PSYC241: Midterm 1 Flashcards
What is an alternative to the DSM-5 and where is it used?
ICD-10 (by world health organization, 1992)
Used mostly outside of North America
Psychological abnormality
Behaviour, speech or thoughts that impair the ability of a person to function in a way that is generally expected of them, in the context where the unusual functioning occurs
Mental illness
Often used to convey the same meaning as psychological abnormality, but medical not psychological cause
Psychological disorder
Specific manifestation of the impairment of functioning, as described by a set of criteria that have been established by a panel of experts
Psychopathology
Means both the scientific study of psychological abnormality and the problems faced by people who suffer from disorders
What does DSM-5 stand for?
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (of the American psychiatric association, 2013)
Name and describe each concept in attempts of “defining abnormality”
1- statistical concept (aka behaviour does not occur frequently in the population, exceptional, Sidney Crosby)
2- personal distress (but distress not always present in people identified as abnormal; everyone distressed sometimes)
3- personal dysfunction (behaviour interferes with appropriate functioning, but what is approp functioning?; interesting link to evolutionary psych)
4- violation of norms (cultural)
5- diagnosis by an expert
“How we define abnormality is culturally relative”
The norms of a culture determine what is considered normal behaviour, and abnormality can be defined only in reference to these norms
What is the change related to culture in the DSM-5?
More explicit in encouraging consideration of cultural diversity
Clinical psychologists
Trained in general psychology and then receive graduate training in using their knowledge to better understanding, diagnosing and improving disorders of thinking/behaviour
Psychiatrists
First train in medicine
Then to specialized training in dealing with mental disorders
Focus on diagnosis/medical treatment using drugs
Psychiatric nurses
First formally trained in nursing
Specialize in psychiatric problems
Work in hospital settings, managing day to day care of mentally disordered patients
Psychiatric social workers
Focus on the influence that their social environment has on disordered clients
Graduate degree in social work
Assist in adjusting to life within families/community
Occupational therapists (OTs)
Baccalaureate degree + field-training experience
Sometimes involved in providing mental health care
Help clients to improve their functional performance (ex: community living skills)
Sexual sterilization act of 1928
Alberta
Individuals deemed feeble minded, mentally deficient, or mentally ill were involuntarily sterilized to prevent deteriorating of the intellectual level of the entire population
1999: apology and financial settlement with victims
Trephination
Ancient evidence that people tried to cure mental disorders by cutting holes in the skull to let out evil spirits that apparently caused the victim’s abnormal behaviour
OR
Actually intended to remove bone splinters or blood clots from war
Hippocrate’s thoughts on mental disorders in Greece
Hippocrates started idea that psych problems were not caused by intervention of gods or demons
Natural causes
Stress=cause
Dreams=important for understanding
Treatment of healthy lifestyle, or bleeding/vomiting
Humours=disturbances of bodily fluids
Plato’s ideas of mental disorders
Took up hipocrate’s ideas
Emphasis on socio-cultural influences in thought and behaviour
Dreams=serve to satisfy desires that can’t be satisfied in real life
Idea that disturbed people cannot be held responsible for crimes as they couldn’t understand what they had done
Started idea of community care
Aristotle’s ideas of mental disorders
Wrote a lot about mental disorders and psychological functioning
Accepted hippocrate’s bodily fluids theory
Denied influence of psychological factors in the etiology of dysfunctional thinking and behaving
Advocated the humane treatment of mental patients
What happened after Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in Egypt in 332 BC?
Temples to Saturn (sanatoriums for psychologically unwell people)
Peaceful surroundings, healthy diet, etc
Bleeding, purges and restraints used as last resort
Methodism
Mental illness=disorder resulting from construction of body tissue or relaxation of those tissues due to exhaustion
Natural bloodletting must happen or mania occurs
Who provided first clinical observations of disorders?
Greek
Galen of Rome’s ideas of mental disorder
Two sources: physical (head injuries, alcohol abuse, menstrual disturbances) and psychological (stress, loss of love, fear) Started psychotherapy (talking about problems to a sympathetic listener)
Mental health research and treatment in the Arab world
While enlightened period of research and treatment ended in Europe, it carried on in the Arab world
Followed Greco-roman traditions of investigation and humane treatment
Supportive and kind approach
Quran reflects compassionate attitudes towards the mentally ill
Asylums
Islamic physician Avicenna (the canon of medicine; behaviour therapy)