorrow. Suggested that depression was caused by a sense of loss.

– Sense of loss may be accompanied by anger at the person who left us. Because the individual is no longer there to be mad at, may feel guilt over anger. The anger is turned inward.


• Humanistic Explanations– Humanists offer less explanations for depression

compared to other theoretical approaches.– One explanation offered by logotheraptist Viktor

Frankl, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, was that depression seemed to come from a loss of purpose. Finding meaning in existence, then, is the main therapeutic approach for depression from this perspective.


• Learning Theory Explanations– Proposes that depressed individuals receive fewer

rewards than non-depressed persons.– Therefore less things make a depressed person

happy, and more things make them unhappy. This can be self-sustaining, causing others to continue to reward less and punish more.


• Learning Theory Explanations– Non-depressed people tend to not want to be

around depressed people. – Even when depressed people are receiving equal

amounts of rewards and punishments, they still perceive or think they are receiving less reinforcement than rewards.

– They also tend to give themselves fewer rewards and more punishment

– Learned helplessness also plays a role, particularly in women.


• Cognitive Explanations– According to Beck, inappropriate inferences and

attributions contribute to depression. He believes that depressed individuals are more susceptible to one or more errors in thinking, such as arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, overgeneralization, magnification and minimization, and personalization.

Arbitrary Inference• An individual draws a conclusion (usually a

negative one in the case of depression) despite the lack of evidence to support it. For example, concluding that someone does not like you simply because he or she merely said hello and did not engage in extended discussion.

Selective Abstraction• Involves focusing on one aspect or detail of a

situation, while ignoring more important ones.

• For instance, spending an inordinate amount of time attending to the placement and folding of napkins for a dinner party rather than to the food, guests, and so on.

Overgeneralization• An individual makes a global conclusion on

the basis of one episode, as in stating that one is terrible at math based on one math course.

Magnification or Minimization

• Involves magnifying the negative aspects of a situation while minimizing the more positive ones. For example, in a job evaluation paying attention to and ruminating about one negative comment a supervisor made rather than the 10 positive comments that were stated.

Personalization• An individual takes personal responsibility for

an event that is not under his or her control, such as blaming oneself because it rained on the day of the company picnic.


• Biological Explanations– Biological explanations focus on abnormally low

levels or norepinepherine or of serotonin. The origin of both theories were based on the effects of drugs on depressed people. Sadness and helplessness have been shown to be due to decreased blood flow in the cerebrum, particularly in the frontal-temporal areas.


• Biological Explanations– According to this view the manic phase of bipolar

disorder is the result of elevated levels or norepinepherine which steadily decreases during the transition to the depressive stage.

– The administration of the drug lithium, which lowers norepinepherine levels, is still the most effective treatment for bipolar disorder.

– Research also suggests that bipolar is more strongly genetically transmitted than is major depression.

Anxiety Disorders• Generalized anxiety disorder• Phobia• Panic disorder• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)• Post-traumatic stress disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• Marked by ongoing tension, apprehension and nervousness that does not seem to be linked to any specific trigger or stimulus.

Phobias• Not simply a fear, but a deep-seated,

irrational fear - irrational in the sense that one may feel intense terror even in "safe" conditions.

Phobias• Some are specific fears (triggered by animals,

height, enclosed spaces, etc.)• Some are social phobias (such as intense fear

of public speaking) • A third type is agoraphobia, an intense fear of

public settings or any setting from which there is no ready means of escape in case of a panic attack.

Panic Disorder• Intense fear, usually accompanied by

significant sympathetic nervous system activation, that is not triggered by any particular event, object or situation.

• This can also be marked by the concern that one might have a panic attack, or by a general feeling of impending danger.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

• Obsessions are persistent, undesirable thoughts, while compulsions are actions that one feels driven to carry out. One especially disturbing characteristic of this condition is that the sufferer usually recognized as that obsessions and/or compulsions are irrational or maladaptive and does not want to have them but cannot control them.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

• Occurring after a deeply troubling event (such as a natural disaster, assault or wartime experiences). This is a condition marked by restlessness, irritability, sleep impairment, losses of concentration, nightmares and flashbacks to the dramatic event.

Dissociative Disorders• Dissociate identity disorder (multiple

personality)• Dissociative amnesia• Dissociative fugue

Dissociate Identity Disorder

• This rare condition involves the existence of two or more separate personalities housed in one body. This should not be confused with schizophrenia.

Dissociative Amnesia• Characterized by a large-scale loss of memory

for events or one’s own identity. It can be very sudden in the onset and in recovery and often is associated with an injury or, perhaps, with a highly dramatic incident.

Dissociative Fugue• This is sometimes called "traveling amnesia"

because it is marked by amnesia and physical relocation.

The Schizophrenias• Paranoid schizophrenia• Disorganized schizophrenia• Catatonic schizophrenia• Undifferentiated schizophrenia

Paranoid Schizophrenia

• The central symptoms here involve delusions, although the victim may also suffer from hallucinations, etc. the delusions are usually of a paranoid kind, although they may be intermingled with delusions of grandeur.

