Psychology, 5/e   Wortman, Loftus & Weaver
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Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can you tell when a behavior is psychologically abnormal and when it is merely weird?

It’s not always easy. Most psychological disorders are problems of DEGREE. That is, checking the door locks before going to be is quite normal. Checking the locks twice may seem excessive, but we would not consider it to be a sign of any psychological disorder. But checking the locks 5 times, at 5 different times during the day, DOES seem to have crossed some boundary of “normal behavior.”

When evaluation abnormal behavior, psychologists ask several important questions, such as:

• is the person experiencing persistent emotional pain and suffering?
• is the behavior disturbing to them or others?
• does the behavior impair the person’s ability to perform ordinary day-to-day activities?
• does the behavior cause irrationality or frequent failure to exercise self-control?

These are not the only criteria to be considered, of course, but they can help distinguish “weird” from “abnormal” behavior.

3. What is the most serious psychological disorder? How does it develop?

Schizophrenia is probably the most debilitation disorder. Those with full-blown schizophrenia are virtually incapable of functioning normally in our society. Schizophrenia is characterized by extreme disorders of thought and are frequently troubled by delusions and hallucination. To make matter worse, they rarely have any insight into their abnormal behavior. Schizophrenia appears to be related to problems regulation levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. It also has a strong genetic component, and the first schizophrenic episode usually appears in late adolescence or early adulthood. Fortunately, schizophrenia is relatively rare, affecting 1-2% of the general population.

Another truly destructive disorder is alcohol abuse and alcoholism, in part because it is much more frequent. Some authorities believe that nearly 15% of American will experience problems with alcohol at some point in their life. Furthermore, relapse rates are high: perhaps as high as 75% of these seeking help return to drinking. Like schizophrenia, alcoholism has a strong genetic component. UNLIKE schizophrenia, though, the effects of alcoholism can be managed quite simply--though not necessarily EASILY--if the alcoholic refrains from drinking.

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