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
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.
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
25.
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.