Jonathan D. Raskin - Abnormal Psychology

ABNORMAL
PSYCHOLOGY

CONTRASTING PERSPECTIVES

JONATHAN D.

RASKIN

Jonathan D. Raskin, under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2019

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First published 2019 by RED GLOBE PRESS

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ISBN 9781137547163 paperback

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BRIEF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF DIAGNOSTIC BOXES

LIST OF FEATURES

Try It Yourself

In Depth

Controversial Question

The Lived Experience

TOUR OF THE BOOK

ONLINE LEARNING AND TEACHING RESOURCES

Accompanying this book is a full suite of supportive resources to help both students and lecturers get the most out of their learning and teaching.

Access the companion website here:

www.macmillanihe.com/raskin-abnormal-psych

Resources to help instructors teach with this book include:

Online test bank : Multiple choice items to help instructors construct exams and quizzes.

Online instructors manual : Detailed lecture notes for each chapter.

Lecture slides : MS PowerPoint slides for instructors to use during class lectures.

Slides of diagnostic boxes, images, tables, and figures : Visual information from chapters conveniently collected into one MS PowerPoint file per chapter.

Online videos : YouTube videos related to key topics from the book.

Students can benefit from the following resources to help their understanding of the key concepts and ideas in each chapter:

Online knowledge checks : Test your comprehension using these brief online self-quizzes.

Online study guide : Study questions to help students outline material from each chapter.

Online vocabulary lists : Key terms and definitions all in one convenient online location.

Online flash cards : An excellent study resource to help students master key concepts.

PREFACE

THE CHALLENGE OF CONTRASTING PERSPECTIVES

When it comes to the discipline within psychology commonly referred to as abnormal psychology, the one thing on which everyone can probably agree is that there isnt much agreement. On the contrary, abnormal psychology is a field filled with contrasting perspectivesdifferent lenses that, when looked through, inevitably shape the definitions of abnormality arrived at, the research questions asked about it, and the clinical interventions undertaken to alleviate it. This makes sense because what counts as abnormal is inevitably a judgment call and the kinds of explanations offered to explain why people behave abnormally vary widely depending on ones point of view. Even when we do agree that particular ways of behaving are abnormal, it doesnt necessarily mean we also agree on what causes such behavior. Is abnormal behavior mainly attributable to neurochemical imbalances or other brain disorders, genetic inheritance, immune system reactions to stress, evolutionary mismatches between our ancestral environments and modern society, unconscious conflicts, faulty attachment relationships, irrational thinking, conditioned learning, a failure to self-actualize, cultural differences, economic adversity, social oppression, or some combination thereof? To many students dismay, the number of potential explanations can be dizzying!

To illustrate just how fractured the field of abnormal psychology can be, a couple of the reviewers who read this textbook while it was under development strongly advised that we not use Abnormal Psychology as our books title. Why? Because to these reviewers, the term abnormal is stigmatizing and dismissive. It fails to appreciate or respect the many complex and diverse ways that human beings suffer emotionally. Thus, these reviewers recommended we adopt a less pathologizing title, such as Mental Distress and Well-being. Their quite reasonable rationale was that labeling atypical or emotionally distressed people as abnormal is pejorative and inappropriate.

Yet despite these understandable objections, not everyone is troubled by the term abnormal psychology. It is likely that many instructors and students would have been duly confused had we jettisoned the term as our books title. For better or worse, the term abnormal psychology remains unquestioningly accepted in many (most?) professional and research domainsas evidenced by its continued and widespread use (with exceptions here and there) as a course title in undergraduate and graduate psychology programs around the globe. That some people view the term abnormal psychology as problematic while others take no issue with it at all is quite telling. It is a testament to divisions within the fieldto the many contrasting perspectives this text endeavors to teach students about. As we shall see, those advancing these contrasting perspectives on abnormal psychology (or mental distress and well-being, if you prefer) are often exceedingly passionate about their divergent outlooks.

This book tries to capture that passion by examining not simply the wide variety of perspectives on abnormal psychology, but also the ways that advocates of these perspectives often strongly and loudly disagree. The idea is to fully and thoroughly present these disagreementsbut without being disagreeable! In order to accomplish this, the book adopts a