Psychology 2035A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Death Ray, Abnormal Psychology, Distressing
17 Dec 2016
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Department
Course
Professor
Definitions, Causes and Treatments
Sarah
• Experienced doom, shakiness and pain in a mall
o Calmed herself down and went to her car and drove home
▪ This is reoccurring now
• She is afraid to leave the house now
Jim
• I a hospital, his stateet oe day I just ke alies took oer the ody of y
neighbour, and they were planning to destroy me because I knew. Then I felt
tingles all over my body, and noted that the aliens had a death ray. I called the
police, and they said to talk to my doctor. So I did what I had to, and shot back.
The police came, and sent me to a hospital.
1 adolescent in North America commits suicide every 90 seconds
30 million people in North America will develop alcohol related problems in their lives
60 million people have mild/moderate depression, and another 6 million suffer from
sever depression
Drugs
• Most frequently prescribed drugs are anti anxiety
o 40% and 50% of all people living in North America will develop at least
one psychological disorder at some point in their lives
Psychological disorder
• Abnormal thoughts, feelings and behaviours
• “tudy of psyhologial disorders is alled aoral psyhology
• What does abnormal mean?
o Anything that deviates from average, or normal
• When psychologists attempt to define abnormal they include a few criteria
o Deviant
o Dysfunctional
▪ Maladaptive
• Interfere with the persons ability to function and adapt to
everyday life
o Cause a high level of personal distress
▪ Three Ds
find more resources at oneclass.com
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• Deviant
• Dysfunctional
• Distressing
o When something satisfies all three criteria, that is
something that can define a psychological disorder
Problems with this definition
• First
o Definitions of what is normal and abnormal is influenced by cultural and
values
▪ Hearing voices
▪ Seeing visions
o Can change over time within a culture
▪ Homosexuality pre and post 1973
• Removed from the official list of psychiatric disorders in
1973
o Distress and dysfunction are subjective states
▪ They are not objective states
• There are some severely distressed people that feel
completely fine
o Not clear how much distress, deviance and dysfunction is required for
something to be classified as a psychological disorder
▪ Normal and abnormal exist on a continuum
• Most people with psychiatric disorders fall somewhere
between the two ends of the continuum
• The DSM-5 classification system
o Described on page 424
What causes psychological Disorders?
• Demonic perspective (ancient times)
o Evil spirits invade the body
o Example
▪ Ancient treatment for psychological disorders appeared to have
involved drilling a hole in skull so evil spirits could escape
▪ Burning at the steak
• If thought to be a result of witchcraft
o More than 100 thousand people suffered this fate
• The Medical (biological) perspective
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Sarah: experienced doom, shakiness and pain in a mall, calmed herself down and went to her car and drove home, this is reoccurring now, she is afraid to leave the house now. I(cid:374) a hospital, his state(cid:373)e(cid:374)t (cid:862)o(cid:374)e day i just k(cid:374)e(cid:449) alie(cid:374)s took o(cid:448)er the (cid:271)ody of (cid:373)y neighbour, and they were planning to destroy me because i knew. Then i felt tingles all over my body, and noted that the aliens had a death ray. I called the police, and they said to talk to my doctor. So i did what i had to, and shot back. The police came, and sent me to a hospital. 1 adolescent in north america commits suicide every 90 seconds. 30 million people in north america will develop alcohol related problems in their lives. 60 million people have mild/moderate depression, and another 6 million suffer from sever depression.
