PSYC300 Lecture Notes

PSYC300
Sep 10th – Chapter 1 (Abnormal Psych Intro)

Psychopathology
- Psychopathology
 The field concerned with the nature and development of abnormal behaviour, thoughts, and
feeling.
- Demonology
 The doctrine that an evil being, such as the devil, may dwell within a person and control his or
her mind and body
- Somatogensis: development from bodily origins, as distinguished from psychological origins
- Psychogenesis: the belief that a disturbance has psychological origins.

What is Abnormal?
- Can be determined by statistical infrequency
 Low frequency  depression
 Middle frequency  ‘normal’
 High frequency  mania
- Violation of social norms
 Threatens others or makes them anxious
 Outside prevailing cultural norms
- Personal distress/suffering
 Some disorders do not include distress
- Disability or Dysfunction
 Impairment in some important area of life such as work or personal relationships
- Unexpected Responses to environmental stressors
 Earthquake/Accident  PTSD, emotional shock (natural)
 Bad news/Prof is late  unexpected, overemotional response

Historical Views
- Events beyond the control of humans (storms, weather, crop failure) was seen as supernatural (including
abnormal behaviour)
- Hippocrates (400 BC)
 Viewed disorders due to bodily disorders (bodily problems)
 Didn’t believe in satanic position, believed in science and diseases
 First somatic view of disorders
- Dark Ages (200 AD)
 Church replaced physicians
- Middle Ages (1200 AD)
 Demonology and witches were blamed for bad events and behaviour
- 1486  Pope Innocent VIII’s Malleus Maleficarum
- 15th – 16th centuries  Establishment of asylums
- The Enlightenment ‘Age of Reason’
 18th Century, intellectuals in Europe and America began to use scientific research, rational
thought, and reasoning to understand the causes of things and advance society
 Opposed superstition, the government and church, and took aim at scientific reason
 Health care gradually returned to secular control
- 1970’s – present
 Deinstitutionalization
 Make hospitals smaller with more care and humane treatment
- 2002  Romanow Report

,  “Medicare coverage should cover mental health”
- 2007  Canadian Mental Health Commission
 Develop a strategy for the country to develop mental health support and resources.

Figures
- Franz Anton Mesmer (1734 – 1815)
 Disorders and physical disorders were caused by magnetic fluids
 Developed hypnotism to influence magnetic fluids in the body to treat disorders
- Benjamin Rush
 Father of American Psychiatrist
 Believed disorders were due to excess blood in the brain
 Used bloodletting as treatment
- Phillippe Pinel (1745 – 1826)
 Began the humanitarian movement
 Wanted patients to be treated with care and respect  removed chains, gave them light airy
rooms, allowed them to walk around, gave them meals, etc.
 Drugs were most common treatment in his hospital
- Dorothea Dix (1802 – 1877)
 Resurrected Pinel’s movement of humanitarian care
 Advocated for basic humane conditions for people in mental asylums in Canada and around the
world.
- Emil Kraepelin (1883)
 Created first classification based on biological dysfunction

Somatogensis Theories
- Something is physically (somatically) wrong, disturbs thought and behaviour
- Hippocrates (460 – 377 BC)  mania, melancholia (depression), brain fever
- General paresis and syphilis
 Steady deterioration of physical and mental abilities  delusion, paralysis
 1800  discovered syphilis was cause of general paresis (health effect)
 Less serotonin (bodily hormones and neurotransmitters)  depression
 Infection in childhood  could lead to disorders (viral infection)
- Treatments
 Hypnosis  influence magnetic fluids
 Medications help balance neurotransmitters
 ECT  electric shock therapy
 Lobotomy  psychosurgery

Psychogenesis Theories
- Something is mentally (psychologically) wrong, disturbs thought and behaviour
- Charcot (1825 – 1893)
 Hypnosis
 Students made patient look hysterical (show symptoms through suggestions)  perfectly healthy
patient changed through hypnosis, Charcot realized power of psychology and subconscious
 Believed in a psychological cause for some symptoms
 Mental illness is due to a psychological malfunction
- 20 Century ideas
th

 Developmental problem (psychosexual)
 Reinforcement for problematic behaviour
 Environment (stress, social support, traumatic life events, education)

, - Moral treatment, token economy, psychotherapy, etc. psychological interventions born from these
findings

Supernatural Theories
- Supernatural theories: a troubled mind is due to displeasure from gods or demons
 Ancient Greeks, Chines, Babylonians, Hebrews
- Treatment:
 Ostracism  banishing and alienating one to go into exile
 Exorcism  elaborate prayer rituals to torture as a way of making the body inhospitable for a
demon
 Trepanning  surgical opening in the skull for demons to escape
o Widespread practice
o Originated in Siberia

Canadian Stigma
- 72% of Canadians tell friends and co-workers family members are diagnosed with cancer (physical
illness) vs. 50% reveal of mental illness
- 27% say they feel fearful being around someone mentally ill
- 42% are uncertain if they would socialize with a friend with mental illness
- 30% believe mental illness hurts the economy
- 89% believe mental illness require treatment, 40% said they will deal with it themselves.

Reducing Stigma
- Language  the words you use and how to describe mental illness can make a difference
- Education  knowing the facts and myths can help end stigma
- Be kind  simple acts of kindness can help open the conversation
- Listen and ask  ask how you can help in recovery
- Talk about it

Sep 13th – Chapter 1 (Abnormal Psych Intro)
Diagnostic Classification
- “Classifications are fictions imposed on a complex world to understand it and manage it” = Mataix-Cols,
Pertusa, & Leckman
- Development of the DSM began in the early 19th Century
 DSM  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
 Medical field developed diagnostic system, and health care improved
 Attempts were made to classify behavioural disorders (UK, France, US)
 Classifications were inconsistent and not well accepted
- Development of the DSM  mid-20th Century
 1948: World Health Organization produced ICD
 1952: American Psychiatric Association produced first DSM
- Development of DSM  1960s
 1968: APA published DSM-II, with a supplemental glossary
 1969: WHO revised ICD, just with a list of disorders
- ICD-II and DSM-II just gave a list of disorders
 Problematic  no treatment method, assumptions rely on professionals, no causes, no
specifications of severity of disorders to be classified

Modern DSM
- 1980: DSM-III
 Major revision included more disorders, symptom checklists

, - 1998: DSM-IV
 Task force used lit reviews, analyzed old data, collected new data
- 2000: DSM-IV-TR
 Clarified text – few substantive changes
- 2013: DSM-5
- Influences on the DSM-5
 Relies on empirical research on phenomenology & aetiology
 Relies on a clinical experience
 Influenced by cultural mindset
 Dependent on historical legacy (history of disorders)
 Professional and Societal Politics

Categorical & Dimensional perspectives
- Categorical
 Yes or No answer
 Does this person have high blood pressure?
- Dimensional
 Threshold for diagnosis
 More detailed response
 Where does the person’s blood pressure fall on the measurement?
- Strengths of DSM-Style Categories
 Permits shorthand communication
 Easier allocation of health care services
 Testing treatment efficacy
 Understanding the aetiology of psychopathology
 Better understanding the phenomenon of each problem
 Enhances diagnostic reliability
- Weaknesses of DSM-style categories
 Fosters false sense of discontinuity between normal and abnormal behaviour
 Information is lost
 Stigmatization of labelling
 DSM version of categories has become overly complex, perhaps bloated.

Reliability & Validity
- Inter-rater reliability
 The reproducibility or consistency of decisions between two reviewers and is a necessary
component of validity
 Agreement between more than one rater
 Do they agree on the same diagnosis and severity?
- Construct validity
 The degree to which inferences can legitimately be made from the operationalizations in your
study to the theoretical constructs on which those operationalizations were based
 The extent to which having a category allows you to assess and find a difference between people
with labels and people without.
- Causes of Schizophrenia: genetic predisposition, stressful experiences, maternal viral infection
- Schizophrenia symptoms: memory impairment, poor social skills, episodic course, favourable response to
some drug therapies.

Sep 15th – Chapter 2 (Psychopathology)

Paradigm Basic Tenets Examples of Research Methods Factors of Clinical