Clinical Psychology

contemporary views are considerably more sophisti-

cated than those of their forebears. Yet many view

current treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy

(ECT) or transcranial magnetic brain stimulation

(TMS) with some skepticism and concern. Still others

may see the popularity of treatments using psychotro-

pic medications (e.g., antipsychotic, antidepressant,

antimanic, or antianxiety medications) as less than

enlightened. Finally, many forms of“psychological

treatment”(e.g., primal scream therapy, age regression

therapy) are questionable at best. All of these treatment

approaches and views are linked to the ways clinical

psychologists decide who needs assessment, treatment,

or intervention as well as the rationale for providing

these services. These judgments are influenced by the

labels or diagnoses oftenapplied to people. In this

chapter, we take a critical look at some of clinical psy-

chology’s definitions and labels. In this way, perhaps

we can clarify some of the issues involved in their use.

To give you a better idea of the activities of

clinical psychologists who specialize in abnormal

behavior or psychopathology, we present a specific

example in Box 5-1. This profile describes the

work of apsychopathologist, a scientist who studies

the causes of mental disorders as well as the factors

that influence the development of mental disorders.

What Is Abnormal Behavior?

Ask 10 different people for a definition of abnormal

behavior and you may get 10 different answers.

Some of the reasons that abnormal behavior is so

difficult to define are (a) no single descriptive feature

is shared by all forms of abnormal behavior, and

no one criterion for“abnormality”is sufficient; and

(b) no discrete boundary exists between normal

and abnormal behavior. Many myths about abnor-

malbehaviorsurviveandflourisheveninthisageof

enlightenment. For example, many individuals still

equate abnormal behavior with (a) bizarre behavior,

(b) dangerous behavior, or (c) shameful behavior.

In this section, we examine in some detail three

proposed definitions of abnormal behavior: (a) sta-

tistical infrequency or violation of social norms, (b)

the experience of subjective distress, and (c) disabil-

ity, dysfunction, or impairment. We discuss the

pros and cons of each definition. Although each

of these three definitions highlights an important

part of our understanding of abnormal behavior,

each definition by itself is incomplete.

Statistical Infrequency or Violation of Social Norms

When a person’sbehaviortendstoconformtopre-

vailing social norms or when this particular behavior is

frequently observed in other people, the individual is

The Case of Dmitri A.

Dmitri is now in the second grade. He is of average

height and weight and manifests no physical prob-

lems. He is somewhat aggressive and tends to bully

children smaller than himself. His birth was a normal

one, and although he was a bit slow in learning to

walk and talk, the deficit was not marked. The first

grade was difficult for Dmitri, and his progress was

slow. By the end of the school year, he was consid-

erably behind the rest of the class. However, the

school officials decided to promote him anyway.

They reasoned that he was merely a bit slow in

maturing and would“come around”shortly. They

noted that his status as an only child, a pair of

doting parents, a short attention span, and

aggressiveness were all factors that combined to

produce his poor school performance.

At the beginning of the second grade, Dmitri was

administered a routine achievement test on which he

did very poorly. As a matter of school policy, he was

referred to the school psychologist for individual test-

ing and evaluation. Based on the results of an intelli-

gence test, a test of adaptive functioning, a review of

his school records, and a social history taken from the

parents, the psychologist concluded that Dmitri suf-

fered from mental retardation. His IQ was 64 based on

a standard intelligence test. Further, a social maturity

index derived from parental reports of his social

behavior was quite low.

130 CHAPTER 5