abnormal psychology research paper topics

113 Abnormal Psychology Topics & Essay Examples

Welcome to our list of abnormal psychology topics to research! In addition to abnormal psychology essay topics, you will also find here interesting ideas to talk about, titles for a presentation, and abnormal psychology topics for research paper.

🔝 Top 10 Abnormal Psychology Topics for 2024

🏆 best abnormal psychology topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 simple & easy abnormal psychology essay topics, 👍 good essay topics on abnormal psychology, ❓ abnormal psychology research questions, 🔍 abnormal psychology research topics.

• Coping Mechanisms for People with PTSD
• Types and Triggers of Anxiety Disorders
• Cultural Influences and Eating Disorders
• Suicide Risk Factors and Preventive Strategies
• Schizophrenia: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment
• The Swings between Mania and Depression in BPD
• The Impact of Personality Disorders on Interpersonal Relationships
• Unraveling Intrusive Thoughts and Compulsions in OCD Patients
• The Interaction of Biology and Environment Substance Use Disorders
• Childhood Disorders: Autism Spectrum and Developmental Challenges
• The Relationship Between Religion and Abnormal Psychology But whose judgment will we use to separate the two contrasting elements of the psychology of normal and abnormal behaviors? Some religious beliefs permit the use of alcohol and it’s considered normal, yet others find […]
• Historical Perspective of Abnormal Psychology The field of abnormal psychology is therefore concerened with the study of abnormal behavior. The challenge that lies in the definition and classification of abnormal psychology is the issue of culture given that our cultural […]
• Abnormal Psychology Case Study: General Anxiety Disorder Generalized Anxiety Disorder is one of the anxiety disorders caused by abnormalities in the functioning of brain chemicals such as neurotransmitters.
• Historical Perspectives of Abnormal Psychology The concept of the connection between mind and body appreciates the fact that the two components are inseparable in the understanding of abnormal psychology.
• Researching of Abnormal Psychology The process of picking or pinching the skin allowed Shaylynn to become distracted from the source of anxiety and brought her relief.
• Abnormal Psychology and Abnormal Behavior Anxiety has been linked to the id which operates on “pleasure principle or the maximization of pleasure and minimization of competing tension” and “thought to be a source for sexual and aggressive thoughts and behaviors […]
• Careers in Abnormal Psychology They research the kind of problems these people have and look for the best ways to help them. They treat people by teaching those with these disorders the acceptable behavior and its importance.
• Abnormal Psychology: Nature of Fear There is a group of disorders which share obvious symptoms and features of fear and anxiety and these are known as anxiety disorders.
• Abnormal Psychology and Behavioral Interventions Illnesses of the mind have been considered the battle between the good and the evil in the early 12th-14th centuries. The unfortunate insanity of people was seen as the downfall of the town.
• Abnormal Psychology: NationalEatingDisorders Website Being a psychotherapist veteran of 31 years in the realm of eating disorders among teens, she has managed to produce the proper questions to be asked when contemplating if a child has a disordered eating […]
• Abnormal Psychology as a Scientific Discipline That is why, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the origins of abnormal psychology, to focus on challenges in classifying and defining abnormal and normal behaviors, to concentrate on the evolution of abnormal […]
• Abnormal Psychology and Humanism The supporters of humanism stress that cognitive and behavioral patterns confine human behavior and emotions to a set of stimuli and responses.
• An Invariant Dimensional Liability Model of Gender Differences in Mental Disorders The validity and reliability of research depend on the methodology that a study uses in the study of a given phenomenon.
• Abnormal Psychology and Therapy This is the basic role of abnormal psychology. One of the distinct features of normal psychology is the capacity to avoid generalizations.
• Abnormal Psychology’s Historical Perspectives Biological psychology is a branch of psychology that tries to expose the biological aspect of behavior, i.e, the study of the brain I,n relation to the behavior.
• Abnormal Psychology Essentials Therefore, the basis of this essay will be to explore the field of abnormal psychology with emphasis on the origins of abnormal psychology, how abnormal psychology has evolved into a scientific discipline, and the theoretical […]
• Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology: Personality Disorder If a person had a history of ridicule and humiliation as a child, he or she may develop an excessive fear of the same in adulthood and will go through great lengths to avoid ridicule.
• Abnormal Psychology: Fetishism, Transvestic Fetishism, Sadomasochism, Voyeurism, Exhibitionism, and Pedophilia The desires of individuals with this disorder are to gain sexual arousal through dressing in clothes of the opposite sex or cross-dressing.
• Comparison of Normal and Abnormal Psychology In behavioral psychology, the word ‘normal’ basically means not to deviate from the standard norms, hence normal psychology entails the study of normal patterns of behavior, emotions, and mind. Also, both normal and abnormal psychology […]
• Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology: Anxiety Disorders This paper has gone on to reiterate the fact that anxiety disorders are indeed a reality in life and as such, we should brace ourselves for their occurrences.
• Abnormal Psychology: Legal Issues and Licensing The report focuses on the legal issues related to the licensed and unlicensed professionals in the field of abnormal psychology. Those who are in the field of abnormal psychology are mainly interested in investigating behavior […]
• Abnormal Psychology: Mental Disorders Other common types of disorders are the eating disorders, which are related to weight and food. The basis of behavior and patterns of thoughts, are also related to certain disorders.
• Abnormal Psychology: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder In addition, some of this research indicates that the differences in the degree of the disorder are due to the varying nature of the trauma experienced by that individual.
• Individual Historical Perspectives of Abnormal Psychology
• Differences Between Normal Psychology and Abnormal Psychology
• Background and Perspective of the Abnormal Psychology
• Abnormal Psychology and Major Depressive Disorder
• Abnormal Psychology and Sociology of the Family Psychology
• Abnormal Psychology and Three Clusters of Personality Disorders
• Physical Illnesses and Disorders: Abnormal Psychology and Therapy
• Psychopathology: Abnormal Psychology and Cognitive Behavioral Approach
• Abnormal Psychology in Pop Culture
• Classification and Assessment of Abnormal Psychology
• Mood Disorders and Abnormal Psychology
• The Origin and History of Abnormal Psychology
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Abnormal Psychology
• Subnormal, Supernormal and Paranormal in Abnormal Psychology
• Abnormal Psychology: Abuse, Addiction, and Disorders
• Abnormal Psychology Conditions and Treatments
• Dissociative Identity Disorder and Abnormal Psychology
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Abnormal Psychology
• Legal and Ethical Issues Pertaining to Licensed and Unlicensed Professionals in Abnormal Psychology
• Abnormal Psychology: Typical Signs and Symptoms
• Adaptive and Maladaptive Behaviors in Abnormal Psychology
• Abnormal Psychology Bipolar Disorder
• Intellectual Disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Abnormal Psychology
• Classification and Assessment of Abnormal Behavior in Abnormal Psychology
• Abnormal Psychology and Two Types of Behaviors
• Abnormal Psychology Problem: Excessive Use of Marijuana and Alcohol
• Mental Disorders: Abnormal Psychology and Therapy
• Clinical Psychology vs Abnormal Psychology
• Abnormal Psychology: Rumination and Depression
• Unipolar and Bipolar Depression and Abnormal Psychology
• Abnormal Psychology and Life: A Dimensional Approach
• Mental Health and Abnormal Psychology: Unusual Patterns of Behavior, Emotion and Thought
• The Link Between Abnormal Psychology, Mental Disease, and Addictions
• Anxiety Disorders: Social Anxiety, Panic, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Abnormal Psychology
• Abnormal Psychology and Culture-Bound Syndromes
• Abnormal Psychology and Multistage Analysis of Abnormal Human Behavior in Complex Scenes
• Abnormal Psychology Study and Law Enforcement
• Basic Theories and Techniques of Abnormal Psychology
• What Are the Four D’s of Abnormal Psychology?
• How Do Psychologists Diagnose a Disorder?
• What Are the Three Defining Elements of Abnormal Behavior?
• How Do Psychologists Define Abnormality?
• What Is Danger in Abnormal Psychology?
• How Do Cognitive Theories Explain Abnormal Behavior?
• Is Abnormal Psychology the Same as Psychopathology?
• What Are the Main Causes of Abnormal Behavior?
• How Do Psychologists Decide What Behavior Is Considered Abnormal and May Be a Psychological Disorder?
• What Are the Indicators of Abnormality?
• Is Schizophrenia an Abnormal Psychology?
• What Are the Six Models of Abnormality?
• How Does Abnormal Behavior Relate to Criminality?
• Which Approach Is Best for Studying Abnormality?
• What Causes Abnormality in Psychology?
• How Does the Humanistic Approach Explain Abnormal Behaviour?
• What Are the Theories of Abnormal Psychology?
• How Can Psychological Tests Help Individuals With Abnormal Behavior?
• What Do Psychologists Use to Assist in Diagnosing Abnormal Behavior?
• Is ADHD a Mental Illness or Disorder?
• What Is the Difference Between Mental Illness and Mental Disorder?
• Is Anxiety a Mental Illness or Disorder?
• What Are the Different Approaches to Explaining Abnormal Behavior?
• Is PTSD a Mental Illness or Disorder?
• What Is the Behavioural Model of Abnormality?
• Who Is the Father of Abnormal Psychology?
• What Is the Difference Between Normal and Abnormal Behavior?
• Which Personality Disorder Is the Most Controversial?
• What Is Psychodynamic Theory of Abnormality?
• Advancements in Early Diagnosis of ASD
• The Relationship between Drugs and Psychosis.
• Comorbidity and Treatment of Anxiety and Depression
• The Role of Genetics in the Etiology of Bipolar Disorder
• Sociocultural Influences on Eating Disorders and Body Image
• Neurobiological Basis of Borderline Personality Disorder
• The Impact of Childhood Trauma on the Development of Psychiatric Disorders
• Dopamine Dysregulation as a Neurobiological Mechanism Underlying Schizophrenia
• Implications of Cognitive Biases for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in OCD Patients
• PTSD in Military Veterans: Therapeutic Approaches and Interventions
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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50+ Research Topics for Psychology Papers

