ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY, THIRD EDITION

Deborah C. Beidel/ Cynthia M. Bulik/ Melinda A. Stanley

Chapter 1
Abnormal Psychology:
Historical and Modern
Perspectives

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Chapter Outline
Normal vs. Abnormal Behavior
The History of Abnormal Behavior and
Its Treatment
Current Views of Abnormal Behavior and
Treatment

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Normal vs. Abnormal Behavior

Being different
Individuals possessing abilities that distinguish them
from the general public

Deviant behavior
Behaviors straying from societal norms or
standards

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Real People, Real Disorders

James Eagan Holmes
Graduated from
University of
California, Berkeley in
top 1% of class
Neuroscience graduate
student
Failed comprehensive
examination

Began purchasing
and stockpiling guns
Called himself The
Joker from Batman
Does being a loner and
socially awkward
constitute abnormal
behavior?

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Have you ever

wished you
could live a
day without
technology?
Why or why
not? Is this
abnormal?

Normal vs. Abnormal Behavior

Behaving dangerously
Result from intense emotional states or may signal
the presence of a psychological disorder, but alone is
not necessary or sufficient

Behaving dysfunctionally
Patterns of behavior that interfere with normal daily
routines, such as ones social, occupational, and
emotional functioning, causing significant distress
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Definition of Abnormal Behavior

Inconsistent
with societal
norms

Inconsistent
with cultural
norms

Abnormal
Behavior
Emotional
Distress

Inconsistent
with
developmental
norms

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Interferes with
daily
functioning

Research HOT Topic: Approaches to

Abnormal Behavior
Categorical

vs.

Do you meet diagnostic

criteria or not?
Things to consider:
-Just as people are different
and unique, so are symptoms
-At what point is enough
enough regarding ones
symptoms?

Dimensional
Abnormal behavior is
constantly changing
Things to consider:
-Abnormal behavior can be
placed on a continuum
-Incorporates quantitative
criteria versus an all or
nothing way of thinking

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Fact or Fiction?

Psychological disorders occur most

frequently among the wealthy.

By the age of 16, one out of three

children and adolescents suffers from
a psychological disorder.

Fact or fiction?
Fact or fiction?

Actually psychological disorders occur most

frequently among those with the lowest
incomes and the least education

Yes 36% of all children and adolescents

have suffered a psychological disorder

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Factors to Consider When Addressing

Abnormal Behavior
Personal
characteristics,
such as sex, race,
or ethnicity
Age (chronological
age vs. developmental
maturity) Developmental
trajectory is when
symptoms vary by
age.

Socioeconomic
status (SES)
Education level
Biological
changes (particularly
hormonal changes
associated with
puberty)
Downward
drift is

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impairment as a result of
psychological disorder.

Prevalence of Psychological Disorders

in Children by Age and Sex Figure 1.3

The rate of psychological

disorders decreases as boys
enter teen years, but increases
as girls enter adolescence.

Adapted from Costello, E.J., Mustillo, S., Erkanli, A.,

Keeler, G., & Angold, A., "Prevalence and development of
psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence."
Archives of General Psychiatry, 60, 837-844. Figure 1.
Copyright 2003 by the American Medical Association.
Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

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What factors do you think

contribute to the increase or
decrease of psychological
disorders based on gender?

History and Abnormal Behavior

Ancient Theories
-Ancient cultures, such as ancient Egypt, believed in
spirits who controlled much of the environment,
including aspects of a persons behavior.
-Treatment
-Trephination a method used to create a hole in
the skull to release the evil spirits

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History and Abnormal Behavior

Classical Greek and Roman Views
-Hippocrates (460377 BC), father of medicine
-The first to identify the following psychological
symptoms: hallucinations, delusions,
melancholia, hysteria, and mania most often
associated with schizophrenia, somatoform
disorders, and mood disorders
-Environmental factors, physical factors, and four
humours
-Galens contribution
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History and Abnormal Behavior

Middle Ages through the Renaissance
-Influence of the Roman Catholic Church
-Abnormal behavior = work of the devil
-Witchcraft evolved as a popular theory to explain
abnormal behavior with100,000 women slain in
Europe as a result of these accusations
-Mass hysteria
-Enlightenment by Johann Weyer and Paracelsus
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Witchcraft, Demons, and Alien

Abductions, Oh My
Lets examine the
evidence
1. Do you believe in
ghosts and the
supernatural? Or
that other life forms
exist?

Fact: Over hundreds of

years, many people have
reported cases of
spiritual visitation

Evidence:
-No objective scientific
data
-Lack of physical proof

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History and Abnormal Behavior

Nineteenth Century moral treatment
characterized by:
-The removal of patients from warehouse asylums
into specialized facilities devoted to the care and
treatment of the mentally ill
-Advocacy for a more humane method of treatment
-The use of respect, kindness, religion, and vocation
-Key founders: Philippe Pinel, William Tuke,
Benjamin Rush, Dorothea Dix, and Emil Kraepelin
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Stop and Think!

Is it fair to blame the parents as the root
cause for the development of mental illness?
Are there other factors to take into
consideration when assessing ones
development of mental illness, and why?

