Abnormal Psychology

Chapter one:
Definition and Historical Development Of Abnormal
Psychology

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 Introduction
1. Defining Abnormal Behavior(Psychopathology)(Mental Disorder)

What kind of behavior deserves to be called abnormal?

• A man with pierced noses, lips and navels.

• A women who give birth of her first child becomes emotionally

labile, irritable and cry easily.

• An old man who is still deeply troubled by events that happened 30

years ago?

• A 4o year old man who raped a teenager on her way to fetch

water. Is this evidence of Psychological disturbance or Is just a
crime?

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 Introduction
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• What about this African Girl,
makes cut on her body to make
decorative scars. Is this AB or
normal practice of the girl’s
culture?

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 Introduction.....

Many attempts have been made to define AB, none of them

are able to provide consistent definitions that makes some
one abnormal. This made the definition of abnormal
behaviors problematic.
•

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 Criteria for normality
What is Normality?

• Normality is even more difficult to define as compared to

abnormality

• Normality refers to adjustment.

• The traits or characteristics of well adjusted individuals or
mentally healthy individuals or psychologically well

adjusted individual is reflected by the followings:

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 Criteria for normality

1. Appropriate perception of reality. Normal individuals

are realistic in judging their reactions, capabilities, and in

interpreting in what is going on in the world around them.

• They do not misinterpret what others say or so they do

not over rate or underestimate their abilities. They do

not avoid difficult tasks.

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 Criteria for normality
• 2. Ability to exercise voluntary control over behavior. Normal
individuals feel confident about their ability to control their
behavior.

• 3. They rarely act impulsively and abstain from aggressive

behavior.

• 4. Self Esteem and Acceptance: Normal people have

appreciation of their own worth and they feel accepted by
those around them. Feelings of worthlessness, alienation and
lack of acceptance are prevalent among abnormal. 7
 Criteria for normality
• 5. Ability to form affectionate relationships. Normal
individual are able to form close and satisfying relationships
with other people. They are sensitive to the feelings of
others and do not make excessive demands on others.
Abnormal individuals are extremely self centered; they seek
affection but are unable to reciprocate.

• 6. Productivity: Well adjusted people are able to channel

their abilities into productive activity. They do not suffer
from lack of energy and they do experience excessive
fatigue. 8
 Criteria for abnormality
Criteria of Abnormality

• In general, psychologists look at four different criteria for

defining abnormal behavior. Each has its strengths, and each
has its problems.

• The first criterion is violation of social norms. Behavior that

goes against what is considered normal by society is
abnormal.

• behavior, thoughts, and emotions are deemed abnormal when they

violate a society’s ideas about proper functioning

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 Criteria for abnormality

• Each society establishes norms— explicit and implicit rules for

proper conduct.

• Behavior that violates legal norms is called criminal.

• Behavior, thoughts, and emotions that violate norms of

psychological functioning are called abnormal.

• A man who takes off all his clothes and jumps in a

fountain is likely to be seen as weird, whereas a three-

year-old who does it might just be seen as cute.

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 Criteria for defining abnormality

• Another criterion for identifying abnormal behavior is statistical rarity.

• Implies that people who are statistically different from the norm
are ‘abnormal’: the further from the norm one is, the greater the
abnormality

• A person who has an extremely low IQ, for example, might be classified
with some type of mental retardation. Because there is only a small
percentage of the population with mental retardation, it is rare and
therefore abnormal.

• Of course, the problem with statistical rarity is that people who are
exceptionally intelligent are just as rare as those with mental
retardation. So according to this criterion, Albert Einstein would be
abnormal.
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 Mental disorder as statistical deviance

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 Criteria for defining abnormality
• A third criterion of abnormal behavior is personal distress.

• According to many clinical theorists, behavior, ideas, or emotions

usually have to cause distress before they can be labeled
abnormal

• If people suffer or experience psychological pain we are inclined to

consider this as indicative of abnormality

• A good example of this is obsessive-compulsive disorder, where anxiety

about something can lead to compulsive behaviors meant to relieve that
distress.

• E.g. Depression, Schizophrenia

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 Criteria for defining abnormality

• The problem with personal distress, though, is that some people

with mental illness do not feel distress, such as people
with antisocial personality disorder who have an underdeveloped
conscience

• the patient who is manic and whose mood is one of elation.

