what is abnormal according to psychologist?

Question

i need examples of case studies .and how to write an essay on this topic

Answer 1

i did abnormality in psychology at school. there isn't one definite answer.
how do you define abnormality? maybe that should be your essay....

http://www.s-cool.co.uk/topic_principles.asp?loc=pr&topic_id=1&subject_id=14&ebt=77&ebn=&ebs=&ebl=&elc=13

Answer 2

An experienced psychologist never says that something is abnormal, he says that it is `different`. Ten men cry at their friends` funeral, two men do not. You cannot say that the two men are `abnormal` because they did not cry, they handled the situation differently from the other ten, thats` all. This type of situation crops up all the time, so you have to find a `fail-safe` way to prove what `normal` is before you start to talk about abnormal behaviour. Because we are all genuinely different from each other, this proof is almost impossible.

Answer 3

In short it is behaviour that is against the norms of any given society, that causes danger or distress to the person or persons who transmits it, or receives it.un-normal behaviour does not mean abnormal behaviour.

Answer 4

nomatter how abnormal something is
if you are around it long enough
it will become normal

Answer 5

See if this helps.

Abnormal Psychology
Lecture Notes
Basic Issues
"Neurotic" Disorders
Mood Disorders
Schizophrenia
Personality Disorders
I. Basic Issues
A. What is "abnormal" behavior?

unusual, rare, but not necessarily bizarre
deviant
maladaptive
distressing
B. What are some common myths about abnormality?
bizarre
different in kind
dangerous
shameful, self-induced
C. How many types of disorders have been identified?
Problems with anxiety
Mood problems
Schizophrenia
Personality problems
Others: drugs, psychosexual, manias, etc.
D. How do psychologists identify disorders?
The classification of psychological problems is difficult, because they share symptoms
DSM-IV of American Psychiatric Association
continually revised
based on the "medical model"
E. What causes abnormality?
Medical model: mental illness
illness idea (abnormal behavior, maladaptive behavior, mental disorder, psychopathology, emotional disturbance, behavior disorder, mental illness, mental disease, insanity)
organic dysfunction: alcoholism, brain damage
functional: no link to physical factors
Interactional, or eclectic model
II. "Neurotic Disorders"
A. Anxiety States: All characterized by high (very high) anxiety, tension, nervousness


1. Generalized anxiety disorder and panic
objective anxiety vs. free-floating anxiety
tense, apprehensive, difficulty concentrating, irritable, worried, can't concentrate
headaches, insomnia, upset stomach, aching muscles, need to much sleep, sweating, etc.
2. Panic disorder
severe anxiety moments
"nervous breakdown," a case of the nerves
3. Phobias: strong, irrational fears: usually associated with a specific object
simple phobias
social phobias
complex phobias (e.g., agoraphobia)
4. obsessive-compulsive
obsessions: persistent, irrational thought that presses itself into awareness at odd times, idea that keeps returning
compulsion: action that is continually repeated, (e.g., mother with obsession seeing herself stabbing kids, leads to counting up knives, keeping them locked away)
B. Somatoform disorders
1. Hypocondriasis: incessant worrying over health (not actual, physical illness as in stress-induced illness like ulcers)

2. Conversion (loss of sensory functions): not psychosomatic illness, real loss (e.g., glove anesthesia, "hysterical blindness")


C. Dissociative: several varieties, all ways to keep information about self out, lock things away, loss of identity
amnesia: forgetting past
fugue states: flight away from life, self: sometimes short, sometimes long
multiple personality: not same as a "split" personality
III. Affective Disorders
A. Major Depression


1. Extreme unhappiness, may be attributed to some specific factor, but prolonged
2. some changes from normal to depressed

Item Normal Depressed
---------- ---------- ---------------
friends affection loss of feeling,
revulsion
favorite activity pleasure boredom
new opportunities enthusiasm indifference
humor amusement mirthlessness
novel stimuli curiosity lack of interest
abuse anger self-criticism
goal-gratification pleasure avoidance
welfare self-care self-neglect
self-preservation survival suicide
achievement success withdrawal
thoughts about self realistic self-devaluant
thoughts of future hopeful hopeless
appetite hunger loss of appetite
sexuality desires loss of desire
sleep restful disturbed
energy spontaneous fatigued

3. involutional melancholia: associated with life changes

B. Dysthymia: affect is not so negative, but very long-term: like depression, except continous, chronic state that has lasted for as much as two years (one year for adolescents)--almost like a "depressive personality disorder", with depression being a fundamental part of the individual's personality
C. Bipolar Disorder (Manic-depressive)