How to Find Psychology Research Topics for Your Student Paper

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

• Specific Branches of Psychology
• Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy
• Human Cognition
• Human Development
• Critique of Publications
• Famous Experiments
• Historical Figures
• Specific Careers
• Case Studies
• Literature Reviews
• Your Own Study/Experiment

Are you searching for a great topic for your psychology paper ? Sometimes it seems like coming up with topics of psychology research is more challenging than the actual research and writing. Fortunately, there are plenty of great places to find inspiration and the following list contains just a few ideas to help get you started.

Finding a solid topic is one of the most important steps when writing any type of paper. It can be particularly important when you are writing a psychology research paper or essay. Psychology is such a broad topic, so you want to find a topic that allows you to adequately cover the subject without becoming overwhelmed with information.

I can always tell when a student really cares about the topic they chose; it comes through in the writing. My advice is to choose a topic that genuinely interests you, so you’ll be more motivated to do thorough research.

In some cases, such as in a general psychology class, you might have the option to select any topic from within psychology's broad reach. Other instances, such as in an  abnormal psychology  course, might require you to write your paper on a specific subject such as a psychological disorder.

As you begin your search for a topic for your psychology paper, it is first important to consider the guidelines established by your instructor.

Research Topics Within Specific Branches of Psychology

The key to selecting a good topic for your psychology paper is to select something that is narrow enough to allow you to really focus on the subject, but not so narrow that it is difficult to find sources or information to write about.

One approach is to narrow your focus down to a subject within a specific branch of psychology. For example, you might start by deciding that you want to write a paper on some sort of social psychology topic. Next, you might narrow your focus down to how persuasion can be used to influence behavior .

Other social psychology topics you might consider include:

• Prejudice and discrimination (i.e., homophobia, sexism, racism)
• Social cognition
• Person perception
• Social control and cults
• Persuasion, propaganda, and marketing
• Attraction, romance, and love
• Nonverbal communication
• Prosocial behavior

Psychology Research Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy

Exploring a psychological disorder or a specific treatment modality can also be a good topic for a psychology paper. Some potential abnormal psychology topics include specific psychological disorders or particular treatment modalities, including:

• Eating disorders
• Borderline personality disorder
• Seasonal affective disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Antisocial personality disorder
• Profile a  type of therapy  (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, psychoanalytic therapy)

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Cognition

Some of the possible topics you might explore in this area include thinking, language, intelligence, and decision-making. Other ideas might include:

• False memories
• Speech disorders
• Problem-solving

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Development

In this area, you might opt to focus on issues pertinent to  early childhood  such as language development, social learning, or childhood attachment or you might instead opt to concentrate on issues that affect older adults such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Some other topics you might consider include:

• Language acquisition
• Media violence and children
• Learning disabilities
• Gender roles
• Child abuse
• Prenatal development
• Parenting styles
• Aspects of the aging process

Do a Critique of Publications Involving Psychology Research Topics

One option is to consider writing a critique paper of a published psychology book or academic journal article. For example, you might write a critical analysis of Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams or you might evaluate a more recent book such as Philip Zimbardo's  The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil .

Professional and academic journals are also great places to find materials for a critique paper. Browse through the collection at your university library to find titles devoted to the subject that you are most interested in, then look through recent articles until you find one that grabs your attention.

