Abnormal Behavior

Defining Abnormality
• Abnormality (or dysfunctional behavior), in
the vivid sense of something deviating from
the normal or differing from the typical (such
as an aberration), is a subjectively defined
behavioral characteristic, assigned to those
with rare or dysfunctional conditions. Defining
who is normal or abnormal is a controversial
issue in abnormal psychology.
 Abnormal Psychology
• The scientific study
of abnormal behavior
in order to describe,
predict, explain, and
change abnormal
patterns of
functioning.
 What is Psychologically Abnormal?

The Four D’s

•Deviance
•Distress
•Dysfunction
•Danger
 Four D’s in More Detail
Deviance:
Deviance from or violation of a
society’s ideas about proper
function.
• Norms- a society’s explicit and
implicit rules for proper conduct.
• Culture- a society’s shared rules
that govern the behavior of its
members, common history,
values, beliefs, habits, skills,
technology, and arts.
Includes a valuation aspect which
varies from culture to culture.
 Four D’s in More Detail
Distress:
• Pain or discomfort
Dysfunctional or
Maladaptive Behavior:
• It interferes with daily
functioning.
Danger:
• Behavior that becomes
dangerous to self or others.
 Criteria for Defining Abnormality
Criteria
Cultural relativism criterion
Unusualness criterion
Discomfort criterion
Mental illness criterion
Maladaptiveness criterion
Definition
Norms of a culture set the standard for
normal behavior and abnormality can be
defined in reference to these norms.
Abnormal behaviors are those that are rare
or infrequent.
People must suffer as a result of a
behavior and wish to be rid of it for it to
be called abnormal.
Abnormal behaviors are those that result
from mental illness.
Behaviors that cause people physical or
emotional harm, prevent them from
functioning in daily life, and/or indicate
that they have lost touch with reality or
cannot control their thoughts are
abnormal.
 DSM Definition: Mental Disorder
• [A mental disorder] is conceptualized as a clinically significant
behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in
an individual and that is associated with present distress (a
painful symptom) or disability (impairment in one or more
areas of functioning) or with a significantly increased risk of
suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of
freedom.
• In addition, this syndrome or pattern must not be merely an
expectable and culturally sanctioned response to a particular
event, for example, the death of a loved one. Whatever its
original cause, it must currently be considered a manifestation
of a behavioral, psychological, or biological dysfunction in the
individual.
 Other Definitions
• Psychological Disorder – a harmful dysfunction
in which behavior is judged to be atypical,
disturbing, maladaptive, and unjustifiable.
• Abnormal Behavior- we define behavior as
abnormal, a manifestation of mental disorder, if it
is both persistent and in serious degree contrary to
the continued well-being of the individual and/or
that of the human community of which the
individual is a member (Carson, Butcher, &
Mineka).
 Classification of Abnormal Behavior
• A useful classification system must be reliable
and valid.
• Three models of classification
– 1. Categorical
– 2. Dimensional
– 3. Prototypal
 Three Models of Classification
Categorical Approach:
• Human behavior can be divided into two categories (health or unhealthy).
• The unhealthy category consists of discrete, non overlapping, classes or
types.
Dimensional Approach:
• Product of different dimensions (eg. anxiousness, extroversion)
• People differ in profile or configuration of these dimensional traits.
• Normal or abnormal is determined by looking at any particular dimension
and making a determination usually based on a normative percentage.
Prototypal Approach:
• Assumes the existence of conceptual entities (prototypes) depicting
idealized combinations of characteristics, ones that more or less regularly
occur together.
Historical Perspectives on Abnormality
Biological Theories:
• Saw mental disorders as similar to physical diseases
caused by the breakdown of one of systems in the body.
Super-natural Theories:
• Saw mental disorders as a result of divine intervention,
curses, demonic possession and personal sins.
Psychological Theories:
• Saw mental disorders as a result of traumas such as
bereavement or chronic stress.
Ancient Theories
Evil Spirits of the Stone age:
• Stone Age people probably
viewed mental disorders as a
result of supernatural forces.
• They may have drilled holes in
the skulls of suffers, a procedure
known as trephination to
release the evil forces causing
mental disorders.
• Demonology, Gods, and Magic;
Cause- possession of evil spirits.
Treatment :exorcism
Ancient theories
Ancient China: Balancing Yin and Yang:
• Chinese medicine was based on the concept of
yin and yang; the human body is said to
contain positive and a negative force, which
confront and complement each other.
• If the two forces are in balance the individual
is healthy and if not, illness including insanity
can result.
Early Greek and Roman Thought
Hippocrates (460-370 B.C):
Cause
• Mental Disorders have natural
causes
• Brain Central Organ of Intellectual
Activity
• Heredity
• Four Bodily Humors (blood, black
bile, yellow bile, and phlegm)
Treatment:
• Tranquil lifestyle, abstinence from
excesses, bleeding, exercise
• Pleasant surroundings, massage,
hydrotherapy, education,
• Bleeding, purging, mechanical
restraints
Medieval Views
Middle Ages (500-1500):
• Return to Demonology &
Superstition and away from
Physical Causes
• Mass Madness
Middle Ages (1500-1700s):
• Establishment of Asylums and
Shrines
• Means of removing mentally ill
from society
• Horrid condition of filth and
deprivation including: darkness,
starvation, restraints, cold baths,
tortures.
 Moral Treatment
• In the 18th and 19th centuries, advocate of more
gentle treatment of people with mental disorders
began to establish asylums for these people.
• In 1796, Quaker William Tuke (1732-1819)
opened a new asylum in England called The
Retreat, in direct response to the brutal treatment
he saw being delivered to people with mental
disorders
• Dorothea Dix crusaded for the moral treatment of
mental patients in the United States.
 Moral Treatment
• French and American revolution – renaissance of
rationalization, humanism and political democracy
• Chiarugi in Italy and Muller in Germany – humane
treatment
• Philippe Pinel – humanitarian treatment of mentally ill
in asylums.
• Patients formerly chained & shackled were released &
free to roam the buildings.