1. shifts back and forth in emotion, from depression (as described above to mania: extremely high amounts of energy, excited
2. nature of the manic phase


distinct period in which the predominant mood is quite elevated, it may look euphoric and cheerful to an uninvolved observer, but to those who know the person well it is clearly excessive
mania is usually accompanied by a decreased need for sleep, person has lots of energy
you see a dramatic impairment in the person's functioning - they are bouncing off the walls, agitated
it's the opposite of depression in that you see the manic excessively involved in pleasurable activities, shopping sprees, hypersexuality
their speech may be loud, rapid, difficult to interrupt, and full of jokes and puns
3. Symptoms
depressed and pessimistic to uninhibited, delusions of grandeur, wild ideas
slow, tired, no energy to enthusiasm, excitement, energetic
speech slow to mile a minute talking, joking
sleeps a lot to little sleep
euphoric, happy to sadness
thinking is blocked, no ideas to wild thoughts, ideas, bizarre behavior
IV. Schizophrenia
most serious, 1 in 50 in U.S., 25% of hospitalized mentally ill, high return rate, usually under 35 when first admitted
the most serious of all mental disorders, affecting about 1% of the population in the U.S.
characterized by psychotic symptoms, which means a loss of contact with reality
the individual detaches from reality and develops an elaborate inner world which is illogical and fantastic
also characterized by thought disorder, which involves a kind of unraveling of thinking processes, the person's associations become loose, and language and communication become disturbed, what they say makes no sense
why called split personality: split from reality, doesn't react right; also, the self is split into fragments
A. Symptoms: best considered to be a group of psychotic reactions

1. Deterioration of behavior - the person declines from a previous level of functioning, "not himself"
e.g., example of Fred who went from being an honor student in school, to failing grades, getting into trouble, and using drugs over a two year period until finally having psychotic breakdown at age 16
2. Irrational, disordered thought (delusions), incoherence in ideas

Delusions are beliefs or a belief system that a schizophrenic has which are almost certainly not true; often these have religious content or the conviction that one is being controlled by outside forces, e.g., Fred believed he was the Messiah; a schizophrenic who thought he was Adam, as in the Garden of Eden, proudly displayed a faint mark on his chest where he believed the rib was taken out to create Eve;

3. Hallucinations: visual, auditory, somatosensory
sensory experiences that have no basis in reality, scz may hear, smell, see, feel things that are not there, e.g., when I was in college, a fellow student was murdered on our campus, when they caught the murderer, he stated that voices told him to kill her; Fred, the previously mentioned scz, said that televisions talked to him and thus would turn TV's around so that the screen faced the wall.

4. Disturbed affect: blunted or inappropriate

shows no emotion and doesn't seem able to feel much or experience pleasure
may also show strong affect that is incongruent with the situation at hand, e.g., may laugh uncontrollably when hearing that someone has died.

B. Types

1. disorganized (hebephrenic): youth mind: silly
incoherent, babbling
acts like adolescent, silly, laughs
fantasies, hallucinations
still, emotional blunting, laughter is not truly emotional
2. Paranoid schizophrenic
feelings of paranoia (people out to get me!) and personality disorganization (still organized personality if common paranoia)
vivid auditory hallucinations
resistant to treatment
3. catatonic schizophrenia
blunting, no reactions to anything
frequently tunes out all external, focused on own hallucinations
immobile, waxy flexibility: assume position and stay there for hours without moving
4. Chronic, undifferentiated type: has the basic char, but mixed 5. Childhood schizophrenia (autism): may be biological since starts so early that difficult to imagine what environmental factors produced it
stereotyped behaviors, head hanging, arm biting, etc.
inability to relate to environment at all
V. Personality disorders
A. What are Personality Disorders?

Personality traits are defined as enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself.
With PD's, you find rigid and inflexible traits which result in a basically maladaptive style which is not situational, but rather characteristic of the person's longterm style.
Hallmark symptom of personality disorder: disrupted personal relationships. They often don't experience much subjective distress themselves and see nothing wrong with their behavior, and have no insight into their effect on others. But, they drive the people around them nuts.
PD's repeat the same rigid behaviors in situation after situation, relationship after relationship
the prognosis for treating PD's is poor, they are highly resistant to change.
1. Antisocial: violate the rights of others without remorse; often intelligent and charming; con artists; may end up in jail for their offenses, but many do not, e.g., Richard Nixon.
2. Histrionic: immature, attention-seeking, self-centered, vain, emotional, excitable, but shallow and insincere; can be flirtatious/seductive.

3. Paranoid: suspicious, hypersensitive, argumentative people; expect to be taken advantage of or tricked by others; blame others for all their problems, take no responsibility for their role in their difficulties.

4. Schizoid: these are the "loners" who don't like people; perceived as cold, distant; have solitary interests and occupations; seem to have an inability to form attachments to others, just don't want to.

5. Avoidant: these also have trouble forming attachments, but more out of fear of rejection or shyness than lack of interest; they're very unhappy about being alone, unlike the schizoid, who prefers it.

6. Narcissistic: exaggerated sense of their own importance; have a sense of entitlement, believing that others owe them something because they're so special; they're hypersensitive to the approval and criticism of others; use people for their own ends; have a lack of empathy, unable to put themselves in other people's shoes, extremely self-centered.

7. Borderline: like Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction"; unstable people, have mood shifts and angry outbursts with little provocation; they are impulsive in their behavior; can make suicide attempts, often to manipulate others; they seem to lack a coherent sense of self and identity; and cling to others hoping to get it from relationships; terrified of being abandoned and alone.

Return to Forsyth's Psychology 101 Page
Return to Forsyth's Home page
Return to Psychology Home page