Psychopathology
Lecture 1
Introduction and Models
● Psychotropic medications: Drugs that mainly affect the brain and reduce symptoms
of mental dysfunction
● Case study advantages:
○ A source of new ideas about behavior
○ May offer tentative support for a theory
○ May show the value of new therapeutic techniques
● Case study disadvantages:
○ Observer bias
○ Subjective evidence (low internal validity)
○ Little basis for generalization (low external validity)
● The Early 20thCentury: Dual Perspectives
○ Somatogenic perspective: Abnormal functioning has physical causes
○ Psychogenic perspective: Abnormal functioning has psychological causes
■ Hypnotism → Mesmer & Freud
■ Psychoanalytic theory and treatment became widely accepted
● New psychotropic medications discovered in the 1950s
○ Antipsychotic drugs
○ Antidepressant drugs
○ Antianxiety drugs
○ → led to deinstitutionalization and a rise in outpatient care
● Today: prevention programs are increasing → positive psychology + more insurance
coverage
● Multicultural psychology: try to understand how culture, race, ethnicity, gender, etc
affect behavior and thought
● Today’s leading theories and professions:
○ Psychoanalytic
○ Biological
○ Cognitive-Behavioral
, ○ Humanistic-Existential
○ Sociocultural
○ Developmental Psychopathology
● Clinical Researchers:
○ Discover universal laws and principles
○ Search for nomothetic understanding
○ Do not typically assess, diagnose, or treat individual clients
○ Rely on the scientific method
● Clinical researchers depend on 3 methods of investigation:
○ Case study
○ Correlational method
○ Experimental method
● The correlational method: research procedure used to determine the co-relationship
between variables
○ People chosen for a study are called a sample that must be representative of a
larger population
○ Correlations can be trusted based on a statistical analysis of probability
■ Statistical significance: the finding is unlikely to have occurred by
chance
○ Advantages of the correlational method:
■ High external validity (can generalize findings)
■ Can replicate studies with other samples
○ Disadvantages of the correlational method:
■ Lacks internal validity (confounding factors)
■ It just describes the relationship between variables (it doesn’t explain
what causes the relationship)
● The experimental method: the independent variable is manipulated and the
manipulation’s effect on another variable (dependent variable) is observed
○ Confound: variables other than the independent variable may also affect the
dependent variable
○ How to erase the chance of confounds → control group, random assignment,
masked (blind) design
, ○ Control group: research participants who are not exposed to the independent
variable, but whose experience is similar to the people in the experimental
group
○ Random assignment: everyone is equally likely to be put in a certain group of
the experiment
○ Masked (blind) design: participants don’t know which assigned group they’re
in → no placebo effect
○ Double-masked design: both participants and experimenters are unaware of
the groups to which participants are assigned (no observer bias)
● Alternative research designs: clinical researchers sometimes have to settle for designs
that are less ideal and include quasi-experimental designs
○ Matched designs (for explanations, see slides chapter 1&2)
○ Natural experiments
○ Analogue experiments
○ Single-subject experiments
○ Longitudinal studies
○ Epidemiological studies
● Protecting human participants
○ Avoid physical or psychological harm for human participants
○ Institutional Review Board (IRB) → you need approval from an ethics
committee
Lecture 2
Schizophrenia
● Schizophrenia: A psychotic disorder in which functioning deteriorates as a result of
unusual perceptions, odd thoughts, disturbed emotions, and motor abnormalities
● More frequent in lower socioeconomic groups → the stress of poverty could cause the
disorder
● Positive symptoms: bizarre additions to a person’s behavior (delusions, disorganized
speaking, heightened perceptions and hallucinations)
, ○ Formal thought disorder → a disturbance in the production and organization
of thoughts
○ Inappropriate affect → emotions that are unsuited to the situation
● Negative symptoms: characteristics that are lacking in a person (poverty of speech,
flat affect, social withdrawal)
○ Restricted affect → less anger, sadness, joy etc than other people
○ Flat affect → no emotions at all
○ Loss of volition → feeling drained of energy and unable to start something
● Psychomotor symptoms: move relatively slow, awkward movements and odd
gestures
○ Catatonia → a pattern of extreme psychomotor symptoms which may include
catatonic stupor (when people stop responding to their environment), rigidity
(upright posture for hours without moving), or posturing (awkward and bizarre
positions for a long period of time)
Schizophrenia: Classification DSM-5
● When someone has 2 or more of these symptoms for 1 month:
○ Delusions
○ Hallucinations
○ Chaotic speech
○ Disorganized / catatonic behavior
○ Negative symptoms (flattened affect, decreased drive)
● Dysfunctioning in work, study, socializing, self-care
● There needs to be an exclusion of a: mood disorder, disorder caused by somatic
disease, disorder because of substance abuse, pervasive development disorder
Schizophreniform Disorder: Classification DSM-5
● When someone has schizophrenia but the duration is more than 1 month and less than
6 months
Schizoaffective Disorder: Classification DSM-5
● A continuous episode in which both criteria for a mood disorder and criterion A
schizophrenia are met
