Psychology. April 17, Tuesday.

Transcription

1 Psychology April 17, Tuesday.

2 Today s Agenda. One last thing about stress. A new lesson on Psychological Disorders.

3 Work: Issue #1: Comparable Worth. The value of the satisfaction/compensation your job provides comparable to your qualifications and those of others.

4 Work: Issue #2: Job Satisfaction. Studies have shown 5 sources of work satisfaction. 1. Resources to do your job. 2. Financial reward. 3. Challenge. 4. Relations with coworkers. 5. Comfort.

5 Essential Question: What are Psychological Disorders?

6 You may have heard the expression there is a thin line between genius and madness. Who draws that line?

7 We ll be looking at the task of identification and classification. WHAT IS ABNORMAL? We ll look at the standard ways of measuring deviation. We ll look at how these are used to create the legal definition of abnormality. And we ll talk about criticisms of this whole enterprise, about labeling people and categorizing them.

8 1st method of measuring abnormality Deviation from normality. Approach #1 Whatever most people do is normal and any deviation from what the average person or the majority does is abnormal.

9 Deviation from normality. What could possibly go wrong with this approach? Subjective measurement of normal. Jump-off-the-bridge logic. Cultural subjectivity.

10 2 nd method of measuring abnormality Adjustment. Approach #2: Normal people are able to get along in the world. Abnormal people have difficulty adjusting.

11 Adjustment. What could be the problem with this approach? Things only seem normal. Cultural context of behavior may make it seem normal in one place, but not in another.

12 3 rd method of measuring abnormality Psychological Health Approach #3: Treat mental illness in the same way as physical illness. Assume that, just as there is an ideal for physical health, there is one for mental health too.

13 Psychological Health. What could be the problem with this approach? What is the ideal way to behave mentally? What is each person s self-actualization?

14 The Counterpoint. Since no method of defining abnormal behavior is a 100% objective, some psychologists object to labelling people as mentally ill. Is there any use to labels? Can we have a mental health system without labels? Although his viewpoint was not shared by many, Thomas Szasz s criticisms of the mental health system did produce some reforms in how we treat the mentally ill.

15 The Task of Classification: Classifying mental disorders is not easy because the causes and symptoms of psychological disturbances are rarely obvious or clear cut.

16 The Task of Classification. All of the major classification schemes have accepted the medical model: They assume that abnormal behavior can be described in the same manner as any physical illness.

17 The DSM In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association agreed upon a system for classifying abnormal symptoms, which it published as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

18 The DSM: Within each diagnostic category of the DSM, the following descriptions are included: 1) Essential features: characteristics that define the disorder.

19 The DSM 2) Associated features Additional features that are usually present.

20 The DSM 3) Information on Differential Diagnosis: How to distinguish this disorder from others like it.

21 The DSM 4) Diagnostic Criteria: A list of symptoms that must be present for the patient to be given a particular diagnostic label.