Key Points: Research shows 36% of children will be diagnosed with a mental
illness by the age of 16, and 46% of all adults in the United States will suffer
from a psychological disorder at some point in their lives.
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History and Abnormal Behavior:

Twentieth Century
Psychoanalytic
1. Sigmund Freud
2. Unconscious
3. Environmental factors
4. Parental influence
5. Infancy, particularly the
first five years of life
6. Sexual urges

Behaviorism
1. Ivan Pavlov and John B.
Watson
2. Pavlovs dogs and
classical conditioning
3. Little Albert
4. Little Peter
5. Behavior can be learned
and unlearned

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Quick Recap
1. During _____, people believed abnormal
behavior stemmed from an imbalance of
humours, which consisted of blood, black
bile, yellow bile, and phlegm.
(a) ancient times
(b) the Middle Ages
(c) the classical period (Greek and Romans)
(d) the Renaissance

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Quick Recap
2. During the ______, the emphasis was on
viewing people with mental illness as
worthy of receiving respect and kindness,
and incorporating moral treatment as the
method of care.
(a) Roman period
(b) Middle Ages
(c) twentieth century
(d) nineteenth century
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Current Views of Abnormal

Behavior and Treatment

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The Neuron Fires, Sending An Impulse

to the Next Neuron
Dendrite: tree-like
branches that
receive messages
from the neurons

Figure 1.4

Neurotransmitters:
chemicals that
transmit information
to and from neurons

Soma: keeps
the cell alive

Neuron: nerve cells

found throughout the
body and brain that send
and receive messages

Axon: tube-like
structures that carry
messages to the cells

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Synapse: space
between neurons

Biological Models
Biological scarring years of living with a
disorder causes changes in the brain
Behavioral
genetics.
Hereditary factors
Brain malfunctioning or structural
abnormalities
Viral infection theory when a fetus is
exposed to toxins or a virus while in the
prenatal stage of pregnancy, or shortly after
birth
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Fact or Fiction?

Dreams provide us with a medium to

explore inner conflict.

Ones birth order in the family is not

considered when evaluating abnormal
behavior.

Fact or fiction?

Fact or fiction?

According to Freud, dreams are particularly

powerful in unveiling information related to the
unconscious mind through the use of symbols

From an Adlerian standpoint, several concepts

such as sibling rivalry, birth order, and inferiority
complex are considered when evaluating
abnormal behavior

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Psychological Models
Psychoanalysis
- Founder Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
- Three regions of the mind: id, ego, and superego
- Defense mechanisms used as a way to prevent or
cause abnormal behavior
- Psychosexual stages of development: oral phase, anal
phase, phallic phase, latency phase, and genital phase
- Treatment options centered around: dream analysis,
interpretation, free association, insight, and catharsis
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Psychological Models
Modern Psychoanalytic
- Carl Jung and the development of analytic therapy
- Alfred Adler and the development of individual
psychology
- Contemporary models of psychoanalysis
- Ego psychology
- Object relations theory

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Psychological Models
Behavioral
- We are Products and Producers of our environment,
meaning we learn our behaviors, or in some cases we
adopt maladaptive behaviors as a source of coping
- Vicarious conditioning is learning by observing a
persons behavior and then incorporating that into
your own way of behaving
- Behavior is learned in a variety of fashions, such as
social learning, operant conditioning, reinforcement,
and punishment
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Psychological Models
Cognitive
- Founder Aaron Beck (1921- )
- Perception is our Reality, meaning how we perceive the
occurrence of an event or situation impacts how we act,
think, and feel
- According to Beck, three distorted views exist for
someone with depression: negative view of self, the world,
and the future
- Treatment is focused on changing these distorted
cognitions or thoughts through the use of behavioral
experiments and traditional narrative or talk therapy
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Common Cognitive Distortions

After reviewing
these terms,
think of a time
when you
personally
adopted one of
these negative
assumptions.
Where did this
faulty belief
come from?
How would you
stop this way of
thinking in the
future?

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Psychological Models
Humanistic
1. Founder Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
He believed abnormal behavior originates when ones self
image and actual self are incongruent, thus limiting a
persons ability to achieve her or his full potential
Phenomenology is the term meaning ones worldview

2. Client-centered therapy
Genuineness
Empathic understanding
Unconditional positive regard
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I object or accept! What are your

thoughts?

1.

Think back to the

What are little boys made of?
first time you
heard this
- Frogs and snails, and puppy-dogs tails
popular nursery
rhyme. What did
you think?
Does this relate to social and cultural expectations when formulating

theories about abnormal behavior?

Why or why not?

2. What are little girls made of?

- Sugar and spice, and all things nice
Opie, I., & Opie, P. (1997). The Oxford dictionary of nursery rhymes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Sociocultural Models Combine Issues

Surrounding
Gender roles

Social norms

Socioeconomic
status

Cultural expectations

Race and ethnicity

Presence or absence
of social support

Interpersonal
resources
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How each piece of the puzzle works

Biopsychosocial Model
- Since each individual case is unique, no single model
can fully explain the presence of abnormal behavior
- Systemic approach acknowledges that many different
factors contribute to the illness as a whole
- Diathesis-stress model
- Examines biological, psychological, social, and
cultural factors related to abnormal behavior

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The Diathesis-Stress Model

Figure 1.5

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How it all comes togetheran adolescent has

been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa
Biological model
There is an imbalance of
serotonin in the brain

A biopsychosocial
way of thinking!

Cognitive model
Distorted thoughts about
ones body weight and
appearance

Sociocultural model
Psychological model
Societal and familial
Inability to cope with
influences on the view of
stress
beauty, emphasizing thin ideal
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Learning Objectives
1. Abnormal behavior is sometimes challenging to
define.
2. Two primary considerations are the presence of
functional impairment and/or emotional distress
impacting functioning.
3. Abnormal behavior is defined as behavior that is
inconsistent with the individuals developmental,
cultural, and societal norms; creates significant
emotional distress; or interferes with daily
functioning.
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Learning Objectives
4. Behavior must always be considered within the
context in which it occurs.
5. To understand abnormal behavior it is best to adopt
a scientist-practitioner approach.
6. A variety of theories exist surrounding the
development of abnormal behavior; however, it is
best to incorporate a holistic or multidisciplinary
approach to both the development of and treatment
of abnormal behavior.

2014, 2012, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.