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Famous Experiments

There have been many fascinating and groundbreaking experiments throughout the history of psychology, providing ample material for students looking for an interesting term paper topic. In your paper, you might choose to summarize the experiment, analyze the ethics of the research, or evaluate the implications of the study. Possible experiments that you might consider include:

• The Milgram Obedience Experiment
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• The Little Albert Experiment
• Pavlov's Conditioning Experiments
• The Asch Conformity Experiment
• Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments

Topics of Psychology Research About Historical Figures

One of the simplest ways to find a great topic is to choose an interesting person in the  history of psychology  and write a paper about them. Your paper might focus on many different elements of the individual's life, such as their biography, professional history, theories, or influence on psychology.

While this type of paper may be historical in nature, there is no need for this assignment to be dry or boring. Psychology is full of fascinating figures rife with intriguing stories and anecdotes. Consider such famous individuals as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Harry Harlow, or one of the many other  eminent psychologists .

Psychology Research Topics About a Specific Career

​Another possible topic, depending on the course in which you are enrolled, is to write about specific career paths within the  field of psychology . This type of paper is especially appropriate if you are exploring different subtopics or considering which area interests you the most.

In your paper, you might opt to explore the typical duties of a psychologist, how much people working in these fields typically earn, and the different employment options that are available.

Topics of Psychology Research Involving Case Studies

One potentially interesting idea is to write a  psychology case study  of a particular individual or group of people. In this type of paper, you will provide an in-depth analysis of your subject, including a thorough biography.

Generally, you will also assess the person, often using a major psychological theory such as  Piaget's stages of cognitive development  or  Erikson's eight-stage theory of human development . It is also important to note that your paper doesn't necessarily have to be about someone you know personally.

In fact, many professors encourage students to write case studies on historical figures or fictional characters from books, television programs, or films.

Psychology Research Topics Involving Literature Reviews

Another possibility that would work well for a number of psychology courses is to do a literature review of a specific topic within psychology. A literature review involves finding a variety of sources on a particular subject, then summarizing and reporting on what these sources have to say about the topic.

Literature reviews are generally found in the  introduction  of journal articles and other  psychology papers , but this type of analysis also works well for a full-scale psychology term paper.

Topics of Psychology Research Based on Your Own Study or Experiment

Many psychology courses require students to design an actual psychological study or perform some type of experiment. In some cases, students simply devise the study and then imagine the possible results that might occur. In other situations, you may actually have the opportunity to collect data, analyze your findings, and write up your results.

Finding a topic for your study can be difficult, but there are plenty of great ways to come up with intriguing ideas. Start by considering your own interests as well as subjects you have studied in the past.

Online sources, newspaper articles, books , journal articles, and even your own class textbook are all great places to start searching for topics for your experiments and psychology term papers. Before you begin, learn more about  how to conduct a psychology experiment .

What This Means For You

After looking at this brief list of possible topics for psychology papers, it is easy to see that psychology is a very broad and diverse subject. While this variety makes it possible to find a topic that really catches your interest, it can sometimes make it very difficult for some students to select a good topic.

If you are still stumped by your assignment, ask your instructor for suggestions and consider a few from this list for inspiration.

• Hockenbury, SE & Nolan, SA. Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers; 2014.
• Santrock, JW. A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New York: McGraw-Hill Education; 2016.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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119 Abnormal Psychology Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Abnormal psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on studying unusual patterns of behavior, thoughts, and emotions. This field explores mental disorders and their causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. If you are studying abnormal psychology or have an interest in the subject, you may need to write essays on various topics related to this field. To help you get started, here are 119 abnormal psychology essay topic ideas and examples.

• The impact of childhood trauma on the development of mental disorders.
• The role of genetics in the development of psychological disorders.
• The relationship between substance abuse and mental illness.
• Exploring the effectiveness of different therapeutic approaches for treating anxiety disorders.
• The influence of social media on body image and eating disorders among adolescents.
• The psychological effects of long-term solitary confinement.
• Understanding the causes and consequences of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• Exploring the connection between depression and physical health.
• The role of neurotransmitters in the development of schizophrenia.
• The impact of cultural factors on the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.
• The relationship between sleep disorders and mental health.
• Examining the prevalence and treatment of borderline personality disorder.
• The effects of bullying on mental health in children and adolescents.
• Understanding the psychological impact of natural disasters on survivors.
• The relationship between childhood abuse and the development of dissociative identity disorder (DID).
• The role of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
• Exploring the stigma surrounding mental illness and its impact on help-seeking behavior.
• The effects of parental divorce on the psychological well-being of children.
• Understanding the causes and treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
• The relationship between childhood adversity and the development of antisocial personality disorder.
• Examining the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for reducing stress and anxiety.
• The impact of social support on the recovery from substance use disorders.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of eating disorders.
• The role of trauma in the development of dissociative disorders.
• Exploring the link between childhood maltreatment and the risk of developing depression in adulthood.
• The effects of early-life stress on brain development and mental health outcomes.
• The relationship between personality traits and the risk of developing schizophrenia.
• Examining the role of genetics in the development of bipolar disorder.
• The impact of social isolation on mental health in older adults.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of agoraphobia.
• The effects of media violence on aggressive behavior in children.
• The relationship between childhood neglect and the risk of developing substance use disorders.
• Exploring the effectiveness of virtual reality therapy for treating phobias.
• The role of self-esteem in the development and maintenance of eating disorders.
• The impact of discrimination on mental health outcomes among marginalized populations.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of hoarding disorder.
• The effects of early attachment experiences on adult romantic relationships.
• The relationship between trauma and the development of dissociative amnesia.
• Examining the effectiveness of art therapy for individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder.
• The role of parenting styles in the development of conduct disorder in children.
• The impact of chronic illness on mental health and well-being.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of gambling addiction.
• The effects of social media use on body dissatisfaction and eating disorder risk.
• The relationship between childhood ADHD and the risk of developing substance use disorders in adulthood.
• Exploring the effectiveness of exposure therapy for treating specific phobias.
• The role of early-life adversity in the development of borderline personality disorder.
• The impact of workplace stress on mental health and job performance.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of panic disorder.
• The effects of childhood abuse on self-esteem and self-worth in adulthood.
• The relationship between personality disorders and criminal behavior.
• Examining the effectiveness of cognitive remediation therapy for individuals with schizophrenia.
• The role of social support in the recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder.
• The impact of childhood neglect on cognitive development and academic achievement.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of body dysmorphic disorder.
• The effects of parental substance abuse on child development and mental health outcomes.
• The relationship between childhood trauma and the risk of developing dissociative disorders.
• Exploring the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy for treating depression.
• The role of trauma in the development of acute stress disorder.
• The impact of unemployment on mental health and well-being.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of social anxiety disorder.
• The effects of bullying on adolescent self-esteem and mental health.
• The relationship between childhood ADHD and the risk of developing conduct disorder.
• Examining the effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy for individuals with borderline personality disorder.
• The role of social support in the recovery from eating disorders.
• The impact of parental divorce on adult romantic relationships.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• The effects of childhood trauma on cognitive development and academic achievement.
• The relationship between personality traits and the risk of developing anxiety disorders.
• Exploring the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy for treating post-traumatic stress disorder.
• The role of mindfulness in the treatment of depression and anxiety.
• The impact of chronic pain on mental health and quality of life.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of generalized anxiety disorder.
• The effects of childhood neglect on emotional regulation and self-control in adulthood.
• The relationship between personality disorders and interpersonal relationships.
• Examining the effectiveness of family therapy for individuals with schizophrenia.
• The role of social support in the recovery from substance use disorders.
• The impact of parental substance abuse on child behavior and emotional well-being.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of postpartum depression.
• The effects of childhood trauma on social skills and peer relationships.
• The relationship between personality traits and the risk of developing mood disorders.
• Exploring the effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy for trauma-related disorders.
• The role of self-compassion in the treatment of eating disorders.
• The impact of chronic illness on family dynamics and relationships.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of specific phobias.
• The effects of childhood abuse on emotional intelligence and empathy in adulthood.
• The relationship between personality disorders and job performance.
• Examining the effectiveness of cognitive remediation therapy for individuals with bipolar disorder.
• The role of social support in the recovery from depression.
• The impact of childhood neglect on attachment styles and intimate relationships in adulthood.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of bipolar disorder.
• The effects of childhood trauma on executive functioning and decision-making abilities.
• The relationship between personality traits and the risk of developing personality disorders.
• Exploring the effectiveness of exposure therapy for treating panic disorder.
• The role of self-esteem in the treatment of body dysmorphic disorder.
• The impact of chronic stress on immune function and physical health.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
• The effects of childhood abuse on social cognition and interpersonal relationships.
• The relationship between personality disorders and treatment outcomes.
• Examining the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy for individuals with social anxiety disorder.
• The role of social support in the recovery from anxiety disorders.
• The impact of childhood trauma on emotional regulation and impulse control.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of substance use disorders.
• The effects of childhood neglect on cognitive flexibility and problem-solving skills.
• The relationship between personality traits and the risk of developing eating disorders.
• Exploring the effectiveness of trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy for treating post-traumatic stress disorder.
• The role of self-compassion in the treatment of anxiety disorders.
• The impact of chronic illness on psychological well-being and coping strategies.
• The effects of childhood abuse on emotional regulation and anger management in adulthood.
• The relationship between personality disorders and suicide risk.
• Examining the effectiveness of cognitive remediation therapy for individuals with anxiety disorders.
• The role of social support in the recovery from obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• The impact of childhood neglect on self-esteem and self-confidence in adulthood.
• Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to the development of dissociative identity disorder.
• The effects of childhood trauma on attachment styles and romantic relationships in adulthood.
• The relationship between personality traits and the risk of developing substance use disorders.
• Exploring the effectiveness of exposure therapy for treating generalized anxiety disorder.
• The role of self-esteem in the treatment of panic disorder.
• The impact of chronic stress on mental health and cognitive functioning.