Disorganized Schizophrenia

• The central symptoms here are cognitive and emotional. Speech and thought are very confused and emotions can be highly childlike or inappropriate.

Catatonic Schizophrenia

• Central symptoms here involves flattened affect in which the victim demonstrates no emotion or responsibility and may even "freeze" in odd, contorted positions.

Explanations of Schizophrenia

• Psychodynamic Explanations– Psychodynamic explanations of schizophrenia do

not receive much support. Freudian theory, for example, explains schizophrenia via primary narcissism. Schizophrenics are believed to have regressed to early stages of development, namely the oral stage. (Recall that the ego has not yet differentiated from the id during the oral stage).

– Schizophrenia represents the disintegration of the ego and a return to the infantile state.


• Humanistic Explanations-– Most humanistic psychologists seldom deal with

schizophrenia or other disruptive conditions, with the exception of two: Thomas Szasz and R.D. Laing. Szasz claims that schizophrenia does not exist, nor do similar “mental illnesses.”

– Similarly, Laing suggests that schizophrenia is a label, not an illness. He calls it a reasonable response to unreasonable living conditions. The problem is not with the individual but with society.


• Learning Theory Explanations– Labeling theory is a prominent example of a

learning theory explanation of schizophrenia. In it, schizophrenics are encouraged to act in a schizophrenic manner after having been labeled as such. This may be because they feel freer to engage in such behavior or because others are just more likely to interpret their behavior as schizophrenic even when they are normal.

– Consequently, the label of schizophrenic creates the self-fulfilling prophecy whereby the individual behaves in ways that are consistent with the label.


• Cognitive Explanations– Cognitive explanations hold that schizophrenics

have different sensory experiences than do non-schizophrenics. Their attempt to explain their sensory experiences is interpreted as schizophrenic by others. Sensory overload and the lack of sensory filter are used to explain the sources od schizophrenic sensory differences.


• Biological Explanations– Biological explanations hold the most promise in

understanding this disorder– One popular theory is that excess activity of the

neurotransmitter dopamine causes schizophrenia.


• Biological Explanations– Another is that specific structural abnormalities in

the brain causes schizophrenia, such as larger ventricles, atrophied brain portions, or less actuation of the prefrontal brain region. More recent research suggests that exposure to a virus contracted by the mother during the prenatal period leads to schizophrenia.

Developmental Disorders

• Autism• Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

(ADHD)• Conduct disorder• Different levels of mental retardation

Autism

Conduct Disorder• Conducts disorders involve high levels of

misbehavior, including stealing, truancy, fighting, vandalism, frequent lying, and cruelty to people and animals.

• Behavior may occur independently or in context of groups such as gangs.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

• In attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder children have difficulty in maintaining attention on a task for any length of time.

• They also tend to be disruptive and impulsive.• More common in boys, usually before the age

of 7• Cause is unknown, but psychologists suspect

that it is organic.• Between 3-5% of children may have it

Personality Disorders• Anti-social personality disorder• Narcissistic personality disorder• Histrionic personality disorder• Paranoid personality disorder• Borderline personality disorder

Paranoid Personality Disorder

• Individuals are suspicious of others, expect bad treatment, and blame others for their problems.

Schizoid Personality Disorder

• Individuals have difficulty in forming relationships, and are indifferent to others.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

• Individuals with shizotypal personality disorder are seriously eccentric or bizarre, are susceptible to illusions, and may engage in magical thinking, believing that they have contact with the supernatural.

• May be a mild form of schizophrenia

Borderline Personality Disorder

• Individuals with borderline personality disorder show extreme instability in moods, self image, and relationships with other people.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

• Narcissistic individuals are self-important, selfish, self-centered, lack empathy for others, are manipulative, and fantasize about past and future successes.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

• People with histrionic personality disorder seem to be always “on stage”

• Are attention seeking• Showy, but with shallow emotions• Manipulative and demanding

Avoidant Personality Disorder

• Avoids relationships for fear of rejection• Very low self esteem

Dependent Personality Disorder

• Low self-confidence• Reluctant to take responsibility for tasks• Subordinate their own needs in favor of close

others• Often sensitive to criticism

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

• High concern for details and rules• Are perfectionists• Work oriented• Cold and distant• Relationship difficulties

Antisocial Personality Disorder

• Superficially charming, and sincere, but are actually very self-centered and insincere.

• Show no guilt or remorse for harming others.• Formerly called psychopathic personality

disorder.

Somatoform Disorders• Conversion disorder• Hypochondriasis

Conversion Disorder• Formerly known as hysteria• Physical symptoms that resemble those of a

neurological disorder• Symptoms may be paralysis or blindness,

deafness.• No physiological reason for it.

Hypochondriasis• Excessive preoccupation with having a

serious illness, when no illness is present.

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