Psychology 314 Test & Exam notes cover all information needed for the test and exam. Covers chapters 1,2,3,5,7,8,10,11,12,13 - made using the textbook, powerpoints and in-person lectures
Psychology 314
Chapter One: Abnormal Behaviour in Historical Context
What is Psychopathology?
• The scientific study of psychological dysfunction
What is a Psychological Disorder or Abnormal behaviour?
• Psychological dysfunction associated with distress and/or impairment in
functioning and Involves a response that is not typical or culturally
expected
• May include cognitive, behavioural and/or emotional elements
Distress, Impairment and Cultural Context
• Distress is normal in some situations
• Dysfunctional distress occurs when person is much more distressed than
others would be
• Impairment: Must be pervasive and/or significant
® Mental disorders are often exaggerations of normal processes (e.g.
extreme shyness or sadness)
• Culture: Consider 'normalcy' relative to behaviour of others in same cultural
context
• Mental disorder = harmful dysfunction
An Accepted Definition:
• Behavioural, psychological or biological dysfunctions that are unexpected in
their cultural context and associated with present distress and/or
impairment in functioning or increased risk of suffering, death, pain or
impairment
Studying Psychological Disorders
Clinical Description à Causation (aetiology) à Treatment and Outcome
Clinical Description:
• Details of the combination of behaviours, thoughts and feelings of an
individual that make up a particular disorder
• Begins with the presenting problem
® Symptoms (e.g. chronic worry, panic attacks)
• Description aims to:
® Distinguish clinically significant dysfunction from common human
experience
• Describe prevalence and incidence of disorders
® Prevalence – how many people in a population have the disorder.
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® Incidence – the number of new cases over a period of time (i.e. per year).
• Describe onset of disorders
® Acute versus insidious onset
• Describe course of disorders (pattern of development and change of disorder
over time)
® Episodic, time-limited or chronic course
• Prognosis (predicted future development of a disorder over time)
® Good versus guarded (poor prognosis)
• Consider age of onset, which may shape presentation
Causation, Treatment and Outcome:
• Aetiology (cause or source of a disease)
® What contributes to the development of psychopathology?
• Treatment development
® How can we help alleviate psychological suffering?
® Includes pharmacological, psychosocial and/or combined treatments
Historical Conceptions of Abnormal Behaviour
• Major psychological disorders have existed across time and cultures
• Perceived causes and treatment of abnormal behaviour varied widely,
depending on context
• Three dominant traditions have existed in the past to explain abnormal
behaviour
1. Supernatural (good vs. Evil)
2. Biological (Hippocrates - Western Medicine - mental illness as having
physical/biological roots)
3. Psychological (Freud, psychoanalysis, moral theory)
The Psychological Tradition:
• The rise of moral therapy
® Became popular in first half of nineteenth century
® 'Moral' = referring to psychological/emotional factors
® Main idea: Treat patients as normally as possible in normal
environment
® More humane treatment of institutionalised patients
® Encouraged and reinforced social interaction
• Proponents of moral therapy
® Philippe Pinel and Jean-Baptiste Pussin – patients should not be
restrained
® Benjamin Rush – led reforms in USA
® Dorothea Dix – mental hygiene movement (effort to improve care of
the mentally disordered by informing the public of their mistreatment)
• Asylum reform – more patients getting care
® Moral therapy declined because more difficult with large groups of
patients
• Soon followed by emergence of competing alternative psychological models
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Psychoanalytic Theory:
• Psychoanalysis à psychoanalytic assessment and therapy, which emphasizes
the exploration of and insight into, unconscious processes and conflicts
• Freudian theory of the structure and function of the mind
® Unconscious (part of the psychic make-up that is outside the awareness
of the person)
® Catharsis (rapid or sudden release of emotional tension thought to be an
important factor in psychoanalytic therapy)
® Psychoanalytic model (sought to explain development and the
structure of personality as well as the origin of abnormal behaviour)
• Structure of the mind
® Id (pleasure principle; illogical, emotional, irrational)
® Superego (moral principles)
® Ego (rational; mediates between id and superego)
• Intrapsychic conflicts à the struggles among the id, ego and superego
• Defence mechanisms à Ego's attempt to manage anxiety resulting from
id/superego conflict
® Displacement and denial
® Rationalisation and reaction formation
® Projection, repression and sublimation
• Psychosexual stages of development
® Oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stages
® Theory: Conflicts arise at each stage and must be resolved
• Later developments in Psychanalytic Thought:
® Anna Freud and self-psychology
§ Ego psychology - Emphasised influence of the ego in defining
behaviour
® Melanie Klein, Otto Kernberg and object relations theory
§ Emphasised how children incorporate (introject) objects
§ “Objects” are significant others and their images, memories and
values
® The 'Neo-Freudians' are departures from Freudian thought
§ De-emphasised the sexual core of Freud's theory
§ Examples:
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• Carl Jung emphasised the 'collective unconscious'
(accumulated wisdom of a culture and remembered
across generations)
• Alfred Adler focused on feelings of inferiority, invented
'inferiority complex' (feelings of being inferior to others
while striving for superiority)
• Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: “The Talking Cure”
® Unearth the hidden intrapsychic conflicts
§ 'The real problems'
§ Therapy is often long term
® Techniques
§ Free association (explore threatening material repressed into the
unconscious, the patient is instructed to say whatever comes to
mind)
§ Dream analysis (dream contents are examined as symbolic of id
impulses and intrapsychic)
® Examine transference and counter-transference issues
§ Transference (clients may seek to relate to their therapist)
® Little evidence for efficacy
• Psychodynamic Psychotherapy:
® Therapy with themes of psychoanalysis, but often shorter and more
goal-directed
® Emphasises conflicts and unconscious, may work to uncover trauma
and active defence mechanisms
® Focus on:
§ Emotional expression
§ Avoidance and other cognitive or behavioural patterns
§ Past experience
§ Interpersonal experience
§ Therapeutic relationship
§ Wishes, dreams, fantasies
Humanistic Theory:
• Theoretical constructs
® Intrinsic human goodness
® Striving for self-actualisation (when people strive to achieve their
highest potential against difficult life experiences)
• Person-centred therapy
® Carl Rogers (1902–1987)
® Therapist conveys empathy and unconditional positive regard
® Minimal therapist interpretation
® The client directs the course of discussion, seeking self-discovery and
self-responsibility
• Hierarchy of Needs
® Abraham Maslow (1908–1970)
® Humans fulfil basic needs first (e.g. food, safety) before moving onto
higher needs like self-esteem
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