Dee Castellano
Psy/410 Version 2
December 3, 2011
Sara Beth Lohre
Abnormal Behavior
With writing this paper lets first begin with the definition of abnormal psychology. According to the dictionary abnormal psychology is the branch of psychology dealing with mental disorders or maladaptive behavior and the study of mental retardation, hypnosis, mental phenomena such as dreams, and altered states or levels of consciousness. (Yourdictionary, 2010) * I will begin with discussing briefly the origins of abnormal psychology and some challenges that are definition and classification of normal and abnormal psychology. Within the best way possible, I will explain how abnormal psychology has evolved into a scientific discipline. And with ending I will be presenting my view of psychosocial, biological/medical, and sociocultural theoretical models and how is it that they are related to the development of abnormal psychology. *
According to Hansell & Damour (2008) abnormal psychology has existed for in the region of one hundred years and there have been several forms of mental illness which have been noted all the way through the past hundred years of our history. Some of these illnesses are depression, schizophrenia, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and anxiety. According to Hansell and Damour (2008), abnormal behavior is often an overstated normal condition with many shades of gray connecting between it and the normal balance. Some of the challenges that we have to face with defining the differences between abnormal and normal behaviors are trying to separate one from the other.
I feel it all depends on the perception of the parties involved and their cultures as to whether or not the behavior is normal or abnormal. For example it may appear normal one person to believe in Christ, and yet it will appear to be abnormal to someone who is from a different religion such as Pagan who does not believe in Christ per say but believes in
References: Hansell, J., & Damour, L. (2008). Abnormal Psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Meyer, R., Chapman, L. K., & Weaver, C. M. (2008). Case studies in abnormal behavior (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Person/Allyn & Bacon. yourdictionary. (2010). Websters new world college dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.yourdictionary.com/abnormal psychology.com