Abnormal Psychology Chapter 1

It would hardly be accurate to say we now live in a period of great enlightenment about or dependable treatment of mental disorders. Surveys have shown that:

-43% of respondents believe people bring mental disorders on themselves -31% consider such disorders a sign of personal weakness -35% of respondents consider mental disorders to be caused by sinful behavior.

Treatment and Therapy

-Clinicians who view abnormality as an ILLNESS, consider therapy a procedure that helps CURE the illness. -Others see abnormality as a PROBLEM IN LIVING & view therapists as TEACHERS of more functional behavior & thought. -Clinicians differ on what to call the person who receives therapy: -Those who see abnormality as an illness speak of the "patient" -Those who view it as a problem in living refer to the "client."

The Experimental Method

-A research procedure in which a variable is manipulated & the manipulation's effect on another variable is observed. -The manipulated variable is the IV -The variable being observed is the DV -This method allows researchers to ask questions such as: Does a particular therapy relieve the symptoms of a particular disorder? -B/c this question is about a causal relationship, it can be answered only by an experiment. -Experimenters must give the therapy in question to people who are suffering from a disorder & then observe if they improve. -Therapy is the IV & psychological improvement is the DV. -As with correlational studies, investigators who conduct experiments must: 1) Do a statistical analysis on their data 2) Find out how likely it is the observed improvement/result (DV) is due to chance. -If that likelihood is very low, the improvement is considered statistically significant and the experimenter may conclude with confidence it is due to the IV. -If the true cause of changes in the DV cannot be separated from other possible causes then an experiment gives little info. -Thus, experimenters try to eliminate all confounds from their studies, variables other than the IV that may be affecting the DV. -When there are confounds in an experiment, they, rather than the IV, may be causing the observed change. -Situational variables, such as the location of the therapy office (a quiet country setting as opposed to a busy city street) or soothing background music in the office may have a therapeutic effect on participants in a therapy study. -EX: Participants are unusually motivated or have high expectations the therapy will work, factors that account for their improvement.

The Correlational Method

-A research procedure used to determine the "co relationship" b/w variables. -This method can be used to answer the question, "Is there a correlation b/w the amount of stress in people's lives & the degree of depression they experience?" -That is, as people keep experiencing stressful events, are they increasingly likely to become depressed? -To test this question, researchers collected: 1. Life stress scores (# of threatening events experienced during a certain period of time) 2. Depression scores (scores on a depression survey); from individuals & correlated these scores. -The people chosen for a study are called subjects or participants. -Investigators found that life stress & depression variables do increase or decrease together. -The greater someone's life stress score, the higher his/her score on the depression scale. -The direction of this resulting correlation between the two variables will be either: 1) Positive -When variables change the same way 2) Negative -The value of 1 variable increases as the value of the other variable decreases. -Researchers found a negative correlation b/w depression & activity level; the greater one's depression, the lower the # of one's activities. 3) Unrelated -There is no consistent relationship b/w them; as the measures of 1 variable increase, those of the other variable sometimes increase & sometimes decrease. -Studies found depression & intelligence unrelated. -Researchers need to know its magnitude or strength. -That is, how closely do the 2 variables correspond? -When 2 variables vary together closely in person after person, the correlation is high/strong. -The direction & magnitude of a correlation are calculated numerically & expressed by a statistical term called the correlation coefficient. -The correlation coefficient can vary from: - (+1.00; perfect positive correlation) - (−1.00; perfect negative correlation) -The sign of the coefficient (+ or −) signifies the direction of the correlation. -The # represents its magnitude. -The closer the # is to +1.00 or -1.00, the stronger the magnitude. -The closer the # is to .00, the weaker the magnitude. -The coefficient 0.00 indicates no consistent relationship. -Correlations of +.75 & −.75 are of equal magnitude & equally strong. -A correlation of +.25 is weaker than either. -Most correlations in psychological research fall short of perfect (+1.00 or -1.00). -Studies of life stress & depression found correlations as high as +.53; although hardly perfect, a correlation of this magnitude is considered large in research. -Correlational studies of twins have suggested a link b/w genetic factors & certain psychological disorders. -Identical twins (who have identical genes) display a higher correlation for some disorders than fraternal twins (whose genetic makeup is not identical).

The Elusive Nature of Abnormality

-A society selects general criteria for defining abnormality & then uses those criteria to judge particular cases. -Clinical theorist, Szasz, placed emphasis on society's role that the concept of mental illness is invalid and a myth of sorts. -According to Szasz, the deviations society calls abnormal are "problems in living" not signs of something wrong within the person. -Even if we assume that psychological abnormality is a valid concept and it can be defined, we may be unable to apply our definition consistently b/c criteria is often vague & subjective. -EX: If a behavior, excessive use of alcohol among college students is familiar enough, society may fail to recognize it is deviant, distressful, dysfunctional & dangerous. Thousands of college students in the U.S. are so dependent on alcohol that it interferes with their personal & academic lives, causes them great discomfort, jeopardizes their health & often endangers them and the people around them; yet their problem often goes unnoticed & undiagnosed. Alcohol is so much a part of the college subculture that it is easy to overlook drinking behavior that has become abnormal. -Conversely, a society may have trouble separating an abnormality that requires intervention from an eccentricity, an unusual pattern with which others have no right to interfere. -EX: We see or hear about people who behave in ways we consider strange, such as a man who lives alone with 12 cats & rarely talks to other people. The behavior of such people is deviant & it may well be distressful & dysfunctional, yet many professionals think of it as eccentric rather than abnormal.

Treatment

-A systematic procedure designed to help change abnormal behavior into more normal behavior. -Also called therapy. -Once clinicians decides a person is suffering from some form of psychological abnormality they seek to treat it.

Asylum

-A type of institution that 1st became popular in the 16th century to provide care for persons with mental disorders. -Most became virtual prisons.

Dysfunction

-Abnormal behavior tends to interfere with daily functioning. -Culture plays a role in the definition of abnormality as well. -It upsets, distracts, or confuses people that they cannot: 1) Care for themselves properly 2) Participate in ordinary social interactions 3) Work productively -However, this alone does not necessarily indicate psychological abnormality. -EX: Ice Breakers, who continue to perform well in their jobs & enjoy fulfilling relationships, would be considered simply unusual.

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL ABNORMALITY?

-Abnormal functioning is considered to be deviant, distressful, dysfunctional, and dangerous. -Because behavior must also be considered in the context in which it occurs, however, the concept of abnormality depends on the NORMS and VALUES of the society in question.

