Psychology Definitions Abnormal Psychology - The Study Essay

Psychology Definitions

Abnormal Psychology - the study of mental and emotional disorders or maladaptive behaviors, or of mental phenomena such as dreams, hypnosis, and altered states or levels of consciousness.

Social norms - Group-held beliefs about how members should behave in a given context. Sociologists describe norms as informal understandings that govern society's behaviors,]while psychologists have adopted a more general definition, recognizing smaller group units, like a team or an office, may also endorse norms separate or in addition to cultural or societal expectations. The psychological definition emphasizes social norms' behavioral component, stating norms have two dimensions: how much behavior is exhibited and how much the group approves of that behavior.

Dysfunction - Deviation from the norms of social behavior in a way regarded as bad

Distress - This term refers to the "bad" type of stress (the opposite of Eustress), and occurs when we have excessive adaptive demands placed upon us. This occurs when the demands upon us are so great that they lead to bodily and mental damage. Distress is damaging, excessive or pathogenic (disease producing) stress.

Deviance -- Behavior that is contrary to the accepted standards of a community or culture.

Psychological abnormality across history and cultures -- Cultural relativism asserts abnormal behaviors can only be understood in the cultural framework within which they occur. However, there are universalities in the underlying psychological mechanisms and subjective experiences of many psychological disorders; culture plays a role in behavioral manifestations of abnormal behavior. Contextual factors like poverty, discrimination and immigration stress should be taken into account to understand ethnic differences in rates of mental disorders. There is great diversity among and within ethnic groups in the prevalence of mental disorders.

Psychogenic perspective -- The view that the chief causes…