Page 3: Additional Disorders and the Rosenhan Study

This page covers additional psychological disorders and presents the influential Rosenhan study, which examined the reliability of psychiatric diagnoses.

Definition: Dissociative disorders involve disruptions in conscious processes, including psychogenic amnesia and dissociative identity disorder.

Highlight: The Rosenhan study demonstrated significant flaws in psychiatric diagnosis systems when pseudo-patients were admitted to mental hospitals.

Example: Personality disorders include antisocial, dependent, narcissistic, and histrionic types, affecting daily functioning.

Page 1: Introduction to Abnormal Psychology

This page introduces the fundamental concepts of abnormal psychology and its classification criteria. The text explores the complexities of defining abnormal behavior and the evolution of diagnostic approaches in mental health.

Definition: Abnormal psychology is the study of psychological disorders, characterized by behaviors that are harmful, disturbing, unusual, or irrational.

Highlight: The criteria for classifying psychological disorders underwent significant changes post-1980, shifting focus from presumed causes to observable symptoms.

Example: Grief can be considered normal when experiencing loss of a loved one but may be deemed abnormal when triggered by minor events like getting a pimple.

Vocabulary: DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition) serves as the primary classification system for psychological disorders.