Lecture 1
Introduction and Models
● Psychotropic medications: Drugs that mainly affect the brain and reduce symptoms
of mental dysfunction
● Case study advantages:
○ A source of new ideas about behavior
○ May offer tentative support for a theory
○ May show the value of new therapeutic techniques
● Case study disadvantages:
○ Observer bias
○ Subjective evidence (low internal validity)
○ Little basis for generalization (low external validity)
● The Early 20thCentury: Dual Perspectives
○ Somatogenic perspective: Abnormal functioning has physical causes
○ Psychogenic perspective: Abnormal functioning has psychological causes
■ Hypnotism → Mesmer & Freud
■ Psychoanalytic theory and treatment became widely accepted
● New psychotropic medications discovered in the 1950s
○ Antipsychotic drugs
○ Antidepressant drugs
○ Antianxiety drugs
○ → led to deinstitutionalization and a rise in outpatient care
● Today: prevention programs are increasing → positive psychology + more insurance
coverage
● Multicultural psychology: try to understand how culture, race, ethnicity, gender, etc
affect behavior and thought
● Today’s leading theories and professions:
○ Psychoanalytic
○ Biological
○ Cognitive-Behavioral
, ○ Humanistic-Existential
○ Sociocultural
○ Developmental Psychopathology
● Clinical Researchers:
○ Discover universal laws and principles
○ Search for nomothetic understanding
○ Do not typically assess, diagnose, or treat individual clients
○ Rely on the scientific method
● Clinical researchers depend on 3 methods of investigation:
○ Case study
○ Correlational method
○ Experimental method
● The correlational method: research procedure used to determine the co-relationship
between variables
○ People chosen for a study are called a sample that must be representative of a
larger population
○ Correlations can be trusted based on a statistical analysis of probability
■ Statistical significance: the finding is unlikely to have occurred by
chance
○ Advantages of the correlational method:
■ High external validity (can generalize findings)
■ Can replicate studies with other samples
○ Disadvantages of the correlational method:
■ Lacks internal validity (confounding factors)
■ It just describes the relationship between variables (it doesn’t explain
what causes the relationship)
● The experimental method: the independent variable is manipulated and the
manipulation’s effect on another variable (dependent variable) is observed
○ Confound: variables other than the independent variable may also affect the
dependent variable
○ How to erase the chance of confounds → control group, random assignment,
masked (blind) design
, ○ Control group: research participants who are not exposed to the independent
variable, but whose experience is similar to the people in the experimental
group
○ Random assignment: everyone is equally likely to be put in a certain group of
the experiment
○ Masked (blind) design: participants don’t know which assigned group they’re
in → no placebo effect
○ Double-masked design: both participants and experimenters are unaware of
the groups to which participants are assigned (no observer bias)
● Alternative research designs: clinical researchers sometimes have to settle for designs
that are less ideal and include quasi-experimental designs
○ Matched designs (for explanations, see slides chapter 1&2)
○ Natural experiments
○ Analogue experiments
○ Single-subject experiments
○ Longitudinal studies
○ Epidemiological studies
● Protecting human participants
○ Avoid physical or psychological harm for human participants
○ Institutional Review Board (IRB) → you need approval from an ethics
committee
Lecture 2
Schizophrenia
● Schizophrenia: A psychotic disorder in which functioning deteriorates as a result of
unusual perceptions, odd thoughts, disturbed emotions, and motor abnormalities
● More frequent in lower socioeconomic groups → the stress of poverty could cause the
disorder
● Positive symptoms: bizarre additions to a person’s behavior (delusions, disorganized
speaking, heightened perceptions and hallucinations)
, ○ Formal thought disorder → a disturbance in the production and organization
of thoughts
○ Inappropriate affect → emotions that are unsuited to the situation
● Negative symptoms: characteristics that are lacking in a person (poverty of speech,
flat affect, social withdrawal)
○ Restricted affect → less anger, sadness, joy etc than other people
○ Flat affect → no emotions at all
○ Loss of volition → feeling drained of energy and unable to start something
● Psychomotor symptoms: move relatively slow, awkward movements and odd
gestures
○ Catatonia → a pattern of extreme psychomotor symptoms which may include
catatonic stupor (when people stop responding to their environment), rigidity
(upright posture for hours without moving), or posturing (awkward and bizarre
positions for a long period of time)
Schizophrenia: Classification DSM-5
● When someone has 2 or more of these symptoms for 1 month:
○ Delusions
○ Hallucinations
○ Chaotic speech
○ Disorganized / catatonic behavior
○ Negative symptoms (flattened affect, decreased drive)
● Dysfunctioning in work, study, socializing, self-care
● There needs to be an exclusion of a: mood disorder, disorder caused by somatic
disease, disorder because of substance abuse, pervasive development disorder
Schizophreniform Disorder: Classification DSM-5
● When someone has schizophrenia but the duration is more than 1 month and less than
6 months
Schizoaffective Disorder: Classification DSM-5
● A continuous episode in which both criteria for a mood disorder and criterion A
schizophrenia are met
