Diagnosis: potential to lead to worse effect from issue

 They are important however as they are good for finding treatment and aligning views
and learning more about the same phenomenon. Also helpful in making people feel they
aren’t the only people suffering from similar symptoms. Easing mind if they thought
symptoms were separating themselves or making them bad because of the symptoms.
Therapy and treatment to get more control of live in face of said symptoms and labels
What is abnormal behavior?
 No complete definition, each captures a part of what abnormal behavior is.
 Four D’s of abnormality
o Deviance: outside cultural norms
 Abnormal vs. eccentric: 
 Going against set up laws?
 Distress: emotional or physical pain
 Personal suffering or pain may be indicative, most disorders associated
with a form of pain, not all being pain on self (mania/anti social)
 Distress that is not normal due to short term situation placed upon an
individual 
 Dysfunction: interfere with the ability to function in day to day life
 Breakdown in either behavioral, cognitive or emotional (easily upset or
anxious/ blunted) functioning
 Interfering with relationships and normal tasks during the day like school
or work
 Dangerousness: can harm or scare yourself or others
 Threatening or harming self or others ie. through literal self injury,
reckless behavior, aggression. (not as clear cut)
Jobs/Careers in Abnormal Psychology
 Clinical psychologists: Ph.D. varied career path, research heavy. Focus on disorders and
neuropsychology 
 Psychiatrist: M.D., prescribe Medicine for mental illness, some therapy elements not as
heavy
 Marriage/family therapist: MA, 
 Clinical Social Workers: MSW, therapist or government work. Treatment and resource
connection for people
 Psychiatric Nurses: Nursing Degree: treatment of severe Psychopathology. Work in
inpatient settings.
 Doctor of Psychology: PsyD, 4 year professional Therapy Degree. 
PhD Areas
 Clinical: Abnormal processes/disorders
 Cognitive: Normal and abnormal Information Processing
 Developmental: Normal and abnormal development/learning processes
 Neuroscience: brain and biological processes
 Social: group dynamics/processes, situational influence on behavior
Scientist-Practitioner Framework
 Approach taken by many mental health professionals
 Interaction of clinical and science work
o Consumer of science to inform practices 
 o Evaluator of practice to determine what therapy would be effective 
o Creator of science to synthesize both, ie testing therapies and seeing what works

