Preview

Case Study in Abnormal Psychology

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1054 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Case Study in Abnormal Psychology
Case Study in Abnormal Psychology
Abnormal Psychology/410
April 7, 2011
Nichelle J. Gause

Case Study in Abnormal Psychology

The study of any case in Abnormal Psychology views multiple aspects of self-concept and various behaviors and is the foundation of defining normal and abnormal behaviors. In the complex process of defining and exploring the vast concepts of behavior multi faceted information must be incorporated. Individual behaviors, perspectives, attitudes, and personal identity reveal the internal workings of how specific aspects of life coincide to determine ones concept of normal and abnormal behavior. Throughout history individuals have sought to find out the difference between normal and abnormal perspectives and the purpose for ones existence thus it is only through self realization that society and the people within can find this answer. The exploration of behavior and the many areas that humans search to find a deeper understanding of exactly what the concept of normal behavior leads to a profound investigation of internal and external aspect of life which shapes every angle of one’s self definition. As previous generations have sought to find the answers to this important life question it is the purpose of this paper to continue that great quest into the most definitive goal of society, which is the comprehension of the many, interlinked experiences that define self.
The various aspects of behavior and attitudes such as personality traits, abilities, physical characteristics, beliefs, values, goals, and roles help psychologist define normal and abnormal behavior. During the early stages of life children develop an organized and multilevel perspective of information about themselves in the process of acquiring the ability to understand the relation between self and the behavior. Behavior is present in children and centered on many levels of concrete cognitive characteristics, such as physical characteristics and skills. While

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Cyp 3.3 Task 9.1

    • 487 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. Describe typical behaviors exhibited by children linked to their stage of development and key events in their lives…

    • 487 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Psy 300 Week5 Team Final

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To help illustrate our research on abnormal psychology, this section will compare and contrast normal and abnormal psychology. Normal psychology focuses on the different ways different people see life and want to live life, rather than relying on generalizations made about whole populations of people. These generalizations can often do harm because without proper consideration they can often imply norm of behavior inimical to a person’s existence. A normal psychology in this way doesn’t imply a perfect individual existence, nor that there aren’t any pathologies.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    D Rosenhan Summary

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In this study, D. L. Rosenhan attempted to answer the question of whether or not people can discern between normal and abnormal behavior. Abnormality, or lack of it, was the aspect of human behavior that they were interested in. A person's diagnosis of being mentally ill or not is based off of his or her abnormality. Furthermore, the diagnosis affects the degree of treatment that the patient is to receive. However, there is no definite definition for abnormality; thus, it is difficult to categorize a person as normal or abnormal since the dividing factor between the two opposites are unclear. In summary, a person's level of normality or abnormality is based on different behavioral factors under the judgment of others. In order to find an answer, Rosenhan conducted a study where he and seven other people entered a mental facility under the guise of being schizophrenic.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    AssessmentofEvelynC

    • 1117 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Butcher, J. N., Hooley, J. M., & Mineka, S. (2014). Abnormal Psychology (16th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.…

    • 1117 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    SOMATIC SYMPTOM DISORDER- A disorder in which people become excessively distressed, concerned, and anxious about bodily symptoms they are experiencing.…

    • 1391 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Comer, R. J. (2011). Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology (6th ed., pp. 193-213). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.…

    • 2918 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    A.having a psychological problem that is correlated with no physical symptoms B.pretending to have an illness for an external gain C.having a disorder characterized by the preoccupation with pain D.giving self-centered and melodramatic reports of symptoms Answer Key: B…

    • 4710 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    No meaning of abnormality has been completely approved by the psychological community. However, having knowledge of unusual mindset is important to evaluating one’s conduct in deciding what a meaning must be (Hansell & Damour, 2008). Unusual conduct is usually regarded as conduct which is the opposite of social norms, with usual conduct being the very opposite. In this ability, it 's particularly important to analyze the topic of unusual mindset so as to correctly categorize usual and unusual conduct. This paper will analyze the roots of unusual mindset as well as the problems to defining as well as classifying usual as well as unusual conduct. It will also examine the development of unusual mindset as well as how it has developed into a scientific field. Finally, this document will examine the psychosocial, sociocultural, and biological/medical theoretical models relevant to the growth of unusual psychology.…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The question between normal and abnormal behavior is fundamental in psychology. Abnormality plays a vital role in determining whether someone is diagnosed mentally ill, the diagnoisis largely determines the treatment received by a patient. All behavior can be seen to lie on a continuum with normal, or effective psychological functioning at one end, and abnormal on the other end. The mental health professionals determine where on the continuum an individual’s behavior lies. To make this determination professionals use some criteria such as context of the behavior, persistence of the behavior, social deviance, subjective distress, psychological handicap, and effect on functioning. These symptoms and characteristics of mental illness all involve judgments on the part of psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals.…