He or she may not be suffering. In fact, such patients dislike
taking medications because they do not want to lose their
manic “highs.” Similarly: Anti social personality disorder.....

• Accordingly, Pain of childbirth seem to belong to the field of

AB.

•
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 Criteria for defining abnormality

• The final criterion for defining abnormal behavior

is maladaptive behavior.

Abnormal behavior tends to be interferes with daily

functioning. It upsets, distracts, or confuses people that they
cannot care for themselves properly, participate in ordinary
social interactions, or work productively.
• Is the behavior likely to hurt the person or someone else?
Whether it is physical harm or social harm, such as losing a job
or the respect of your peers, maladaptive behavior leads to
some type of harm.
• E.g. Substance use disorder, phobia, person with anorexia. 15
 DSM-5 Definition of Mental Disorders

• Currently, in the DSM-5 (the fifth edition), abnormal behavior is

generally defined as behavior that violates a norm in society, is
maladaptive, is rare given the context of the culture and
environment, and is causing the person distress in their daily
life.

•
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• History of abnormality

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 history of abnormality

• Three prominent themes in explaining psychological

disorders recur throughout history

• The mystical : product of evil and demons

• The scientific : biological, faulty learning, emotional stress

• The humanitarian: poor living condition, cruelty

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 Historical perspective AB

• ANCIENT THEORIES

• Early societies believed that spirits controlled much of the

environment as well as aspects of a person’s behavior.
Hence, they engaged in a practice called trephination,
using a circular instrument to cut away sections of the skull.

• Opening up the skull, it may have been thought, released

the evil spirits that had assumed control of the person or
might simply have been used to treat head wounds received
in battles. Even today, we are not sure why ancient peoples
practiced it.
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Historical perspective AB

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 Historical perspective AB......

CLASSICAL GREEK AND ROMAN PERIODS

 The ancient Greeks believed that the supernatural being controlled

abnormal behavior and that defiance of the deities could result in
mental illness.

 During this period, mental illnesses were considered to result from

either traumatic experiences or an imbalance in fluids (such as
blood) found within the body. These fluids were called humors.

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 Historical perspective AB......

• Often considered the father of medicine, Hippocrates (460–

377 BC) was the most famous Greek physician.

• He believed that the brain was the central organ of

intellectual activity and that mental disorders were due to :

• Brain pathology

• Heredity and predisposition

• injuries to the head could cause sensory and motor

disorders.

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 Historical perspective AB......

• 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, yellow bile (choler), and black bile
(melancholic).

• Hippocrates classified all mental disorders into three general

categories—mania, melancholia, and phrenitis (brain fever)

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 Historical perspective AB......

• Humors in action: Hippocrates believed that imbalances of the

four humors affected personality. yellow bile drives a husband
to beat his wife, and black bile leaves a man melancholic and
sends him to bed

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Personality typology

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 Historical perspective AB......

• Another very influential Greek physician was Galen (A.D.

130–200),

• Galen also took a scientific approach to the field, dividing

the causes of psychological disorders into physical and
mental categories.

• Among the causes he named were injuries to the head,

excessive use of alcohol, shock, fear, adolescence menstrual
changes, economic reversals, and disappointment in love.
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 Historical perspective AB......

Hippocrates’ (460–377 B.C.) belief that Galen (A.D. 130–200) believed that psychological
mental disease was the result of natural disorders could have either physical
causes and brain pathology was causes, such as injuries to the head, or mental27
revolutionary for its time. causes, such as disappointment in love.
 Historical perspective AB......

THE MIDDLE AGES THROUGH THE RENAISSANCE

• Church officials interpreted negative behavior as the work of the devil or as

witchcraft.

• The Renaissance period (14th to 17th Century) marked a second time of

enlightenment in the treatment of mental illnesses in Europe.

• Much of this transformation can be traced back to

 Swiss physician Paracelsus (1493–1541), refuted the idea that abnormal

behaviors were linked to demonic possession, believed that mental
disorders could be hereditary and that some physical illnesses had a
psychological origin

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 Historical perspective AB......

• Beginning in the sixteenth century, people with mental illness

were housed in asylums—separate facilities designed to
isolate them from the general public.

