Download History of Abnormal Behavior Psyc 303 Spring 2012 Why to Know

History of Abnormal Behavior
Psyc 303
Spring 2012
Why to Know History?
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Culture represents shared values, beliefs, and practices
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Culture has a profound influence on
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what is considered normal and what is not
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attitudes about a disorder
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its conceptualization (what are the causal factors?)
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its treatment
Groups representing particular social values have put pressure on decisions that have shaped
the diagnostic manual
Anorexia Nervosa and Homosexuality as Examples for How Cultural Values Form the Definition of
Psychological Disorders
If you were to think that a mental disorder is due to:
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Weakness of character
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Sinfulness
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Heredity
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Physical environment
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Social environment
Ancient Theories
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Ancient cultures, such as ancient Egypt, believed in spirits who controlled much of the
environment, including aspects of a person’s behavior.
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Treatment
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Trephination a method used to create a hole in the skull to release the evil spirits
Classical Greek and Roman Views
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Hippocrates (460–377 BC), father of medicine
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Ridiculed demonological accounts of illness and insanity
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Health depended on four humours (bodily fluids): blood, black bile, phlegm, & yellow
bile
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The first to identify the following psychological
symptoms: hallucinations,
delusions, melancholia,
hysteria, and mania most often associated with
schizophrenia, somatoform disorders, and mood disorders
Middle Ages through the Renaissance (from 500 BC up to 16th C.)
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Influence of the Roman Catholic Church
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Abnormal behavior = work of the devil
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Witchcraft evolved as a popular theory to explain abnormal behavior with100,000 women
slain in Europe as a result of these accusations
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Mass hysteria – mass madness
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Middle Ages through the Renaissance
(from 500 BC up to 16th C.)
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Treatment: bloodletting, exorcism (whipping, starving), hydrotherapy (cold baths)
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Enlightenment by Johann Weyer
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German physician who is the first to specialize in mental illnesses, mind as
susceptible to illness as the body
Treatments in Middle Ages
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Creation of the Insane Asylum in 1600s and 1700s
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Asylums were a little more than human warehouses.
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Treatments: shock treatments, restraining treatment
Nineteenth Century: Moral Treatment
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The removal of patients from “warehouse” asylums into specialized facilities devoted to the
care and treatment of the mentally ill
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Advocacy for a more humane treatment
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The use of respect, kindness, religion, and vocation
Key founders: Philippe Pinel, William Tuke, Benjamin Rush, Dorothea Dix, and Emil Kraepelin
Twentieth Century
 Psychoanalytic
 Sigmund Freud
 Unconscious
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Environmental factors
Parental influence
Infancy, particularly the first five years of life
Sexual urges
 Behaviorism
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Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson
Pavlov’s dogs and classical conditioning
Little Albert
Little Peter
Behavior can be learned and unlearned
Current Views of Abnormal Behavior and Treatment
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The Neuron Fires, Sending An Impulse to the Next Neuron
Biological Models
 Biological scarring – years of living with a disorder causes changes in the brain
 Hereditary factors
 Brain malfunctioning or structural abnormalities
 Viral infection theory – when a fetus is exposed to toxins or a virus while in the prenatal
stage of pregnancy, or shortly after birth
Psychological Models: Psychoanalysis
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Founder Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Three regions of the mind: id, ego, and superego
Defense mechanisms used as a way to prevent or cause abnormal behavior
Psychosexual stages of development: oral phase, anal phase, phallic phase, latency phase,
and genital phase
Treatment options centered around: dream analysis, interpretation, free association, insight,
and catharsis
Psychological Models: Modern Psychoanalytic
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Carl Jung and the development of Analytic Psychology/Therapy (1913)
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Future-oriented (future goals are the most important); Acknowledged religion,
spirituality; talked about collective unconscious
Alfred Adler and the development of individual psychology
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Birth order, sibling rivalry, inferiority/superiority complex
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Contemporary models of psychoanalysis
- Ego psychology
- Object relations theory
Psychological Models: Behavioral (John e. Watson, circa 1913)
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We are “Products and Producers” of our environment
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we learn our behaviors, or in some cases we adopt maladaptive behaviors as a
source of coping
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1920 – Little Albert Experiment
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Behavior is learned in a variety of fashions such as:
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Social learning, operant conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment
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Vicarious conditioning: learning by observing a person’s behavior and then incorporating that
into your own way of behaving
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Treatment:
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Little Peter (Mary Cover Jones)
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used exposure
Joseph Wolpe
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Wrote a book on reciprocal inhibition
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anxiety hierarchy and relaxation training – systematic desensitization
Psychological Models: Cognitive
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Founder Aaron Beck (1921- )
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“Perception is our Reality,”
Perception  thoughts  emotions  behaviors
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According to Beck, three distorted/dysfunctional views exist for someone with depression
(COGNITIVE TRIAD)
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Treatment:
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negative view of self, the world, and the future
focused on changing distorted /dysfunctional thoughts via behavioral experiments
and traditional “talk” therapy
Common Cognitive Distortions
Psychological Models: Humanistic
1. Founder Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
 Phenomenology: reference point is one’s worldview
 Abnormal behavior originates from the incongruence between one’s self image and
actual self
 Incongruence limits a person’s ability to achieve her or his full potential
2. Client-centered therapy
 Genuineness
 Empathic understanding
 Unconditional positive regard
Sociocultural Models Combine Issues Surrounding…
 Gender roles
 Socioeconomic status
 Race and ethnicity
 Interpersonal resources
 Social norms
 Cultural expectations
 Presence or absence of social support
How each piece of the puzzle works…
 Biopsychosocial Model
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No single model can fully explain the uniqueness of each case and abnormal behavior
Systemic approach acknowledges that many different factors contribute to the illness as a
“whole”
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Examines biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors related to abnormal behavior
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The Diathesis-Stress Model
BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL MODEL:
How it all comes together…
an adolescent has been diagnosed with depression