HPS121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Classical Conditioning, Anxiety Disorder, Psychogenic Amnesia
HPS121 Week 7
Psychological disorders
It’s difficult to define ‘abnormality’ as there are several factors which need to be
considered such as:
1. The personal values of a given psychologist
2. Expectations of the culture in which a person currently lives in
3. Expectations of the person’s culture of origin
4. General assumptions about human nature
5. Statistical deviations from the norm
6. Harmfulness, suffering and impairment
Abnormal behaviour – behaviour that is personally distressing, personally dysfunctional
and/or so culturally deviant that other people judge it to be inappropriate or
maladaptive.
Historical perspectives on abnormal behaviour – throughout history, human societies
have explained and responded to abnormal behaviours in different ways at different
times, based on their values and assumptions about human life and behaviour. The
belief that abnormal behaviour is caused by supernatural forces goes back to ancient
Chinese, Egyptians and Hebrews, all of whom attributed deviance to the work of the
devil.
Diatheses-stress model – claims that certain biological or environmental factors make
us vulnerable to mental illness but don’t directly cause it.
Vulnerability-stress model – claims each of us has some degree of vulnerability (ranging
from very to very high) for developing a psychological disorder, given sufficient stress.
Vulnerability can have a biological basis, such as our genotype, over or under-activity
of a neurotransmitter system in the brain, a hair-trigger autonomic nervous system
or a hormonal factor.
It could be due to a personality factor, such as low self-esteem or extreme
pessimism.
It could be due to a previous environmental and social factors, such as poverty or a
severe trauma or loss earlier in life.
Culture factors can create vulnerability to certain kinds of disorders.
Stressor – some recent or current event that requires a person to cope. Stressors work with
vulnerability in developing a psychological disorder. E.g. environmental trauma
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Document Summary
Abnormal behaviour behaviour that is personally distressing, personally dysfunctional and/or so culturally deviant that other people judge it to be inappropriate or maladaptive. Historical perspectives on abnormal behaviour throughout history, human societies have explained and responded to abnormal behaviours in different ways at different times, based on their values and assumptions about human life and behaviour. The belief that abnormal behaviour is caused by supernatural forces goes back to ancient. Chinese, egyptians and hebrews, all of whom attributed deviance to the work of the devil. Diatheses-stress model claims that certain biological or environmental factors make us vulnerable to mental illness but don"t directly cause it. Vulnerability-stress model claims each of us has some degree of vulnerability (ranging from very to very high) for developing a psychological disorder, given sufficient stress. Vulnerability can have a biological basis, such as our genotype, over or under-activity of a neurotransmitter system in the brain, a hair-trigger autonomic nervous system or a hormonal factor.