• Although the concept of asylums was based on good

intentions, the asylums quickly filled to capacity (and
overcapacity). The lack of effective treatments turned the
facilities into warehouses, often called madhouses.

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 Historical perspective AB......

• One of the most famous was St. Mary of Bethlehem in

London.

• They called the place Bedlam (a contraction

(shrinkage) of “Bethlehem”), a word that came to
describe chaotic and uncontrollable situations

• Asylum: A type of institution that first became popular in

the sixteenth century to provide care for persons with
mental disorders. Most became virtual prisons.
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 Historical perspective AB......
The nineteenth century and the beginning of modern
thought
• In 1793, Pinel was the director of Bicêtre, an asylum for men. In
his book called Memoir on Madness, he proposed that mental
illness was often curable and that to apply appropriate
treatment, the physician must listen to the patient and observes
his behavior.

• Both would help the physician to understand the natural history

of the disease and the events that led to its development.

• Pinel removed the chains from the patients, he advocated

daytime activities such as work or occupational therapy to allow
for restful sleep at night.
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 Historical perspective AB......

At the same time, across the English Channel, William

Tuke established the York Retreat, a small country
house deliberately designed to allow people with mental
illnesses to live, work, and relax in a compassionate and
religious environment.

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 Historical perspective AB......

• The methods of Pinel and Tuke, called moral treatment

• moral treatment: A nineteenth-century approach to treating

people with mental dysfunction that emphasized moral
guidance and humane and respectful treatment.

• Patients with psychological problems were increasingly

perceived as potentially productive human beings whose
mental functioning had broken down under stress.

• They were considered deserving of individual care, including

discussions of their problems, useful activities, work,
companionship, and quiet
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 Historical perspective AB......

Moral treatment in the United States

• Benjamin Rush (1745–1813) and Dorothea Dix
(1802–1887).
• Rush was a well-known physician, he limited his
practice to mental illness,
• he believed that the causes of mental illness is in the
blood vessels of the brain.
• he became known as the father of American
psychiatry

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 Historical perspective AB......

• Dix believed that asylums, correctly designed and

operated, would allow for treatment and perhaps even
cure.

• mental hospitals became associated with permanent

institutionalization, custodial care, isolation, and very
little hope.

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 Historical perspective AB......

• In 1899, after observing hundreds of patients, Emil

Kraepelin (1856–1926) introduced two diagnostic
categories.

• Dementia praecox, now called schizophrenia was

Kraepelin’s term for a type of mental illness characterized
by mental deterioration.

• Manic-depressive insanity was defined as a separate

disorder with a more favorable outcome.

• Kraepelin was best known for his studies of dementia

praecox, which he believed resulted from autointoxication,
the self-poisoning of brain cells as a result of abnormal
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body metabolism.
 Historical perspective AB......
• Another physician interested in the brain was Jean-Martin
Charcot (1825–1893), was interested in hysteria, and he
believed that it was caused by degenerative brain changes.

• Vigorous efforts were made to close down mental hospitals

and return psychiatrically disturbed people to the
community,

• This movement, referred to as deinstitutionalization,

although motivated by benevolent goals, has also created
great difficulties for many psychologically disturbed persons
and for many communities as well.

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Treatment methods used by ancient
society
• Exorcism
• has a long history as a “treatment” for persons who
behave abnormally. During biblical times, shamans, or
priests, would often perform exorcisms on such
people— reciting prayers or offering bitter-tasting drinks
in order to coax evil spirits to leave the bodies of the
troubled individuals.

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Benjamin Rush’s Methods
The tranquilizing chair,

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 In hydrotherapy, patients were
shocked back to their senses by
being submerged in ice-cold water.

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Bloodletting, the extraction of blood from patients, was
intended to restore the balance of humors in the body.

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•

Patients with psychological disorders were freed from chains

and shackles as a result of the influence of Philippe Pinel (1745-
1826), a pioneer in making mental institutions more humane.

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• The monastery of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London became
an asylum for the mentally ill in the reign of King Henry the
VIII during the sixteenth century. The hospital, known as
“Bedlam,” became infamous for its deplorable conditions
and practices.

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Dorothea Dix (1802–1887) was a tireless reformer
who made great strides in changing public attitudes
toward the mentally ill.

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