PSYB32H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Health Promotion, Stereotype, Dissociative Identity Disorder
Document Summary
Psychopathology: field concerned with the nature and development of mental disorders. What is abnormal behaviour: abnormality usually determined by presence of several characteristics at one time. Abnormal behaviour: patterns of emotion, thought, and action deemed pathological for one or more of the following reasons: statistical infrequency, violation of normal, personal distress, disability or dysfunction, and unexpectedness. Statistical infrequency: aspect of abnormal behaviour: infrequent in general population. Normal curve: bell shaped distribution of a measurable trait depicting most people in the middle and few at the extremes: used to explicitly diagnose mental retardation, iq <70 subnormal as mental retardation. Violation of norms: unusual behaviour can be tolerated depending on prevailing cultural norms, cultural diversity affect how people view social norms. Personal suffering: creates distress and torment, e. g. anxiety disorder and depression. Disability of dysfunction: disability: impairment in some important area of life. Unexpectedness: distress/disability are abnormal when they are unexpected responses to environmental stressors.