Humors

-According to the Greeks & Romans, bodily chemicals that influence mental & physical functioning. -The 4 humors flowing through the body were 1) Yellow bile 2) Black bile 3) Blood 4) Phlegm

Protecting Human Participants: Institutional Review Board (IRB)

-An ethics committee in a research facility, empowered to protect the rights & safety of human participants -Each facility has a committee of 5 or more members who review & monitor every study conducted at that institution, starting when the studies are 1st proposed. -The institution may be a: 1) University 2) Medical school 3) Psychiatric or medical hospital 4) Private research facility 5) Mental health center -If research is conducted there, the institution must have an IRB & that IRB has the responsibility & power to require changes in a proposed study as a condition of approval. -If acceptable changes are not made by the researcher, the IRB can disapprove the study altogether. -If over the course of the study, the safety or rights of participants are in jeopardy, the IRB must intervene & stop the study if necessary. -In the U.S. IRBs are empowered by 2 agencies of the federal government: 1) Office for Human Research Protections 2) Food and Drug Administration -IRBs are forced to conduct a kind of risk benefit analysis in their reviews. -They may approve a study that poses minimal/slight risks to participants if that "acceptable" level of risk is offset by the study's potential benefits to society.

Ancient Views and Treatments

-Ancient societies regarded abnormal behavior as the work of evil spirits. -People in prehistoric societies believed all events around & within them resulted from the actions of magical, sometimes sinister beings who controlled the world. -They viewed the human body & mind as a battleground b/w external forces of good & evil. -This supernatural view of abnormality may have begun as far back as the Stone Age. -Skulls from that period show evidence of an operation called trephination, a stone instrument or trephine was used to cut away a circular section of the skull. -Historians concluded this early operation was performed as a treatment for severe abnormal behavior, either: 1) Hallucinations, people saw or heard things not actually present 2) Melancholia, extreme sadness & immobility -The purpose of opening the skull was to release the evil spirits supposedly causing the problem. -Egyptian, Chinese & Hebrew writings all account for psychological deviance this way & the Bible describes how an evil spirit from the Lord affected King Saul & how David feigned madness to convince his enemies that he was visited by divine forces. -The treatment for abnormality in these societies was exorcism. -The idea was to coax the evil spirits to leave or to make the person's body an uncomfortable place in which to live. -A shaman or priest would recites prayers, plead with the evil spirits, insult the spirits, perform magic, make loud noises, or have the person drink bitter potions. -If these techniques failed, more extreme forms of exorcism such as whipping or starving the person were used.

The Nineteenth Century: Reform and Moral Treatment

-As 1800 approached, the treatment of people with mental disorders began to improve once again. -La Bicêtre, an asylum in Paris for male patients was the 1st site of asylum reform. -In 1793, during the French Revolution, Philippe Pinel was named the chief physician there. -He argued the patients were sick people whose illnesses should be treated with sympathy & kindness rather than chains & beatings. -He allowed them to move freely about the hospital grounds, replaced the dark dungeons with sunny, airy rooms & offered support & advice. -Pinel's approach proved remarkably successful in that many patients who had been shut away for decades improved greatly over a short period of time & were released. -Pinel later brought similar reforms to a mental hospital in Paris for female patients called La Salpetrière. -Meanwhile, William Tuke was bringing similar reforms to northern England & in 1796 he founded the York Retreat, a rural estate where 30 mental patients lived as guests in quiet country houses & treated with a combination of rest, talk, prayer & manual work.

One of the most important developments in the clinical field has been the growth of theoretical perspectives.

-Before the 1950s, the psychoanalytic perspectives emphasis on unconscious psychological problems as the cause of abnormal behavior was dominant. -Since then additional perspectives have emerged: 1) Biological 2) Cognitive-behavioral 3) Humanistic-existential 4) Sociocultural 5) Developmental psychopathology -At present, no single viewpoint dominates the clinical field as the psychoanalytic perspective once did. -Before the 1950s, psychotherapy was offered only by psychiatrists, physicians who complete 3 to 4 additional years of training after medical school (a residency) in the treatment of abnormal mental functioning. -After World War II, with millions of soldiers returning home to countries throughout North America & Europe, the demand for mental health services expanded so rapidly that other professional groups had to step in to fill the need. -Among those are clinical psychologists professionals who earn a doctorate in clinical psychology by completing 4 to 5 years of graduate training in abnormal functioning & its treatment & 1 year internship in a mental health setting. -Psychotherapy & related services are also provided by: 1) Counseling psychologists 2) Educational psychologists 3) School psychologists 4) Psychiatric nurses 5) Marriage therapists 6) Family therapists 7) Clinical social workers; largest group -Each of these has its own graduate training program & each conducts therapy in a distinctive way but use similar techniques. -A related development in the study & treatment of mental disorders since World War II has been the growth of effective research. -Clinical researchers have tried to determine: 1) Which concepts best explain & predict abnormal behavior 2) Which treatments are most effective 3) What kinds of changes in clinical theory or practice may be required. -Well trained clinical researchers conduct studies in: 1) Universities 2) Medical schools 3) Labs 4) Mental hospitals 5) Mental health centers 6) Other clinical settings -A gender shift has occurred among psychologists; In 1978, 28% were female, now 52% are female.

Distress

-Behavior, ideas, or emotions have to cause distress BEFORE they can be labeled abnormal. -EX: Ice Breakers, a group of people in Michigan who go swimming in lakes every weekend from November through February; the colder the weather, the better they like it. Far from experiencing distress, they feel energized & challenged, their positive feelings must cause us to hesitate before we decide that they are functioning abnormally. -Some people who function abnormally maintain a positive frame of mind and present no distress.

The Decline of Moral Treatment

-By the 1850s, a # of mental hospitals throughout Europe & U.S. reported success using moral approaches. -By the end of the 19th century, several factors led to a reversal of the moral treatment movement: 1) Money & staff shortages 2) Declining recovery rates 3) Overcrowding 4) Lack of effective treatments for severe mental disorders 5) Emergence of prejudice against people with mental disorders 6) The speed with which the movement had spread. 7) The assumption behind moral treatment that all patients could be cured if treated with humanity & dignity. -For some, this was sufficient, however, others needed more effective treatments than any that had yet been developed. 8) The emergence of a new wave of prejudice against people with mental disorders. -The public came to view them as strange & dangerous. -Many of the patients entering public mental hospitals in the U.S. in the late 19th century were poor foreign immigrants whom the public had little interest in helping. -By the early years of the 20th century, the moral treatment movement had ground to a halt in the U.S. & Europe. -Public mental hospitals were providing only custodial care & ineffective medical treatments & they were becoming more overcrowded every year. -Long term hospitalization became the rule once again.

