Abnormal Psychology 

Concerned with understanding the nature, causes and treatments of mental disorders.

**What society defines as abnormal changes as society changes

Elements of Abnormal Psychology 

1) Personal distress or suffering

2) Maladaptivness or social anxiety

3) Statistical deviancy (intellectual disability vs. genius) 

4) Violation of the standards of society (has to be statistivcally deviant as well, parking illegally vs. serial killer)

5) Irrationality, Upredictability or Dangerousness (being a danger to oneself or others)

**No one element can define or determine abnormality.

Aggregation

Suffering

Maladaptiveness

Statistical Deviance 

Violation of the Standards of Society

When people fail to follow the conventional social and moral rules of their cultural group their behavior is considered abnormal. Also, as a general rule their behavior generally causes discomfort to those around them (Or would if their were people watching).

**What society defines as abnormal changes as society changes over time.

Irrationality, Unpredictabilty and Dangerousness

Important Facts

1) Abnormality is based off of social judgments and is defined by society as a whole. What may be acceptable in one society may not be acceptable in abother. 

2) Because society is constantly changing and becoming more or less tolerant of certain behaviors, what is considered abnormal in one decade may or may not be a decade or two later. ie: piercings, tattoos and homosexuality. 

DSM-5

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

This manual provides all the information necessary to diagnose mental disorders. It contains lists of symptoms and specified diagnostic descriptions which allows clinicians to have a common language in the psychological field.

**Remember the definition for abnomrlaity is somewhat arbitrary, therefor this manual must not be thought of as a completed work, but an ongoing work in progress. 

Why do we use the DSM-5?

Disadvantages of Classification

1) Stigma (disgrace associated with having a specific disorder)

2) Stereotyping (Prejudicial attitudes towards the mentally ill)

3) Labeling (or a person self image of themselves, often that can be hard to change after accepting their disorder even after they are completely cured)

4) Allows for shorthanded information to be passed from one clinician to another creating a loss of information about the individual.

Advantages of Classification

1) Helps with continuity and reliability of treatments.

2) Helps researchers.

3) Enables structure info and names to mean specific things universally.

4) Helps health professionals know which symptoms/disorders warrant certain treatment as well as what treatments are covered by insurance.

DSM-5 Definition of Mental Disorder

States a mental disorder is a syndrom that is present in an individual and that involves clinically significant disturbances in behavior, emotional regulation or cognitive functions.

These disturbances are thought to reflect a dysfunction in biological, psychological or developmental processes that are necessary for mental functioning. 

How Common are Mental Disorders?

This is a significant question for three reasons.

1) So it can be determined how society should allocate resources, such as health professionals that specialize in treating a specific disorder. 

2) To figure out how to reduce the stigma for mental disorders.

3) To figure out if there are specific factors that cause some disorders.  

Mental Health Epidemiology

Prevalence

The study of the distribution of mental disorders among a given population. 

The number of active cases in a population during any given period of time. "How common it is" Generally expressed in percentages.

Point Prevalence 

1-year-prevalence

Lifetime Prevalence

Incidence

Refers to the number of new cases that occur over a given period of time (typically 1 year). These exclude preexisting cases, so usually the number is lower than prevalence figures. 

This is done to see if people who are suffering from a disorder are doing so becuase of a specific event.

Or to see if people who have experienced the disorder before are pre-disposed to experiencing it again seperate from their original exposure to the disorder.

Retrospective

When taking a survey this is having people look back overtime to determine if they ever had a mental disorder.

This is not always reliable because you are basing data off of people meories which can be skewed, so their is usually added noise that creates inaccuracy.

Prospective

This would involve collecting data directly from the population on a daily basis over a period of time in order to determine the occurance of mental disorders.

This is completely unfeesable and unrealistic, however it would allow for the most accurate data to be gathered.