8/30/2021

History of Abnormal Behavior

- Supernatural theories: divine, curses, demonic possession, sin
o Spirits and demonic possession, treatment through exorcisms, crude surgeries or
torture
o Hippocrates and early greeks around 420 BCE rejected supernatural explanations
and argued abnormal behavior originated in body
- Biological theories: similar to physical disease, breakdown of some symptoms in the
body
- Psychological theories: mental disorders are the result of trauma or maladaptive thinking
- Further study of mental illness is overall a more recent development in our history
- Medieval views: Abnormal behavior caused by emotional shock or hysical illness, many
people practicing witchcraft considered mentally ill. Treatment to confine people to
asylums where they were mistreated
o Asylums established in the late 16th century and were run by people thinking
mental disorders were mental illness
o Laws were concerned with protecting the public and the ill persons relatives
o Origin of shock therapy
- Moral therapy: 19th century, a reaction to the brutal asylum treatments
o Based on views people developed mental illness because they were separated
from nature. Focused on providing normal/nurturing interactions
- Psychological perspective
o Psychoanalytic theory: Sigmund Freud, psychological problems fueled by
unconscious and repressed impulses/conflicts
 Psychoanalyst brings conflicts into consciousness in therapy and offers
interpretations to said conflict to have self-awareness bringing a cure
 Free association: patient has back to therapist and then saying whatever
comes to mind, unconscious thoughts will come out when your just talking
 Resistance: when the identified points are found and how they might
emerge or play role in illness
 Dream interpretation: dreams hold unconscious thoughts that we are not
aware of. Window into the unconscious. Interpreting dreams allows you to
resolve conflict
 Transference: emotional attitudes being transferred onto other
relationships, by addressing this you can begin to resolve conflict
 Freuds techniques of listening to people over longer periods of time and
not giving them orders formed the foundation of modern psychotherapy
and promoted a destigmatization of mental illness
 Freuds psychoanalysis was fundamentally untestable as it was a pseudo-
scientific field. The concept of repressed memories has been criticized
  Most principals of psychoanalysis have been discredited or show little
clinical utility
o Behavior therapy: learning pricinipals applied to mental illness, focusing on what
is observable and testable
 Systematic desensitization: building up exposure to stimulus or fear while
in a relaxed state, from mental thoughts to actually interacting ith fear
while already calm
 Criticisims of behavioral therapy: treating symptoms leaving underlying
cases untouched, but symptom substitution rarely occurs
 Criticism: ignores beliefs or interperatations that may be very important
maintaining factors
 Strengths: exposure based treatment is very affective with anxiety
disorders and are relatively easy to administer
o Humanistic Therapy: carl rogers client centered therapy
 Assumptions that mental illness derives from trying to earn others positive
regard
 Self-awareness and self acceptance will lead to a cure
 Methods:
 nondirective approach: not telling you what to do, grow on your
own
 active listening: repeating what the person is saying back to them
in a different way to show the person you are listening
 providing unconditional positive regard: affirming the others
feelings, thoughts and decisions
 client centered therapy has been criticized as being subjective and
unscientific, also pseudo-religious
 directive therapies found to be more effective for many problems
 Pluses to humanistic therapy include many of rogers insights on the
patient therapist relationship with things like active listening, and that
rogers was one of the first to systematically analyze therapy outcome
o Cognitive Therapy: based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between
events and our emotional reactions
 Present focused: what are you doing in the moment and what is
maintaining the problem, what to do now to make you better
 The Masseuse
 Cognitive perspective, taking
 Relationship breakup – internally thinking im worthless leading to
depression vs. internally thinking the partner was at fault not me
leading to no depression
 Anxiety from spiders – spiders are aggressive and dangerous
leading to anxiety vs. spiders are harmless leading to no anxiety
 Methods
 Identifynegative and maladaptive beliefs
 Socratic questioning to challenge these negative thoughts and show
how they are affecting other feelings
  Question them to think about and guiding toward more positive
ideas and thoughts on the issue
o With a perfectionist, asking why you have to be perfect,
what it means to be perfect, is perfect even possible?
 Behavior exposures/experiments
 Strong research support for cognitive therapy for many disorders
 However clients must have a certain level of insight or intelligence
 And cognitive techniques can be difficult to implement and often do not
lead to greater outcomes

9/1/2021

Theories and Treatment of abnormality

- Theory: a set of idea that provides a framework for asking questions about a phenomenon
as well as gathering and interpreting information about said phenomenon
o A theory is not a fact, not stable, not mutually exclusive
- Therapy: treatments that target casual factors of psychological disorders
o Generally based on a theory that addresses those factors the theory says causes the
phenomenon
o Different for each theory of abnormal behavior
- Nature vs. nurture
o What characteristics do you believe are mostly nature (innate)
 Temperament, intelligence, physical characteristics, personality?
o What are characteristics are mostly nurture (environmental)
 Temperament, reactions/emotion, personality, intelligence?
 Influenced by family, economics, friends and colleges, media
consumption
o The nature vs nurture debate assumes mutual exclusivity and a single cause for
certain characteristics
o Contemporary theories of abnormality recognize the relationship between both
biological and psychological and social factors
- Old biological paradigm that says some abnormal body processes causes psychopathy
o This influenced our terminology by calling things symptoms, disease, therapy
 This traditional medical model has been broadened to include both
biological and social factors
o Current theories being worked on
 Biochemical: imbalances in neurotransmitters or horomones or poor
functioning of receptors causing mental disorders
 Structural theories: abnormalities in the structure of the brain causing
mental disorders
 Genetic theories: accumulation of disordered genes leads to mental
disorder
 All three theories related to one another and effect eachother
- Researching genetics
o Twin studies and family relations
  Identical twins having 100% same genes
 Full siblings: having 50% same genes
 Grandparent to grandchild having 25% same genes
 Great grandparent to grandchild having 12.5% same genes
o Family history studies
 Identify individuals with a disorder and trace the family pedigree to
determine the likelihood that specific family members also have the
disorder
o Twin Studies
 Determine the contribution of genetics to disorders by considering the
difference between identical and fraternal pairs of twins
 Concordance rate: probability both twins will have a disorder if one twin
has the disorder
 If there is a genetic component concordance should be greater in identical
twins vs paternal twins
 Correlational analysis to see how much identical twins compare to each
other for things like iq
- General population
o Rate of schizophrenia is 1%
o Concordance rate will be 1% the other person has schizophrenia
o Concordance rate for fraternal twins is 15%
o Concordance rate for identical twins is 50%
- If a disorder is completely genetically determined the concordance rate would be 100%
between identical twins
 Issues with twin studies:
 Identical twins are treated more alike in the environment
 Disorders may reflect child rearing practices rather than genetics
 Control this problem by having twins raised in separate
environment (very rare study)
o Behavior genetics
 Adoption studies: are adopted kids more like their biological or adopted
relatives
 General findings show that adopted kids are more like their biological
parents than the adopted in intelligence, personality, and temperament
 Does parenting matter:
 Abuse, divorce have significant impact on children
 Parents have significant influence on values, manners, attitudes,
faith, political views, opinions, interests, education, discipline, and
responsibility
o Structural brain abnormalities
 Phineas gage: classic case study on the effects of brain damage on
personality
 Brain damage (lesion) location influences tbe specific psychological
problems people will have
 Structural damage can result from blunt trauma, or diseases that
deteriorate the brain
 o Neurotransmitters
 The messengers that crry impulses from one neuron to another
 Disorders result from too much or too little of certain neurotransmitters in
the synapses inbetween neurons. Or potentially too few or insensitive
neurotransmitters
 The major neurotransmitters
 Serotonin (5-ht): implicated in everything
 Dopamine: regulates reinforcements and rewards, muscle control
 Norepinephrine: made in brainstem, flight or flight response
o Correlation does not equal causation just because certain things or levels of
chemicals may be correlated does not mean that correlation is the thing causing
the overall effect that is happening
o Neuroscience and psychopathy
 Psychosocial influences on the brain
 Functional normalization in OCD
 Placebo effect based on the expectation of what your taking
 Psychotherapy
 Stress and early development
 Relationship between brain and behavior/mood is bidirectional

