PSY240H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Pedophilia, Survival Function, Thought Experiment
Document Summary
A woman refusing to eat for several days. Thought process: could be for religious reasons, strike. Eccentric & unusual behavior/beliefs are not necessarily abnormal according to diagnostic criteria. Boundary between eccentricity and abnormality isn"t always clear. Threatening/repugnant behaviors aren"t always sign of an underlying psychological disorder. Behavior, speech, or thought that impairs normal/expected function. Like psychological abnormality, but implies medical rather than psychological cause. Specific manifestation of impairment of functioning, described by criteria. Psychopathology: scientific study of psychological abnormality, problems faced by sufferers of such disorders. No one of the following is either necessary or sufficient. In practice, diagnosticians avoid the term abnormal and just match symptoms with set of criteria in diagnostic manual. Relative infrequency: behavior is abnormal if it occurs infrequently in the population. Infrequency not always abnormal in the pejorative sense, i. e. exceptional people. Frequency not always normal, e. g. depression and anxiety disorders common in population, both disorders that require treatment.
