A. What Is Abnormal?
1. Harmful dysfunction: the 4 Ds
  a. Impairment (disability)
  b. Distress
  c. Not typical/culturally unexpected (deviance)
  d. Damage
2. Category or dimension?
3. Is abnormality an illness?
  a. The medical model
  b. Maladaptive behavior model
  c. Social construction

B. Historical Perspectives
1. Supernatural traditions
2. Biological traditions
  a. The beginnings: Hippocrates
  b. General paresis and syphilis
  c. The medical model
    (1) Discrete conditions and differential diagnosis
    (2) Physical causes: genetics, brain chemistry
    (3) Medical treatments
  d. Biological psychiatry and psychopharmacology
3. Psychological traditions
  a. The rise and fall of moral therapy
  b. Intrapsychic models and psychotherapy
  c. Behavioral and cognitive psychology: maladaptive learning and thinking
4. Sociocultural issues
5. The biopsychosocial model

C. The Science of Psychopathology
1. Science and practice
  a. Empiricism
    (1) Testable questions
    (2) Systematic collection and analysis of observable data
  b. Fact vs. opinion: the null hypothesis and the burden of proof
2. Psychopathology
  a. Clinical description
    (1) Prevalence and incidence
    (2) Onset, course and prognosis
  b. Explanation: etiology (causation)
  c. Prediction and control: Treatment and prevention
3. Research Strategies
  a. Case studies
  b. Ex post facto studies
    (1) Correlational designs and the correlation coeffcient
    (2) Differences-between-groups designs
    (3) Correlation vs. causation
  c. Controlled experiments
    (1) The independent variable(s) and random assignment
    (2) The dependent variable(s)
    (3) Internal and external validity

D. The Mental Health Professions
1. Clinical psychology
2. Psychiatry
3. Social work
4. Nursing
5. "Allied" professions

Copyright ©1998 Beverly J. Volicer and Steven F. Tello, UMass Lowell.  You may freely edit these pages  for use in a non-profit, educational setting.  Please include this copyright notice on all pages.