• Treatment: cannabis, opium, alcohol

Emergence of Modern Perspectives
Beginning of the Modern Era:
• Biological Link between Brain and Mental Disorder
• Classification System (Kraeplin) & Medical Model
• Establishing the Psychological Basis
• Mesmerism
Psychoanalysis (Freud):
• Hypnosis and Catharsis
• Unconscious and Free Association
Establishing An Experimental Research:
• Laboratories
Behavioral Perspective:
• Classical Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning
 DSM Classification of Mental
Disorders
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM)
• Introduced in 1952
• Moving from a subjective to operational definition.
• Diagnosis is based on signs and symptoms
• Signs- objective observations of a patients
physical or mental disorder by a diagnostician.
• Symptoms- patient’s subjective description of a
physical or mental disorder.
 The Five Axes of DSM-IV-TR
• Axis I - Particular clinical syndromes
• Axis II - Personality disorders
• Axis III - General medical conditions
• Axis IV - Psychosocial/environmental
problems
• Axis V - Global assessment of functioning
 Mental Disorder’s Qualifying Terms
• Comorbidity-existence of two or more disorders
• Acute- describes a disorder of sudden onset, usually
with intense symptoms
• Chronic- describes a long-standing or frequently
recurring disorder, often of progressing seriousness
• Mild/Moderate/Severe- describes a disorder of a low
order of severity, intermediate order of severity, and a
high degree of seriousness.
• Episodic Disorder- describes a disorder that tends to
abate and to recur
• Recurrent- describes a disorder pattern that tends to
come and go.
 Labeling: Positive and Negative
• Communication
• Social Label
• May limit Inquiry Once Applied
• Self-fulfilling Prophecy
• Have critical and Stigmatizing Implications
– Second-Class Citizens
– Devastate Self-Esteem and Morale
 The Extent of Abnormal Behavior
• Epidemiology- study of the distribution of diseases,
disorders, or health-related behaviors in a given
population.
• Prevalence- the proportion of active cases of a disorder
that can be identified in a population at a given point in,
or during a given period, of time.
• Incidence- occurrence (onset) rate of a given disorder in
a given population.
• Lifetime Prevalence- the proportion of living persons in
a population who have ever had a disorder up to the
time of the epidemiological assessment.