As humans we like to place labels on everything. In order to define, describe, or just to pin point something out. The majority of us humans are guilty of using words such as “normal”, “abnormal”, “crazy”, “psychotic”, and “dysfunctional” to describe people we see behaving in a certain manner. Behavior of an individual usually tends to be the main source from which these labels derive. While placing these labels on various behaviors we forget some factors, which are culture, values, and personal perspective. As a society we are so quick to judge, especially the American society.
As part of the American society we tend to be very quick to place a label on behaviors. For example, in my undergraduate career I took a course called “abnormal Psychology”. The first day of the course the instructor made it very clear that there was no such thing as “normal”, and “abnormal”.
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On the other hand, I have to think about a few things. Why do we have the DSM 5, courses such as abnormal psychology, and most importantly why do the terms “normal” and “abnormal” or “health” and “dysfunctional” exists? All of these labels do not exist for any apparent, if they did not exists as a previous instructor of mine said, or are challenging to label. Then the field of psychology would be inexistent. A major part of the field is due to the mental disorders people have, which have already been labeled. These disorders were labeled in order for clinicians, or professional to do three things: place a label, find the structure of treatment, and treat the disorder. This system here is the whole focus of the DSM in general. As for the course abnormal psychology that was taken during my undergrad career, we touch bases on various brain disorders that were not “normal” for the average mentally stable human. The terms “abnormal”, “normal”, “health” and “dysfunction” do exist due to the previous reasons listed
The DSM is used as a standard of reference for psychological diagnosis. The DSM was originally published in 1952 containing only 106 diagnoses; today the revised DSM-IV-TR contains 365 diagnoses. Throughout the history of the DSM, individuals in the mental health profession have relied on it for clarification of disorders, facilitating research, improving communication with other professionals and improving the collection of clinical information. With a new DSM-V underway, there has been a lot of issues surrounding the contents and classifications of the new DSM. There are
The question of what it means to be labelled ‘psychologically abnormal’ is examined closely in Rosenhans study of ‘On Being Sane in Insane Places’. This study highlights the usefulness and consequences of being diagnostically labelled.
The poster is going to outline the definition of abnormality and describe two diagnostic classification systems whilst referencing the diagnostic criteria for Schizophrenia and an overlook of its subtype catatonic schizophrenia.
For many years scientists, including doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists, have been interested in trying to understand human behaviour, in particular behaviour that is described as being ‘abnormal’. It is difficult to define ‘abnormal’ in terms of behaviour because there are many differing descriptions which have radically changed over the years. ‘Abnormal’ behaviour is widely categorised as being persistent and in a serious degree contrary to the continued wellbeing of the individual and/or the surrounding community. Cultural beliefs and expectations determine which behaviour patterns are deemed as being ‘abnormal’.
"even our negative emotions help us survive. for example, aren't our suspicious often justified?" most likely someone with a ______ theoretical perspective made this statement "I knew right after we got home from the hospital that our kid had a problem," the parents said. unless the parent is using 20-20 hindsight, the child's diagnosis most likely is "i'm concerned about Ritalin use; its possible effects on children's growth, and its increasing heart-attack risk in hypertensive adults" an acquaintance worries. your best reply, based on the most recent research is "it is obvious that this case of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder arises from an early childhood fixation." which type of psychologist
by the brain to other parts of the body are not normal in people with
Jeffrey was arrested in the same year, 1988, for sexually fondling and drugging a young teenage boy (age thirteen); for this, he was put on probation for five years and for one year he was assigned to a work release camp where he was registered as a sex offender from the incident with the thirteen year old boy. Due to good behavior and a built up trust with the authorities, Dahmer was paroled from his work release camp two months early.
Although psychology is a very broad topic, there are many sub-topics that make up what psychology is and it’s contents. Some of those sub-topics include abnormal psychology,
Personality disorders are very defined and recognized in today’s society. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association provides common language and standards classifying mental disorders. The DSM is used by many people in varying disciplines in the USA as well as many other countries. In times past, people with disorders may have been outcast from a community or even persecuted. However, in our current culture the pendulum has swung in the other direction. It almost seems that there is a trend to explain all behavior by a mental disorder. This results in needing to disprove that certain people are not displaying a disorder, rather acting within a normal human emotion or
Taking an abnormal psychology class is not part of my requirements for my degree, but with my wanting to work with children and their families, I feel that this course was beneficial for me to take. I also enjoy learning about how the human mind works, the different disorders, and ways to help people that may be suffering from the many disorders that we covered. As I have mentioned throughout the semester, I or someone I know has or is suffering from many of the disorders we have discussed. I personally have struggled with addiction and bulimia in my past, and I feel that learning more in-depth can assist me in my future if I have a student that also struggles with similar disorders. My father suffers from schizophrenia, although he attempts to block his disorder out and refuses medication. This can be extremely hard for both me and my child to visit him because he is different. I try to remember that the disorder is not his fault and I also try to remind my daughter that he is her grandfather and she should accept him, but it is a struggle for both of us. I feel that learning a little more on schizophrenia was helpful for me and I plan on doing a little more research on my own time to also help me to cope with his “differentness”.
Research is an on-going process in which a scholar contributes his part through an adopted methodology and adds new knowledge to the pool of existing information. Keeping in view his constraints, the limitations of study are defined which at later stages, become the hypothesis for new researchers.
Abnormal behavior is defined as a psychological dysfunction within an individual associated with distress or impairment in functioning and response that is not typical or culturally expected (Durand, 2005). There are
Psychological dysfunction is somewhat not satisfactory on the account of the behavior is contiuum. A more sensative impairment would not meet the standards for a disorder. Personal distress, by itself, this criteria doesn’t define abnormal behavior, because distress can be a normal reaction to a trumatic situation. Psychological diorders, by meaning, the suffering and distess is missing. Atypical or not culturally accepted is insufficient when it refers to someone such as a person with an extremely high IQ, who’s atypical but not dysfunctional. Culturally
Ever since my later adolescence years, I have always been intrigued by the diverse complexity of the human brain. Numerous days I have sat down obtrusively observing my surroundings just to satisfy my curiosity on how individuals think, reason and problem solve everyday life happenings. As such, when it was time to attend university, I decided to study psychology as a means of gaining knowledge and understanding about individuals’ cognitive processes and their behavior. During my undergraduate studies, for a particular reason, I was struck by Abnormal Psychology and spent hours thinking about the various disorders captured by the then Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM IV). I spent an awful lot of time trying to understand the differing disorders and how their impact on the behavior and thinking processes of individuals that are diagnosed with them.
Abnormal and clinical psychology are two branches in the field of psychological studies. In simple words, abnormal psychology can be defined as the study of people who engage in unusual behavior and emotional thoughts. These actions and thoughts are considered abnormal compared to those of other members of society, and they significantly interfere with their functioning in life. Clinical psychology goes hand in hand with abnormal psychology because it is the study that deals with the assessment and treatment of those abnormal actions. Learning about these branches of psychology can help us understand and predict behaviors of people who that are affected by these disorders. It is also essential to advance our knowledge to help assess the people who suffer these illnesses to lead a life of better quality. In this paper, a case study that entails a brief vignette of a 35 year old paralegal named Greg will be analyzed. According to concepts of abnormal and clinical psychology, Greg will be diagnosed with the psychological disorder of obsessive-compulsive disorder (more formally known as OCD) that might have originated in the anal stage of the psychoanalytic theory, for which cognitive behavioral therapy will be used as a possible treatment.