PSYC 235 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Operant Conditioning, William Tuke, Philippe Pinel
29 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Psychological disorder: the psychological dysfunction within an individual, that causes distress or impairs functioning, and a response that is not typical or culturally expected. The three ds, dysfunction, distress and deviance (from cultural norm) Dysfunction: the breakdown of cognitive, behavioral or emotional functioning. Dysfunction is not present or absent, rather it exists on a continuum. Its not clear where to draw the line between normal and abnormal. This cannot define abnormality alone, because distress is a common emotion in humans. Furthermore, some disorders (ex, someone experiencing a manic episode) don"t evoke distress. Someone who is shy does not have a disorder, unless they are so shy that they can no longer interact with people. This illustrates how many disorders are extremes of emotions. This alone, isn"t insufficient to define abnormality because people who differ from the cultural norm, may just be eccentric or especially talented.
