Psychopathology

12 Key excerpts on "Psychopathology"

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  Psychopathology And World Politics

  • Ralph Pettman(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • WSPC

    (Publisher)

  1  

  Psychopathology refers to forms of behavior that seem so dysfunctional that they denote ill-health. It refers to those “morbid” mental phenomena that some people must deal with some of the time and other people must endure all of the time. It is, in short, the “systematic study of abnormal experience, cognition and behavior — the study of the products of the disordered mind” (Oyebode, 2008, p. 3).

  As such, it is one of those concepts that is easier to recognize than it is to define (Davis, 1984, p. 1; Page, 1975, pp. 3, 49). The problem is that Psychopathology is concerned with “every psychic reality which we can render intelligible…”. It is concerned, that is, with the way the self endlessly attempts to comprehend the world. This makes it necessary to know what people experience in general before it is possible to say what might be wrong with them in particular. It makes it necessary to know the full nature of their psychic reality. This reality can only be known by objectifying the human psyche and then compensating for the limits and distortions of detachment by the use of empathy and understanding (Oyebode, 2008, p. 3). Only after such a comprehensive appraisal is it possible to determine what the conscious as opposed to the unconscious means and what the inner as opposed to the outer world entails. Only then can it be said what might mentally be the matter (Jaspers, 1972 [1913]).

  It should also be noted that Psychopathology is used to refer to various techniques that are currently believed to provide people who behave in a mentally unwell way with some kind of help. It has a prescriptive as well as a descriptive and an explanatory dimension.

  In other words, Psychopathology is supposed to provide a rational basis for identifying those who suffer mentally as opposed to those who suffer physically. It is also supposed to allow for the identification of those who suffer psychosomatically, that is, those who suffer physically because of their state of mind (for instance, those who develop an ulcer because they worry too much), as well as those who suffer psychologically because of the state of their brain or some other part of their body (for instance, those who lose their memory because of Alzheimer’s disease). Psychopathology is supposed in all such cases to provide a rational basis for restorative or at very least palliative care.

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  Introduction to Psychopathology

  • Alessandra Lemma(Author)
  • 1996(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  1 What is Psychopathology? Any attempt to define what Psychopathology is presupposes that we really know what normality is. In view of this, any consideration of Psychopathology requires an examination of the notions of mental health and illness and their inherent assumptions and biases. This will be the aim of the first part of this chapter. It will be followed by an exploration of some of the functions served by the notion of mental illness. Throughout history, people’s understanding of Psychopathology has constantly shifted; different cultures and historical periods have labelled ‘mad’ those whom other times and societies have regarded as ‘sane’. Indeed, it has been argued that madness is nothing but a label pinned by the respectable on those they cannot tolerate or that society is in actuality so demanding or alienating that it drives the most vulnerable souls to distraction. Psychopathology or madness can even be seen as being merely sophisticated euphemisms for human anguish. Since the ancient Greeks, psychopathological manifestations have been treated by a variety of social organisations including the Church, the law and medicine. In modern Western society medicine is the main source of identification and care for Psychopathology. In spite of the attempts of the medical profession to use scientifically loaded terms reified within systems of psychiatric classification, the question of Psychopathology has nevertheless remained shrouded in mystery. The term ‘Psychopathology’ generally refers to patterns of maladaptive behaviour and states of distress which interfere with some aspect of adaptation. Implicit in the American Psychiatric Association’s (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) definition of ‘mental disorder’ is that the mental condition causes significant distress or disability (impairment in one or more important areas of functioning) and that it is not merely an expected and culturally sanctioned response to a particular event

