PSYC 1030H Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Low Birth Weight, Impulsivity, Etiology
22 Mar 2018
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Abnormality: a topic like this can be very fuzzy . Why define mental disorders: distinguish from normal responses to stress, determine need for treatment, consistency in use of terms, legal & practical consideration. What criteria to use: statistical, social, personal, functional, unexpectedness. Deviance from statistical norms: infrequent in the population. Deviance from social norms: violates social norms (widely held beliefs and standards for acceptable behaviour) Deviance from personal norms (distress: symptoms cause subjective suffering, agony, acute change from previous level of functioning. Deviance from functional norms: impairs the ability to function in important areas of life. Unexpectedness: surprising or out-of-proportion responses to environmental stressors can be considered abnormal. E. g. , some anxiety disorders may be diagnosed when the anxiety is out of proportion to the situation. Dangers of looking at symptoms in isolation: (without clear operational definitions: risk of overestimating, overlook continuity with all human experience, overlook social causes and personal context.
