PSYD33H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Mental Disorder, Psychopathology, Personal Distress
Document Summary
Abnormality: also known as mental disorders, psychiatric diagnoses, or, more broadly, psychopathology. Imprecision of definitions can result in applied, personal, and professional implications. Psychopathology as statistical deviancy accepted methods of measurement: pro, disorder = statistical rarity (infrequent in general pop, against, offers no guidance for where to draw cut-offs between normal/abnormal, silent on which dimensions are relevant to abnormality. Psychopathology as distress and disability subjective distress = unpleasant and unwanted feeling. Psychopathology as social deviance: subjectivity is problematic, definition: personal distress, deviance from cultural norms, statistical infrequency, impairment in social functioning. Conceptions of psychopathology: as dys-control or dysregulation, as a harmful dysfunction. Have included criteria such as: personal distress (ex. severe depression or panic disorder, deviance from cultural norm (as in many cases of schizophrenia, statistical infrequency (as in rare disorders as dissociative identity disorder) Impaired social functioning (social phobia, antisocial personality disorder)