These essay topic ideas provide a wide range of options to explore the fascinating field of abnormal psychology. Remember to choose a topic that interests you and allows you to delve deeper into the subject matter. Good luck with your essays!

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IResearchNet

Psychology Research Paper Topics

In the list of psychology research paper topics below we have attempted to capture psychology’s vast and evolving nature in the 16 categories and more than 100 topics.

100+ Psychology Research Paper Topics

Research Paper Topics in History of Psychology

• Psychology Before 1900
• Psychology in the 20th Century
• Psychology Into the 21st Century
• Women and Minorities in Psychology
• Conducting Research on the History of Psychology

Research Paper Topics in Research Methodology and Analytic Techniques in Psychology

• Statistical Techniques and Analysis
• Nonexperimental Research Methods
• Experimental Designs
• Single-Subject Designs
• Qualitative Research
• Ethics of Psychological Research

Neuroscience Research Paper Topics

• Biological Psychology
• Neurotransmission
• Traditional Neuroscience Research Methods
• Imaging Techniques for the Localization of Brain Function
• Drugs and Behavior
• Behavioral Pharmacology

Research Paper Topics in Sensory Processes and Perception

• Psychophysics
• States of Consciousness
• Somatosensory Systems

Research Paper Topics in Evolution and Behavior

• Evolutionary Psychology: The Impact of Evolution on Human Behavior
• Evolutionary Perspectives on Mate Preferences
• Animal Learning and Behavior
• Animal Cognition
• Comparative Psychology

Research Paper Topics in Basic Learning Processes

• Classical Conditioning
• Recent Trends in Classical Conditioning
• Taste-Aversion Learning
• Operant Conditioning
• Recent Trends in Operant Conditioning
• Social Learning
• Stimulus Equivalence

Research Paper Topics in  Individual Differences and Personality

• Psychometrics
• Testing and Assessment
• Personality Development
• Personality Psychology
• Intelligence
• Motivation and Emotion

Cognitive Psychology Research Paper Topics

• Memory: A Look Into the Past, Present, and Future
• Memory and Eyewitness Testimony
• Repressed and Recovered Memory
• Language and Language Development
• Thinking and Problem Solving
• Critical Thinking
• Artificial Intelligence

Developmental Psychology Research Paper Topics

• Prenatal Development and Infancy
• Childhood and Adolescence
• Adulthood and Aging: Perspectives on Adult Development
• Disabilities
• Death, Dying, and Bereavement
• Nature Versus Nurture
• Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Myth or Mental Disorder?

Social Psychology Research Paper Topics

• Social Cognition
• Attitudes and Attitude Change
• Group Processes
• Social Influence
• The Nature of Love
• Prejudice and Stereotyping
• Leadership: Theory and Practice

Research Paper Topics in Health, Stress, and Coping

• Health Psychology
• Stress and Stressors
• Coping Skills
• Positive Psychology
• Human Performance in Extreme Environments

Behavior Disorders and Clinical Psychology Research Paper Topics

• Abnormal Psychology
• Ethics of Therapists
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
• Anxiety Disorders
• Dissociative Disorders
• Personality Disorders
• Mood Disorders: An Overview
• Schizophrenia: Understanding a Split Mind
• Psychoactive Substance Use Disorders
• Psychotherapy
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
• Family Therapy and Therapy With Children
• Pharmacotherapy
• Forensic Clinical Psychology: Sensationalism and Reality
• Sexual Offending Behavior

Applied Psychology Research Paper Topics

• Industrial and Organizational Psychology
• Human Factors
• Community Psychology
• Sport Psychology
• Environmental Psychology
• Psychology and the Law
• Applied Behavior Analysis
• Organizational Behavior Management

