PSYB32H3 Study Guide - Final Guide: Emil Kraepelin, Philippe Pinel, Moral Treatment
Document Summary
The study of psychopathology is a search for the reasons why people behave, think, and feel in abnormal unexpected, sometimes odd, and possibly self- defeating ways. Unfortunately, people who exhibit abnormal behavior or have a mental illness are often stigmatized. Reducing the stigma associated with mental illness remains a great challenge for the field. In evaluating whether a behavior is abnormal, psychologists consider several different characteristics, including personal distress, disability, violation of social norms, and dysfunction. Each characteristic tells something about what can be considered abnormal, but none by itself provides a fully satisfactory definition. The dsm-iv-tr definition includes all of these characteristics. Since the beginning of scientific inquiry into abnormal behavior, supernatural, biological, and psychological points of view have vied for attention. More supernatural viewpoints included early demonology, which posited that mentally ill people are possessed by demons or evil spirits, leading to treatments such as exorcism. Early biological viewpoints originated in the writings of hippocrates.