9/13/2021

Clinical Assessment and Diagnosis

Assessment: the process of gathering information about symptoms and causes of symptoms
Diagnosis: a label attached to
- Kinds of information
o What we need to know to make a diagnosis:
 Symptoms and history, current and past, recent events, history of
psychological problems, family history of mental disorders, how patient is
coping with symptoms
o Physiological and neurological factors:
 Physical examination, drugs, cognitive or intellectual ability
o Sociocultural factors:
 Social resources (money, employment, transportation), societal/cultrual
background, therapy they have been through
o Differential diagnosis: a determination of several possible disorders an individual
may be suffering from
o Reliability: the consistency of a test in measuring what is supposed to measure
  Test-retest reliability: test produces similar results when done multiple
times
 Internal reliability: different parts of same test produce similar results
 Alternate form reliability: two versions of same test produce same results
 Interrater reliability: to or more judges who administer and score a test
come to similar conclusions
o Validity: the accuracy of a test in assessing what it is supposed to measure
 Content validity: test assesses all aspects of a phenomenon
 Face validity: test appears to measure what it is supposed to
 Concurrent validity: test yields same results as other measures of the same
behavior thoughts or feelings
 Construct validity: test measures if it is supposed to measure not
something else
 Predictive validity: test predicts the behavior it is supposed to measure
o Psychological tests: standardized procedures to measure performance symptoms
or personality traits
 Standardization: administered to many people to establish norms (ie. IQ
test). Tests need to be standardized to yield the most fair and accurate
results
o Clinical interviews
 Unstructured: only ask a few open-ended questions, like an intake
interview (how are you, current relationship or work status). These
interviews can’t offer an accurate diagnosis and requires the subject to be
intrinsically aware of the issues they have
 Structured interview: series of questions, concrete criteria being asked
about. Diagnostic interviews (standardized questions centered around
trying to find a diagnosis)
o Neuripsychological evaluations
 Used to detect neurological impairment as indicated by specific cognitive
and fine motor deficits (Bender-Gestalt test)
o Brain imaging
 Used to assess structural damage
 Computerized Tomography CT
 Positron-Emission tomography PET
 Magnetic resonance imaging MRI
o Can be used to supplement other forms of testing, and show
correspondence between other tests
o Intelligence testing
 Craniometry: bigger head = bigger brains = smarter people
 Modern intelligence tests can help to diagnose intellectual disability and
brain damage, as well as identify intellectual differences and classroom
placement
  IQ: intelligence quotient, number that is part of a method of comparing an
individuals score on a test with others
 IQ tests do not necessarily equal intelligence, standardized tests
don’t sample all forms of intelligence
o Symptom Questionnaires
 A quick assessment of a wide variett of symptoms or symptoms of a
specific disorder
 DO NOT MAKE DIAGNOSES ALONE
 Quick to administer and provide normative information that aids in
diagnosis, allow for efficient symptom monitoring that can be shared with
clients
o Personality inventories
 Questionares that are meant to assess peoples ways of thinking feeling and
behaving
 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory MMPI
 Validity scales to see if the subject is evasive, confused, answering
randomly, and if subject is defensive
o Projective Tests
 Assume people presented with ambiguous information and they will
interpret them in a way that matches their thoughts
 Rorschach Inkblot test, ten cards with ink blots, they researcher examines
content and structure the descriptions. Doesn’t give you more information
then asking a subject directly
 Thematic Apperception Test TAT: pictures to simulate stories to see how
the person relates things and views images. Could reflect problems and
insecurities a person has
o Self-Monitoring
 Subject collects data themselves
 Useful in charting behavior and behavior change/what causes the changes
in behavior
 Could be overwhelming to have people track information themselves
o DSM-5
 The dictionary of psychopathology
 DSM 1-2 had vague descriptions, heavily influenced by psychoanalytic
theory, reliability issues
 DSM 3-5 had vague descriptions replaced with scientific, observable and
reportable criteria, specified the duration of symptoms, requires
interference
 The American Psychiatric Associations committee conducts reviews of
published literature and field trials to reflect and process a consensus on
disorders and differentiating them
 With changes of the DSM, legal cases, insurance policy, disability plans
can change to reflect more modern diagnosis
  Where does normaility end and psychopathy begin
 The disease model: assumes you can define where normality ends
and psychopathy begin
 Personality disorders in the DSM represent long lasting symptoms
different from normal human behavior BUT, researhers have
argued personality disorders are variants of normal personality
traits
 Symptoms vs syndromes
 DSM disorders have variable reliability and validity with some
symptoms overlapping between disorders
 Dangers with being diagnosed (especially with children) leading to stigma,
over medication
 Issues of comorbid disorders: what to do if people have multiple disorders,
how to best do treatment
 DSM is atheoretical
 PTSD: what counts as a Criterion A event?

