PSY 254 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Psych
Document Summary
Abnormality: no consensus deiniion: some clear elements, society always changing expectaions of normal/ abnormal. Elements of abnormality: sufering, maladapive, deviancy, violaion of standards of society, social discomfort, irraionality and unpredictability, dangerousness. No one element is suicient to deine or determine abnormality. Deiniion of deviant changes as society changes. Mental disorder (all working together: biological, psychological or developmental dysfuncion in individual, clinically signiicant disturbance in behavior, emoional regulaion or cogniive funcion, associated with distress or disability. Classiicaion systems: provide nomenclature that allows informaion structuring, have social and poliical implicaions, classify disorders, not people. Disadvantages: loss of individual"s info, sigma and stereotyping associated with diagnosis, self concept impact. Prevalence: number of acive cases in populaion during any given period of ime, typically expressed as percentages, diferent types of prevalence esimates. Incidence: number of new cases in populaion over given period of ime, typically, lower than prevalence number.
