THE 4D’s

DISTRESS-unpleasant and upsetting for both the person & others

DYSFUNCTIONAL-interferes with a person’s daily life and functioning
DEVIANT-different, unusual, and extreme
DANGEROUSNESS-dangerous for both the person & others
BRIEF HISTORY OF AB
Demonology, Gods, and Magic
References to abnormal behavior in early writings show that the Chinese, Egyptians, Hebrews, and
Greeks often attributed such behavior to a demon or God who had taken possession of a person.
If a person’s speech or behavior appeared to have a religious or mystical significance, it was usually
thought that he or she was possessed by a good spirit or God. Such people were often treated with
considerable awe and respect, for people believed they had supernatural powers.
Most possessions, however, were considered to be the work of an angry god or an evil spirit,
particularly when a person became excited or overactive and engaged in behavior contrary to religious
teachings.
Hippocrates denied that deities and demons intervened in the development of illnesses and instead
insisted that mental disorders, like other diseases, had natural causes and appropriate treatments.
Hippocrates classified all mental disorders into three general categories—mania, melancholia, and
phrenitis (brain fever)—
the doctrine of the four humors
The four elements of the material world were thought to be earth, air, fire, and water, which had
attributes of heat, cold, moistness, and dryness. These elements combined to form the four essential
fluids of the body—blood (sanguis), phlegm, bile (choler), and black bile (melancholer).
Even at this early date, Chinese medicine was based on a belief in natural rather than supernatural
causes for illnesses.
For example, in the concept of yin and yang, the human body, like the cosmos, is divided into positive
and negative forces that both complement and contradict each other. If the two forces are balanced,
the result is physical and mental health; if they are not, illness results.
MASS HYSTERIA- Another fascinating phenomenon is characterized by large-scale outbreaks of
bizarre behavior.
The first mental hospital was established in Baghdad in a.d. 792;
In these hospitals, mentally disturbed individuals received humane treatment
Mass Madness During the last half of the Middle Ages in Europe, a peculiar trend emerged in efforts
to understand abnormal behavior. It involved mass madness—the widespread occurrence of group
behavior disorders that were apparently cases of hysteria.
Isolated rural areas were also afflicted with outbreaks of lycanthropy—a condition in which people
believed themselves to be possessed by wolves and imitated their behavior.
It had long been thought that during the Middle Ages, many mentally disturbed people were accused
of being witches and thus were punished and often killed.

Mental Hospital Care in the Twentieth Century

The twentieth century began with a continued period of growth in asylums for the mentally ill;
however, the fate of mental patients during that century was neither uniform nor entirely positive.
During this period, hospital stays were typically quite lengthy, and many mentally ill individuals were
destined to be hospitalized for many years

Table 1.2 Selected Defense Mechanisms

Defense Mechanism Definition Example
 Repression Keeping unacceptable impulses or wishes from conscious awareness -A
professor starting a lecture she dreaded giving says, “In conclusion”.
 Denial Not accepting a painful reality into conscious awareness -A victim of
childhood abuse does not acknowledge it as an adult.
 Projection Attributing to someone else one’s own unacceptable thoughts or feelings -
A man who hates members of a racial group believes that it is they who dislike him.
 Displacement Redirecting emotional responses from their real target to someone else-
A child gets mad at her brother but instead acts angrily toward her friend.
 Reaction formation Converting an unacceptable feeling into its opposite- A person
with sexual feelings toward children leads a campaign against child sexual abuse.
 Regression Retreating to the behavioral patterns of an earlier stage of development-
An adolescent dealing with unacceptable feelings of social inadequacy attempts to
mask those feelings by seeking oral gratification.
 Rationalization Offering acceptable reasons for an unacceptable action or attitude -A
parent berates a child out of impatience, then indicates that she did so to “build
character.”
 Sublimation Converting unacceptable aggressive or sexual impulses into socially
valued behaviors- Someone who has aggressive feelings toward his father becomes a
surgeon.
The Synapse

The electrical portion of the neural impulse is just the start. The actual code passes from one
neuron to another in a chemical form called a neurotransmitter. The point where this occurs is
called the synapse.
sending neuron (presynaptic neuron)
Neurotransmitters will only bind to their specific receptor sites, much like a key will only fit
into the lock it was designed for.