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  The Disorders

  Specialty Articles from the Encyclopedia of Mental Health

  • Howard S. Friedman(Author)
  • 2001(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  At the practical level, there have been exten- 357 sive discussions about how best to conceptualize and assess abnormal behavior, and how to minimize the potentially negative influences of labeling. I. DEFINITIONAL ISSUES A. Normalcy versus Abnormalcy Within the overall frame of reference of psychopa- thology a number of related concepts must be defined and distinguished. As a term, Psychopathology refers to an aberrant or dysfunctional (i.e., pathological) way of functioning, where functioning is defined in terms of behavioral, interpersonal, emotional, cog- nitive, and psychophysiological patterns. Whether a particular way of functioning is aberrant can be judged by a number of criteria. Included in such criteria is whether that functioning causes personal distress, causes others in the person's social sphere to become distressed, falls outside of accepted social norms or values for functioning, falls within certain criteria for abnormal functioning, or is a statistically rare func- tional pattern. Each of these approaches to establish- ing an aberrant pattern of functioning has advantages and disadvantages. It is due to the presence of these approaches that different approaches to conceptual- izing Psychopathology exist. Mental illness is a term that is largely synonymous with Psychopathology, although it carries the impli- cation that the unusual or aberrant patterns of func- tioning seen in these conditions reflect some form of disease or illness. The medical model reflected in the illness term is rejected by some psychopathologists, as Copyright 9 1998 by Academic Press. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 358 Psychopathology an inappropriate model for either all or some forms of Psychopathology. Another term that is considered synonymous with Psychopathology is abnormal be- havior.

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  Psychology

  Modules for Active Learning

  • Dennis Coon, John Mitterer, Tanya Martini, , Dennis Coon, John Mitterer, Tanya Martini, (Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Psychopathology The scientific study of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders; the term is also used to refer to maladaptive behavior. Statistical abnormality Abnormality defined on the basis of an extreme score on some dimension, such as IQ or anxiety. Social nonconformity Failure to conform to societal norms or the usual minimum standards for social conduct. Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. PSYCHOLOGY MODULES FOR ACTIVE LEARNING 518 psychopathological behavior does have a core feature: It is maladaptive . Rather than helping people cope successfully, maladaptive behavior arises from an underlying psycholog-ical or biological dysfunction that makes it more difficult for them to meet the demands of day-to-day life (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Maladaptive behavior most often results in serious psychological discomfort, disabil-ity, and/or loss of control of thoughts, behaviors, or feelings, such as James’s overwhelming sense of impending doom. For example, gambling is not a problem if people bet for en-tertainment and can maintain self-control. However, compul-sive gambling is a sign of Psychopathology. Hearing uncontrol-lable voices is a prime example of what it means to lose control of one’s thoughts. In the most extreme cases, people become a danger to themselves or others, which is clearly maladaptive.

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  Introducing Psychopathology

  • Betty Rudd, Author(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Introducing Psychopathology specifically includes points to reflect on. There are teaching and learning features throughout and these are discussed further on.

  You do not have to read this book in any particular order. Dip into it at any place. Each chapter can stand in its own right – if you want to find out about being depressed, just go to the chapter that deals with depression. Nevertheless, there is some logic to the order I have written the text. For instance, this chapter is the book’s introduction. The one that follows deals with assessing and referring, because these tasks are normally necessary during a first appointment. Then there is a focus on children before the spotlight shines on adults, and finally I consider possible future avenues. Therefore, you can read Introducing Psychopathology from cover to cover for a more comprehensive picture.

  WHAT IS Psychopathology?

  Psychopathology derives from two Greek words: ‘psyche’ meaning ‘soul’, and ‘pathos’ meaning ‘suffering’. Currently, ‘Psychopathology’ is understood to mean the origin of mental disorders, how they develop and their symptoms. Traditionally, those suffering from mental disorders have usually been treated by the psychiatric profession, which adheres to the DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2002) or ICD-10 (WHO, 1992) for classifying mental disorders. It therefore follows that psychiatrists use the term ‘Psychopathology’ more than people in other professions. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who then train in mental health and are able to treat with medication or/and in whatever psychotherapy model they have trained in.

  Within psychiatry, the term ‘pathology’ refers to disease. However, viewing mental problems as a disease is a contentious point. Psychotherapists, counselling psychologists and counsellors (who specialise in mind matters and are not medics), view apparent mental dysfunction as mental distress, not necessarily related to pathology. So, the term ‘disorder’ is used, rather than ‘disease’. Other words for diagnosing distress within the mind remain: ‘symptoms’ meaning ‘signs’, ‘aetiology’ meaning ‘cause’, and ‘prognosis’ meaning ‘expected outcome’.