Study of Eccentrics

-David Weeks studied 1,000 eccentrics & estimated 1 in 5,000 persons is a "classic, full time eccentric" -Pinpointed 15 characteristics common to eccentrics: 1) Nonconformity 2) Creativity 3) Strong curiosity 4) Idealism 5) Extreme interests & hobbies 6) Lifelong awareness of being different 7) High intelligence 8) Outspokenness 9) Non competitiveness 10) Unusual eating & living habits 11) Disinterest in others' opinions or company 12) Mischievous sense of humor 13) Non marriage 14) Eldest or only child 15) Poor spelling skills -Weeks suggests eccentrics do not typically suffer from mental disorders. -Whereas the unusual behavior of persons with mental disorders is thrust upon them & causes them suffering. -Eccentricity is chosen freely & provides pleasure. -Eccentrics know they're different & glory in it. -The thought processes of eccentrics are not severely disrupted & do not leave these persons dysfunctional. -Weeks found eccentrics in his study had fewer emotional problems than individuals in the general pop.

The Renaissance and the Rise of Asylums 1400 - 1700 A.D.

-Demonological views of abnormality continued to decline & cultural & scientific activity flourished. -Johann Weyer, founder of the modern study of psychopathology, 1st physician to specialize in mental illness, believed the mind was as susceptible to sickness as the body was. -In England, such individuals might be kept at home while their families were aided financially by the local parish. -Across Europe, religious shrines were devoted to humane & loving treatment of people with mental disorders. -The best known shrine was at Gheel in Belgium where people came from all over the world for psychic healing. -Local residents welcomed these pilgrims into their homes & many stayed to form the world's 1st "colony" of mental patients. -Gheel was the forerunner of today's community mental health programs. -Many patients still live in foster homes there, interacting with other residents until they recover. -Unfortunately, these improvements in care began to fade by the mid 16th century. -Government officials discovered private homes & community residences could house only a small % of those with severe mental disorders & medical hospitals were too few & too small. -More & more they converted hospitals & monasteries into asylums, institutions whose primary purpose was to care for people with mental illness. -These institutions were begun with the intention they would provide good care. -Once the asylums started to overflow, however, they became virtual prisons where patients were held in filthy conditions & treated with unspeakable cruelty. -In 1547, Bethlehem Hospital was given to the city of London by Henry VIII for the purpose of confining the mentally ill. -In this asylum, patients were bound in chains & cried out for all to hear & the hospital became a popular tourist attraction. -People were eager to pay to look at the howling & gibbering inmates. -The hospital's name, pronounced "Bedlam" by the locals, has come to mean a chaotic uproar.

quasi-experimental design

-Fails to include key elements of a "pure" experiment and/or intermixes elements of experimental & correlational studies. -Also called a mixed design

Greek and Roman Views and Treatments: 500 B.C.− 500 A.D.

-Hippocrates, father of modern medicine, taught illnesses had natural causes. -He saw abnormal behavior as a disease arising from internal physical problems. -He believed that some form of brain pathology was the culprit & that it resulted like all other forms of disease in his view, from an imbalance of 4 fluids (humors) that flowed through the body: 1) yellow bile 2) black bile 3) blood 4) phlegm -An excess of yellow bile caused mania, a state of frenzied activity -An excess of black bile was the source of melancholia, a condition marked by unshakable sadness. -To treat psychological dysfunction, Hippocrates sought to correct the underlying physical pathology. -He believed the excess of black bile underlying melancholia could be reduced by a quiet life, a diet of vegetables, temperance, exercise, celibacy & bleeding. -Hippocrates' focus on internal causes for abnormal behavior was shared by Greek philosophers Plato & Aristotle.

The Control Group

-In an experiment, researchers divide participants into 2 groups. -The control group consists of research participants who are NOT exposed to the IV but whose experience is similar to the experimental group (participants who ARE exposed to the IV). -To guard against confounds, experimenters provide all participants, control & experimental, with experiences that are identical in every way, except for the IV. -By comparing the 2 groups, an experimenter can better determine the effect of the IV.

How Was Abnormality Viewed and Treated in the Past?

-In any given year, as many as 30% of the adults and 19% of the children & adolescents in the U.S. display serious psychological disturbances & are in need of clinical treatment. -The rates in other countries are similarly high. -Although modern pressures may contribute, they are hardly the primary cause; every society, past & present, has witnessed psychological abnormality. -In addition, most people have difficulty coping at various times

Matched Designs

-Investigators do not randomly assign participants to control & experimental groups. -Instead make use of groups that already exist in the world. -EX: Research into the effects of child abuse b/c it would be unethical for investigators of this issue to actually abuse a randomly chosen group of children. -They instead compare children who already have a history of abuse with children who do not. -To make this comparison as valid as possible, researchers match the experimental participants (abused children) with control participants (non abused children) who are similar in: 1) Age 2) Sex 3) Race 4) # of children in the family 5) Type of neighborhood -When data from studies using this design show abused children are sadder & have lower self esteem than matched control participants who have not been abused, investigators conclude with some confidence that abuse is causing the differences.

Longitudinal study

-Investigators observe the same individuals on many occasions over a long period of time. -EX: Researchers found children of parents with the most severe cases of schizophrenia were likely to develop a psychological disorder & commit crimes at later points in their development. -Researchers cannot directly manipulate the IV or randomly assign participants to conditions, so they cannot definitively pinpoint causes. -However, b/c these studies report the order of events, they provide clues about which events are more likely to be causes & which are more likely to be consequences.

Each method of investigation addresses some of the problems involved in studying human behavior but no one approach overcomes them all.

-It is best to view each research method as part of a team of approaches that together shed light on abnormal human functioning. -When more than 1 method has been used to investigate a disorder it is important to ask if all the results point in the same direction. -If they do, clinical scientists are making progress toward understanding & treating that disorder. -If the various methods produce conflicting results, scientists must admit knowledge in that area is still limited.

Clinical treatment is surrounded by conflict and confusion:

-Lack of agreement about goals or aims -Lack of agreement about successful outcome -Lack of agreement about failure -Are clinicians seeking to cure? To teach? -Are sufferers patients (ill) or clients (having difficulty)?

Multicultural Psychology: We are a society of multiple cultures, races & languages.

-Members of racial & ethnic minority groups in the U.S. make up 39% of the pop, a % expected to grow to more than 50% by 2044. -This change is due in part to: 1) Shifts in immigration trends 2) Higher birth rates among minority groups. -In response to this growing diversity, an area of study called multicultural psychology has emerged. -Multicultural psychologists seek to understand how culture, race, ethnicity, gender & similar factors affect behavior & thought & how people of different cultures, races & genders may differ psychologically.

