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Abnormal Psychology

Free Abnormal Psychology study guide: 10 units with summaries, key ideas, flashcards and 300 practice questions with step-by-step solutions.

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Units

1. UNIT 01

   Defining Abnormality, History and Research Methods

   Abnormal psychology is the scientific study of psychological disorders: what counts as a disorder, where ideas about disorder came from, and how researchers study it. This unit gives you the vocabulary and history the rest of the course builds on.
2. UNIT 02

   Models of Psychopathology

   Each model of psychopathology offers a different answer to the question of why disorders develop and how to treat them. Modern clinicians combine them in integrative frameworks such as the diathesis-stress and biopsychosocial models.
3. UNIT 03

   Assessment, Diagnosis and the DSM-5-TR

   Before treating anyone, clinicians gather information with interviews, tests and observation, then decide whether the person's pattern fits a diagnosis. This unit covers the tools, how to judge their quality, and the strengths and risks of the DSM-5-TR system.
4. UNIT 04

   Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive and Trauma-Related Disorders

   Fear and anxiety are normal alarms, but in these disorders they become excessive, persistent and disabling. The DSM-5-TR places anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, and trauma- and stressor-related disorders in three separate chapters, which share causes and respond to similar treatments.
5. UNIT 05

   Depressive and Bipolar Disorders

   Mood disorders involve persistent, impairing disturbances of mood, from the low end (depression) to the high end (mania and hypomania). They are among the most common and treatable disorders, and understanding them is central to understanding suicide risk and prevention.
6. UNIT 06

   Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders

   Psychotic disorders involve a loss of contact with reality through delusions, hallucinations or disorganized thinking. Schizophrenia affects under 1% of people but causes great disability, and it is best understood through a diathesis-stress model combining genes, brain development and environment.
7. UNIT 07

   Personality Disorders

   Personality disorders are enduring, inflexible patterns of thinking, feeling and relating that begin by early adulthood and cause distress or impairment. The DSM-5-TR lists ten, grouped into three clusters, and also offers a dimensional alternative model.
8. UNIT 08

   Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders

   Substance use disorders involve a problematic pattern of use that leads to impaired control, social problems, risky use and physical changes such as tolerance and withdrawal. This unit covers the major drug classes, why addiction develops and how it is treated.
9. UNIT 09

   Neurodevelopmental and Neurocognitive Disorders

   Neurodevelopmental disorders begin in the developmental period and affect how the brain grows and functions, while neurocognitive disorders involve a decline from a previous level of cognitive functioning, usually later in life. Both groups have strong biological roots and require support that extends to families and caregivers.
10. UNIT 10

    Treatment Approaches, Law and Ethics

    This unit ties the course together by comparing treatments, showing how researchers judge whether they work and explaining the ethical and legal rules that govern mental health care. These topics appear on almost every final exam.