PSYB32H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Psychology, Intellectual Disability, Anxiety Disorder
PSYB32: Abnormal Psychology
Chapter 1: Introduction: Definitional & Historical Considerations & Canada’s Mental Health System
Wei Luo
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WHAT IS ABNORMAL BEHAVIOUR?
• The study of abnormal can also be known as the study of psychopathology, it’s the study of abnormal behaviours,
thoughts, and feelings
• Abnormal behaviour includes characteristics such as statistical infrequency, violation of norms, personal distress,
disability or dysfunction, and unexpectedness
o Statistical Infrequency is when an abnormal behaviour is rare or infrequent in our population
▪ When placing in a normal curve or a belled-shape curve, majority of the people that are ‘not
concerned’ are placed in the middle
▪ It focuses on diagnosing mental retardation such as those who have low intelligence
• E.g. an individual with a low IQ of 70 is consider to have mental retardation
o Violation of Norms is when others think another culture is abnormal when it violates another social culture
o Personal Suffering is when abnormal behaviour can cause torture and stress to the person that is experiencing
the behaviour
▪ E.g. those that suffer from anxiety or depression, however some do not suffer from distress, such as a
psychopath that hurts others but not itself
o Disability is when those that already have abnormal behaviours that can affect areas that are important in their
life
▪ E.g. those that are drug addicts can affect how they perform during their work or a phobia can cause
someone from taking another job
▪ However, not all abnormal behaviours are a disability such as a mental disorder called transvestism
that wears clothes that is completely opposite of their sex (men wearing girl clothes)
o Unexpectedness is when an abnormal behaviour that considered disable and distress can be unexpected when
response to an environmental situation
▪ E.g. anxiety disorder can be unexpected when the environmental situation occurred out of no where
HISTORY OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
• Demonology is when an evil spirt is inside a person’s body and that spirt is in control of that individual’s mind and
body
• Back in the history of abnormal, possession of a person’s bad spirt is the caused of abnormal behaviours
o The treatment to take away possession is exorcism that is chanting or torturing on the evil spirt by prayers
• Trepanning of skulls is when medical doctors open a living skull
o It was used by Stone age and in fact it was to cure headaches and psychological disorders to take away the
demons
o With the openings to the skull, it was like a gateway for the demon to escape and hope that the individual will
get back to their normal state
• The father of modern medicine is known to be a Greek physician, Hippocrates
o He believed that ‘god’ was not the one that gave us these abnormal behaviours as punishments, but instead
nature itself was the one to cause these abnormal behaviours
▪ He believes it should be treated or can be treated
o Hippo thinks that the brain is the origin of our consciousness, emotions, thoughts, and feelings
o Hippo was also the earliest physician of developing somatogenesis which is consider how there is something
wrong with our physical body
▪ In contrast, psychogenesis is the development of our physical disorder from our psychological, rather
than our body
▪ Both somatogenesis and psychogenesis was the first two major points in the beginning of abnormal
field
• Hippocrates believes that mental disorders is split into three categories:
Document Summary
The dark ages and demonology: the death of galen was the start of the dark ages for western european medicine and treatments for abnormal behaviours. In europe, people became obsessed with the devil, and therefore, witchcraft was viewed as a satan, where they are seen to be as denial of god. In 1484, pope innocent viii sent others to search for witches, and two years later they developed a manual as a guide to hunt witches called, malleus maleficarum. In canada, most people face negative stereotyping and stigmatization: e. g. those that suffer from either anxiety or depression, they feel embarrass because of the social culture they are in, and few people today are seeking help. Chapter 1: introduction: definitional & historical considerations & canada"s mental health system. Mental health problems & their treatment in canada: mental illness tends to downgrade in some of your life area such as, personal misery, disruption of family life, low quality of life.
