PSY 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Amygdala, Learned Helplessness, Old Age
Document Summary
Mental disorders: when adaptation breaks down, maladaptive responses, within a person"s context, statistically rare, not explained by cultural norms, societal disapproval, causes multiple outcomes: They merely share a loose set of features. Common misconceptions: abnormal behaviours are always bizarre, a clear distinction can be drawn between normal and abnormal behaviours. Not all people fit neatly into one of two categories. Abnormality consists of a poor fit between behaviour and the situations in which it is enacted: who talks to themselves when alone, how about in public, as a group, former mental patients are unpredictable and dangerous. The typical former mental patient is no more volatile or dangerous than. Exceptions to this rule generate the most media attention: mental disorders indicate a fundamental deficiency in personality, and are. Everyone shares the potential for becoming disordered and behaving: because mental illness is so common, there is reason to be fearful of one"s own vulnerability, geniuses are particularly prone to emotional disorders.