PSYB32H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Pope Innocent Viii, Philippe Pinel, Abnormal Psychology
Document Summary
Psychopathology: the field concerned with the nature and development of abnormal behaviour, thoughts, and feelings. Abnormal behaviour: includes such characteristics as statistical infrequency, violations of norms, personal distress, disability or dysfunction, and unexpectedness. Abnormal behaviour is infrequent in the general population. Normal curve (bell-shaped curve): places the majority of people in the middle as far as any particular characteristic is concerned; very few people fall at either extreme. Only certain infrequent behaviours, such as experiencing hallucinations or deep depression, fall into the domain considered in the textbook. Considering whether the behaviour violates social norms or threatens or makes anxious those observing it: various forms of unusual behaviour can be tolerated, depending on the prevailing cultural norms, cultural diversity can affect how people view social norms. Violation of norms is at once too broad and too narrow to use as a single component. Behaviour is abnormal if it creates great distress and torment, or personal suffering in the person experiencing it.
