PS101 Study Guide - Final Guide: Diazepam, Major Depressive Episode, Phobia
Document Summary
The medical model proposes that it is useful to think of abnormal behavior as a disease. The medical model gradually became the dominant way of thinking about abnormal behavior during the 18th and 19th centuries. Diagnosis involves distinguishing one illness from another. Etiology refers to the apparent causation and the developmental history of an illness. A prognosis is a forecast about the probable course of an illness. People are often said to have a disorder because their behavior deviates from what their society considers acceptable. Transvestic fetishism is a sexual disorder in which a man achieves sexual arousal by dressing in women"s clothing. Maladaptive behavior is when people are judged to have a psychological disorder because their everyday adaptive behavior is impaired. Personal distress is also considered a criteria of abnormal behavior. Such people are usually labeled as having a disorder when they describe their subjective pain and suffering to friends, relatives, and mental health professionals.