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  Clinical Psychology

  A Modern Health Profession

  • Wolfgang Linden, Paul L. Hewitt, Don Saklofske(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 12 ) the importance of the environment in either maintaining or reducing a behavior will be apparent.

  Although the list of focuses of clinical psychologists in dealing with abnormality is not exhaustive, the domains discussed represent some of the major ones. Psychologists from particular orientations will emphasize or focus upon certain problematic behaviors over others, both in terms of the research conducted and in terms of clinical work engaged in. In addition, there are aspects of these domains that exist in individuals experiencing all manner of physical ill health (see also Chapter 17 ). Whether it is depression or anxiety that exists in just about any major physical health problem (e.g., osteoarthritis, or heart disease) or existential processes and the emotional and cognitive upheaval in being diagnosed with a serious or terminal illness, it is important to understand that these behaviors can become important focuses for research, assessment, and treatment.

  Conceptualizations of Psychological Problems

  Historically, definitions and conceptualizations of Psychopathology shifted and changed over time. As knowledge accumulates, theoretical perspectives accommodate to new information, new perspectives appear, or, often re-appear, and, as values of society shift, definitions of Psychopathology likewise shift. Just as views of the nature, causes, and treatments of psychological difficulties shifted between demonological models and more “scientific” or natural perspectives over the past centuries (Ellenberger, 1970), current conceptualizations of Psychopathology used in clinical psychology are not necessarily uniform or static, nor are components necessarily generally agreed upon. What is seen as a disturbance or problem today may not be seen as psychological disturbance tomorrow. There can be many causes of this phenomenon. For example, some disorders appear to be decreasing in frequency due to either an actual decrease in the incidence (i.e., the development of new cases) of the disorder due to treatment and prevention (e.g., conversion disorders; American Psychiatric Association, 20 13) or to a refinement in diagnosis so that other disorders or problems that are similar to the disorder in question are no longer lumped together (e.g., schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder; attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity). This can result in true decreases in a diagnostic entity or in decreases due to a redefinition of the behaviors as not indicative of a psychological disorder (e.g., see Box 5.2

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  The Role of Gender in Practice Knowledge

  Claiming Half the Human Experience

  • Josefina Figueira McDonough, F. Ellen Netting, Ann Nichols Casebolt, Josefina Figueira McDonough, F. Ellen Netting, Ann Nichols Casebolt(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Most teachers of human behavior courses recognize variations in human behavior and that the etiology and mutability of these variations can be studied. But, the enterprise of differentiating particular behavioral patterns as abnormal or pathological is not the traditional province of social work. Social work teaches respect for human diversity. The notion of person/environment fit reminds us that most human variations can be a strength as well as a weakness depending upon the context of the behavior. Social work eschews the process of negative trait identification, in the belief that helping people identify and maximize their strengths will result in more satisfaction and less distress for all individuals involved (Turner, 1984). The thesis behind the DSM-IV is in fundamental conflict with the strengths' orientation of social work. For this reason, Psychopathology has taken on a different meaning in social work from that of psychiatry and other mental health professions.

  Psychopathology in social work is not the concept to which medicine and conservative politicians have reduced it. In social work, we are committed to a sense of Psychopathology that "harkens back to the original Greek." According to this etymology, the word "Psychopathology" refers to the speech or logos of the psyche—that is, all the psyche's ways of hiding, manifesting, expressing, communicating, sharing, and in brief, living out its experience of worldly suffering (pathein) (Levin, 1987, p. 2). This sense of suffering is rooted in the psyche's historical situation. Within these changing historical contexts, social work educators must find places in the curriculum to evaluate the foundation assumptions underlying extant concepts of pathology and other forms of victimization (Ashford, 1994).

  So how can a teacher of social work approach the task of integrating gender content into a subject matter that is in conflict with many fundamental social work principles? The task requires a commitment from educators to clarifying how diagnostic and other classification systems are influenced by social processes. Just as history books are written by the victors, the definition of disorder will be a social construction that is significantly influenced by male hegemony. Males and others with power will decide what constitutes a problem. For feminists, of course, there is instant recognition that as a disenfranchised group, women will be infrequently consulted in the process of deciding what is pathological. This responsibility of defining pathology is still left up to "the university educated, economically privileged, predominantly white men who have produced our systems of science and technology" (Hubbard, 1989, p. 119).