Research Paper Topics in Human Diversity

• Gender and Sexual Orientation
• Multiple Axes of Human Diversity
• Psychology and Religion
• Cross-Cultural Psychology and Research
• International Psychology

Mental Health Research Paper Topics

• Agoraphobia
• Alcohol Problems
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa
• Antisocial Personality Disorder
• Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders
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• Classifying Mental Disorders: Nontraditional Approaches
• Conduct Disorder
• Dependent Personality
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• Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Panic Attacks
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
• Psychopathology
• Schizophrenia
• Sexual Disorders
• Somatization and Hypochondriasis
• Substance Abuse

Assessment and Psychotherapy Research Paper Topics

• Assessment of Mental Health in Older Adults
• Behavior Therapy
• Behavioral Medicine
• Biofeedback
• Brain Scanning/Neuroimaging
• Child Sexual Abuse
• Classifying Mental Disorders
• Clinical Assessment
• Cognitive Therapy
• Community Mental Health
• Constructivist Psychotherapies
• Coping with Stress
• Couples Therapy
• Depression—Applied Aspects
• Domestic Violence Intervention
• Family Therapy
• Hypnosis and the Psychological Unconscious
• Meditation and the Relaxation Response
• Personality Assessment
• Premenstrual Syndrome Treatment Interventions
• Psychoanalysis
• Psychopharmacology
• Sexual Dysfunction Therapy
• Standards for Psychotherapy
• Support Groups

For example, the early years of the 20th century witnessed the development and popularization of the now classic “schools of psychology” such as structuralism, functionalism, Gestalt psychology, and behaviorism. World War II and the Korean War spurred the development of modern clinical psychology. In the middle of the 20th century, individual schools rose to prominence and tended to dominate psychological research and theorizing. These dominant schools often clashed with clinical psychology. For example, disagreements between behaviorists and clinicians, which have their roots in the 1940s and 1950s, still persist.

Toward the end of the 1960s, the nature of the field began to change, and the face of modern psychology was forever altered. First, Ulrich Neisser’s 1967 book, Cognitive Psychology, ushered in the “cognitive revolution” and put behaviorism on the decline. Technological advances in computer technology, which allowed researchers to simulate human thought and memory processes and to create images of neurological processes, played an inestimable role in modern psychology’s metamorphosis. Likewise, advances in social concern and action increased psychologists’ awareness of psychology’s diversity and its ability to make significant contributions in these areas. To be sure, the face of contemporary psychology was changing drastically. In fact, in 1992 former American Psychological Association (APA) president George A. Miller believed that psychology had become “an intellectual zoo” (p. 40). Clearly, that situation has not changed, as psychology is evolving in the 21st century.

Nowhere are psychology’s expansion and change seen more clearly than in the evolution of the APA. Founded in 1892 by G. Stanley Hall at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, the APA began with 31 charter members. Currently, there are over 60,000 APA members and 56 divisions with which these members and other interested psychologists can affiliate. The diversity of the APA divisions clearly reflects the changing face of contemporary psychology as well as represents wide subjects of psychological research. They include General Psychology (Division 1), the Study of Social Issues (Division 9), Clinical Psychology (Division 12), Pharmacology and Substance Abuse (Division 28), Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (Division 33), Media Psychology (Division 46), International Psychology (Division 52), and Trauma Psychology (Division 56). Clearly, psychology research topics in the 21st century continue to be diverse and evolving.

We believe that our choice of traditional and cutting-edge research paper topics reflects contemporary psychology’s diverse nature. For example, the “traditional”  research paper topics include the following:

The cutting-edge research paper topics include the following:

Browse examples of psychology research papers to find sample research paper on all topics in the list above. Whether the research paper deals with a traditional topic or a cutting-edge topic, you will find that it presents the materials in a decidedly contemporary manner. We hope that students will enjoy reading the research papers on different topics in psychology as much as we have enjoyed collecting them for you.

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34 Abnormal Psychology

Susan A. Nolan is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Seton Hall University.

• Published: 17 April 2015
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This chapter offers recommendations, evidence-based when possible, on teaching abnormal psychology in an effective and engaging manner. In the first section, we address issues related to the content of an Abnormal Psychology course. We outline the traditional content areas, as well as current topics that are often underemphasized, such as controversies with diagnosis, and international and cross-cultural issues. In the second section, we provide an overview of pedagogical tools that are particularly relevant for an abnormal psychology course, including the use of case material, role-play, and simulation; we provide suggestions on how to use these tools to create a stimulating and interactive classroom. In the third section, we outline ethical issues that can emerge when teaching abnormal psychology, such as informed consent and classroom management of sensitive topics, and offer suggestions for creating an ethical classroom environment.

Instructors assigned to teach Abnormal Psychology should consider themselves lucky! In the American Psychological Associations (APA) glossary of psychological terms, abnormal psychology is defined as “The area of psychological investigation concerned with understanding the nature of individual pathologies of mind, mood, and behavior” ( APA, 2013 ). The abnormal psychology course (also called psychopathology) is one of the most popular courses in the psychology curriculum and holds intrinsic interest for many students ( Perlman & McCann,1999 ). As of 2005, it is taught at 98 percent of campuses and taken by 41 percent of psychology majors ( Stoloff et al., 2010 ). The demand can perhaps be attributed to the general public’s interest in and awareness of many of the topics covered in the course, and their perception of its relevance to many people’s lives. Not surprisingly, Nolen-Hoeksema (1998) noted that some students may take an abnormal psychology course to better understand friends and family who have been diagnosed with a mental illness. Indeed, in a survey of two abnormal psychology courses, Connor-Greene (2001) found that 96 percent of students reported knowing at least one person with a mental illness. Moreover, according to Connor-Greene, students already knew much of the appropriate terminology for various disorders ( Connor-Green, 2001 ). Regardless of the reasons, students are clearly motivated to enroll in an abnormal psychology course.

Yet, paradoxically, students’ excitement for learning about mental illness raises several challenges in the abnormal psychology classroom. First, there are pedagogical difficulties related to content: In particular, how do instructors maintain students’ interest while talking about integral components of the course matter that can be perceived as dry or difficult—research methods, individual differences, psychometrics, and neuroscience? Second, there are issues related to best practices in teaching: For example, how do instructors balance the engaging anecdotes that students might wish to share in class with “drier” empirical content? And third, perhaps particular to a course focusing on mental illness, there are challenges related to ethics: How do instructors uphold the ethics of the field of psychology in teaching and learning situations in which students sometimes stereotype others, disclose too much information, or attempt to diagnose based on a single undergraduate course on psychopathology?

