PSYC 3390 Chapter 1: Abnormal Psychology Chapter 1.docx

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

Document Summary

Family aggregation is when a disorder runs in the family. 20% of canadians will suffer from a mental disorder at some point, anxiety disorders are the most common. A lot of agreement about which conditions are disorderes and which are not. We adopt a prototype kind of model of abnormality and assess the degree to which a given person resembles it. Every definition of abnormal or disorder has so far proved problematic. Repetitive-stress injury might be treatable with the use of magnets. A classification system provides us with a nomenclature (naming system) and helps us to structure information. However, using any form of shorthand leads to a loss of information. There can be a negative stigma attached to receiving a psychiatric diagnosis. There is a problem of stereotyping with a disorder and labeling. A symptom is a single indicator of a problem whereas a syndrome is a group or cluster of symptoms that all occur together.