Natural experiments

-Nature itself manipulates the IV while the experimenter observes the effects. -Used for studying the psychological effects of unusual & unpredictable events such as: 1) Floods 2) Earthquakes 3) Plane crashes 4) Fires -B/c participants in these studies are selected by an accident of fate rather than by the investigators' design, natural experiments are quasi experiments. -EX: On December 26, 2004, an earthquake occurred beneath the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia that triggered massive tsunamis & killed 225,000 people, injured half a million & left millions of homeless. Within months of this disaster, researchers conducted natural experiments in which they collected data from survivors & from control groups of people who lived in areas not directly affected by the tsunamis. -The disaster survivors scored significantly higher on anxiety & depression measures (DV) than the controls did. -Survivors experienced more: 1) Sleep problems 2) Feelings of detachment 3) Arousal 4) Difficulties concentrating 5) Startle responses 6) Guilt feelings -than the controls did & these studies reveal lingering psychological symptoms among survivors of disasters.

masked design

-Participants do not know if they are in the experimental or the control condition. -Previously called a blind design.

IRBs try to ensure each study grants the following rights to participants:

-Participants enlist voluntarily. -Before enlisting, participants are adequately informed about what the study entails (informed consent). -Participants can end their participation at any time. -Benefits of the study outweigh its costs/risks. -Participants are protected from physical & psychological harm. -Participants have access to info about the study. -Participants' privacy is protected by confidentiality or anonymity.

Masked Design/Blind Design

-Participants may bias an experiment's results by trying to please/help the experimenter. -EX: In a therapy experiment, if participants who receive the treatment know the purpose of the study & which group they are in, they might work harder to feel better or fulfill the experimenter's expectations. -If so, participant bias, rather than therapy, could be causing their improvement. -To avoid this bias, experimenters prevent participants from finding out which group they are in; a strategy called masked design (previously termed blind design) b/c individuals are kept unaware of their assigned group. -In a therapy study, control participants could be given a placebo, something that looks/tastes like real therapy but has none of its key ingredients. -This "imitation" therapy is called placebo therapy. -If the experimental (true therapy) participants improve more than the control (placebo therapy) participants, experimenters have more confidence the true therapy has caused their improvement. -An experiment may be confounded by experimenter bias, experimenters may have expectations they unintentionally transmit to participants in their studies. -EX: In a drug therapy study, the experimenter might smile & act confident while providing real medications to the experimental participants but frown & appear hesitant while offering placebo drugs to the control participants. -This bias is is called the Rosenthal effect. -Experimenters can eliminate their own bias by arranging to be unaware themselves. -In a drug therapy study, an aide could make sure the real medication & the placebo drug look identical. -The experimenter could then administer treatment w/o knowing which participants were receiving true medications & which were receiving false medications. -While either the participants or the experimenter may be kept unaware in an experiment, it is best both be unaware, a research strategy called a double masked design. -Most medication experiments now use double masked designs to test promising drugs.

The Case Study

-Provide a detailed description of a persons: 1) Life 2) Psychological problems -Describes the persons: 1) History 2) Present circumstances 3) Symptoms -Includes speculation about: 1) Why the problems developed 2) Describe the person's treatment -The best known case study is called 'The Three Faces of Eve' -It describes a woman with 3 alternating personalities, each having a distinct set of: 1) Memories 2) Preferences 3) Personal habits -Clinicians take notes & keep records in the course of treating their patients -Some organize notes into a formal case study to share with other professionals. -The clues offered by this study help a clinician better understand or treat the person under discussion.

Clinical scientists must often settle for research designs that are less than ideal. These alternatives are called

-Quasi experimental designs or mixed designs. -Designs that fail to include key elements of a "pure" experiment or intermix elements of experimental & correlational studies, variations include: 1) Matched design 2) Natural experiment 3) Analogue experiment 4) Single subject experiment 5) Longitudinal study 6) Epidemiological study

Analogue Experiments

-Researchers induce lab participants to behave in ways that resemble real life abnormal behavior & then conduct experiments on the participants in the hope of shedding light on the real life abnormality. -Martin Seligman produced depression like symptoms in lab participants (animals & humans) by repeatedly exposing them to negative events (shocks, loud noises, task failures) over which they have no control. -In these "learned helplessness" analogue studies, participants give up, lose their initiative & become sad, suggesting to clinicians human depression itself may be caused by loss of control over the events in one's life. -The major limitation of this research is the abnormal like behavior produced, especially those using animals, may differ from the human abnormality under investigation.

A Random Assignment

-Researchers must watch out for differences in the makeup of the experimental & control groups since those differences may confound a study's results. -EX: In a therapy study, the experimenter may unintentionally put wealthier participants in the experimental group & poorer ones in the control group. -This difference, rather than their therapy, may be the cause of the greater improvement later found among the experimental participants. -To reduce the effects of preexisting differences, experimenters use random assignment. -This refers to any selection procedure that ensures every participant in the experiment is as likely to be placed in 1 group as the other. -Researchers might assign people to groups by flipping a coin or picking names out of a hat.

Epidemiological studies

-Reveal the incidence & prevalence of a disorder in a particular population -Incidence: # of new cases that emerge in a given period. -Prevalence: total # of cases in a given period (new & existing cases). -Largest study of mental disorders was the Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study. -They interviewed more than 20,000 people in 5 cities to determine the prevalence of psychological disorders in the U.S. & treatment programs used. -Two other large scale studies in the U.S. are: 1) National Comorbidity Survey 2) National Comorbidity Survey Replication -They questioned 15,000 individuals & findings from these studies have been compared with epidemiological studies of specific pops such as Hispanic Americans & Asian Americans. -Or with epidemiological studies conducted in other countries to see how rates of mental disorders & treatment programs vary from pop to pop & country to country. -Such epidemiological comparisons helped researchers identify groups at risk for particular disorders. -Women have a higher rate of anxiety disorders & depression than men. -Men have a higher rate of alcoholism than women. -Elderly people have a higher rate of suicide than young people. -Hispanic Americans experience PTSD more than other racial & ethnic groups in the U.S. -Persons in Western countries have higher rates of eating disorders than those in non Western ones.

Single subject experimental design

-Scientists use when they do not have the luxury of experimenting on many participants. -They may be investigating a disorder so rare that few participants are available. -A single participant is observed before & after the manipulation of an IV. -EX: Using a particular single subject design (ABAB or reversal design) one researcher sought to determine if the systematic use of rewards would reduce a teen boy's habit of disrupting his special education class with loud talk. He rewarded the boy, who suffered from intellectual disability (previously called mental retardation) with extra teacher time whenever he went 55 minutes w/o interrupting the class more than 3 times. -In condition A, the student was observed prior to receiving any reward & found to disrupt the class frequently with loud talk. -In condition B, the boy was given a series of teacher reward sessions (introduction of IV) his loud talk decreased dramatically. -Next, the rewards from the teacher were stopped (condition A again) & the student's loud talk increased once again. -The IV had been the cause of the improvement. -To be more confident about this conclusion, the researcher had the teacher apply reward sessions again (condition B again) & again the student's behavior improved.

The treatment picture for people with moderate psychological disturbances has been more positive than people with severe disorders.

-Since the 1950s, outpatient care has continued to be the preferred mode of treatment for them and the # & types of facilities that offer such care have expanded. -Before the 1950s almost all outpatient care took the form of private psychotherapy, individuals meet with a self employed therapist for counseling services. -Since the 1950s most health insurance plans have expanded coverage to include private psychotherapy so that it is available to people of all incomes. -Today, outpatient therapy is offered in less expensive settings such as community mental health centers, crisis intervention centers, family service centers & other social service agencies. -Surveys suggest 60% of people with psychological disorders in the U.S. receive treatment in the course of a year. -When Freud 1st began his practice, most of his patients suffered from anxiety or depression. -Almost 1/2 of today's clients suffer from those same problems, but people with other kinds of disorders are also receiving therapy. -At least 20% of clients enter therapy because of milder problems in living, problems with marital, family, job, peer, school, or community relationships. -Another change in outpatient care since the 1950s has been the development of programs devoted exclusively to specific psychological problems. -We now have suicide prevention centers, substance abuse programs, eating disorder programs, phobia clinics & sexual dysfunction programs. -Clinicians in these programs have the kind of expertise that can be acquired only by concentration in a single area. -Outpatient care has now become the primary mode of treatment for both severe & moderate problems.

Limitations of the IRB

-The "informed consent form" IRB requires to be read & signed by participants is often unclear & written at an advanced college level, making it incomprehensible to a large % of participants. -Ethical principles are subtle & elusive notions that do not always translate into simple regulations & guidelines. -Ethical decisions are subject to differences in perspective, interpretation, & decision-making style.

Europe in the Middle Ages: Demonology Returns 500-1350 A.D.

-The enlightened views of Greek & Roman physicians & scholars were not enough to shake ordinary people's belief in demons & with the decline of Rome, demonological views & practices became popular again. -A growing distrust of science spread throughout Europe. -During the Middle Ages, the power of the clergy increased throughout Europe. -In those days the church rejected scientific forms of investigation & controlled all education. -Religious beliefs were highly superstitious & demonology came to dominate all aspects of life. -Religious beliefs were dominant with abnormality being seen as a conflict b/w good & evil. -Earlier demonological treatments, such as exorcism, reemerged. -Deviant behavior, particularly psychological abnormality was seen as evidence of Satan's influence. -The Middle Ages were a time of great stress & anxiety b/c of war, urban uprisings & plagues. -People blamed the devil for these troubles & feared being possessed by him. -Abnormal behavior increased greatly during this period. -There were outbreaks of mass madness in which large numbers of people shared absurd false beliefs & imagined sights or sounds. -EX: In one disorder, tarantism (Saint Vitus' dance) groups of people would suddenly start to jump, dance & go into convulsions.All were convinced they had been bitten & possessed by a wolf spider (now called a tarantula) & sought to cure their disorder by performing a dance called a tarantella. -EX: Another mass madness, lycanthropy, people thought they were possessed by wolves or other animals; they acted wolflike & imagined that fur was growing all over their bodies. -Some of the earlier demonological treatments for psychological abnormality reemerged during the Middle Ages & again the key to the cure it was to rid the person's body of the devil that possessed it. -Exorcisms were revived & clergymen who were in charge of treatment during this period would plead, chant, or pray to the devil or evil spirit. -If these techniques did not work, they had others to try, some amounting to torture. -It was not until the Middle Ages drew to a close that demonology & its methods began to lose favor. -Towns throughout Europe grew into cities & government officials gained more power & took over nonreligious activities. -Among their other responsibilities, they began to run hospitals & direct the care of people suffering from mental disorders. -Medical views of abnormality gained favor once again & many with psychological disturbances received treatment in medical hospitals, such as the Trinity Hospital in England.

multicultural psychology

-The field that examines the impact of culture, race, ethnicity & gender on behaviors and thoughts. -Focuses on how such factors may influence the origin, nature & treatment of abnormal behavior.

The Spread of Moral Treatment

-The methods of Pinel & Tuke, are called moral treatment b/c they emphasized moral guidance & humane & respectful techniques, which caught on throughout Europe and the U.S. -Patients with psychological problems were increasingly perceived as potentially productive humans who deserved individual care, including discussions of their problems, useful activities, work, companionship & quiet. -The person most responsible for the early spread of moral treatment in the U.S. was Benjamin Rush, a physician at Pennsylvania Hospital who is the father of American psychiatry. -Limiting his practice to mental illness, Rush developed humane approaches to treatment. -He required the hospital to hire intelligent & sensitive attendants to work closely with patients, reading & talking to them & taking them on regular walks. -He suggested it would be therapeutic for doctors to give small gifts to their patients now & then. -Rush's work was influential, but it was a Boston school teacher, Dorothea Dix, who made humane care a public & political concern in the U.S. -From 1841 to 1881, Dix went from state legislature to state legislature & to Congress, speaking of the horrors she observed at asylums & calling for reform. -Dix's campaign led to new laws & greater government funding to improve the treatment of people with mental disorders. -Each state was made responsible for developing effective public mental hospitals or state hospitals, all of which were intended to offer moral treatment. -Similar hospitals were established throughout Europe.

The Early Twentieth Century: The Psychogenic Perspective

-The rise in popularity of this perspective was based on work with hypnotism. -Hypnotism is a procedure in which a person is placed in a trancelike mental state during which he/she becomes extremely suggestible. -It was used to help treat psychological disorders as far back as 1778, when Friedrich Anton Mesmer established a clinic in Paris. -His patients suffered from hysterical disorders (bodily ailments that had no apparent physical basis). -Mesmer had his patients sit in a darkened room filled with music; then he appeared, dressed in a colorful costume & touched the troubled area of each patient's body with a special rod. -Patients seemed to be helped by this treatment, called mesmerism; their pain, numbness, or paralysis disappeared. -Scientists believed Mesmer was inducing a trancelike state in his patients & this state was causing their symptoms to disappear. -The treatment was so controversial that Mesmer was banished from Paris. -It was not until years after Mesmer died that researchers had the courage to investigate his procedure, later called hypnotism & its effects on hysterical disorders. -Bernheim & Liébault showed that hysterical disorders could be induced in normal people while they were under the influence of hypnosis. -Physicians could make normal people experience deafness, paralysis, blindness, or numbness by means of hypnotic suggestion & they could remove these artificial symptoms by the same means. -Later Bernheim & Liébault established a mental process (hypnotic suggestion) could cause & cure a hysterical disorder, showing that this disorder was psychological in origin. -Among those who studied the effects of hypnotism on hysterical disorders was Josef Breuer of Vienna. -Breuer discovered that his patients sometimes awoke free from hysterical symptoms after speaking openly under hypnosis about past upsetting events. -During the 1890s, Breuer was joined in his work by Sigmund Freud. -Freud's work led him to develop the theory of psychoanalysis, many forms of abnormal & normal psychological functioning are psychogenic. -Freud believed unconscious psychological processes are at the root of such functioning. -Freud developed the technique of psychoanalysis, a form of discussion in which clinicians help troubled people gain insight into their unconscious psychological processes. -He believed such insight even without hypnotic procedures would help patients overcome their psychological problems. -Freud offered psychoanalytic treatment to patients (who did not require hospitalization) in their offices for sessions of an hour, now known as outpatient therapy. -By the early 20th century, psychoanalytic theory & treatment were widely accepted in the Western world.

Danger

-The ultimate psychological dysfunction is behavior that becomes dangerous to oneself or others. -Behavior that is consistently careless, hostile, or confused may be placing themselves or those around them at risk. -Although cited as a feature of abnormal psychological functioning, research suggests that being dangerous is the EXCEPTION rather than the rule. -Most people struggling with anxiety, depression & bizarre thinking, pose no immediate danger to themselves or to anyone else.

Scientists must decide if the correlation they find in a given sample of participants accurately reflects a real correlation in the general pop.

-They test their conclusions with a statistical analysis of their data using principles of probability. -Correlations can be trusted based on a statistical analysis of probability. -They ask how likely it is that the study's findings have occurred by chance. -If the statistical analysis indicates that chance is unlikely to account for the correlation found, researchers conclude their findings reflect a real correlation in the general pop.

A decade ago, clinicians & researchers began using text messages to help track the behaviors, thoughts & emotions of clients with psychological problems.

-This work led to an explosion of smartphone mental health apps. -Some apps help users keep track of their moods. -Others serve as co therapists offering reminders or advice. -Many of these mental health apps have been recommended by therapists & the National Institutes of Health. -However, most apps are unregulated. -In the past year, the FDA announced its intention to regulate smartphone apps that monitor health & mental health.

The Early Twentieth Century: The Somatogenic Perspective

-Two factors were responsible for this rebirth: 1) Emil Kraepelin argued that physical factors (such as fatigue) were responsible for mental dysfunction. -He developed the 1st modern system for classifying abnormal behaviors, listing their physical causes & discussing their expected course. 2) New biological discoveries -One was an organic disease, syphilis, that led to general paresis, an irreversible disorder with both mental symptoms such as delusions of grandeur & physical ones like paralysis. -In 1897, Richard von Krafft-Ebing injected matter from syphilis sores into patients suffering from general paresis & found none of the patients developed symptoms of syphilis. -Their immunity could have been caused only by an earlier case of syphilis. -Since all of his patients with general paresis were now immune to syphilis, Krafft-Ebing theorized syphilis had been the cause of their general paresis. -The work of Kraepelin & the new understanding of general paresis, led researchers & practitioners to suspect physical factors were responsible for many mental disorders. -Many medical treatments were developed, but most failed to work. -Physicians tried tooth extraction, tonsillectomy, hydrotherapy (alternating hot & cold baths) & lobotomy, a surgical cutting of certain nerve fibers in the brain. -These biological views of mental illness led to proposals for immoral solutions, such as eugenic sterilization, elimination of peoples ability to reproduce. -Biological approaches yielded mostly disappointing results throughout the first half of the 20th century, until effective medications were developed in the 1950s.

Through the years, various terms have been used to describe a state in which one's emotions, behaviors & thoughts are psychologically abnormal. Some of these terms are:

-psychopathology -maladjustment -emotional disturbance -mental illness -dysfunctional impaired

Eugenics and Mental Disorders

1) 1896: Connecticut became the 1st state to prohibit persons with mental disorders from marrying. 2) 1896−1933: Every state in the U.S. passed a law prohibiting marriage by persons with mental disorders. 3) 1907: Indiana became the 1st state to pass a bill calling for people with mental disorders, criminals & other "defectives" to undergo sterilization. 4) 1927: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled eugenic sterilization was constitutional. 5) 1907−1945: 45,000 Americans were sterilized under eugenic sterilization laws; 21,000 of them were patients in state mental hospitals. 6) 1929−1932: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland & Iceland passed eugenic sterilization laws. 7) 1933: Germany passed a eugenic sterilization law, 375,000 people were sterilized by 1940. 8) 1940: Nazi Germany began to use "proper gases" to kill people with mental disorders; 70,000 or more people were killed in less than 2 years.

According to clinical theorist, Jerome Frank, all forms of therapy have 3 essential features:

1) A sufferer, who seeks relief from the healer. 2) A trained, socially accepted healer, whose expertise is accepted by the sufferer and his/her social group. 3) A series of contacts b/w the healer & the sufferer through which the healer tries to produce certain changes in the sufferer's emotional state, attitudes & behavior.

In the 1950s, researchers discovered new psychotropic medications drugs that affect the brain & reduce symptoms of mental dysfunction, they included:

1) Antipsychotic drugs, correct extremely confused & distorted thinking. 2) Antidepressant drugs, lift the mood of depressed people. 3) Antianxiety drugs, reduce tension & worry. -When given these drugs, patients who spent years in mental hospitals began to show signs of improvement. -Hospital administrators, encouraged by these results & pressured by public outcry over the terrible conditions in public mental hospitals, began to discharge patients almost immediately. -Since the discovery of these medications, mental health professionals in most developed nations have followed a policy of deinstitutionalization, releasing thousands of patients from public mental hospitals. -These drugs led to deinstitutionalization & a rise in outpatient care. -58,000 people receive treatment in private psychiatric hospitals, care paid by the patients themselves or their insurance companies. -On average, private facilities offer more pleasant surroundings & more favorable staff patient ratios than public ones. -Outpatient care has become the primary mode of treatment for people with severe psychological disturbances & those with more moderate problems. -When severely disturbed people need institutionalization these days, they are hospitalized for a short period of time. -They are then provided with outpatient psychotherapy & medication in community programs & residences. -This current emphasis on community care for people with severe psychological disturbances, a philosophy called the community mental health approach. -The approach has been helpful for many patients, but too few community programs are available to address current needs in the U.S. -As a result, thousands with severe disturbances fail to make lasting recoveries & shuttle back & forth b/w the mental hospital & the community. -After release from the hospital, they at best, receive minimal care & wind up living in decrepit rooming houses or on the streets. -140,000 people with such disturbances are homeless & 440,000 are inmates of jails & prisons.

Most Investigated Correlational Questions in Clinical Research

1) Are stress & onset of mental disorders related? 2) Is culture (gender or race) generally linked to mental disorders? 3) Are income & mental disorders related? 4) Are social skills tied to mental disorders? 5) Is social support tied to mental disorders? 6) Are family conflict & mental disorders related? 7) Is treatment responsiveness tied to culture? 8) Which symptoms of a disorder disappear altogether? 9) How common is a disorder in a particular population?

3 features included in experiments to guard against confounds

1) Control group 2) Random assignment 3) Masked design (blind design)

The community mental health approach has given rise to the prevention movement. Many of today's programs aim to:

1) Correct the social conditions that underlie psychological problems (poverty or violence in the community) 2) Help individuals who are at risk for developing emotional problems (teen moms or children of people with severe psychological disorders). -Prevention programs have been further energized by the field of psychology's interest in positive psychology. -Positive psychology is the study & promotion of: 1. Positive feelings (optimism & happiness) 2. Positive traits (hard work & wisdom) 3. Group directed virtues (altruism & tolerance) -While researchers study & learn more about positive psychology in the lab, clinical practitioners with this orientation are teaching people coping skills that may help protect them from stress & adversity & encouraging them to become more involved in personally meaningful activities & relationships, thus helping to prevent mental disorders. -Positive psychology research has found that people who live in urban areas feel less distress & more life satisfaction if they reside in greener areas of their cities.

Difficulties with correlational studies; The results

1) Describe but do not explain a relationship. 2) Cannot show causation b/w the variables. -EX: When we look at the positive correlation found in life stress studies, we may be tempted to conclude increases in recent life stress cause people to feel more depressed, although the variables may be correlated for other reasons: 1) Life stress may cause depression. 2) Depression may cause people to experience more life stress -A depressive approach to life may cause people to perform poorly at work or interfere with social relationships 3) Depression & life stress may each be caused by a 3rd variable, such as financial problems.

Most of the definitions have certain features in common, called "the four Ds":

1) Deviance -Different, extreme, unusual & bizarre 2) Distress -Unpleasant & upsetting to the person 3) Dysfunction -Interfering with the person's ability to conduct daily activities in a constructive way 4) Danger -A useful starting point to explore the phenomena of psychological abnormality.

The Correlational & Experimental Method

1) Do not offer the rich detail that makes case studies so interesting 2) Allow researchers to draw broad conclusions about abnormality in the pop at large. -Now the preferred methods of clinical investigation for 3 reasons: 1) Researchers observe many individuals. -Researchers are using social networking sites (Facebook & Twitter) to recruit participants for their studies. 2) Researchers apply procedures uniformly. -They can repeat or replicate their investigations 3) Researchers use statistical tests to analyze results -Determine if broad conclusions are justified.

Most Investigated Causal Questions in Clinical Research

1) Does factor X cause a disorder? 2) Is cause A more influential than cause B? 3) How does family communication & structure affect family members? 4) How does a disorder affect the quality of a person's life? 5) Does treatment X alleviate a disorder? 6) Is treatment X more helpful than no treatment at all? 7) Is treatment A more helpful than treatment B? 8) Why does treatment X work? 9) Can an intervention prevent abnormal functioning?

Today the dominant form of insurance coverage is the managed care programs program. The insurance company determines key issues such as:

1) Which therapists its clients may choose 2) Cost of sessions 3) # of sessions a client may be reimbursed. -Managed care coverage for mental health treatment follows the same principles as coverage for medical treatment, including: 1) A limited pool of practitioners from which patients can choose 2) Preapproval of treatment by the insurance company 3) Strict standards for judging if problems & treatments qualify for reimbursement 4) Ongoing reviews -In the mental health realm, therapists & clients dislike managed care programs b/c they fear the programs: 1. Shorten therapy (for the worse) 2. Unfairly favor treatments whose results are not always lasting (drug therapy) 3. Pose a special hardship for those with severe mental disorders 4. Result in treatments determined by insurance companies rather than by therapists. -A key problem with insurance coverage, both managed care & other insurance programs is reimbursements for mental disorders tend to be lower than those for physical disorders. -This places persons with psychological difficulties at a disadvantage. -In 2008, the U.S. Congress passed a federal parity law that directed insurance companies to provide equal coverage for mental & physical/medical problems. -In 2014, the mental health provisions of the Affordable Care Act, ACA (Obamacare) went into effect & extended the reach of the earlier law. -ACA designated mental health care as 1 of 10 types of "essential health benefits" that must be provided by all insurers. -All health plans must provide preventive mental health services at no additional cost. -Insurers must allow membership for those who have preexisting conditions.

The digital world provides new triggers & vehicles for the expression of abnormal behavior:

1) Many who grapple with gambling disorder found the availability of Internet gambling all too inviting. 2) The Internet, texting & social media have become tools for those who -stalk others -cyberbully -express sexual exhibitionism -pursue pedophilic desires 3) Clinicians believe violent video games contribute to antisocial behavior. 4) Constant texting, tweeting & Internet browsing may become an addictive behavior or lead to shorter attention spans. 5) Social networking can contribute to psychological dysfunction in certain cases. -On the positive side, research indicates social media users are likely to: 1) Maintain close relationships 2) Receive social support 3) Be trusting 4) Lead active lives -On the negative side, there is research social networking sites: 1) Increase peer pressure 2) Increase social anxiety in some adolescents. -Telemental health, technology that delivers mental health services w/o the therapist being physically present is growing. -Telemental health takes forms as long distance therapy b/w clients & therapists using videoconferencing (Skype), therapy offered by computer programs & Internet based support groups. -Smartphone mental health apps are devoted to: 1) Relaxing people 2) Cheering them up 3) Giving them feel good advice 4) Helping them track their shifting moods & thoughts 5) Improving their psychological states. -Unfortunately, along with this wealth of online info comes misinformation about psychological problems & their treatments offered by persons & sites that are far from knowledgeable. -Major issues with Internet-based therapy involve those of quality control. -There are antitreatment sites that guide people away from seeking help for their psychological problems. -EX: Pro anorexia & pro suicide sites & their dangerous influences.