9/15/2021

Research in psychology key terms

- Theory: explains through an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts
behaviors and events
- Hypotheses: testable predictions that a theory makes
- Theories lead to hypothesis that lead to research and observations tht then generate or
refine the theory
Generation of hypotheses
- Hypotheses come from observations of clinical research, a theoretical model and the
results of previous research
- A hypotheses is a predicted answer to a question
- Some descriptive research does not have hypothese
- You cant prove a hypotheses just show support for it, so they must be testable
Measuring jey details
- How to measure or operationalize the critical variables
o Depends on the level of measurement (behavior observation, self-report, reaction
time, physiology, brain scan)
 o Ex: abuse causing depression, so you define abuse and then measure how that
impacts peoples mental state
Selecting a research design
- Case study
o Extensive observation, detailed descriptions
o Foundation for early developments from freud
- Correlational study
o The nature of correlation, statistical relationships
o No manipulated variables
o Often times is the only way to research certain behaviors events or disorders
o Positive correlation has both variables going in a positive direction
o Negative correlation has a variable decreasing and increasing
o No correlation is sparatic
o A correlational coefficient mathematically captures the strength and direction of
the association (+1.0 - -1.0)
o Correlation may suggest but does not equal causation
- Epidemiological study
o Study of frequency and distribution of a disorder within a population
 Prevalence: proportion of the population with a disorder
 Incidence: occurrence of a disorder within a specified period of time
 Risk factors: conditions associated with increased likelihoof of disorder
occurring
o Answers questions like: what is the prevalence of schizophrenia among the
General US public, and low income individuals. OR how do suicide rates differ
across generations
- Experimental study
o Key terms
 Independent and dependent variable
o Nature of experimental research
 Manipulate the Independent Variable
 Observe the effects on Dependent Variable
 Attempt to determine causality
o Validity in an experimental context
o Internal validity is extremely important
 Why does the IV cause DV
 How confident are you the IV causes DV
o To what degree can findings be generalized to other people and settings?
o Efficacy vs effectiveness
 Efficacy: typically university setting, randomized controlled trial with
academic therapists
 Effectiveness: therapy is administered by community clinicians with real
world clients
o Group experimental designs
 Matched control groups (age, gender, economic status)
 Randomized
 Placebo group
 Single blind study
 Double blind study