This chapter provides recommendations, evidence based whenever possible, on how to most effectively teach abnormal psychology in spite of potential obstacles. Specifically, in the three sections of this chapter, we will try to address the questions we asked in the preceding paragraph. First, we will cover issues related to the content of an abnormal psychology course, with a discussion of the traditional content areas, as well as important topics that are both engaging and frequently underemphasized; specifically, we will discuss positive psychology, controversies related to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ), and international and sociocultural issues. These sometimes-controversial content areas provide pedagogical fodder for introducing students to an empirical approach to thinking critically about ambiguous topics. And related to critical thinking, we will also discuss the importance of teaching skills as well as knowledge.

Second, we will consider pedagogical tools that are particularly important in an abnormal psychology course, such as using case material, connecting the material to “real life,” making difficult concepts approachable and engaging, and teaching students to be critical consumers of mental health information. We will share best practices related to both the overarching curriculum of the course and the day-to-day pedagogy in the classroom. Third, we will explore the ethical issues that arise when discussing mental health; from boundary issues to confidentiality, from informed consent to developing ground rules for in-class discussion. We will ground this discussion of ethics in the policy and guidelines that the field of psychology, and particularly the APA, has adopted.

At first blush, the content in an abnormal psychology course might seem obvious. A glance at the tables of contents of the bestselling textbooks shows a fairly common core. There are typically several introductory chapters—some history of the field, an overview of the perspectives on psychopathology, a primer on assessment and diagnosis, and the basics of research in this area, often including a piece on neuroscience. Then, there is a series of chapters that cover the major categories of psychological disorders, outlining the etiology, symptoms, epidemiology, and treatment for each. Following the disorders, there may be one or two cross-cutting chapters—perhaps a segment on health and stress or on the intersection of mental health and the legal system.

New instructors often feel pressure to cover all the chapters in this book, but the authors of this chapter encourage instructors to pare down their content coverage for three main reasons. First, textbooks tend to cover more material than can be taught in a semester. Second, there are important areas in the field that either neglected entirely or are folded into traditional chapters, but are current, engaging, and (in our opinion) important to address. We’ll discuss some of these areas later, and encourage you to include them in your courses. Third, as we will discuss, many instructors want to foster the teaching of skills as well as the teaching of facts. By focusing the course on fewer chapters, students’ time in and out of class can be used to help them develop skills in addition to attaining knowledge.

An examination of the tables of contents of 10 popular abnormal psychology textbooks provides some indication of the most commonly covered material as well as content that is more idiosyncratic. Although these books include between 14 and 19 chapters, there are only 10 separate chapters that are in all 10 books:

An introduction.

Perspectives on psychopathology.

Assessment and diagnosis.

Anxiety disorders.

Mood disorders.

Dissociative disorders.

Eating disorders.

Sexual and gender identity disorders.

Schizophrenia.

Disorders of childhood and adolescence.

There are also many content areas that do not show up as a chapter in at least one of the ten volumes reviewed: research methods, somatoform disorders, stress-related disorders, suicide, substance-related disorders, disorders of aging and cognition, personality disorders, and ethics and legal issues. It is important to note that textbooks frequently fold some of these topics into other chapters, but it is telling when a topic is not perceived to merit its own chapter.

Project Syllabus offers further insight into choosing content. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology’s Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology oversees Project Syllabus , an online forum that publishes peer-reviewed “quality examples of syllabi.” Of the six syllabi posted for the abnormal psychology course, five provide course calendars that list the chapters covered. Although a small sample, an analysis of these five “quality” syllabi yields useful guidance. These instructors included a mean of 10.4 and a median of 10 chapters in their courses—a good deal fewer than the mean of 16.6 and median of 17 chapters in the popular textbooks. Moreover, these five instructors only had six chapters in common on their syllabi: the chapters on perspectives on psychopathology, assessment and diagnosis, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and personality disorders. The runners up? Different combinations of four of out of five of these syllabi included eating disorders, substance disorders, and developmental disorders. It is interesting that some topics (like eating disorders) that are always included in textbooks are not always included in a course. Our advice: Don’t be shy about cutting back to about 10 chapters to achieve the learning goals for your course.

As we noted previously, there are several other important areas beyond most commonly covered content that instructors might not immediately consider, but they are easily woven into the course. These topics are often mentioned briefly or provided as whole sections of a chapter of abnormal psychology textbooks, but they do not tend to be the topic of an entire chapter. We focus on several here as examples—positive psychology, changes and controversies related to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual ( DSM : American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ), and international and sociocultural diversity—but acknowledge that there are other important and current areas that instructors might include as well.

Positive psychology.

In their groundbreaking introduction to a special issue in the American Psychologist on positive psychology, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) lamented the focus on psychopathology at the expense of positive experience. The authors explained that “the aim of positive psychology is to begin to catalyze a change in the focus of psychology from preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building positive qualities” (p. 5). Much of what positive psychology researchers study can be viewed as antidotes to the main topics in an abnormal psychology course. A discussion of the future and of optimism, key parts of positive psychology, can be discussed related to anxiety and worry. An exploration of flow and happiness in the present, also central to positive psychology, can be contrasted with a discussion of mood disorders. In fact, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi observe that a study of positive qualities and personal strengths can help those with mental illness, pointing out that clinicians who emphasize clients’ strengths can bolster their clients’ resilience, and resilience is an essential part of any discussion on stress (and other disorders). The authors ask an important question for instructors of abnormal psychology: “What does mental health look like when seen from the perspective of positive psychology?” (p. 10).

We acknowledge that positive psychology has had its critics over the years (e.g., Lazarus, 2003 ) and stress that it is important to incorporate dissenting research into any discussion about this growing field. In spite of this, we urge instructors to incorporate at least a segment on positive psychology into their courses, if not a recurring piece. Although most students will encounter psychopathology themselves or in their loved ones at some point in their lives, all students can benefit from an exploration of positive psychology.

Diagnosis and the DSM.

Soon before this book went to press, the DSM headed into its fifth edition—(5th ed.; DSM–5;   American Psychiatric Association, 2013 )- the culmination of a renewed discussion of the limitations of and controversies related to the diagnosis of mental illness. Here we will discuss three broad issues that instructors could cover in a segment on diagnosis to dispel the myth that diagnosis is an exact science. We will first discuss problems with a categorical system of diagnosis, as opposed to continuous measurement. We will then talk about the political, rather than the scientific, inputs into the DSM . Lastly, we will talk about the pros and cons of using a diagnostic system such as the DSM .

Over the years, numerous researchers and clinicians have pointed out the problems inherent in the DSM (e.g., Widiger & Clark, 2000 ). One major problem results from its categorical system of diagnosis, sometimes described as “qualitative deviations from mental health” (p. 164; Hyman, 2010 ). Hyman notes the lack of continuous, qualitative scales in psychopathology diagnoses, in contrast to quantitative or “dimensional” measurements frequently used in general medicine (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol). A cutoff that differentiates health from a disorder is, ultimately, arbitrary, and continuous measures might both be more accurate and provide important nuanced information (e.g., Widiger & Samuel, 2005 ). Indeed, research shows that lower levels of symptomatology can constitute a precursor to a diagnosable mental illness and should be monitored and potentially treated ( Shankman, Lewinsohn, Klein, Small, Seeley, & Altman, 2009 ). Debates about the model of diagnosis—qualitative versus quantitative—can incorporate critical thinking into class discussions.