    • 307 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Abnormal Psychology Terms

    • 9960 Words
    • 40 Pages

    "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 would most likely have made that statement? "let's try to figure out where clients fall on several key personality traits, rather than using a dichotomous classification system." someone saying this would most likely favor which approach to classifying personality disorders? "Litigaphobia" and "litigastress" "relational aggression" is a term used to describe a pattern of aggression most common among "someone's head resting on my knee,/ Warm and tender as he can be,/ Who takes good care of me,/ Oh wouldn't it be lovely?/ Lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely..." -- are the approximate lyrics of a song from the musical "My fair Lady". these lyrics most closely reflect symptoms of which personality disorder "that kid is pleasant enough, but will lie about practically anything, even things that do not seem to matter much." this behavior most closely fits which pattern of conduct disorder…

    • 9960 Words
    • 40 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Annotated Bibliography

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Annotated Bibliography: Prepared by Jennifer Hust Durand, V.M. & Barlow, D.H. (2009). Essentials of abnormal psychology(5th Ed.). Belmont, CA. Wadsworth. This book explains abnormal psychology through their the most modern, scientific method for studying the subject.…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    For decades, psychologists have devised many treatment regimes for schizophrenia patients, with varying degrees of success and effectiveness. There have been great obstacles in their efforts, mainly due to the fact that patients of schizophrenia lack insight into their impaired conditions. Often patients refuse treatment of any kind because they do not perceive any mental illness associated with their behaviour. In particular, individuals suffering from paranoid schizophrenia regard therapy as intrusions from hostile outside forces, which reduces compliance on the part of the patient (Davison & Neale,1998). Other problems with treatment programs for schizophrenic’s is that they suffer from both positive and negative symptoms, each requiring different type of treatments. In order to combat the difficulty of treating schizophrenia, several techniques have been devised; psychoanalytic therapy, behavioural therapy, family therapy and most predominantly, drug therapies. Drug therapy is the primary form of treatment implemented at the onset of schizophrenia. The drug clozapine is very effective for many patients who do not respond to initial drug treatment programs and treats both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia (Advokat et al., 1999; Robinson et al., 1999). Moreover, a reduction in negative symptoms has also been noted to occur as individuals are treated with amisulpride and (Danion et al., 1999). The use of newer drugs to treat schizophrenia has produced fewer side effects in most patients. However, it has been found that although the use of risperidone to treat patients is very effective in treating the symptoms, there may be negative side effects for women using the drugs (Caracci,1999). As well, haloperidol has been one of the most widely used drugs for treating schizophrenia and is very effective, but if it is over-prescribed it could result in severe side effects for the patient (Yasui et al., 1999). Despite the possible…

    • 2282 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Generally the circumstances surrounding the behavior of an individual helps to identify what behavior would be normal or abnormal, the context in which it occurs such as gender, age, class, or culture. The Continuum between the normal and abnormal psychology help us to understand the appropriateness of an attitude, or emotion, what is normal or exaggerated. These concepts make it challenging to classify an individual as mentally if it is normal for that specific gender, age, or culture. Cultural and historical relativism makes it challenging, because what may be considered abnormal to one culture could be completely normal within another. These are important factors that cannot be ignored, and play major roles in defining and classifying abnormal…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Psychology Abnormality

    • 2704 Words
    • 11 Pages

    This essay explores what is abnormality with respect to the different ways by which it can be defined such as statistical infrequency, deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately and deviating from ideal mental health and viewing their limitations and by using different models such as Psychodynamic, Cognitive, Behavioural and Medical model in identifying what is abnormal and their treatment. But the essay would focus more on the medical model and the different approaches used to define abnormality all have their focus point which is to distinguish between what is normal and abnormal.…

    • 2704 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    NORMAL VS ABNORMAL

    • 7259 Words
    • 21 Pages

    It is past time that we rethink what we mean by the words "normal" and "abnormal" as those words apply to the mental and emotional states and behaviors of human beings. Indeed, it is a real question as to whether those words can be sensibly used at all, given their tremendous baggage and built-inbiases and the general confusion they create.…

    • 7259 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Powerful Essays