Preview

Abnormal Psychology

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1266 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Abnormal Psychology
Abnormal Psychology and Therapy Within psychology, there are many facets. Two of these are normal and abnormal psychology. Normal psychology is the study of normal human behaviors and processes, whereas abnormal psychology, or psychopathology, is the study of atypical behaviors and thought processes including behaviors and thoughts outside what is considered the societal norm. These include mood, anxiety, psychotic, cognitive, and personality disorders as well as a host of other mental illnesses and disorders. In fact, according to the “Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” there are more than 300 diagnosed mental disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Studies show that in America alone that approximately 26% of adults 18 older than 18, or about one out of every four adults every year suffers from a mental disorder (National Institute on Mental Health, 2013). Because mental disorders can vary so greatly, treatment of mental disorders must also very. In this paper, we will compare and contrast normal and abnormal psychology, discuss two different types of mental illnesses and disorders and treatments used for treating mental disorders.
Normal and Abnormal Psychology Abnormal and normal psychologies are complex sciences dealing with understanding people’s minds today. There is often a fine line when discussing what is normal as opposed to what is abnormal. Normal psychology involves the understanding of the mind and how it works. Abnormal psychology is dealing with abnormal behaviors, such as bipolar disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder. These are not typical behaviors that a normal person experiences. Understanding where the line is drawn on what is abnormal and what is normal is often hard to distinguish. One who seeks help will go through various types of examinations and tests to see where they lie on the scale of the type of disorder discovered. There are certain behavioral aspects as well as medical and



References: American Psychology Association. (2013). APA.org. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/index.aspx Cherry, K. (2013). Psychology. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/ Mental Health Foundation. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help- information/mental-health-a-z/D/depression/ National alliance on mental illness (NAMI). (2013). Retrieved from http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness&Term=/TaggedPage/TaggedPa geDisp Sisters of resistance. (2013). Retrieved from http://sistersofresistance.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/happy-international-womens-day/

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The definition of abnormality is crucial to establish whether someone is diagnosed as mentally ill, and the treatment that the patient receives is primarily based on the diagnosis. To determine if someone bizarre behavior is an indicator of a psychological disorder, mental health professionals may use specific criteria such as context and persistence of the behavior, subjective distress, effect on functioning, to name a few.…

    • 250 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Abnormal psychology is a study which defines, give details about why it happens, tries to calculate violence and hazardous behavior, and tries to regulate unusual behavior. The behavior ranges from risky or unusual behavior to more unsensational and prevalent ones such as people with depression who stays in their homes. Standards that are normal and abnormal. There are five standards cultural relativism unusual behavior, discomfort level for person experiencing the problem .However the problem with the discomfort theory, the person may not be aware that they are suffering. Mental illness, maladaptiveness (does it interfere with daily activities) Abnormal psychology is an area of psychology that primarily focuses “psychopathology and abnormal behavior” abnormal depends on what is considered “normal” in that social, cultural or religious context. It is important to include variations of “subcultures” such as downtown Seattle “grunge” group which is a normal mode of behavior. Acceptable practice within a subculture as well as culture. Another subculture would be a prison population. One example of religious normal practice is the belief that “God” will heal your child not medicine…

    • 4080 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    2ap3 Midterm

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Introduction to Abnormal Psychology Disorders First Diagnosed in Childhood and Adolescence: Autism; ADD/ADHD Anxiety Disorders: Anxiety; Phobias. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Break Week Somatoform & Dissociative Disorders: Conversion; Amnesia; Dissociative Identity Disorder Mood Disorders: Major Depression; Bipolar Disorders…

