PSY 3171 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Color Blindness, Heart Murmur, Drapetomania

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 3171
• Professor: Allison Jane Ouimet

Document Summary

A disorder is abnormal: how me measure abnormality is based on social or cultural norms and contexts. Asian disorder called koro (fear of body retracting genitals) would seem out of place in a canadian society, perhaps delusional. Lata is malaysian (convulse after being surprised), also uncommon to. Therefore, cultural standards matter: abnormalities are era-specific. Homosexuality used to be part of dsm, no longer a disorder. Drapetomania, the act of a slave attempting escape from his master, was once considered a disorder: abnormalities are controversial. Adhd is potentially overdiagnosed, and possibly by the wrong people (physician instead of trained clinical psychiatrist) Adhd also context specific, would not find this disorder in cultures that do not require long attention demanding activities such as school or office employment. Anorexia/bulimia are based on the north american value of thinness. Does not make it right or wrong. Laziness, selfish, racist, poverty, unemployment, religion, working parent.