Summary: Abnormal Psychology

Read the summary and the most important questions on Abnormal Psychology

• What is abnormal psychology? Historical views

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• What is abnormal psychology?

  Branch of psychology, studies abnormal patterns of behaviour, thoughts and emotions

• What was the prehistoric view of abnormality and the treatment to "cure" abnormal behaviour?

  Prehistoric view:
  

  • Internal event result from action of magical beings
    
  • Victory of evil sprits / possessed by demons
    

  
  
  Method:Trephination to release the evil spirit (i.e. drilling a hole in the brain)

• What was the Greek and Roman view of abnormality?

  Abnormal behaviour (e.g. mania, melancholia) is a disease; internal physiological problems
  ---> Medical Model: Conceptualization of psychological abnormalities as (biological) disease that have symptoms, causes and possible cures
  i.e. they understood that abnormal behaviours were due to physiological backgrounds & biological causes, and that the disorder could be treated with bioligical/ physiological cure - NOT possessed by devils
  
  ---> They thought an imbalance of 4 essential fluids/humours (black biles, yellow bile, blood and phlegm) caused abnormal behaviour

• What was happening in Europe in the Middle Ages (about A.D. 500 to A.D. 1500)?

  • Demonology returns in Europe
    
  • Growing distrust of science
    
  • Religious beliefs dominated all aspects of life
    
  • Satan’s influence, God’s punishment, Exorcism
    
  • Time of great stress + anxiety (plague/black death)
    

  ---> stress is a key factor in the development of mental disorders
  

  • Outbreaks of mass madness, hallucinations, delusions, Saint Vitus’ dance/Chorea Sydenham     

• What was happening in Europe by the 13th century (think witches...)?

  By 13thC, witch trials were held. These looked at orientation, memory, intellect, daily life + habits. 
  
  

  • Witch prickers went from town to town sticking pins into the accused. No response was considered evidence of madness.
    
  • Last execution of a witch was in Switzerland 1782
    

   
  ---> if someone (esp. women showed certain disorders, they were accused of being possessed = burned at the stake/drowned

• What happened during the renaissance to accommodate those who showed abnormal behaviour?

  Hospitals/monasteries were converted into asylums (i.e. storage places for the insane)
  - locked patients away from society
  - didn't particularly help patients
  ---> Once the asylums started to overflow, they became virtual prisons. Patients were held in filthy conditions and treated with unspeakable cruelty. 

• Who was the first physician to specialize in mental illness?

  Johann Weyer (1515-1588) (during the renaissance)

• In the 19th century, what 2 people tried to bring about reform and moral treatment?

  • Phillippe Pinel (1745-1826)
    

  Chief physician in La Bicêtre, Paris. He thought that “Patients’ illness should be treated with sympathy and kindness rather than chains and beatings”
  
  

  • Dorothea Dix
    

  ---> 1841 Dorothea Dix went into institutions. 
  ---> She was shocked + repulsed. 
  ---> She travelled through Massachusetts jails + poorhouses. 
  ---> She presented her findings + demanded more state-funded hospitals. 
  ---> However, several factors led to a reversal of the moral treatment movement: money shortages, recovery rates declined, prejudice against people with mental disorders.

• In the early 20th century, what were 2 opposing perspectives?

  1. Somatogenic Perspective
  2. Psychogenic Perspective

• What is the Somatogenic Perspective?

  
  ---> Abnormal behaviour has physical causes
  
  
  1. Emil Kraepelin (1883): Physical factors, such as fatigue, are responsible for mental dysfunction. First modern system for classifying abnormal behaviour.
  2. New biological discoveries (syphilis and paresis/weakness in voluntary movements) - people started to understand that abnormal movements were due to a physical problem, not from being possessed. 
  
  
  Treatment: tooth extraction, tonsillectomy, hydrotherapy, lobotomy, eugenic sterilization