PSYB32H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Token Economy, Aaron T. Beck, Rein
Document Summary
Chapter 2: current paradigms and the role of cultural factors. A paradigm is a set of basic assumptions, a general perspective, that defines how to conceptualize and study a subject, how to gather and interpret relevant data, even how to think about a particular subject. Science is bound by: the limitations imposed on scientific inquiry by the current state of knowledge: objectivity vs. subjectivity in understanding abnormal behaviour. Medical (disease) model as applied in abnormal psychology, a set of assumptions that conceptualizes abnormal behaviour as similar to physical diseases: the study of abnormal behaviour is linked historically to medicine. For a time, the germ theory was the paradigm of medicine, but it soon became apparent that this theory could not account for all diseases. Removal of ovarian cysts was employed as treatment for melancholia, mania and delusions. Psychopathology is viewed as caused by the disturbance of some biological process.
