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 behavior 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 signi cant 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 scientific study of problematic feelings, thoughts, and behaviors associated with mental disorders. 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 occasionally 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.
Sunday, October 2, 2022
Renaissance (1490-1541)
Renaissance (1490-1541) • Paracelsus (Swiss doc)- psychic or mental causes – Treatment: bodily magne=sm (hypnosis) • Asylums –originally just removed people from population but not much treatment – Led to overcrowding and inhumane treatment
Renaissance A rebirth of natural and scientific c approaches to health and human behavior occurred at the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of the Renaissance. Once again, physicians focused on bodily functioning and medical treatments. In addition, Paracelsus (1490–1541), a Swiss physician, introduced the notion of psychic or mental causes for abnormal behavior and proposed a treatment initially referred to as bodily magnetism and later called hypnosis. Another new approach to treating mental disorders during the Renaissance involved special institutions known as asylums. Asylums were places set aside for people with mental disorder. Unfortunately, asylums were originally created simply to remove people with mental disorder from the general population because they were not able to care for themselves. As such, early asylums did not provide much treatment, and living conditions for residents were usually poor
Middle Ages--AD 500-1350
• Demonology Returns
• Incidence of abnormality increased dramatically; outbreaks of mass madness occurred (group of individuals afflicted at same time with same abnormal behavior--shared hallucinations & delusions • E.g., tarantism—dancing mania • Treatment: exorcisms re-emerged, confinement, prayer
Saturday, October 1, 2022
Hippocrates – Imbalance of 4 fluids (humors)
Hippocrates – Imbalance of 4 fluids (humors): yellow bile, black bile, blood & phlegm
» Excess of yellow bile -> mania
» Excess of black bile-> melancholia
» Treatment: fluids Could be balanced by a quiet life, a vegetable diet, temperance (practice of moderation), exercise, celibacy, bleeding
CHAPTER ONE STUDY GUIDE
Prehistoric views
• Evil spirits
Ø Cures: to force the demons from the vic=m’s body through:
Ø Trephina=on: stone instrument was used to cut a circular
sec=on of the skull to release the evil spirits
Ø Exorcism: coax the evil spirit out or to make the person’s
body uncomfortable in which to live
Early Greek-‐-‐460-‐377 BC
• Illnesses had internal physical causes (brain
pathology)
• Hippocrates
– Imbalance of 4 fluids (humors): yellow bile, black bile, blood &
phlegm
» Excess of yellow bileàmania
» Excess of black bileàmelancholia
» Treatment: fluids Could be balanced by a quiet life, a vegetable
diet, temperance (prac=ce of modera=on), exercise, celibacy,
bleeding
Thursday, September 22, 2022
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 signi cant 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 scienti c 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 signi cant problems. - Abnormal psychol-ogy is the scienti c study of problematic feelings, thoughts, and behaviors associated with mental disorders. At rst glance,de ning 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
Chapter 1-Introduction
Travis is a 21-year-old college junior who has been struggling recently. He and his longtime girlfriend broke up 2 months ago, and he took this very hard. Travis and his girlfriend had been together for 17 months, and she was his rst serious romantic relationship. However, the couple eventually became emotionally distant from one another and mutually decided to split following several arguments. Travis initially seemed ne after the breakup but then became a bit sullen and withdrawn about a week later. He began to miss a few classes and spent more time in his dorm room and on his computer. Since the breakup several weeks ago, Travis seems to be getting worse each day. He rarely eats, has trouble sleeping, and stays in bed much of the day. He “zones out” by playing video games, watching television, or staring out the window for hours per day. Travis has lost about 10 pounds in recent weeks and looks tired and pale. He has also been drinking alcohol more in recent days. In addition, his classroom attendance has declined signi cantly, and he is in danger of failing his courses this semester. Travis says little about the breakup or his feelings. His friends have tried everything they can think of to help him feel better, with no success. Travis generally declines their offers to go out, attend parties, or meet other women. He is not mean-spirited in his refusals to go out but rather just shakes his head. Travis’s friends have become worried that Travis might hurt himself, but they cannot be with him all the time. They have decided that Travis should speak with someone at the psychological services center on campus and plan on escorting him there today.
What Do You Think?
1. Which of Travis’s emotional or behavioral problems concern you the most?
Why?
emotional problem due to breaking up with his girlfriends. Depressive features. social withdrawal symptom , lonely
2. What do you think Travis should do?
He needs to seek help, counselling service, psychological support.
3. What would you do if you had a friend who was experiencing difficulties like Travis?
provide psychologial support , helping him refer to the psychological services for conselling and therapy.
4. What emotional or behavioral problems have you encountered in yourself or in others over the past year?
Over the past year I had the similar experience liked Travis, breaking is hard. having a difficult time with social and emotional.
5. Are you surprised when people you know experience emotional or behavioral problems? Why or why not?
I am not surprised because I had a similar experience in the past, I would like to help them providing emotional and psychological support. Instruct them to seek help and counselling for their psychological problem