PSY 606 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Intellectual Disability, Brain Fever, Trepanning

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 606
• Professor: Jared Allen

Document Summary

Introduction: definitional and historical considerations, and canada"s mental health system. Psychopathology: the field concerned with the nature and development of abnormal behaviour, thoughts and feelings. Challenge in studying abnormal psychology is the need to remain objective. A distinct disadvantage is that al of us bring to our study preconvinced notions of what the subject matter is. Includes characteristics as statistical infrequency, violation of norms, personal distress, disability or dysnfunction, or unexpectedness. The normal curve, or bell-shaped curve, places the majority of people in the middle as far as any particular characteristic is concerned; very few people fall at either extreme. An assertion that a person is normal implies that he or she does not deviate much from the average in a particular trait or behaviour pattern. Having great athletic ability is infrequent, but few would regard it as part of the field of abnormal psychology.