Join with a free account for more service, or become a member for full access to exclusives and extra support of WorldSupporter >>

Image

What is abnormal behavior?

Abnormal behavior, often referred to as abnormal psychology, is a field within psychology that delves into patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that deviate significantly from the expected norm and cause distress or impairment. It aims to understand the causes, development, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders.

What are the main features of abnormal behavior?

  • Focus on Deviations: Abnormal behavior focuses on behaviors that fall outside the expected range of human experience and cause significant distress or interfere with daily life.
  • Multifactorial Approach: It recognizes that mental disorders are often caused by a complex interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors.
  • Diagnosis and Classification: This field relies on established diagnostic systems like the DSM-5 to categorize and diagnose mental disorders for treatment planning.
  • Scientific Inquiry: Abnormal behavior utilizes scientific methods to study the causes and consequences of mental illness and develop evidence-based treatment approaches.

What are important sub-areas in abnormal behavior?

  • Anxiety Disorders: Studies excessive worry, fear, and related physical symptoms that can significantly impair daily life.
  • Mood Disorders: Examines disorders characterized by disturbances in mood, such as depression and bipolar disorder.
  • Schizophrenia and Psychotic Disorders: Focuses on disorders characterized by distortions in reality perception, including hallucinations and delusions.
  • Personality Disorders: Explores pervasive patterns of inflexible thinking and behavior that cause significant distress or impairment.
  • Eating Disorders: Studies unhealthy eating habits and distorted body image associated with conditions like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
  • Substance Use Disorders: Investigates the compulsive use of substances despite negative consequences.

What are key concepts in abnormal behavior?

  • Mental Disorder: A pattern of thinking, feeling, or behaving that deviates from the expected norm, causes distress or impairment, and is not due to a substance or medical condition.
  • Normality: Understanding what constitutes "normal" behavior is crucial for identifying deviations.
  • Etiology: The study of the causes of mental disorders, including biological, psychological, and social factors.
  • Comorbidity: The occurrence of two or more mental disorders in the same individual.
  • Biopsychosocial Model: A framework recognizing the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors in mental health.

Who are influential figures in abnormal behavior?

  • Sigmund Freud (Psychoanalyst): Pioneered psychoanalysis, emphasizing the role of unconscious conflicts in mental illness.
  • Emil Kraepelin (Psychiatrist): Made significant contributions to the classification of mental disorders.
  • Aaron Beck (Psychiatrist): Developed cognitive therapy, a form of psychotherapy focused on identifying and modifying dysfunctional thought patterns.
  • Carl Jung (Psychoanalyst): Proposed the theory of the collective unconscious, influencing our understanding of personality and mental health.
  • Robert Spitzer (Psychiatrist): Played a key role in the development of the DSM-III and subsequent revisions.

Why is abnormal behavior important?

  • Improved Diagnosis and Treatment: Understanding mental disorders allows for more accurate diagnosis and development of effective treatment plans.
  • Promoting Mental Health Awareness: Abnormal behavior helps reduce stigma surrounding mental illness and encourages help-seeking behavior.
  • Informs Prevention Efforts: Understanding risk factors can lead to the development of preventive measures and early intervention strategies.
  • Guides Research Directions: It provides a framework for research on the causes, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders.
  • Informs Public Policy: Provides insights for developing mental health policies and improving access to mental healthcare services.

How is abnormal behavior applied in practice?

  • Clinical Assessment: Psychologists and psychiatrists use knowledge of abnormal behavior to conduct assessments to diagnose mental disorders.
  • Treatment Planning: Understanding specific disorders helps mental health professionals develop targeted treatment plans that address the individual's needs.
  • Psychotherapy and Medication Management: Abnormal behavior informs the selection of appropriate therapeutic interventions and medications for different mental disorders.
  • Research and Development: Provides a foundation for research aimed at developing more effective treatments, understanding the brain basis of mental illness, and preventing mental disorders.

Image  Image  Image  Image

Access: 
Public
This content is related to:
Psychology and behavioral sciences: The best scientific articles summarized
The best concepts summarized per field of study
Check more of this topic?

Image

This content refers to .....
Psychology and behavorial sciences - Theme
Work for WorldSupporter

Image

JoHo can really use your help!  Check out the various student jobs here that match your studies, improve your competencies, strengthen your CV and contribute to a more tolerant world

Working for JoHo as a student in Leyden

Parttime werken voor JoHo

Comments, Compliments & Kudos:

Add new contribution

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.

Image

Check how to use summaries on WorldSupporter.org

Online access to all summaries, study notes en practice exams

How and why would you use WorldSupporter.org for your summaries and study assistance?

  • For free use of many of the summaries and study aids provided or collected by your fellow students.
  • For free use of many of the lecture and study group notes, exam questions and practice questions.
  • For use of all exclusive summaries and study assistance for those who are member with JoHo WorldSupporter with online access
  • For compiling your own materials and contributions with relevant study help
  • For sharing and finding relevant and interesting summaries, documents, notes, blogs, tips, videos, discussions, activities, recipes, side jobs and more.

Using and finding summaries, study notes en practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter

There are several ways to navigate the large amount of summaries, study notes en practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter.

  1. Use the menu above every page to go to one of the main starting pages
    • Starting pages: for some fields of study and some university curricula editors have created (start) magazines where customised selections of summaries are put together to smoothen navigation. When you have found a magazine of your likings, add that page to your favorites so you can easily go to that starting point directly from your profile during future visits. Below you will find some start magazines per field of study
  2. Use the topics and taxonomy terms
    • The topics and taxonomy of the study and working fields gives you insight in the amount of summaries that are tagged by authors on specific subjects. This type of navigation can help find summaries that you could have missed when just using the search tools. Tags are organised per field of study and per study institution. Note: not all content is tagged thoroughly, so when this approach doesn't give the results you were looking for, please check the search tool as back up
  3. Check or follow your (study) organizations:
    • by checking or using your study organizations you are likely to discover all relevant study materials.
    • this option is only available trough partner organizations
  4. Check or follow authors or other WorldSupporters
    • by following individual users, authors  you are likely to discover more relevant study materials.
  5. Use the Search tools
    • 'Quick & Easy'- not very elegant but the fastest way to find a specific summary of a book or study assistance with a specific course or subject.
    • The search tool is also available at the bottom of most pages

Do you want to share your summaries with JoHo WorldSupporter and its visitors?

Quicklinks to fields of study for summaries and study assistance

Field of study

Check the related and most recent topics and summaries:
Activity abroad, study field of working area: