1. Abnormal
Psychology
PSYC 3140 3.0D(F)

2. What are we studying?
 Abnormal
Behaviour
 Psychopathology
 Mental Disorder
 Mental Illness
 Deviant Behaviour

3. The study of mental disorder
involves:
 Definition: What do we mean by
mental disorder?
 Classification: How do we distinguish
between different mental disorders?
 Explanation: How do we understand
mental disorder?
 Treatment: How do we treat mental
disorder?

4. Why study abnormal
psychology?
 Abnormal behaviour is part of our
common experience
 Lots of unanswered questions and
complexities
 Preparation for future careers
 www.apa.org/students/

5. Mental Health Professionals
 Clinical
Psychologist
(Ph.D., C. Psych.)
 Psychiatrist (M.D.)
 Psychiatric Social
Worker (M.S.W.)
 Psychoanalyst
 Therapist

6. Obtaining Personal Help
 Room 145 Behaviour Science
Building 416.736.5297

7. What do we mean by mental
disorder?
 Who has a mental disorder?
 Mass murders?
 People who want to cut off their arms
and legs?
 People who can’t pay attention and
concentrate?

8. Is the concept of ‘Mental
Disorder’ problematic?
 “I should like to make clear, therefore, that
although I consider the concept of mental
illness to be unserviceable, I believe that
psychiatry could be a science. I also believe
that psychotherapy is an effective method of
helping people – not to recover from an
‘illness’ but rather to learn about
themselves, others and life.” Szasz

9. Why clarify the definition of
mental disorder?
 Influences what is seen as
pathological
 Influences explanation, classification
and treatment
 Clarifies the role of professionals

10. Why clarify the definition of
mental disorder?
 Safe-guard against abuses
 Clarify contentious cases

11. Two broad ways to define
mental disorder
 In general, the concept of “mental
disorder” can be defined as:
A biomedical, culturally independent,
value-free concept
 Or as a social, culturally relative,
value-based concept.

12. Overview of definitions that
will be discussed
 Mental disorder as a statistical
deviation
 Mental disorder as dysfunction
 Mental disorder as personal
discomfort
 Mental disorder as maladaptive
behaviour
 Mental disorder as norm or value
violation

13. Mental disorder as statistical
deviance
 A person has a mental disorder when
their behaviour, ability, or experience
is significantly different from average.

14. Mental disorder as statistical
deviance

15. Mental disorder as statistical
deviance
 Problems:
 We want to use the term disorder to
describe some conditions that are
statistically frequent
 “positive” deviations are not
distinguished from “negative”
deviations
 we do not want to call all “negative
deviations a disorder

16.  Uggo Betti:
 “Allof us are mad. If it weren’t for the
fact that every one of us is slightly
abnormal, there wouldn’t be any point
of giving each person a separate
name.”

17. Mental disorder as a
dysfunction
 A person has a mental disorder when
a mental mechanism is not performing
the natural function it was designed to
perform.
 Problems:
 Natural
selection does not “design”
mechanisms

18.  Sedgwick (1982):
 “Allsickness is essentially deviancy
from some alternative state of affairs
which is considered more desirable…
The attribution of illness always
proceeds from the computation of a
gap between presented behaviour (or
feeling) and some social norm.”

19. Mental disorder as a
dysfunction
 Problems cont:
 For many mechanisms there is a wide
range of adaptive functioning across
people and situations (fear response).

20. Mental disorder as a
dysfunction
 Problems cont:
 Many things that we want to call a
disorder might actually be adaptive
reactions.

21. Mental disorder as personal
discomfort
 A person has a mental disorder if they
experience personal distress.
 Problems:
 What about the person who abuses
drugs or believes they are receiving
messages from outer-space – without
experiencing distress?

22. Mental disorder as
maladaptive behaviour
 A person has a mental disorder if they
engage in behaviour that prevents
them from meeting the demands of
life.
 Problems:
 There may be situations that people
should not adapt to
 This approach emphasizes “fitting in”
as being ultimately important

23. Mental disorder as norm or
value violation
 A person has a mental disorder if they
have experiences and exhibit
behaviours that are inconsistent with
the norms and values of society.
 Examples:
 Behaviour that is harmful to oneself or
others
 Poor reality contact
 Inappropriate emotional reactions
 Erratic behaviour

24. Mental disorder as norm or
value violation
 Problems:
 What if violation is result of external
circumstances
 Such a criteria can seem too arbitrary
and open to abuse

26. DSM-IV definition of mental
disorder
 A mental disorder is “conceptualized
as a clinically significant behavioural
or psychological syndrome or pattern
that occurs in an individual and that is
associated with present distress or
disability or with a significantly
increased risk of suffering death, pain,
disability, or an important loss of
freedom.”

27. DSM-IV definition of mental
disorder
 “The syndrome or pattern must not be
merely an expectable and culturally
sanctioned response to a particular
event, for example, the death of a
loved one.”
 “It must currently be considered a
manifestation of a behavioural,
psychological, or biological
dysfunction in the individual.”

28. Cross cultural issues
 How one thinks about the role of
culture depends on your definition of
mental disorder

29. Cross cultural issues
 If biomedical, then culture influences
how a disorder impacts members of
different cultures
 Differentrisk
 Idiom of distress

30. Cross cultural issues
 If culturally based, then influences
what will be considered a disorder
 Behaviour or experience may not be a
“disorder” in all cultures

31. Non-Western approaches to
mental disorder
 Often do not separate psychology and
spirituality
 Disruption in relation to spirit world
 Often based on more collective and
less individualistic conceptualizations
 Disruption in interpersonal relations

32. The study of mental disorder
involves:
 Definition: What do we mean by
mental disorder?
 Categorization: How do we classify
mental disorder?
 Explanation: How do we understand
mental disorder?
 Treatment: How do we treat mental
disorder?

33. Further exploration:
 Linienfeld, S. O., & Marino, L. (1995). Mental
Disorder as a Roschian Concept: A critique of
Wakefield’s “Harmful Dysfunction” analysis.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104(3), 411-
420.
 Szasz, T. (2000). Second commentary on
“Aristotle’s function argument. Philosophical
Psychiatry and Psychology 7(1), 3-16.
 Wakefield, J. (1992). The concept of mental
disorder: On the boundary between biological
facts and social values. American
Psychologist, 47(3), 373-388.