Understanding Psychopathology

Key Definition: Psychopathology

• Psychopathology is the scientific study of abnormal behavior, psychological disorders (mental disorders), and mental health characteristics.

Evolution of Understanding Psychological Disorders

• Traditional influences include social, religious, and cultural factors.
• Scientific methods examine biological factors (genetics, neurology, physiology) and psychological phenomena, which are behaviors or events that change over time.

What is a Psychological Disorder?

• Clinical phenomena involve dysfunctional or harmful behaviors, distorted or distressing thoughts, and intense or inappropriate emotions.
• The impact of these phenomena can negatively affect personal well-being, academic performance, and professional life.
• A disorder may be classified if it causes hallucinations (e.g., hearing voices) or flashbacks (trauma-related).
• Antisocial Personality Disorder involves harmful behaviors without guilt or distress.

Disability and Psychological Disorders

• Disability is defined as impairment in life areas such as work and relationships.
• Impairment in life areas can be used as a criterion for diagnosis.
• Distress does not always lead to disability, but it can sometimes cause disability.
• Symptoms can lead to distress, which can lead to disability in some cases. Substance use disorders are examples.
• Common consequences include interpersonal issues (e.g., arguments with spouse) and work-related struggles (e.g., poor job performance).

Defining Harmful Dysfunction

Harmful dysfunction is the degree of threat or danger posed by behaviors.

• It has two components: value judgment (harmful based on societal norms and values) and scientific component (dysfunction in psychological mechanisms).
• Challenges in identifying harm exist because internal psychological mechanisms are not fully understood and it is hard to determine exact dysfunctions.

Frequency of Behaviors & Psychological Disorders

• Infrequent behaviors may indicate abnormality but can also be adaptive (e.g., genius is rare but not abnormal).
• Excessive behaviors can negatively impact well-being and may contribute to distress or dysfunction.

Social Norms & Defining Abnormality

• Historically, deviation from social norms was used to define abnormality.
• Using social norms as a criterion is problematic. Many researchers oppose this approach.
• Not all norm violations are disorders and social norms change over time and vary across cultures.
• Positive social evolution can occur through norm violations. The feminist movement challenged gender biases and societal norms.

Biological Differences & Psychological Disorders

• Biological factors include brain structure and function abnormalities and genetic differences.
• They may result in atypical reactions, emotions, and cognition and can affect adaptation to life's challenges.
• People with the same disorder can differ biologically, highlighting the need for personalized diagnosis and treatment.

Defining Psychological Disorders

• No single characteristic can fully define abnormality.
• Each criterion has advantages and disadvantages.
• A disorder is usually diagnosed based on multiple characteristics occurring together.

Paradigms in Psychological Research

• A paradigm is a conceptual framework that guides scientific research.
• Basic assumptions about a subject, a general perspective on how to study it, methods for gathering and interpreting data, and how researchers think about a subject are included.
• Paradigms in research define problems to investigate, shape research methods and data interpretation, and influences scientific theories and approaches.

Final Quick-Review Takeaways

• Psychopathology is the study of abnormal behavior and mental health.
• No single factor defines abnormality – multiple aspects are considered.
• Disability, distress & dysfunction are key elements in defining disorders.
• Social norms and biological factors play a role but are not sole determinants.
• Psychological research is guided by paradigms – different perspectives shape understanding

Stigma Associated with Psychological Disorders

• Stigma consists of destructive beliefs and attitudes held by society towards groups considered different, especially those with psychological disorders.
• Stigma can be devastating, negatively impacting self-esteem, preventing help-seeking behavior (affecting prognosis), and reducing social and employment opportunities, leading to isolation.

Four Characteristics of Stigma

• A label is applied to distinguish a group (e.g., "crazy") and is linked to negative traits (e.g., "crazy people are dangerous").
• An ‘us' vs. ‘them’ mentality is formed (e.g., "we are not like them").
• People with the label face discrimination (e.g., "a clinic for crazy people can't be built here").
• Self-stigma refers to internalizing society's negative attitudes towards oneself.

