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Psychological Disorders Psychological Disorders Instructions: Read the following pages and do any assignments highlighted in yellow. It is common to find students new to psychology who believe the study of psychological disorders is psychology. These students are often surprised to find out that it is only a small piece of what psychologists study. Moreover, people bring with them preconceived notions regarding psychological disorders. More and more, these notions have been shaped by our own experiences. Most of us know at least one person whose problem has been classified as a mental disorder and who is taking some sort of psychotropic medication to change the problem. Television advertisements, shows, their doctors, and other people they know have provided them with a lot of information, and for the most part they tend to believe what they have been told. Unfortunately, much of what we have learned from these sources is not scientifically accurate. For example, most people believe “having a mental disorder” is a clear-cut thing. They believe you are either someone who “has one,” or you are someone who “doesn’t have one.” They also tend to believe that explaining psychological disorders is far simpler than explaining any other kind of behavior. For example, they find it easy to accept it is impossible for us to determine with absolute certainty why someone would play basketball, but at the same time believe when someone acts depressed it is simply because of some neurochemical imbalance. The facts of the matter are that people’s problems are typically not categorical, but dimensional and complex. People experience problems more or less over the duration of their lives. Sometimes and in some situations these problems interfere more than at other times and situations. Sometimes these problems get classified as “mental disorders,” and sometimes they don’t. In addition, the reasons why people experience problems are highly complex. Psychological disorders are at least as complex as why people experience or do anything else. It is important for students to understand exactly what is meant by the term abnormal behavior. Historical Views of Abnormal Behavior **Watch Psychological Disorders: Crash Course Psychology #28 by copying the entire link below and entering it into your computer’s search bar <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wuhJ-GkRRQc" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in- picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> **Once you have completed viewing the video, answer the following questions: 1.) What is one historical problem with mental health institutions? ______ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ 2.) In 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that _______ _____________________ people had some kind of psychological disorder. 3.) What are the three characteristics (3 D’s) of abnormal behavior as defined by mental health clinicians? _______________________________ _____________________________________________________________ 4.) What is the definition the video presenter gives for the word “deviant?” ____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ 5.) Is deviant behavior fixed and unchanging across time and culture? ___ Explain your answer: ____________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ 6.) What is the name of the manual (instructional book) used by clinicians to standardize the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders? __ _____________________________________________________________ 7.) What is one of the newest disorders in this manual that the video mentioned? ___________________________________________________ A brief history of psychological disorders Archaeologists have found human skulls with holes cut into them, made while the person was still living. There is evidence that many of the people survived this procedure. This process is called trepanning. Trepanning is still done today to relieve pressure of fluids on the brain, but in ancient times the reason may have had more to do with “releasing demons”. Many ancient cultures assumed that an evil spirit possessed everyone who behaved oddly. They drilled holes in their skulls to release those spirits. The ancient Greeks believed that mental illness was the result of imbalances in the body’s fluids. They called these fluids “humors” and categorized them as phlegm, black bile, blood, and yellow bile. For example, when a patient was melancholy, physicians assumed that his or her feelings of sadness and depression resulted from the physical excess of black bile. Likewise, an excess of yellow bile was thought to make a person angry and impulsive. The way they treated a patient was through personal hygiene by adjusting diet, exercise, and the management of the body's evacuations (e.g.: the blood, urine, feces, perspiration, etc.) Hippocrates, a Greek physician, was the first to propose this theory and to explain abnormal behavior as the result of some kind of biological process. As I am sure you are already aware, early Americans often attributed strange behavior to witchcraft. The unfortunate people, who were labeled as witches were hanged, burned, stoned, or drowned. Even today there is not a universal view of abnormal psychology. For example, in many traditional Asian cultures, mental illness is seen as a shameful thing that brings disgrace to one’s family. Because it may be seen as inheritable or because it may be seen as stemming from something the family’s ancestors did wrong in the past, it may hurt the marriage chances of other family members. For these reasons, many Asian people suffering from disorders that we might label as depression or even schizophrenia will report bodily symptoms rather than emotional or mental ones. Abnormality Across Cultures ** Watch Cultural Differences – Mental Health 101 by copying the entire link below and pasting it into your computer’s search bar. You may need to click “CC” below the video for closed captioning to help you better understand what they are saying. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dY4Waa5Ebt8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in- picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> **After viewing the video, answer the following questions: 1.) How do people in India differ from most people in western cultures in the way they view and treat mental health symptoms? ________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ 2.a.) With what disorder did Pam Ho suffer? _________________________ 2.b.) What was her explanation for the reason WHY she had this disorder? _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ 3.) What did the doctor say was the link between depression, diabetes, and high blood pressure? ____________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ 4.) Sathnam’s grandmother said her son’s (Sathnam’s father) schizophrenia was caused by what? ____________________________________________ 5.) What is culture-bound syndrome? _______________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ If you are interested in learning more about the history of treating mental illness, you might want to watch the video below. I am not requiring anyone to watch it because of its length, (58 minutes) but if you are curious, copy and paste the entire link into your computer’s search bar. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z0vuheEKMmI" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in- picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Psychological Disorders as we Understand Them Today in Western Culture Modern western culture defines psychological culture as a harmful dysfunction in which thoughts, feelings, or behaviors are: • Maladaptive, • Unjustifiable, • Disturbing, and • Atypical **Look up the definition of the 4 preceding terms and write them. Understanding Disorders We understand mental disorders in various ways within our culture. The way we understand them is broadly influenced by our view of human nature, our view of the nature-vs-nurture debate, and many other factors. Mental Disorder Models The following are models of mental disorders. Another way of saying model is schema or our framework for understanding disorders. • The Biological/Medical Model- psychological disorders can be diagnosed based upon their symptoms and, in most cases, treated or cured through therapy. Psychological disorders are similar to a physical illness and stem from genetic and biological sources. • The Psychological Model- explains psychological disorders as a result of thought-related malfunctioning. There are various forms of psychological models: 1. Psychodynamic model- based on the work of Sigmund Freud and his followers. This model explains disorders as the result of repressing (or pushing down, out of conscious thinking) one’s threatening thoughts, memories,
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