Psicologia Anormal

Abnormal Psychology Notes:
* Rosenhan and Seligman (1984): suggested there are seven criteria that could be used to decide if behaviour is normal or not:
* Suffering – Does the person experiences distress and discomfort?
* Maladaptiveness – Does the person adopt a behavior that makes life difficult for him/her rather than helpful?
* Irrationality – Is the personalunable to communicate in a reasonable manner?
* Unpredicatbility – Does the person act in ways that are unexpected?
* Vividness and unconventionality – Does the person experience things that are different from most people?
* Observer discomfort – is the person acting in a way that is difficult to watch or that makes other people embarrassed?
* Violation of moral or idealstandards – Does habitually break the accepted ethical and moral standards of culture?

* Jahoda (1958) – attempted to establish what is abnormal by identifying the characteristics of normal people:
* Efficient self-perception
* Realistic self-esteem and acceptance
* Voluntary control of behavior
* True perception of the world
* Sustaining relationships andgiving affection
* Self-direction and productivity

* What is considered psychologically normal depends on the society and culture in which a person lives.

* Abnormal behavior is referred to as psychopathology: psychological illness that is based on the observed symptoms of a patient
* Medical model – states that the mental illness criterion is rooted in a view from themedical world that abnormal behavior has a physiological origin
* Psychiatrists now diagnose using a classification system that is supposed to be objective, rather than the reductionist and traditional way by using a medical model
* Psychological Disorders Diagnosis- the psychiatrist will often have to rely primarily on the patients subjective description of the problem by using astandardized clinical interview. According to Kleinmutz (1967) there are limitations to this interview process due to the patients anxienty, preoccupation and other factors
* Psychologist refer to ABCS when describing symptoms of a disorder:
* Affective symptoms: emotional elements (fear, sadness, anger)
* Behavioral symptoms: observational behaviors (crying, pacing)
* Cognitivesymptoms: ways of thinking (pessimism, personalization and self-image)
* Somatic symptoms: physical symptoms (facil twitching , stomach cramping, and amenorrhoea (absence of menstruation))
* Diagnosis means identifying a disease on the basis of symptoms and other signs.The effectiveness of diagnosis can be determined in terms of two variables:
* Reliability- When differentpsychiatrists agree on a patient´s diagnosis when using the same diagnosis system
* Validity- This is the extent to which the diagnosis is accurate. It should be able to classify a real pattern of symptoms which can then lead to an effective treatment
* Rosenhan (1973), Lipton and Simon (1985) study on reliability of psychiatric diagnoses (pg.142)
* Stigmatized- People who are different* Self-fulfilling Prophecy- people may begin to act as they think ther are expected to
* Ideology and Insanity (Szasz 1974) and Scheff (1966) (see pg. 143)
* There are several types of bias that may affect the validity of a diagnosis:
* Racial/Ethnic: patients with different races and cultures
* Confirmation Bias: clinicians have expectations about the person thatconsults them, assuming that the person has some disorder to diagnose; they may overreact and see abnormality wherever they look
* Powerlessness and depersonalization: produced in institutions through a lack of rights, constructive activity, choice and privacy
* Marsella (2003) argues that depression takes a primarily affective (emotional) form in individualistic cultures. On the other...