PSY 325 Chapter Notes -Abnormal Psychology, Cultural Relativism, Thomas Szasz
12 Dec 2013
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Clifford beers: treated very badly in a hospital, and recovered regardless of his treatments. Started a movement for a reform of mental health treatment. Psychopathology (the study of abnormal psychology): study of people who experience mental, emotional or physical pain due to a mental illness. Sometimes people experience unusual circumstances, but other times people with psychopathology have experiences that most of us have, but are more extreme. Mental illness has personal, familial, and societal costs. What we think is abnormal may differ to someone of another culture or religion, therefore context, or circumstances, surrounding a behaviour, influences whether a behaviour is viewed as abnormal. Behaviours are characterized as abnormal if they violate a culture"s gender roles. Unusualness of behaviour, discomfort of the person exhibiting it, presence of mental illness, and maladaptiveness of the behaviour. No universal standards or rules exist for labeling a behaviour as abnormal; behaviours can be abnormal only relative to cultural norms.
