History of Abnormal Behavior

Chapter 1: History of Abnormal Behavior

• Abnormal behavior explanations and treatments vary in different eras and cultures.
• Supernatural forces, like gods' disfavor or demons' mischief, were believed to cause abnormal behavior in ancient societies; and this view is still held by some preliterate societies.
• Ancient practices such as trephining involved drilling skull holes for evil spirits to escape.

Greek Tradition

• Hippocrates (460–377 BCE) proposed natural causes for abnormal behavior, similar to other diseases, challenging demonological accounts.
• Health, according to Hippocrates, depended on balancing four body fluids: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile, where an imbalance could cause disorders like psychopathology.
• The Hippocratic perspective influenced Western medical thought until the mid-19th century.
• Mental and physical illnesses were not distinguished; both were viewed as an imbalance of bodily fluids.
• "Heroic" and drastic treatments, like bloodletting and purging, were used to restore balance.

Creation of the Asylum

• Mentally ill individuals were often marginalized in Europe during the Middle Ages, with little care. Many were kept by families, begged, or were imprisoned with criminals.
• "Insane asylums" were established in the 1600s-1700s due to changes in economic, demographic, and social conditions, like urbanization.
• Early asylums were more like warehouses than treatment centers, but the 19th-century moral treatment movement improved conditions.
• Moral treatment emphasized respect and humane approaches for mental illness, with key figures including Benjamin Rush, Phillipe Pinel, and William Tuke.
• Freedom, care, and support were advocated by moral treatment, instead of just confinement.
• Systematic observation and scientific inquiry, setting the stage for modern mental health care, came with the expansion of mental hospitals in the 19th century.
• Dorothea Dix advocated for more humane and economical hospital treatment for the mentally ill in the mid-1800s.
• Psychiatry became a profession dedicated to treating and understanding psychopathology.
• Some 19th-century ideas, like masturbation causing mental disorders, are now seen as misguided.
• Cultural biases, like middle-class Protestant standards, influenced views on disorder causes; violations of "natural" behavior could lead to mental disorders.
• Worcester Lunatic Hospital exemplifies the integration of physical and moral procedures of moral treatment.
• Awareness of biases and diverse perspectives are crucial for defining mental disorders objectively.
• Public mental hospitals' expansion was linked to systematic observation and scientific inquiry, laying the foundation for current mental health care.
• Public mental hospitals' invention and expansion set in motion systematic observation and scientific inquiry, leading to the current mental-health care system.
• Psychiatry's creation as a professional group laid the groundwork for concern and financial resources to solve mental disorder issues.
• Scientific approaches to understanding mental health emerged with the biological, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and humanistic paradigms in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Chapter 2: Multidimensional Models of Psychopathology

• There is a shift from one-dimensional to multidimensional models of psychopathology, including various biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors.
• Contemporary abnormal psychology employs multidimensional models, like the biopsychosocial model, integrating biological, psychological, and social factors.
• Systems theory supports integration, emphasizing holism where the "whole" is more than the sum of its parts.
• The seven blind men and the elephant analogy illustrates the limitations of narrow paradigms.

What Caused Judy's Phobia?

• Specific fears can be learned through classical (Pavlovian) conditioning, where a neutral stimulus (CS) becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus (US) to elicit a fear response (UR).
• Humans are biologically predisposed to develop intense and persistent fears to a select set of dangerous objects or situations. This is "prepared learning".
• Prepared learning is guided by specialized circuits in the brain, an evolved fear module, that operates quickly and unconsciously.
• Cognitive biases and hypervigilance towards threat cues are psychological factors implicated in phobias.
• Avoidance of feared situations prevents fear extinction.
• Childhood adversities and insecure attachment can increase vulnerability to anxiety disorders.

Genetic Influences and Outcomes

• Genetic factors influence anxiety disorders, though environmental factors play a larger role in specific phobias; twin studies indicate this.
• The outcome of psychological disorders is influenced by a complex interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors.
• Relapse in mood, eating, panic, and obsessive-compulsive disorders can be predicted by family factors like expressed emotion.
• Understanding contributing factors is crucial for effective treatment strategies.
• Most clinical disorders are under some degree of genetic influence; there is no single "gene."
• Most disorders are polygenic, environmental events also affect them.
• Gene-environment interaction studies show that emotional disorders can be caused by a mix of genetic risk and environmental stress.
• Childhood maltreatment effects on conduct problems can differ depending on the gene producing monoamine oxidase activity (MAOA).
• Many initial findings of gene-environment interactions have failed replication.
• Epigenetics includes changes in gene expression that are not due to alterations in the DNA sequence itself, but are influenced by environmental factors and can be passed on.

