PSYC 11762 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Personal Distress

• School: Kent State University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 11762
• Professor: Robin Joynes

Document Summary

Abnormality: any pattern of behavior that causes people significant distress, causes them to harm themselves or others, or interferes with their ability to function in daily life. Four characteristics: statistically rare, deviance from social norms, personal distress. About 22% of adults suffer from mental disorder per year. About 44 million people in the united states. Four out of the top 10 causes of disability in the united states is from psychological disorders. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm-iv-tr): Contains each known disorder, a description, symptoms, checklist of criteria, and other relevant facts. Rosenhan study: pseudo-patients could not be distinguished from regular patients. Behaviors were viewed as abnormal because of contextual bias. Models of abnormality: approach to studying abnormal behavior: biological models: psychological disorders have a biological cause. Sometimes can be tied to something specific (fear), but other times it cannot (free-floating anxiety).