Page |1
PSYC 2001 Exam 4 (Chapter 14 Knapp)
Questions and Answers 2026
psychological disorders
patterns of thoughts, feelings, or actions that are deviant, distressful, and
dysfunctional: not helpful to us or others
Fill in the blank:
About _______ percent of adults in the US display some form of disorder in a 1
year period.
About _____ percent of people under 18
30 percent
20 percent
criteria for mental disorders
1. statistical rarity/infrequency
2. subjective distress
3. impairment
4. societal disapproval/norm violation
5. biological dysfunction
statistical rarity
if very few people do it, it is disordered; Whatever most people do is normal.
short comings:
- Some rare behaviors are valuable; ex: genius IQ is rare or joe burrow's really
good football throw
PSYC 2001
, Page |2
- This is saying normality is conformity; nonconformity is often creative
- Just how rare does the behavior have to be?
- Whatever you could come up with is an arbitrary cuttoff
subjective distress
if the person experiences distress or causes distress to others around, it must be
disordered.
shortcomings:
- People may be distressed over behaviors not considered abnormal; ex -
homosexuality
- Some people are not distressed by disorders (es: NAMBA)
impairment
Most mental disorders interfere with people's ability to function in everyday life.
These disorders can destroy marriages, friendships, and jobs.
shortcomings:
- Could be unrelated to mental illness
- Ex: laziness, physical dysfunction.
societal disapproval/norm violation
Norm violation equates abnormality with violations of social norms and cultural
rules.
shortcomings:
- Eccentric/illegal rather than abnormal - can be weird without being a mental
illness
PSYC 2001
, Page |3
- Social norms vary across cultural/historical eras
- Norm violations does not mean behavior is "bad"
biological dysfunction
breakdowns or failures of physiological systems. For example, we'll learn that
schizophrenia is often marked by an underactivity in the brain's frontal lobes.
shortcomings
- Some mental disorders such as phobias appear to be acquired largely through
learning experiences and often require only a weak genetic predisposition to trigger
them
historical conceptions of mental illness (3)
1. demonic model
2. medical model
3. moral treatment
demonic model
Possession by gods or demons
dominant during the Middle Ages. supernatural explanations still invoked in
certain ethnic and religious subcultures
treatments were often barbaric = trephination
trephination
drilling holes in the skull to let out the spirit; barbaric
medical model
PSYC 2001
, Page |4
mental illness is treated the same as physical illness
As the renaissance took hold, views of those with mental illness became more
enlightened. More people came to perceive mental illness primarily as a physical
disorder requiring medical treatment
asylums
places to warehouse people with mental disorders; not to treat them; people would
visit the asylums like people going to the zoo; unclean, underfunded
assumptions of mental illnesses under the medical model
i. Behaviors such as hallucinations are 'symptoms' of mental illness, as are suicidal
ideas or extreme fears such as phobias about snakes, etc.
ii. Different illnesses can be identified as 'syndromes', clusters of symptoms that go
together and are caused by the illness.
iii. These symptoms lead the psychiatrist to make a 'diagnosis' for example 'this
patient is suffering from a severe psychosis, he is suffering from the medical
condition we call schizophrenia'.
iv. The model assumes biological causes, pathology of the brain, germs or genes.
Moral treatment
advocates insisted those with mental illness be treated with dignity, kindness, and
respect.
Before this, patients in asylums were often bound in chains, but following moral
PSYC 2001
PSYC 2001 Exam 4 (Chapter 14 Knapp)
Questions and Answers 2026
psychological disorders
patterns of thoughts, feelings, or actions that are deviant, distressful, and
dysfunctional: not helpful to us or others
Fill in the blank:
About _______ percent of adults in the US display some form of disorder in a 1
year period.
About _____ percent of people under 18
30 percent
20 percent
criteria for mental disorders
1. statistical rarity/infrequency
2. subjective distress
3. impairment
4. societal disapproval/norm violation
5. biological dysfunction
statistical rarity
if very few people do it, it is disordered; Whatever most people do is normal.
short comings:
- Some rare behaviors are valuable; ex: genius IQ is rare or joe burrow's really
good football throw
PSYC 2001
, Page |2
- This is saying normality is conformity; nonconformity is often creative
- Just how rare does the behavior have to be?
- Whatever you could come up with is an arbitrary cuttoff
subjective distress
if the person experiences distress or causes distress to others around, it must be
disordered.
shortcomings:
- People may be distressed over behaviors not considered abnormal; ex -
homosexuality
- Some people are not distressed by disorders (es: NAMBA)
impairment
Most mental disorders interfere with people's ability to function in everyday life.
These disorders can destroy marriages, friendships, and jobs.
shortcomings:
- Could be unrelated to mental illness
- Ex: laziness, physical dysfunction.
societal disapproval/norm violation
Norm violation equates abnormality with violations of social norms and cultural
rules.
shortcomings:
- Eccentric/illegal rather than abnormal - can be weird without being a mental
illness
PSYC 2001
, Page |3
- Social norms vary across cultural/historical eras
- Norm violations does not mean behavior is "bad"
biological dysfunction
breakdowns or failures of physiological systems. For example, we'll learn that
schizophrenia is often marked by an underactivity in the brain's frontal lobes.
shortcomings
- Some mental disorders such as phobias appear to be acquired largely through
learning experiences and often require only a weak genetic predisposition to trigger
them
historical conceptions of mental illness (3)
1. demonic model
2. medical model
3. moral treatment
demonic model
Possession by gods or demons
dominant during the Middle Ages. supernatural explanations still invoked in
certain ethnic and religious subcultures
treatments were often barbaric = trephination
trephination
drilling holes in the skull to let out the spirit; barbaric
medical model
PSYC 2001
, Page |4
mental illness is treated the same as physical illness
As the renaissance took hold, views of those with mental illness became more
enlightened. More people came to perceive mental illness primarily as a physical
disorder requiring medical treatment
asylums
places to warehouse people with mental disorders; not to treat them; people would
visit the asylums like people going to the zoo; unclean, underfunded
assumptions of mental illnesses under the medical model
i. Behaviors such as hallucinations are 'symptoms' of mental illness, as are suicidal
ideas or extreme fears such as phobias about snakes, etc.
ii. Different illnesses can be identified as 'syndromes', clusters of symptoms that go
together and are caused by the illness.
iii. These symptoms lead the psychiatrist to make a 'diagnosis' for example 'this
patient is suffering from a severe psychosis, he is suffering from the medical
condition we call schizophrenia'.
iv. The model assumes biological causes, pathology of the brain, germs or genes.
Moral treatment
advocates insisted those with mental illness be treated with dignity, kindness, and
respect.
Before this, patients in asylums were often bound in chains, but following moral
PSYC 2001
