Chapter 1-Introduction to Abnormal Psychology

• 
  
•  You and your classmates chose to take this course for many
  reasons. The course might be required, or perhaps you
  thought learning about abnormal, deviant, or unusual behav-
  ior was intriguing. Or you might be interested in becoming a
  mental health professional and thought this course could help
  prepare you for such a career. Whatever the reason, you have
  likely known or will eventually know someone with a mental
  disorder. A mental disorder is a group of emotional (feelings),
  cognitive (thinking), or behavioral symptoms that cause distress
  or signicant problems. About 29.2 percent of adults worldwide
  have had a mental disorder in their lifetime (Steel et al., 2014).
  Students in our abnormal psychology classes often tell us that
  they know at least one person with a mental disorder. These
  students often say that they or an immediate family member—
  such as a parent, sibling, or child—had a disorder. A commonly
  reported disorder is depression, a problem that Travis seemed to
  be experiencing.
  Abnormal psychology is the scientic study of problematic
  feelings, thoughts, and behaviors associated with mental disor-
  ders. This area of science is designed to evaluate, understand,
  predict, and prevent mental disorders and help those who are
  in distress. Abnormal psychology has implications for all of us.
  Everyone has feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, and occasion-
  ally these become a problem for us or for someone we know.
  Travis’s situation at the beginning of the chapter represents
  some daily experiences people have with mental disorders.
• C H A P T E R 1 Abnormal Psychology and Life
  Some of us may also be asked to help a friend or sibling strug-
  gling with symptoms of a mental disorder. In addition, all of us
  are interested in knowing how to improve our mental health and
  how to prevent mental disorders so we can help family members
  and friends.
  In this book, we provide information to help you recognize
  mental problems and understand how they develop. We also ex-
  plore methods used by professionals to prevent and treat mental
  distress and disorder. Knowing this material will not make you
  an expert, but it could make you a valuable resource. Indeed,
  we will present information you can use to make informed deci-
  sions and direct yourself and others to appropriate sources of
  support and help. Based on information in Chapters 5 and 7, for
  example, you will become knowledgeable about how anxiety
  and depression affect health and behavior in yourself and others
  as well as ways of dealing with these common problems
• What Is a Mental Disorder?
  As we mentioned, a mental disorder is a group of emotional
  (feelings), cognitive (thinking), or behavioral symptoms
  that cause distress or signicant problems. 
• Abnormal psychol-ogy is the scientic study of problematic feelings, thoughts, and behaviors associated with mental disorders. At rst glance,dening problematic or abnormal behavior seems fairly straight-forward—isn’t abnormal behavior simply behavior that is not-normal? In a way, yes, but then we rst must know what norma