PSY 240 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Antipsychotic, Germ Theory Of Disease, Headache
Document Summary
Psychological disorder/abnormal behavior is 1) a psychological dysfunction within an individual that is 2) associated with distress or impairment in functioning and 3) a response that is not typical or culturally expected. Psychological dysfunction- a breakdown in cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning. Just having a dysfunction is not enough to meet the criteria for a psychological disorder. No one criterion has yet been developed that fully defines abnormality, so knowing where to draw the line between normal and abnormal dysfunction is often difficult. Because there is a lot of grey area, the 3 criteria for a psychological disorder are considered to be on a continuum or a dimension rather than to be categories that are either present or absent. Phobia- a psychological disorder characterized by marked and persistent fear of an object or situation. Behavior must be associated with distress to be classified as abnormal, but this criterion alone does not define abnormal behavior.
