PSYC 3390 Lecture Notes - Agoraphobia, Abnormal Psychology, Panic Disorder

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3390
• Professor: Mary Manson

Document Summary

Family aggregation - whether a disorder runs in families. What do we mean by abnormal behaviour? the definition of mental disorders is problematic but the more someone has difficulty with the following areas, the more likely they have some form of mental disorder. 1: maladaptiveness - maladaptive behaviour interferes with out well-bring adn ability to enjoy our work and our relationships, deviancy - statistically rare and undesirable, violation of the standards of society, social discomfort. Society is also constantly evolving and becoming more or less tolerant of certain be- haviour, so what is considered abnormal or deviant in one decade may not be a decade or two later. Why do we need to classify mental disorders. One simple reason is that most sciences rely on classification. Classification provides a nomenclature (a naming system) and enable us to structure information in a more helpful manner.