Historical Context of Stigma in Psychopathology

• Stigma and mental illness have long been linked, rooted in historical misconceptions about its causes.
• Early beliefs in demonology led to inhumane treatments (exorcism, flogging, starvation).
• Hippocrates (5th century BC) proposed that mental disorders had natural causes, shifting care from priests to physicians.
• The Dark Ages (post-Galen, 2nd century AD) saw a return to supernatural explanations, with monasteries replacing physicians in mental health care.
• Medieval hospitals (13th-15th century) began institutionalizing individuals with mental disorders, though treatments remained crude and ineffective.

Controversial Biological Approaches

• Benjamin Rush (18th century) believed excess blood caused mental illness, leading to bloodletting as treatment.
• Philippe Pinel (1793) introduced humane treatment, removing chains and emphasizing dignity and care—though mostly for the upper class.
• The 19th-century moral treatment movement sought to create structured, supportive environments but declined due to overcrowding in public hospitals.
• Prefrontal lobotomies (1930s-1950s) were widely performed to control violent behavior, but often left patients cognitively impaired.
• The eugenics movement (early 20th century) aimed to eliminate hereditary mental illness, leading to forced sterilization of individuals with psychological disorders.

The Shift in Psychopathology Research

• The search for biological causes dominated mental health treatment until the 20th century.
• Ethical concerns and the rise of psychological and humanistic perspectives influenced modern approaches.
• Psychotherapy and psychological models emerged, attributing mental illness to psychological rather than purely biological factors
• Hysteria involved unexplained physical symptoms (e.g., blindness, paralysis).
• Franz Anton Mesmer believed hysteria was caused by an imbalance in a universal magnetic fluid.
• His treatment, animal magnetism, involved patients touching iron rods to restore balance, later evolving into hypnosis.

Hypnosis and Psychological Explanations (19th Century)

• Jean Martin Charcot supported biological explanations but was influenced by psychological factors when students induced and removed hysteria symptoms via hypnosis.
• Charcot’s credibility helped legitimize hypnosis as a treatment.

Josef Brewer and the Cathartic Method

• Josef Brewer treated Anna O, who exhibited hysterical symptoms (e.g., paralysis, speech impairments).
• Under hypnosis, recalling past traumas relieved symptoms—this process was called catharsis.
• Later evidence showed that Anna O was not permanently cured.

Freud and the Psychoanalytic Theory

• Sigmund Freud expanded on Breuer's work, proposing that unconscious conflicts cause psychopathology and dividing the psyche into 3 parts.
• Id: Instinctual drives, operates on the pleasure principle (immediate gratification).
• Ego: Mediates between Id and reality, and operates on the reality principle.
• Superego: Represents morality and societal rules.
• Freud theorized four psychosexual stages, each linked to a different erogenous zone.
• Defense mechanisms, later expanded by Anna Freud, protect the ego from anxiety by managing conflicts between the id and superego.

Stages of Psychosexual Development (Freud)

• Freud proposed five distinct psychosexual stages, where different body parts are most sensitive to pleasure and drive id satisfaction.

• Personality development depends on how conflicts between the id's desires and environmental demands are resolved.

• Oral Stage (Birth - 18 months): Pleasure through sucking, biting, and feeding with a focus on mouth, lips, gums, and tongue

• Anal Stage (18 months - 3 years): Pleasure derived from passing and retaining feces with a focus on toilet training and self-control.

• Phallic Stage (3 - 5/6 years): Pleasure through genital stimulation. The period where gender identity and early sexual feelings emerge.

• Latency Stage (6 – 12 years): Id impulses are dormant, focusing on social and intellectual development, and sexual energy is redirected into learning and friendships.

• Genital Stage (Adolescence - Adulthood): Mature sexual interests develop, focusing on heterosexual relationships.

• Excessive or insufficient gratification at any stage may lead to fixation

• Under stress, a person may regress to an earlier stage, displaying behaviors characteristic of that phase.

Major Techniques of Psychoanalysis:

• Free Association: The patient speaks freely, saying whatever comes to mind without censorship.
• Interpretation: The analyst identifies and explains the hidden meanings behind the patient's behavior.
• Analysis of Transference: The patient projects past relationship dynamics onto the analyst, who helps recognize and understand these patterns.

Carl Gustav Jung & Analytical Psychology

• Carl Jung initially aligned with Freud but broke away in 1914, leading to the development of analytical psychology.
• Jung believed in a collective unconscious, which is a shared unconscious among all humans, containing archetypes (universal mental concepts).
• Masculine & Feminine Traits: Each person possesses a blend of both.
• Spiritual & Religious Drives were as fundamental as biological urges, and Personality Typology was an introduced Extraversion (outward focus) vs. Introversion (inward focus), a concept still influential today.

Alfred Adler & Individual Psychology

• Alfred Adler was once a follower of Freud but later developed individual psychology, which emphasized social connectedness and personal growth.
• Social Interest: Fulfillment comes from contributing to the social good.
• Goal-Oriented Behavior: - Like Jung, Adler stressed striving towards goals.
• Cognitive Focus: Adaptive feelings and behaviors require rational thinking.
• Anticipation of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Emphasis on changing illogical thoughts foreshadowed modern CBT techniques.

Lasting Influence of Freud's Work

• Despite declining influence, Freud's theories continue to shape psychopathology, particularly in reducing stigma by highlighting experiential and developmental factors in psychological disorders.
• Childhood Experiences Shape Adult Personality.
• Early parent-child relationships significantly impact later life
• Focus has shifted from psychosexual stages to attachment and relational patterns

Unconscious Influences on Behavior

• Cognitive neuroscience supports the fact that people may not always be aware of what drives their actions.
• Modern perspectives reject Freud's id-driven unconscious but acknowledge hidden cognitive processes.

Human Behavior

• Freud's legacy includes how people can state motivations which doesn't reflect true intentions
• Modern psychodynamic theories still emphasize hidden emotions and unconscious conflicts in behavior.

The Genetic Paradigm

• Genes alone do not determine behavior or traits; instead, behavior results from a dynamic interplay between genes and the environment (nature via nurture).
• Human genome research confirms that almost all behavior is heritable, but genes do not operate in isolation—they interact continuously with environmental influences such as stress, relationships, and culture.
• Humans have ~20,000 genes, but gene sequencing and function, rather than the number of genes, determine complexity.
• Gene expression – Genes are activated or deactivated by proteins, demonstrating that genetic effects are not fixed.
• Psychopathology is polygenic, meaning multiple genes contribute to vulnerability at different developmental stages.

Genetic Links to Psychological Disorders

• No single gene directly causes a disorder; instead, genes interact with environmental factors across the lifespan.
• Genetic correlations exist between disorders (e.g., schizophrenia and anorexia nervosa), but findings remain inconsistent and require replication.
• Heritability = the proportion of variation in a population that is attributable to genetic factors; ranges from 0.0 to 1.0 – higher values indicate greater genetic influence.
• Heritability applies to populations, not individuals because schizophrenia's heritability (~0.65–0.80) means 65-80% of population variability in schizophrenia is due to genetic factors, not that an individual's disorder is 65% genetic.
• Psychological disorders do not result from genes alone but emerge through the interaction of genetic predisposition, environmental factors, and biological mechanisms (e.g., hormones, brain function, and gene regulation).

Behaviour Genetics

• Determines how genes, environments influence behaviour and the does not determine causes
• Heritability measures genetic contribution to traits but does not explain gene function.

Genotype vs. Phenotype

• Genotype is the genetic makeup (DNA sequence), not directly observable.
• Phenotype are the observable traits that are determined by genes and environment.
• Gene expression is flexible because the genes turn on/off based on environment

Gene-Environment Interaction & IQ

• IQ is highly heritable, but environmental effects vary by SES:
• Low SES - IQ variability is mostly environmental (~60%).
• High SES - IQ is more genetically influenced.
• Genetics + non-shared environment shape most traits.
• Shared environment (e.g., family upbringing) has little long-term impact Early stressors (e.g., maternal depression) interact with genes to influence vulnerability.
• Shared environmental effects decrease with age Genes and environment interact dynamically, influencing behaviour across development.

