PSYC 235 Lecture Notes - Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Binge Eating Disorder, Acute Stress Reaction
2 Dec 2013
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There is no universal standard for abnormal, however these questions can be asked: does the behavior cause personal distress/significantly affect life, does the behavior violate cultural norms, results in dysfunction *must cause personal distress. Psychological disorder: associated with distress or impairment in functioning and a response that is not typical or culturally expected. Psychological dysfunction: breakdown in cognitive, social or behavioural functioning. Presenting problem: why a person came to seek aid. Clinical description: specification of what makes the case abnormal. Statistical terms: prevalence: # of people in a population w/disorder, incidence: # of new cases in given period of time, sex ration, age of onset. Is a behaviour heritable: family studies, quantitative genetics: total risk is additive over many genes. Estimate for heritability: twin studies, very few behavioural traits are 100% heritable, environment has an influence. Search for actual genes: linkage studies, molecular geneticists, separating the effects of genes and the effects of prenatal environment.