Second, students should consider the potential impact of human biases and agendas on the DSM (For example, Cosgrove and Krimsky (2012) outline the financial considerations that might have influenced the 170 participants in the development of the DSM-IV (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and DSM-5 (5th ed., DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ), They reported, for example, that 69 percent of those working on DSM-5 had financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, an increase from the 57 percent of those working on the DSM-IV. Political and cultural debates can also usurp science as the sole determinant of what should be in the DSM). For example, in recent years, the validity of a diagnosis of Internet addiction has been debated; is it its own disorder, an ancillary to another disorder, or a “phase of life problem” (e.g., Pies, 2009 )?

Internet addiction as a diagnosis was described first as a joke by a medical doctor, but rapidly became a cultural catchphrase ( Morahan-Martin, 2005 ). The discussions that have ensued in the run-up have been as much about the cultural role of the Internet in society as the science on Internet addiction, and offer an interesting window on the many factors that influence the DSM ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ). Morahan-Martin (2005) describes the debates about whether this diagnosis “trivializes the concept of substance-related addiction,” whether fear of newer technology makes people view hours on the Internet as an addiction in a way that we do not view hours spent watching television, and whether Internet addiction as a diagnosis is referendum of online relationships. Ultimately, internet addiction was not included in DSM-5.

More controversially, the political maneuvering that led to the removal of homosexuality from the DSM in 1973 ( Spitzer, 1981 ), engagingly outlined in the This American Life radio episode “81 words” ( Spiegel, 2002 ), has been paralleled by more current debates about Gender Identity Disorder (GID) (e.g., Drescher, 2009 ). When the DSM-IV-TR ( 4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR ; American Psychiatric Association, 2000 ) was released in 2000, GID was diagnosed if someone identified with the other gender—termed “cross-gender identification”—and experienced discomfort about their “assigned sex or a sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex” (p. 576). In DSM-5 (5th ed.; DSM–5;   American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ), GID was replaced with gender dysphoria, which focuses on the emotional response to the experiences encapsulated in the previous GID diagnosis, rather than the behaviors. The psychiatrists and psychologists behind the changes cited a desire to reduce stigma as a reason for the revision ( Moran, 2013 ).

Similarly, discussions of sex and gender have changed over time. There was virtually no reference to sex or gender in the first DSM (1st ed.; DSM-1 ; American Psychiatric Association, 1952) in 1952; yet, since then, gender has increasingly been viewed as an important consideration, leading to controversy and debate (e.g., Kornstein, 2010 ). For example, there were controversies over Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder in the 1980s and 1990s, and discussions two decades later about whether women are overrepresented among those diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder with Atypical Features, which thus should not be considered “atypical” (e.g., Kornstein, 2010 ).

Finally, it is important to talk about the pros and cons of DSM -based diagnosis. On the one hand, the DSM plays an important role in mental health care. For example, diagnostic codes are necessary for clinicians to receive reimbursement from insurance companies, and the five-axis diagnosis model provides a useful shorthand for clinicians to communicate with one another. On the other hand, the DSM suffers from the problems described previously. In addition, researchers have noted inequities in its application, including bias based on race, gender, and social class (e.g., Garb, 2006 ). Moreover, because people who do not fit a diagnostic category are not covered by insurance, diagnoses might be manipulated for financial reasons ( Cooper, 2004 ). Further, a mental illness label can lead to stigma, which can exacerbate mental illness and lead people to avoid treatment (e.g., Ben-Zeev, Young, & Corrigan, 2010 ; Wahl, 2012 ).

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has criticized the DSM-5 (5th ed.; DSM–5;   American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ) for many of these reasons, stating that while it still provides a necessary structure for clinical work, it no longer provides a sufficient structure for research. The NIMH has developed a new system for researchers, the Research Domain Criteria project, that they hope will “[lay] the groundwork for a future diagnostic system that more directly reflects modern brain science” ( Insel & Lieberman, 2013 ). In summary, with regard to the DSM students should be made aware that diagnosis is often flawed, not based solely on scientific evidence, and potentially harmful—at the same time that it is a necessary tool.

International and sociocultural issues.

Around the world, there is an increasing emphasis on the internationalization of higher education across the curriculum and in the classroom (e.g., Billings, 2006 ; Green, Luu, & Burris, 2008 ), with a National Research Council ( NRC, 2008 ) report emphasizing the importance of a global emphasis in the social sciences in particular. Within psychology, APA, (2007) has outlined 10 Principles of Quality Undergraduate Programs that are related to the knowledge and skills that should be taught in undergraduate psychology curricula; one goal relates to “sociocultural and international awareness” in which “students will recognize, understand, and respect the complexity of sociocultural and international diversity” (p. 10). Further, in 2008, the annual APA Education Leadership Conference focused specifically on the internationalization of the psychology curriculum.

In this section, we will discuss several of the many topics through which international and sociocultural diversity can be introduced in a course in Abnormal Psychology—the role of demographics such as gender, the need for clinicians to be culturally aware, and differences in the prevalence and expression of mental illness across cultures. First, it is important to highlight demographics, including gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, and social class. See the section on the DSM earlier, in which we discussed ways in which some of these demographic characteristics relate to the development of the DSM and to bias in diagnosis.

Second, it is important for students to consider the need for cultural awareness and competence in clinicians, not only when diagnosing, but also when treating people with psychopathology. For example, Sue (2003) delivers an impassioned defense of cultural competence, which he framed as a clinical attempt to “respond to the needs of different ethnic groups or to appreciate cultural influences” (p. 965), and the APA agrees with him. Indeed, APA policy is driven by its published multicultural guidelines for psychologists (2002). More specifically, in the context of psychosocial disaster relief, a lack of cultural understanding can be problematic, particularly when the relief is provided largely by Westerners, as is often the case ( Miller, 2012 ). Again, APA policy is instructive; there are published guidelines for psychologists who provide aid following international emergencies. The guidelines emphasize that “traumatic stress and traumatic stress reactions, and appropriate interventions for recovery are profoundly embedded in culture” ( APA, 2008 ). Although many students will not go on to use this information in practice, we believe that, even for students who will not enter the mental health field, understanding the impact of culture on healing can enrich students’ appreciation for the complexities and subtleties of psychological intervention.