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  Psychology, 6th Australian and New Zealand Edition

  • Lorelle J. Burton, Drew Westen, Robin M. Kowalski(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Irrational fears in turn elicit avoidance, which perpetuates them and may lead to secondary problems, such as poor social skills. From a cognitive perspective, many psycho- logical problems refect dysfunctional attitudes, beliefs and other cognitive processes, such as a tendency to interpret events negatively. Pdf_Folio:927 CHAPTER 18 Psychological disorders 927 Biological approach To understand Psychopathology, mental health professionals often move from a mental to a physiological level. Practitioners from all theoretical perspectives evaluate patients for potential biological contributions to their symptoms, as when they take a family history to assess possible genetic vulnerabilities or inquire about head injuries in childhood to assess possible influences on the developing brain. Some researchers and clinicians, however, believe that biology holds the key to most forms of Psychopathology. Neural circuits The biological approach looks for the roots of mental disorders in the brain’s circuitry (Kalat, 2007). For example, normal anxiety occurs through activation of neural circuits involving, among other structures, the amygdala and frontal lobes (chapter 13). Thus, one might expect pathological anxiety to involve heightened or easily triggered activation of those circuits — a hypothesis supported by neuroimaging studies of many anxiety disorders (Reiman, 1997; see also Cuthbert et al., 2003; Jung et al., 2006). Although, as we will see, abnormal neural firing can have genetic or environmental roots (e.g., people with severe childhood abuse histories may show damage to the hippocampus; Bremner, 1998; Teicher & Samson, 2016), a central focus of biological approaches is on the heritability of Psychopathology. Thus, like all competent clinicians, biologically oriented clinicians are likely to assess carefully for family history of disorders. Aside from genetics, biological researchers have searched for the roots of Psychopathology primarily in two areas.

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  Psychology Around Us

  • Nancy Ogden, Michael Boyes, Evelyn Field, Ronald Comer, Elizabeth Gould(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Some recent research indicates that for adolescents and young adults, social media may provide a conduit for social connections that helps them deal with mental health issues (Singleton, Abeles, & Smith, 2016; Best, Manktelow, & Taylor, 2016). Family Systems According to family systems theory, the family is a system of interact- ing parts—the family members—who interact with one another in consistent ways and follow rules unique to each family (Keller & Noone, 2019; Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2011). Family sys- tems theorists believe that the structure and communication patterns of certain families actu- ally force individual members to react in ways that otherwise seem abnormal. If the members were to behave normally, they would severely strain the family’s usual manner of operation and would actually increase their own and their family’s turmoil. Recall, for example, how Diane Markos’s family was structured. She was required to be a third parent in the family, which in many ways deprived her of normal childhood experiences and emotions. In turn, she came to view her life as one of “servitude, rejection, and failure,” and she experienced ongoing depression. The Developmental Psychopathology Model Developmental Psychopathology is an area that is interested in how psychological dis- orders evolve, based on both genetics and early childhood experiences. Researchers inter- ested in this area try to understand how early problematic patterns affect functioning as individuals move through later life stages (Cicchetti & Toth, 2016; Leventhal et al., 2016; Cicchetti, 2016; Hinshaw & Beauchaine, 2017). Developmental psychopathologists compare and contrast abnormal behaviour patterns with more typical ones, attempting to identify risk factors—biological and environmental factors that contribute to negative outcomes. In addition, they seek to identify other factors that can help children avoid or recover from such outcomes.

