PSY240H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Abnormal Psychology, Strange Behaviour, Blood Test
Document Summary
Sometimes it"s difficult to define something because it looks like cannot define issues. Biology has test, psychology has tests too, but they are less definitive (you can"t do a blood test and look for depression: it is easy to recognize because you can see when someone is depressed. Dsm 4 said it has to be a sad affect over a long period of time (weeks) Dsm 5 said it doesn"t have to be over a long period of time (get to it sooner rather than later: has to be really intense. It"s normal to be sad because then you have happy. Abnormal behaviour can include a single occurrence of a strange behaviour (like a suicide attempt) over a long period of time (having to wash your hands 20 times a day) What is abnormal behaviour : statistical criteria. There are 4 criteria that we have used in the past that we continue to use.