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Psy 300 Week5 Team Final

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A number of these disorders can harm others or the one who is battling with the disorder. There are a number of therapies for these disorders and are different in each case. A closer look and contrast of normal and abnormal psychology is need along with mental disturbance and mental disease from a psychology position polishing off by way of a look at different therapies useful for normal and abnormal psychology.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    One definition of Abnormality is deviation of Social Norms. Social norms are accepted ways of behaving within a society. They are the unwritten rules that members of a society regard as being normal and acceptable, and any deviation from them can be regarded as abnormal behaviour. Examples include ways of dressing, such as women wearing feminine clothing and men wearing masculine clothing, not appearing naked in public, saying 'please' and 'thank you', opening doors for women and elderly people etc. Social norms may, however, vary between cultures - clothing is an example of this as some African tribes wear very little clothing whereas Western cultures keep certain areas of the body covered at all times. The problem with defining abnormality as deviation from social norms is that probably the majority of behaviour that deviates from social norms is unlikely to represent mental illness. Eccentric behaviours, for example the case of John Slater (Weekes & James, 1995) who lived in a cave that was often flooded by seawater because the open space helped him think more clearly, are not necessarily abnormal to the extent that health is harmed.…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kring, A., Johnson, S., Davison, G., & Neale, J. (2014). Abnormal Psychology: DSM-5 Update (Looseleaf) (12th ed.,). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons,…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Though at one point in time clinical scientists believed in only one model of abnormality, we now have six very different models. The original model of abnormality was, unfortunately, the product of cultural beliefs. But because no one model can be deemed complete on its own, competing models have since developed to strive for the comprehensive means for treatment. For example, the biological model and the psychodynamic model take very different approaches on understanding thoughts and emotions. All models are unique and similar to each other, but the biological model and psychodynamic model seem to be the most extreme when compared to each other.…

    • 589 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The term ‘abnormal’ means deviating from the average. Therefore, if we were to adopt a literal approach to defining abnormality, we would conclude that any rare behaviour or ability was abnormal. This, however, is not a useful way of defining abnormality as it doesn’t take into account whether or not the behaviour is desirable. There are three ways of defining abnormality; deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health.…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The second definition of abnormality is failure to function adequately. If you are diagnosed with this you are said to be unable to cope with the demands of everyday life. There are 5 variations dysfunctional behaviour, observer discomfort, unpredictable behaviour, irrational behaviour and personal distress. If you show symptoms of 1 or more of the 5 variations then your behaviour is considered abnormal. A limitation of this is that everyone has done one of those things at least once in your life, does that mean that you’re failing to function adequately? Therefore the its inaccurate, there are no boundaries for diagnosis this is supported by Rosenhan 1973 who shows that psychiatric classification can be…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1) Abnormality is defined from an average where common behaviour is defined as “normal” and rare behaviour is defined as abnormal. These characteristics can be shown and placed on a scale “graph” that would reveal how common their score is in comparison to everyone else.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The word abnormal is defined as anything that is not typical or non-conforming. Abnormal psychology is a portion of psychology that focuses on abnormal behavior or psychopathology; it is the study of emotional and mental disorders and behaviors that hinder an individual from becoming acclimatized to life (Kowalski & Westen, 2009). Factors that are assessed are based on, the anguish, dysfunction, threat, and divergence that could ultimately cause an individual to harm others of themselves (Berg, 2007). Like normal behavior, abnormal behavior is determined by what is seen as normal by civilization. For instance, some cultures believe that polygamy is normal while it is viewed as abnormal in other cultures and monogamy is the norm.…

    • 1729 Words
    • 50 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Furthermore, normal and abnormal psychology are perceived differently in different cultures. To differentiate normal and abnormal psychology is similar to compared intelligences among individuals. For example, “Rosenhan concluded that the sane are sometimes insane. By the same token, the insane are sometimes sane” (Kowalski & Westen, 2011, Chapter 14). Although the perception of psychology varies, normal psychology is a socially acceptable behavior; a behavior that everyone does not consider out of the ordinary and is the norm in today’s society. In addition, to understand normal psychology, one must understand what is abnormal. Abnormal psychology is the study of people who psychologists consider mentally ill. Another term for abnormal psychology is psychopathology. An individual, who has an abnormal sequence of thoughts or behaves unusually and could harm their lives as well as the lives of others, is mentally unstable. In addition, “Over centuries, Western culture has attributed mental illness to a variety of causes, such as demonic possession, supernatural forces, witches, and Satan” (Kowalski & Westen, 2011, Chapter 14). Different cultures develop their own assessment of what is irregular behavior. In America, irregular behavior is an individual’s belief he or she are someone who may have…

    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Research Paper on Adhd

    • 3528 Words
    • 15 Pages

    Johnson, L. & Safranek, S. (2005, February). What is the most effective treatment for ADHD…

    • 3528 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    The definition of "psychological disorder" is as follows: A psychological dysfunction within an individual that is associated with distress or impairment in functioning and a response that is not typical or culturally expected. There are three main components to this definition. They can be designated as a) psychological dysfunction, b) distress or impairment and c) atypical response.…

    • 2090 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Medical Marijuana Essay

    • 981 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Kring, A. M., Davinson, G. G., Naele, J. M., &Johnson. S. L. (2007). Abnormal Psychology [University of Phoenix Custom Edition eBook]. : John Wiley and Sons INC.. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, website.…

    • 981 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays