Abnormal Psychology and Psychological Treatment - Essay Example

Page 2 Question 5 5. A friend is very worried about the stigma attached to psychological treatment. To give your friend some perspective, describe how mental illness has been viewed historically, and what effect these views have had on the treatment of the mentally ill. Mental illness does not discriminate and it affects people irrespective of culture, economic level or country of origin. Importantly, the stigma of mental illness has greatly decreased in recent years, and although it continues to be a very real problem for people with a mental health condition, the social ramifications of mental illness are far less severe today than what they once were years ago. Throughout history there have been many different interpretations of what is considered as being normal or abnormal. Years ago it was believed that if a person suffered from mental illness it was due to some type of personal weakness. We now know that many conditions have biological bases and that mental illness can be treated in the same manner that physical diseases are treated. The ancient Greeks admired people who they believed were prophets and spoke strange words; witches in many cultures were respected because they were believed to have powers that others did not fully understand. However, by the middle of the fifteenth century there was a change in the way these people were seen and they soon became feared and ostracized. Some were sentenced to death because they were thought to be evil. The mentally ill were not recognized as being sick but instead were blamed for their behavior and shunned. All of these reactions to mental illness were due to a lack of basic understanding as to why people with mental illness behave in the way that they do. We now have a biological explanation for most of the behaviors exhibited by people with mental illness. During the 18th and 19th centuries, hospitals and asylums assumed care of the mentally ill. One of the first disorders that was attributed to a physical problem was hysteria. Although those that diagnosed the problem at the time believed that a wandering uterus in women’s bodies caused hysteria, we now know that this is not at all the case. People have been admired, incarcerated, abandoned or provided treatment for their mental health problems. We now know that mental illness is in many cases treatable and we have learned a great deal from studying mental illness and its biological roots. It is not as simple as it might seem to classify someone’s behavior as abnormal. Although we might not be familiar with certain activities or behaviors, it does not necessarily mean that they are not a normal part of other peoples lives. Throughout history it has been important for people working in the mental health field to define what makes a person’s behavior abnormal because that has allowed us to make great advances in understanding conditions and how to treat them. Nowadays we are able to say with much more precision that a person is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or Schizophrenia and choose an appropriate treatment based on what we have learned about the disease. Our idea of what is normal or abnormal has changed throughout history and is cultural specific. Nowadays it is not strange to hear of people who are very open about their weekly mental health appointments or the use of certain medications such as antidepressants. Every day it is becoming more and more acceptable to seek treatment for mental health conditions, as there have been great advances in medicine, and no one should have to suffer with dealing with a mental illness alone. Pg. 11 Question 7 7. Why do scientists use non-experimental methods? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches? Scientists use non-experimental methods at times when utilizing pure observation and measurement as opposed to standard methods of experimentation. The non-experimental method allows the researcher to study factors that cannot be manipulated such as natural behaviors. This approach can be used to describe the phenomena that are being studied or to learn about the relationships between different factors under observation. Observation and measuring things are the foundation of non-experimental research. Case histories, interviews, observation, and surveys are some of the methods used when it is not possible or simply unethical to manipulate the subject of interest. Some scientists feel that research that examines only quantitative data gives an incomplete picture of what is being investigated. The non-experimental approach is useful because it can confirm what we believe to be true and allow is to test our beliefs. Our society tends to favor experimental methods because we like to specifically know why things happen and how they can be changed. However, non-experimental methods also provide us with very important information such as what people do and think. An example of this approach is the observational method where a researcher might visit an area that has been affected by a natural disaster. The researcher will observe the natural behavior outside of the laboratory setting over an extended period of time. Psychologists can use information that they gather to reach conclusions about what causes psychological problems. It is important that scientists trying to learn more about the situation do not subject the people that are under stressful conditions to additional stress. One of the major disadvantages of the non-experimental approach is that the interpretation of the researcher’s findings can be much more ambiguous than the results of experimental research. Non-experimental methods describe behavior but they have limitations in that they do not let researchers identify the reasons for the specific behavior being studied. This type of research is also not repeatable because they are not being studied in a controlled environment. Lastly, non-experimental research might lead to bias because the researcher may not remember what he/she observed exactly as it happened. There are the advantages and disadvantages to non-experimental methods. In some cases it is possible to put together information based on both experimental and non-experimental methods and learn more about peoples’ behavior. In areas such as biology, chemistry and physics, scientists highly depend on the experimental method. However, in psychology the non-experimental method is very effective and must be used due to legal and ethical limits, which scientists must meet when conducting experiments on humans. Read More