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  Normality Does Not Equal Mental Health

  The Need to Look Elsewhere for Standards of Good Psychological Health

  • Steven James Bartlett(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  Psychiatric nosologies throughout history have been influenced by their love affair with the model offered by physical disease, but the definitions of physical disease and mental dis- order have in general diverged very considerably. 44 Normality Does Not Equal Mental Health If we were to take the medical model of physical disease as an ideal stan- dard in defining disease, then several criteria of definition follow. In order for a medical definition of an individual disease to go beyond stipulative definition, it would need to accomplish all four of the following things: (1) the definition must identify a disorder that is judged to result in disabil- ity or harm either to individuals themselves who are afflicted with that malady, to their society, or to both; (2) it integrates the description of the disease within a systematic framework of classification of other known dis- eases; (3) it specifies conditions under which the disease is observable by enumerating physical, behavioral, cognitive, and affective symptoms and signs that serve as indications to the physician and to the patient of the pres- ence of the disease; and (4) the definition describes the separately specifi- able conditions, states, or physiological pathology known to give rise to the characteristic symptomatology of that disease. 5 Emphasis must be placed on the phrase “separately specifiable,” for it is here that a medical definition of physical disease is anchored in what we might, if it were not such a mouthful, call “extrasymptomatological reality.” In other words, we must have these two different contexts of reference— stipulative definition plus empirical confirmation of pathology—in order for a defined disorder or disease, whether in psychiatry or in physi- cal medicine, to have more than symptomatological status. Unless a mental disorder is to be equated with a set of symptoms, condition 4 must be satisfied.

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  Personality and Individual Differences

  • Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • BPS Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  As Leda Cosmides and John Tooby (cited in Stankus, 2011, p. 121) state, “Our mod- ern skulls house a stone-age brain.” Just as we fear snakes but not electrical cables, these disorders may have once been advantageous, but in our modern, industrialized world have become maladaptive. 4.5 INTEGRATIVE APPROACHES TO Psychopathology: THE BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL MODEL Although some (particularly psychiatrists) believe that the evolution of psychopa- thology is largely a function of replacing psychogenic approaches with somatogenic, much of the improvements in Psychopathology in recent years have depended on the integration of the different approaches discussed above, though there are also other approaches such as humanistic and sociocultural theories of abnormal behavior. Psychopathology 123 This multidisciplinary perspective is often referred to as the biopsy- chosocial approach to Psychopathology, and its major exponent is the diathesis-stress model. According to the diathesis-stress model (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1996; Monroe & Simmons, 1991; Williams, 1985), psychopathologi- cal symptoms and diseases are caused by a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors. In simple terms, this model explains mental illness as a byproduct of inherited vulnerabilities (diatheses) and unbearable life experiences (stress) (see Figure 4.4). An individ- ual’s level of vulnerability or predisposition is biological and can be explained in terms of pathological brain structures or processes at the level of genes, neurotransmitters, and hormones. The life events or stressors that trigger that disposition, however, are environmental. For example, conflictive relationships with friends or other family members may cause dispositional factors to be manifested in the form of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia (see Meehl, 1962, and Section 4.7.1). Thus vulnerability is necessary but not sufficient in itself to cause the mental illness, as is the stressor.

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  Essentials of Abnormal Psychology

  • V. Durand, David Barlow, Stefan Hofmann, , V. Durand, David Barlow, Stefan Hofmann(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Most mental health professionals in North America use the classification system contained in the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Classification Issues Classification is at the heart of any science, and much of what we have said about it is common sense. When we are dealing with human behavior, however, the subject of clas- sification becomes controversial. Some people have ques- tioned whether it is proper or ethical to classify human behavior. Even among those who recognize the necessity of classification, major controversies have arisen in several areas. Within Psychopathology, for example, definitions of “normal” and “abnormal” are questioned, as is the assump- tion that a behavior or cognition is part of one disorder and not another. Some would prefer to talk about behavior and feelings on a continuum from happy to sad or fearful to non-fearful rather than to create such categories as mania, depression, and phobia. For better or worse, classifying behavior and people is something we all do. Few of us talk about our own emotions or those of our friends by using a number on a scale (where 0 is totally unhappy and 100 is totally happy), although this approach might be more accu- rate. (“How do you feel about that?” “About 65.”) Rather, we talk about being happy, sad, angry, depressed, fearful, and so on. Categorical and Dimensional Approaches How can we classify human behavior? We have already alluded to two possibilities. We can have distinct catego- ries of disorders that have little or nothing in common with one another; for example, you either hear voices talking to you from the refrigerator (auditory hallucination) and have other symptoms of schizophrenia, or you don’t. Alterna- tively, we can quantify the various attributes of a psycho- logical disorder along several dimensions, coming up with a composite score.

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