Abnormal Psychology History Essay

Ab shape psychology in clinical psychology studies the nature of psychopathology, its causes, and its treatments. Of course, the definition of what constitutes ab recipe has varied across sentence and across cultures. Individuals also vary in what they regard asnormalor abnormal behavior. In general, abnormal psychology can be described as an area of psychology that studies muckle who are systematically unable to vary and function effectively in a build of conditions.The four main contributing factors to how well an individual is able to adapt include their genetic makeup, physical condition, learning and reasoning, and socialization. HistoryThe history of how abnormal psychology, began with the investigate of the famous ancient Greek philosopher Plato in the fourth century B. C. During his beat most believed that the strange behaviors and actions that psychologists study today were caused by evil spirits. Plato believed this to be false and spoke his thinkers of these behavi ors being caused by a natural madness, normally caused by a disease.Unfortunately his words had no accept on the common people of his age. During the Dark Ages, the idea of the behaviors being caused by evil spirits escalated to the idea that people were being possessed by demons. Many people were exorcised by the churches or burned at the spot for possessing these demons. Over approximately one hundred thousand innocent people were kil lead for the same reasons by the Inquisition. It wasnt until early 19th century that the idea of evil spirits and demons was tossed aside, and the idea of these behaviors being caused by unwellnesses in the intellectual capacity was finally embraced.Modern concepts of abnormality * Statistical abnormality when a current behaviour/characteristic is relevant to a low percentage of the population. However, this does non necessarily mean that such individuals are suffering from genial illness (for example, statistical abnormalities such as extreme wealth/attractiveness) * Psychometric abnormality when a certain behaviour/characteristic differs from the populations normal dispersion e. g. having an IQ of 35 could be classified as abnormal, as the population average is 100.However, this does not specify a particular mental illness. * Deviant behaviour this is not always a sign of mental illness, as it can occur without deviant behaviour, and such behaviour may occur in the absence of mental illness. * Combinations including distress, dysfunction, distorted mental processes, unfitting responses in given situations and causing/risking harm to oneself. .1Approaches * Somatogenic abnormality is seen as a result of biological disorders in the brain (Kraeplin, 1883).However, this approach has light-emitting diode to the development of radical biological treatments e. g. lobotomy. * Psychogenic abnormality is caused by psychological problems. This has led to slightly bizarre treatments. Mesmer used to put his patients in a darkene d room with music playing, then entered wearing a gilded outfit and pressed the infected body areas with a stick. It has also led to the development of hypnosis, psychoanalysis (Freud) and carthasis as psychological treatments, as well as humanism (Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow).