Psychology: Defining Mental Disorders PDF

Unit 1: Defining Mental Disorders -​ Psychopathology: manifestations of and study of causes of mental disorders (symptoms and signs) -​ Psychosis: several types of severe mental disorder in which the person is out of contact w/ reality. E.g. hallucinations & delusions -​ Syndrome: group of sym...

Unit 1: Defining Mental Disorders -​ Psychopathology: manifestations of and study of causes of mental disorders (symptoms and signs) -​ Psychosis: several types of severe mental disorder in which the person is out of contact w/ reality. E.g. hallucinations & delusions -​ Syndrome: group of symptoms that appear together & are assumed to represent a specific type of disorder -​ Duration matters!! Mental disorders defined in terms of PERSISTENT maladaptive behaviors -​ Harmful dysfunction: an approach to the definition of mental disorder. A condition can be considered a mental disorder if there is harm to the person as judged by the standards of the person’s culture or if there is an inability of some internal mechanism (mental or physical) to perform it’s natural function. -​ Dysfunctions are assumed to be a product of disruptions of thought, feeling, communication, perception, & motivation. -​ Epidemiology: study of frequency & distribution of disorders w/in a pop. -​ Gender and sex adds nuance to this -​ Measure disease burden in mortality and disability -​ Incidence- # of new cases of a disorder that appear in a pop. during a specific period of time -​ Prevalence- total # of active cases, both old & new, that are present in a pop. during a specific period of time -​ Lifetime prevalence- proportion of people that at any time in life have been affected by the disorder. -​ 46% of people interviewed by NCS-R reported disorders. -​ Comorbidity: presence of more than one condition w/in the same period of time. -​ All mental disorders are shaped, to some extent, by cultural factors -​ No mental disorders are entirely due to cultural or social factors -​ Psychotic disorders are less influenced by culture than are nonpsychotic disorders -​ History -​ Hippocrates hypothesized abnormal behavior had natural causes -​ Excess or a deficiency in one of 4 fluids/humors : blood, phlegm, black bile, & yellow bile -​ Theory dominated in Western countries until middle of 19th century -​ Evolution of the Asylum -​ During middle ages, “lunatics” and “idiots” = mentally ill, imprisoned or placed in houses for the poor. -​ 1790-1850 rapid pop. growth & rise of large cities in US -​ Asylums created -​ 19th century, moral treatment movement led to improved conditions…philosophy of moral treatment Dorthea Dix