Roots of Abnormal Psychology Abnormal Psychology the Essay

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 903 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 2

Page 1 of 3

Roots of Abnormal Psychology

Abnormal Psychology

The recognition that mental disorders exist goes all the way back to primitive societies (Hansell and Damour, 2008, p. 26). Ancient skulls with holes drilled into them suggests animistic cultures practiced trephination, which entails drilling holes into the heads of living persons to provide an escape route for unhealthy spirits. Societies that believed in animism, or the existence of a powerful spirit world, would sometimes use trephination to open a way for spirits to leave the body of afflicted persons. Exorcism was practiced for the same purpose.

Ancient Greece also recognized the existence of mental disorders, but the approach towards treatment was a bit less barbaric (Hansell and Damour, 2008, p. 28-29). The famous Greek physician Hippocrates, who lived between 460 and 377 B.C.E., believed that all diseases came from an imbalance between four humours: blood, phlegm, and black and yellow bile. An imbalance in these humours could produce mood instability, lethargy, depression, aggression, or anxiety.

More recent efforts to diagnose and treat mental disorders created a division within the ranks of physicians. On one side were those who believed all mental disorders could ultimately be traced to a biological cause, while the other side believed the causes were primarily psychological (Hansell and Damour, 2008, p. 33-34). The German neurologist Richard von Kraft-Ebing made the connection in 1897 between what was then called general paresis to untreated syphilis infections, thus proving psychosis could sometimes have a biological etiology.

Stuck Writing Your "Roots of Abnormal Psychology Abnormal Psychology The" Essay?

View All Our Example Roots of Abnormal Psychology Abnormal Psychology the Essay

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

By comparison, researchers have recently shown that psychosocial dwarfism is caused by severe emotional deprivation during childhood. This division in how abnormal psychology is approached has largely disappeared today and most consider both views valid.

Throughout time societies have therefore been faced with the task of diagnosing and treating those who have succumbed to mental illness. The local physician or shaman may have relied on some of the same criteria in use today, such as help seeking, irrational and/or dangerous behavior, deviance, emotional distress, and significant impairment, but these diagnostic criteria remain largely inaccurate and unreliable even today. The shaman's task would have been complicated by the existence of predisposing conditions, also called diathesis, and whether a triggering event or stressor could be identified. In addition, the symptoms were probably occasionally subtle and there could have been a biological etiology or contribution.

The Scientific Method and Abnormal Psychology

Two of the main principles of scientific investigation are reliability and validity (Hansell and Damour, 2008, p. 73-74). Reliability implies the same result would be obtained if an experiment were repeated, whereas validity implies the experimental results mean what we think they mean. Reliable and valid diagnostic criteria for psychopathology would therefore be able to arrive at the same….....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Roots Of Abnormal Psychology Abnormal Psychology The" (2011, October 12) Retrieved April 27, 2024, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/roots-abnormal-psychology-abnormal-psychology-85493

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Roots Of Abnormal Psychology Abnormal Psychology The" 12 October 2011. Web.27 April. 2024. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/roots-abnormal-psychology-abnormal-psychology-85493>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Roots Of Abnormal Psychology Abnormal Psychology The", 12 October 2011, Accessed.27 April. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/roots-abnormal-psychology-abnormal-psychology-85493
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example