Neuroscience Contributions

• Neuroscience provides critical insights into the biological underpinnings of psychopathology by examining the nervous system's structure and function.
• The CNS (brain and spinal cord) controls behavior and emotions.
• Specific brain regions, like the amygdala (fear) and mood regulation areas, are being investigated in relation to disorders, though knowledge is rudimentary.
• The PNS connects the CNS to the rest of the body.
• The PNS's autonomic nervous system is responsible for psychophysiological reactions like heart rate and respiration changes.
• Neurotransmitters facilitate nerve cell communication in the synapse.
• Disruptions in neurotransmitter functioning (serotonin, dopamine) can cause abnormal behavior.

Psychophysiology and Psychosocial Factors

• Psychophysiology studies the effect of psychological experience on bodily functions.
• Psychophysiological arousal involves the nervous and endocrine systems.
• Alterations in psychophysiological functioning, like increased heart rate in PTSD, are observed.
• Psychosocial factors can influence the brain.
• Interactions of psychosocial factors and neurotransmitter systems: stressful life events and social interactions can affect neurotransmitter activity and receptor sensitivity.
• Experiences Impact Brain Structure and Function: experiences, particularly during development, can impact brain development, early life stress/trauma are associated with brain region alterations, and prenatal infections may interfere with fetal brain development in schizophrenia.

Behavioral and Cognitive Science

• Learning, emotion and cognition are crucial to psychopathology.
• Behaviors can be explained through classical conditioning through the association of stimuli.
• Maladaptive behaviors can be maintained through operant conditioning involving reinforcement and punishment, like avoidance in anxiety disorders.

Social Learning and Emotions

• Adaptive and maladaptive behaviors can be acquired through social learning.
• Uncontrollable negative events can lead to passive/helpless response and contribute to depression.
• Biological predispositions make it easier to learn certain associations, like between fear and snakes.
• Cognitive science acknowledges the role of unconscious mental processes.
• Fear involves specific brain circuits, particularly the amygdala, which are crucial for detecting and responding to danger and to promote survival.
• Subjective feelings, physiological changes, and behavioral expressions are all involved in emotions.
• Emotions have cognitive appraisal, physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and subjective feelings.
• Dysregulation of emotions is central to many psychological disorders.

Cultural, Social, and Personal Factors

• Cultural and societal factors greatly influence psychopathology.
• Cultural beliefs can shape the expression and interpretation of psychological distress.
• Gender roles and societal expectations can influence the presentation, prevalence and development of mental disorders.
• Risk factors for eating disorder include thinness and a woman's appearance.
• Social impacts to health include stress prejudice and poverty.
• Danger/conflict can contribute to mood and anxiety disorders.
• Cross-cultural studies reveal that the nature between culture and psychopathology depend on the disorder, while some disorders may have similar prevalence rates across cultures.
• Lifespan development focus' on normal development stages and any deviations from typical development pathways.
• Temperament can influence vulnerability for anxiety disorders.
• Multi-dimensional understanding of psychopathology is a must.

Chapter 3: Assessment, Diagnosis and Research

• Assessing psychological disorders involves various methods, concepts and structured approaches to research and diagnosis.

Key Concepts in Assessment

• Psychological assessment collects and interprets information to understand another person; clinical assessment includes describing a person's principal disorder, planning predictions, treatments and diagnosis.
• One must determine the consistency by determining how reliable it is and the validity is.
• Reliability refers to consistently using diagnostic methods.
• Validity is the usefulness of an assessment procedure.
• Clinical interviews provide a chance to make inquiries of a persons subjective experiences.

Interviews and Physical Exams

• The information gotten from Clinical interviews make up a persons diagnostic decisions.
• Interviews can be structured to provide more enhancement for reliability.
• Important for the context of psychological disorders include physical examinations, while general medical conditions can have an effect on adjustment.

Behavioral Assessment and Psychological Testing

• Behavioral assessment obtains information from behavior.
• Informal observations include using rating scales, behavioral studies and specific behaviors.
• Environmental considerations are a must.
• Self report inventories help to assess the persons personality.
• Projective tests help interpret ambiguous results.
• What they said, what they do, and skills are deficits are all things psychological test strive to address.

Tests

• Neuropsychological assessment detects cognitive impairments like dementia.
• The use of brain imaging studies brain structures.
• Functional MRI is used to examine brain activity.
• Neurophysiology helps to see the result of psychological events.
• Measuring heart rate can lead to the result of electrical brain activity.

Diagnosing

• Diagnosis refers to identifying any irregular symptoms or meeting requirements of having mental issues.
• Clinical diagnosis is assigned when person meets the criteria for any type of disorder.
• Diagnosis is important for treatment, research and communication.
• A person is rated one five categories to provide a broader picture, and cultural conditions need consideration.
• Reliability and validity or most DSM has validity.
• Dimensional methods help describing one's dimensions and are expected to be used for DSM-5.
• Little to do with diagnostic practices before 1980.

DSM

• The new DSM version looks and places emphasis on dimensional disorders, and has a conceptual and substantial point.
• Disorders are seen more as dimensions rather than categories.
• Understanding disorders and the relation of the nature of it can make us understanding of detail.
• Behavior problems are studied systematically.
• In each chapter we learn features about each disorder that can explain certain disorders.
• Hypothesis are tested predictions between different variables.

Tests and Research

• Dependent variables measure outcomes, and researches determines the results.
• Researchers compare groups, they determine what is normal and what is not, using a disorder or not.
• Statistical significance demonstrates if likely or not.
• Clinical significance determines the usefulness when finding results.
• Research usually mentions the term "average" but it is important to understand there are things that may vary.
• Case and correlational studies are in depth.
• Correlation is NOT causation.
• The study of one independent variable and there effect is the experiment method.
• Overtime one monitors and notices changes in longitudinal studies.
• Subjects are studied one moment in time in cross-sectional studies.

Studies

• A behavior under more controlled conditions are studied in a analogue study.
• The affects single and multiple subjects.
• Case studies provide rich diagnostic but generalizability is limited.
• By establishing control and variables, and an experiment can determine improvement.
• Genetics, time and culture can effect behaviors.
• Genes can play a significant impact in understanding psychopathic behaviors.
• Throughout longitudinal studies. behaviors over time can be studied.
• The expressions and definition of disorders is better understood using behaviors across cultures.
• Creating a better understanding of programs happens by studying various angle.
• Replication helps the necessity of re-affirming original results.
• While there is a area for ethics the methods and considerations are important.

Chapter 4: The Complexity of Anixety Disorders

• Anxiety is characterized by fear or thoughts, the different variations include abnormal disorder and cause loss of quality of life.

Anxiety

• Worry is a diffuse emotion related to future and threats.
• Worry can be expressed and can be mood or syndrome.
• When compared to anxiety, fear is discrete.
• Phobias or persistent and narrow.

Panic

• Sudden fright is a panic attack.
• An attack involves a list of somatic sensations including nausea.
• A false alarm, is what an attack is also referred ass.

Causes

• Genetic social biological and physiological disorders are what factors cause these conditions.
• There is preparation to resolve any threats.
• Dysregulation of things of a mechanisms can take a toll.
• Social conflict life events, neglect of parental controls are the triggers.
• Trauma in childhood can effect anxiety.
• People are sensitive to signals in cognitive events.
• Thought suppression and catastrophic misinterpretation can cause OCD.
• Genetics can involve anxiety disorders.
• Brain waves are the same among people who have conditions for disorder and depression.
• Different parts of the brain are involved with OCD.

Co-morbidity and Similarity

• Similar condition exist between both mood and anxiety disorders.
• Guilt and anger are common feelings.
• A fair percent of people who receive secondary analysis come from auxiliary diagnostics.

Dependencies

• Substance abuse is related to individuals who can have anxiety issues.
• Diagnoses of disorder involve symptoms including chronic conditions.
• Characteristics of GAD is when worry happens the person doesn't know what is going on; they can not control it, and the anxiety shows them showing symptoms.
• Twice as high as in women and men for GAD.
• The recognition of danger cues triggers certain cycles.
• CBT is a good form of therapy against meds.
• Unexpected attacks are character in panic disorder.
• The person feels a worry related attacks.
• Agoraphobia is being scared of situations.
• Woman are twice has high for the risk associated when panic and agoraphobia.
• Treatments involve exercises that are standardized.
• Both medicines with antidepressants can have help.
• Phobias are persistent.
• There is no contact for being or experiencing something.
• Most of the time the the adult population has a prevalence of about 9 percent per 1 year.
• Conditioning is used to develop models with this process.

Treatments

• Systematic desensitization is gradually confronting fear in relaxed state.
• In the context of childhood separation disorder is discussed mainly and involves concerning being away from home.
• Social conditions is when you have be humiliated in front on someone.
• Most women are more common to have this, when something does go wrong with you.
• Attentional bias is contributed factor; with genetic conditions.
• CBT is useful with having to re-structure negative emotions. Traumatic distress is grouped by mixing symptoms with anxiety.
• Serious injury can trauma and or stress related symptoms.

PTSD and Stress Disorder

• Re-experiencing trauma; increased autonomic arousal.
• The most common effect is having delayed stress.
• By definition one is able to have ptsd or ASD but it is a process.
• Important factors after, support and children are risk.
• Prolonged memory and cognitive memory are used as treatment.
• SSRI treatments help.
• ASD is a reaction that last 3 weeks to a month.
• Symptoms include behavioral patterns.

OCD

• An obsession or compulsion defines OCD.
• A person will have unwanted thoughts.
• There is no pleasure to compulsive checking.
• Not a big gap in gender but OCD is a consistent condition.
• OCD can be determined and have effects with the attention processes.
• Treatment is to prolong conditions.
• Effective ways include anti depressants and therapy.
• BDD effects the concerns for the physical appearance.
• There is a lack in certain data points.
• Genetic factors help determine other stress factors.
• Therapy and antidepressant can cause recovery and stop from happening these conditions again.