PRESENTATION BY: MARECHRIS M.

DELLOSA
Abnormal Psychology
The study of Abnormal Psychology, is the study
of people who suffer mental, emotional, and
sometimes physical, often referred as
psychopathology. It is concerned in with
understanding the nature, causes, and
treatment of mental disorders.
Mental Disorders
Characterized by psychological dysfunction,
which causes physical and/or psychological
distress or impaired functioning, and is not an
expected behavior according to societal or
cultural standards.
Jessica's Case
Jessica is a 25-year-old postgraduate student enrolled in a human resource management course. She is a
proactive, hardworking, and enthusiastic researcher and aims to publish her research papers in top journals.
If you were to meet her, you would think that she is a rising star with a bright future, not someone who has
severe personal problems. However, Jessica has been drinking alcohol since she was 14, and smokes at least
one full pack of cigarettes every day. Although she does not go out and drink with her friends, her housemate
usually finds her drinking spirits alone in the student. hostel despite the campus housing policy prohibiting
students from drinking in any of the student residences. As a result of frequent hangovers, Jessica has
missed a few morning classes. Thanks to the flexible schedule of her postgraduate course, she has the
option of not signing up for specific morning classes. She also said that drinking at night helps calm her
down and provides subsequent. inspiration for her academic project, while smoking wakes her up and
energizes her. While she knows that these bad habits will jeopardize her health and academic development
in the long run, Jessica has been unable to effectively stop smoking and drinking.
WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT HER
CASE?

ASKING QUESTIONS IS AN
IMPORTANT ASPECT OF BEING A
PSYCHOLOGIST.
PSYCHOLOGISTS ARE TRAINED
TO ASK QUESTIONS AND TO
CONDUCT RESEARCH.

FAMILY AGGREGATION -
WHETHER A DISORDER RUNS IN
THE FAMILY
What is Abnormal?
Consider these behaviors.

1.A man driving a nail through his hand.

2.A woman creating an altar for his deceased husband and leaving food
and gifts for him.
3.A man barking like a dog and crawling on his knees.
4.A woman laid a baby on a mat on the street and let a man jump over it.
5. A young man cut his arms/wrist with sharp blades
THE 4 D'S OF ABNORMALITY

DYSFUNCTIONAL
DISTRESS
DEVIANCE
DANGEROUSNESS
Dysfunctional
interferes with your daily life functioning. The behavior
already impedes with our ability to enjoy our work and
our relationships.

Distress
if people suffer or experience psychological pain. Although
subjective distress is an element of abnormality in many
cases, it is neither a sufficient condition nor even a
necessary condition for us to consider something
abnormal
Deviance
something statistically rare and undesirable compared
to something that is undesirable but statistically
common.

Dangerousness
someone who is danger to himself and another person.
Additional Indicators:
Violation of standard society – When people fail to
follow the conventional social and moral rules of their
cultural group, we may consider them abnormal behavior.
Social Discomfort – When someone violates an implicit
or unwritten social rule, that results to a sense of
discomfort or unease to other people.
Irrationality and Unpredictability – A little
unconventional behavior may add spice to life, there are
circumstances when we consider unorthodox behavior
abnormal.
Decisions about abnormal behavior always involve social judgments and
are based on the values and expectations of society at large. This means
that culture plays a role in determining what is and is not abnormal. In
addition, because society is constantly shifting and becoming more or less
tolerant of certain behaviors, what is considered abnormal or deviant in one
decade may not be considered abnormal or deviant a decade or two later.
 The DSM
This is the American Psychiatric Association’s
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
The current version, called DSM-5, was published in
2013. It is 947 pages long and contains a total of 541
diagnostic categories. The first edition was published
on 1952.
This creates a common language so that a
specific diagnosis means the same thing to one
clinician as it does to another. The revision
process for DSM-5 had the goals of maintaining
continuity with the previous edition (DSM-IV) as
well as being guided by new research findings.
The World Health Organization (WHO) produces a document with the
rather macabre title of the International Classification of Diseases. The
11th revision of this (called ICD-11) has just been published. Chapter V of
this document covers mental and behavioral disorders
Advantages and Disadvantages
of Classification?
 Advantages
Gives clinicians and researchers both common
language and shorthand terms for complex
conditions.
·They enable us to structure information in a more
helpful manner.
Classification facilitates research.
Defining the domain of what is considered to be a
pathological establishes the range of problems
that the mental health profession can address.
 Disadvantages
Using any form of shorthand inevitably leads to a loss
of information.
There can still be some stigma associated with a
psychiatric diagnosis. Then the problem of
stereotyping. Stereotypes – automatic beliefs
concerning other people that we unavoidably learn
because of growing up in a particular culture. Stigma
can be perpetuated by the problem of labeling. A
person’s self-concept may be directly affected by
being given a diagnosis of a mental disorder.
Culture and Abnormality

Depression in an Indian Man - The "Dhat" Syndrome

In China, for instance, individuals with depression
frequently focus on physical concerns (fatigue,
dizziness, headaches) rather than verbalizing their
feelings of melancholy or hopelessness.
Taijin Kyofusho - a syndrom prevalent in Japan.
Often, people with this disorder are afraid of
blushing or upsetting others by their gaze, facial
expression, or body odor
CULTURE AND
ABNORMALITY
Epidemiology – study of the distribution of
diseases, disorders, or health related
behaviors in a given population. Mental health
epidemiology is the study of the distribution
of mental disorders.

Prevalence – refers to the number of active

of cases in a population during any given
period of time. Typically expressed as
percentage.
 Types of Prevalence:
Point prevalence – refers to the estimated proportion of actual, active cases
of a disorder in a given population at a given point in time.
1-year prevalence figure – would count everyone who experiences the
certain disorder in time throughout the entire 1 year.
Lifetime prevalence - estimate number of people who have had a particular

disorder at any time of their lives.