Molecular Genetics

• It focuses on identifying genetic variations in both gene sequence and structure.
• SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms ) identify genes linked to disorders and track genetic heritability within families.
• SNP can predict the medication responses or vulnerability to environmental stress and estimate the risk for specific disorders.
• Genes and environment work together-life experiences shape gene expression, and genes influence behavior and experience selection

Environmental Influences

• A gene-environment interaction (GxE) occurs when a person's genetic makeup alters their sensitivity to environmental influences.
• For example, people with at least one short allele of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT) were more likely to develop major depressive disorder (MDD) only if they also experienced childhood maltreatment or severe life stress -Mindfulness is partly heritable (~30%), with genetic links to depression and anxiety sensitivity.
• MBCT helps to increase resilience by genetics Genetic variations in SNPs affect response to MBCT—some participants experienced increased positive affect, while others had declines without treatment.
• Genetic predisposition (‘first hit') + environmental stressor (‘second hit') increases schizophrenia risk such as prenatal stress, maternal deprivation, malnutrition, vitamin D deficiency, and cannabis use.

Epigenetics & Affects

• Environment alters gene activity without changing DNA.
• Trauma, stress, and life experiences can influence long term mental health conditions.
• Environmental stressors can reduce vulnerability to mental illness

Neuroscience Paradigm

• Link psychological disorder
• Focus the research on the brain structure

Neurotrasmitters

Neurons communicates through synapse

• Neurotrasmitters bind to receptors

Neurotransmitters & Psychopathology

The following links psychopathology to neurotransmitters:

• Dopamine & Serotonin → Linked to depression, schizophrenia, mania.
• Norepinephrine → Regulates arousal, stress, and anxiety.
• GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid) → Inhibits nerve impulses, reducing anxiety.

Structure and Function of the Human Brain

• The brian consists of three layers main parts
• Th forebrain includes cerebrum responsible for sensory and emotional process
• The brian can be cerebrum, thalamus, and hypothalamus responsible for and temperature regulation.

Cerebral Cortex & Brain Lobes

• Cerebral cortex is responsible billions nerons and divided to with two brain hemisphere
• Four lobes of the brain can be memory, motor, regulation, and spacial awareness.
• Key takeaways:
• Brain structure and functions plays an crucial role in psychoogical disorders.

HPA Axis & Cortisol Release

1 Threat detected → Hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing

2 CRF signals the pituitary gland → Releases adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH).

3 ACTH travels to adrenal glands → Triggers cortisol release triggers cortisol release the stress hormone.

4 -Cortisol peaks in ~20-40 minutes, then gradually returns to baseline (~1

Cortisol Peeks

Increasing risks for disregulation Show in animals trauma The ANS operates Controlling involuta

Autonomic Nervous System

• The ANS Controls involuntary functions by regulating the heart
• The ANS subdivided two Subsystem and activates to stress response
• The rest of the system lowers the heart rate

Global Trends in Antidepressant Use

• Increasingly used from global and has the highest increase globally.
• The Factors affect the rate of use and the use plays in the treating with mental disorders however varies across countries.

Classical Conditioning

• The learning of associations between stimul Key Terms: Ο Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) – Naturally elicits response (e.g. meat powder → salivation.)

Ο Unconditioned Response (UCR) – Natural reaction (e.g. salivation to food.)

Ο Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – Initially neutral but becomes associated with UCS (e.g., bell).

Ο Conditioned Response (CR) – Learned response (e.g., salivation to bell). Etinction is if the (CS) if its longer if the response is over

Operant Conditioning

Learning through the behaviour Rewarding, punished Reinforcement with skinner Using this for the therapy helps with the engagement

Factors in CBT

• Developed in the 1950s to support the classical and operating conditioning
• Based Recriporl Inhibit