PSYC 241 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Pope Innocent Viii, Dorothea Dix, General Paresis Of The Insane

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 241
• Professor: Dagmar Bernstein

Document Summary

Abnormal psychology: application of psychological science to the study of mental disorders. Psychopathology: field concerned with the nature and development of abnormal behaviour, thoughts and feelings. Abnormal behaviour is determined by: statistical infrequency when the behaviour or characterization is infrequent in the general population. This is not a sufficient marker because having an iq>130 is also infrequent: violates norms the behaviour threatens or makes anxious those watching. Anxious individuals do not violate social norms: personal distress behaviour that creates distress and torment in the person. A psychopath feels no remorse or anxiety, or a woman in labour feels pain of childbirth: disability or dysfunction and impairment in some important area of life. Being short and wanting to play basketball is not a disability: unexpectedness: unexpected or out of proportion responses to environmental stressors. Being happy at a funeral or phobia of spiders. According to the dsm mental disorders are defined: present stress, disability or impairment in functioning.