Advantages of the correlational method; Researchers can:

1) Measure the variables 2) Observe many participants 3) Apply statistical analyses 4) Generalize findings to people beyond the ones studied 5) Repeat (replicate) using new participants

Clinical researchers face certain challenges that make their work difficult, such as:

1) Measuring elusive concepts; private thoughts, mood changes & human potential 2) Taking into consideration the different cultural backgrounds, races & genders of the people they study 3) Ensuring that the rights of their research participants (human & animal) are not violated -Clinical researchers: 1) Discover broad laws or principles of abnormal psychological functioning. 2) Search for a general understanding of the nature, causes & treatments of abnormality. 3) Do not typically assess, diagnose, or treat individual clients. 4) Systematically gather & evaluate info through careful observations, a process known as the scientific method. -This process enables scientists to pinpoint & explain relationships b/w variables. -A variable is any characteristic or event that can vary from time to time, place to place, or person to person. -Human variables include: 1) Age 2) Sex 3) Race 4) Eye color 5) Occupation 6) Social status 7) Responses to therapy -Clinical researchers are interested in variables such as: 1) Childhood upsets 2) Present life experiences 3) Moods 4) Social functioning 5) Responses to treatment -Clinical researchers try to determine: 1) If 2 or more variables change together 2) If a change in 1 variable causes a change in another. -Clinical researchers depend on 3 methods of investigation: 1) Case study (focused on 1 individual) 2) Correlational method 3) Experimental method -Each method is best suited to certain kinds of: 1) Circumstances 2) Questions -Correlational & experimental approaches are used to gather info about many individuals. -Together, these methods enable scientists to form & test hypotheses that variables are related in certain ways & draw broad conclusions as to why. -A hypothesis is a tentative explanation offered to provide a basis for an investigation.

How Are Case Studies Helpful?

1) Provide a detailed, interpretative description of a person's life & psychological problems 2) A source of new ideas about behavior & open the way for discoveries. -EX: Freud's theory of psychoanalysis was based on the patients he saw in private practice. 3) Offer tentative support for a theory. -EX: Freud used these studies in this way, regarding them as evidence for the accuracy of his ideas. 4) Challenge a theory's assumptions. 5) Inspire new therapeutic techniques 6) Offer opportunities to study unusual problems that do not occur often enough to permit a large # of observations. -EX: Investigators of dissociative identity disorder, the multiple personality pattern on display in The Three Faces of Eve, once relied entirely on case studies for info.

What Are the Limitations of Case Studies?

1) Reported by biased observers. -Therapists who have a personal stake in seeing their treatments succeed. -Therapists choose what to include in a case study -Their choices may be self serving. 2) Relies on subjective evidence. -EX: Is a client's problem really caused by the events the therapist or client says are responsible? -Those are only a fraction of events that may be contributing to the situation. 3) Provide little basis for generalization. -Even if we agree Little Hans developed a dread of horses because he was terrified of castration & feared his father, how can we be confident that other people's phobias are rooted in the same kinds of causes? -Events/treatments that seem important in one case may be of no help in understanding/treating others. -The limitations are addressed by 2 methods of investigation: 1) Correlational 2) Experimental

Deviance: From what?

1) Social norms & societal values. 2) Specific circumstances or context. -Abnormal behavior, thoughts & emotions are those that differ markedly from a society's ideas about proper functioning. -Each society establishes NORMS, stated and unstated rules for proper conduct. -Behavior that breaks LEGAL NORMS is considered to be CRIMINAL. -Behavior, thoughts & emotions that break NORMS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING are called ABNORMAL. -A society's norms grow from its particular CULURE, its history, values, institutions, habits, skills, technology & arts. -EX: A society that values competition & assertiveness may accept aggressive behavior, whereas one that emphasizes cooperation & gentleness may consider aggressive behavior unacceptable & abnormal. -A society's values may change over time, causing its views of what is psychologically abnormal to change as well. -Judgments of abnormality also depend on specific circumstances (social context, grieving, reactions to traumatic events) & cultural norms.

As the moral movement was declining in the late 1800s, 2 opposing perspectives emerged:

1) Somatogenic: abnormal psychological functioning has physical causes 2) Psychogenic: the chief causes of abnormal functioning are psychological. -These perspectives came into full bloom during the 20th century.

Moral treatment

A 19th century approach to treating people with mental dysfunction that emphasized moral guidance & humane & respectful treatment.

case study

A detailed account of a person's life & psychological problems.

hypothesis

A hunch/prediction that certain variables are related in certain ways.

Culture

A people's common history, values, institutions, habits, skills, technology & arts.

experiment

A research procedure in which a variable is manipulated & the effect of the manipulation on another variable is observed.

correlational method

A research procedure used to determine how much events or characteristics vary along with each other.

random assignment

A selection procedure that ensures participants are randomly placed either in the control group or in the experimental group.

single-subject experimental design

A single participant is observed & measured before & after the manipulation of an IV.

Norms

A society's stated & unstated rules for proper conduct.

confound

A variable other than the IV that is also acting on the DV.

somatogenic perspective

Abnormal functioning has physical causes.

Trephination

An ancient operation in which a stone instrument was used to cut away a circular section of the skull to treat abnormal behavior.

private psychotherapy

An arrangement in which a person directly pays a therapist for counseling services.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

An ethics committee in a research facility that is empowered to protect the rights & safety of human research participants.

psychotropic medications

Drugs that mainly affect the brain & reduce many symptoms of mental dysfunction.

Psychoanalysis

Either the theory or the treatment of abnormal mental functioning that emphasizes unconscious psychological forces as the cause of psychopathology.

Clinical scientists

Gather info systematically to: 1) Describe 2) Predict 3) Explain -the phenomena they study.

managed care program

Health care coverage in which the insurance company largely controls the nature, scope & cost of medical or psychological services.

prevention

Interventions aimed at deterring mental disorders before they can develop.

dependent variable (DV)

Is expected to change as the IV is manipulated.

independent variable (IV)

Is manipulated to determine if it has an effect on another variable.

matched design

Matches the experimental participants with control participants who are similar on key characteristics.

epidemiological study

Measures the incidence & prevalence of a problem, such as a disorder in a given population.

natural experiment

Nature, rather than an experimenter, manipulates an IV.

longitudinal study

Observes the same participants on many occasions over a long period of time.

experimental group

Participants who are exposed to the IV under investigation.

control group

Participants who are not exposed to the IV.

State hospitals

State-run public mental institutions in the U.S.

psychogenic perspective

The chief causes of abnormal functioning are psychological.

correlation

The degree to which events or characteristics vary along with each other.

analogue experiment

The experimenter produces abnormal-like behavior in lab participants & then conducts experiments on the participants.

deinstitutionalization

The practice begun in the 1960s of releasing hundreds of thousands of patients from public mental hospitals.

scientific method

The process of systematically gathering & evaluating info through careful observations to understand a phenomenon.

Abnormal psychology

The scientific study of abnormal behavior in an effort to describe, predict, explain & change abnormal patterns of functioning.

positive psychology

The study & enhancement of positive feelings, traits & abilities.

telemental health

The use of digital technologies to deliver mental health services w/o the therapist being physically present.

Clinical practitioners

Use the knowledge from clinical scientists to: 1) Detect 2) Assess 3) Treat -abnormal patterns of functioning