Neurotransmitters:
Dopamine – controls voluntary movements and is associated with the reward mechanism in
the brain (dopamine rush-when we are doing an activity that we find favorable, the brain
releases a large amount of dopamine. The kind of feelings that we seek to have more in the
future more like an addiction.)
Serotonin – controls pain, sleep cycle, and digestion; leads to a stable mood and so low levels
lead to depression
Norepinephrine – increases the heart rate and blood pressure and regulates mood
GABA – an inhibitory neurotransmitter responsible for blocking the signals of excitatory
neurotransmitters responsible for anxiety and panic.
Glutamate – an excitatory neurotransmitter associated with learning and memory
HORMONE IMBALANCE: Small changes in hormone levels can have a big impact. there
is not enough thyroid hormone getting to the brain. This can, and oftentimes will, lead to
increased rates of depression or anxiety or other mental health issues,” he says.
For example, patients with hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism can experience erratic and
unpredictable mental states. Commonly reported are anxiety, brain fog, mania, lethargy,
depressive mood, and confusion.
GENETIC VULNERABILITIES:

Variable: Any measurable conditions, events, characteristics, or behaviors that are controlled
or observed in a study.
a value measured between -1 and +1. When the correlation coefficient is close to +1, there is
a positive correlation between the two variables. If the value is relative to -1, there is a
negative correlation between the two variables. When the value is close to zero, then there is
no relationship between the two variables.

Theorist Jean Piaget introduced the term schema, In Piaget's theory, a schema is both the
category of knowledge as well as the process of acquiring that knowledge. He believed that
people are constantly adapting to the environment as they take in new information and learn
new things.

As experiences happen and new information is presented, new schemas are developed and
old schemas are changed or modified.
The four main types of schemas are:1
  Person schemas are focused on specific individuals. For example, your schema for
your friend might include information about her appearance, her behaviors, her
personality, and her preferences.
 Social schemas include general knowledge about how people behave in certain social
situations.
 Self-schemas are focused on your knowledge about yourself. This can include both
what you know about your current self as well as ideas about your idealized or future
self.
 Event schemas are focused on patterns of behavior that should be followed for certain
events. This acts much like a script informing you of what you should do, how you
should act, and what you should say in a particular situation.
Before going to a party, say a birthday party, we have a preconceived idea about what is
going to happen at that party which includes cake, food, and dance. We don't know what
exactly is going to happen. But we form preconceived schemas about the party that we had
gained through past experiences.

Attributions, Attributional Style, and Psychopathology

Put simply your attributional and explanatory style is the way in which you explain your
circumstances to yourself.

SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS
Most aspects of mental illness and psychological well‐being are influenced by social factors
(such as gender, social class, race and ethnicity, and household patterns) and social
institutions (such as disability and social security systems, labor markets, and health care
organizations)
Outside of biological and psychological factors on mental illness, race, ethnicity, gender,
religious orientation, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, etc. also play a role, and this is
the basis of the socio-cultural model.
A sociocultural model of abnormality emphasizes the social and cultural context, going so far
as to suggest that abnormality is a direct function of society's criteria and definitions for
appropriate behavior.
In this model, the abnormality is social, not medical or psychological. For example, early
Greeks revered people who heard voices that no one else heard because they interpreted this
phenomenon as evidence of divine prophecy. In the Middle Ages, people tortured or killed
people who heard voices because they interpreted this same proclivity as evidence of
demonic possession or witchcraft. Today, people treat those who hear voices with medicine
and psychotherapy because this symptom is viewed as evidence of schizophrenia.

Social and cultural context can influence the kinds of stresses people experience, the kinds of
disorders they are likely to develop, and the treatment they are likely to receive.