Psychological Disorder
• Behavior patterns or mental processes that cause serious personal suffering or interfere with a person’s ability to cope with everyday life.
It Takes 4 Things for a Behavior to be Considered a Disorder:
• Typicality
• Maladaptivity
• Emotional Discomfort
• Socially Unacceptable Behavior
Maladaptive
• Impairs the person’s ability to function in everyday life.
• An exaggeration of normal, acceptable behaviors
• Destructive to oneself or others
Emotional Discomfort
• A behavior which is troublesome to the person themselves or those around them.
Socially Unacceptable Behavior
• A behavior so different from other people’s behavior that it violates a norm
• Norms vary from culture to culture
Early Views of Mental Illness
• In ancient times, mental illness was usually explained through a supernatural model; the person was possessed or a sinner
• During the Middle Ages treatment methods were inhumane and cruel
The Medical Model
• Diseases have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases, cured.
• Psychological disorders can be diagnosed based on their symptoms and treated or cured through therapy.
• Psychological disorders are similar to a physical illness.
Bio-Psycho-Social Model
• Perspective of mental illness which assumes that biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors combine and interact to produce psychological disorders
Diagnosis
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR)—describes specific symptoms and diagnostic guidelines for psychological disorders– Provides a common language to label mental
disorders
– Comprehensive guidelines to help diagnose mental disorders
DSM-IV-TR
• Divides mental disorders into 17 major categories
• Includes the symptoms but not the causes or treatment of each disease
• Lists and describes 250 specific psychological disorders
Labeling Stigmas
• Studies show a clear bias against people diagnosed with mental disorders.
• Rosenhan Study – “normal” people pretended to hear voices and checked into a mental health facility then acted normally. Their normal actions taken to be abnormal once they were labeled schizophrenic.
Prevalence• Approximately 48% of adults experienced
symptoms at least once in their lives• Approximately 80% who experienced symptoms
in the last year did NOT seek treatment– Many people who could benefit from mental
health treatment do not seek it. – Most people seem to deal with symptoms without
complete debilitation
• Women have higher prevalence of depression and anxiety
• Men have higher prevalence of substance abuse and antisocial personality disorder
Are People with a Mental Illness as Violent as the Media
Portrays Them? • People with mental disorders are often depicted on
TV as helpless victims or evil villains who are unpredictable, dangerous, and violent.
• One study indicated that, overall, former mental patients did not have a higher rate of violence than a matched comparison group.
• People with severe mental disorders who are experiencing bizarre delusional ideas and hallucinated voices do have a slightly higher level of violent and illegal behavior than do “normal” people.