Third, mental illness can look quite different from one culture to another, which can challenge students’ notions of what mental illness is and further elucidate the political and cultural influences on the DSM . Starting with the DSM-IV (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994), culture-bound syndromes, idiosyncratic disorders specific to a given location or culture, were an explicit category. For example, koro occurs in Asia and describes fear among men that their penis is retracting into their body or among women that their vulva and nipples are retracting (see Paniagua, 2000 , for an overview of culture-bound syndromes). In 1999, Guarnaccia and Rogler argued that because the DSM is now used internationally, it is incumbent on its developers to expand the research and coverage of these disorders. In response to arguments like this, the DSM-5 now includes a section on culturally relevant issues for each disorder. There also is evidence that disorders that once appeared tied to a given culture can spread. For example, anorexia nervosa, once an almost exclusively Western phenomenon, rapidly spread throughout Asia after the highly publicized death of a 14-year-old girl in 1994 ( Watters, 2010 ).

Teaching knowledge and skills.

To this point, we have focused on topics that are typically covered in an abnormal psychology course, as well as current topics that can cut across the traditional chapters. Yet, beyond the content, it also is important to consider the skills that we impart in an abnormal psychology course. First, the APA guidelines for the undergraduate major, described earlier, outline 10 learning goals, a number of which are skills-based—critical thinking, information and technological literacy, and communication skills among them. Further, psychologist Drew Appleby (2001) argues for explicit consideration of the “covert curriculum,” the skills and characteristics that students develop in their courses—qualities that overlap a good deal with the APA learning goals.

We believe that several of Appleby’s instances of these covert skills are particularly relevant in abnormal psychology. Students must learn to behave in a mature and respectful manner when discussing behaviors that might seem strange or humorous, but that might, for example, affect a classmate whose relative has a particular disorder. Students learn to manage stress and conflict successfully as they debate controversial issues with classmates who have had different experiences. Students must accept responsibility for their own behaviors and attitudes for a course in which expressing opinions might have real consequences for a classmate grappling with mental illness in her or his life. And throughout all this, students must build critical thinking skills as they wrestle with many of the inconsistencies and controversies in the field, such as the problems with the DSM-5 ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ), and seek out research rather than anecdotes to back (or overturn) their views.

In addition to choosing course content, identifying effective methods to help students comprehend this information is of fundamental importance to a successful course. Abnormal psychology courses afford instructors opportunities to incorporate a number of pedagogical techniques that can bring psychopathology to life for students. There is evidence that an interactive classroom leads to better learning than does a traditional lecture-based format ( Ruben, 1999 ), and the abnormal psychology course provides myriad opportunities to break away from a straight lecture format in engaging and memorable ways. In this section, we will present research on classroom activities and tools instructors can utilize to engage students when learning about psychopathology. Finally, we will recommend techniques and strategies that can be used to challenge negative stereotypes about psychopathology and the mentally ill.

Assessment.

There are several ways in which self-report assessments can be useful in an abnormal psychology course. For example, we can assess and challenge students’ understanding of mental illness with brief assessments of their existing knowledge. Alternately, we can provide students with self-report measures of symptomatology to help them understand a disorder in light of their own experiences. We will discuss specific approaches that address both of these goals in using assessment. With both types of assessments, instructors might find it beneficial to integrate discussions about validity, reliability, and cultural differences.

First, it can be helpful to begin the course with an assessment of students’ knowledge regarding mental illness and their exposure to and experience with someone who has been diagnosed with a mental illness. For example, as part of a classroom activity, Connor-Greene (2001) asked her students to list the following information: a psychiatric disorder; the person who suffered from it; and, on a scale from 1-5, how well they knew this person. Students were asked to limit their lists to people they knew who both showed symptoms of and received treatment for a psychiatric disorder. Based on this class exercise, 96 percent of the students reported knowing someone with a mental illness. Understanding incoming students’ knowledge about mental illness, including their misconceptions, can shape classroom discussions and provide information on how to best teach the course ( Connor-Greene, 2001 )

Second, assessments can be used for students to examine disorders in light of their own experiences. There is a range of assessment tools that can be used in this manner. Many measures are available for free online (e.g., assessmentpsychology.com ; apa.org ; psychologytools.org ). In addition, many abnormal psychology textbooks have an ancillary instructor’s manual that includes tests and measures that accompany the chapters on disorders. Alternately, campus counseling centers are often willing to share assessments that they use, which has the side benefit of informing students about services available on campus.

Some measures that can be used to introduce highly prevalent disorders include the Beck Depression Inventory ( Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996 ), the Beck Anxiety Inventory ( Beck & Steer, 1990 ), and the Eating Disorders Inventory ( Garner & Garfinkel, 1984 ). We find that it is useful to introduce a specific disorder by having students complete an assessment anonymously. When students complete such assessments, they have a better memory for the symptoms and are better able to think critically about issues surrounding a particular disorder.

Assessments might also be useful for discussions of difficult or controversial topics; for example, students might be asked to complete a measure such as the Revised Facts on Suicide Quiz ( McIntosh, Kelly, & Arnett, 1992 ). After students score their own quizzes, the instructor can engage them in a discussion of why particular items were misleading or incorrect, and can provide students with a list of resources related to suicide prevention. Hubbard and McIntosh (1992) found that this assessment activity increased students’ understanding about suicide and suicide prevention by challenging their knowledge.

However, we issue a word of caution; prior to any in-class assessment exercise, instructors should highlight that these measures are for educational purposes and are not to be used for self-diagnosis. Further, instructors should provide referral information to the university counseling center in case students wish to discuss their self-assessments with a mental health professional. Providing students with resources on where to obtain more information regarding mental illness and with whom to speak when there is a problem, encourages students to be more critical and knowledgeable consumers of mental health.

Incorporating real-life examples.

Students can find it difficult to relate to the complex experiences of people with mental illness. Traditionally, categorical lists of symptoms have been used in textbooks and the classroom to help students understand psychopathology. However, this one-dimensional approach offers little in the way of true understanding. Abnormal psychology instructors commonly expand on such lists by incorporating anecdotal experiences into classroom activities. These real-life examples can include informal class discussions where students might share relevant experiences, classroom presentations by students or guest lecturers on their experiences, case studies, and different forms of media (e.g., news, movies/TV, books).

There are several advantages to incorporating real or fictional first-hand experiences; for example, they can enrich students’ learning experience by “complementing the outsider-looking-in” perspective of textbooks with an insider perspective ( Norcross, Sommer, & Clifford, 2001 , p.125). The inclusion of examples and narratives can also help students develop an appreciation of and empathy for someone who has a mental illness ( Banyard, 2000 ) through material that highlights the complexity of etiology, symptoms, treatment, and prognosis. Discussions related to this material might include struggles experienced by family members, potential detrimental side effects of medications, impacts of stigma, and controversial issues in psychiatric treatment. First-person narratives also can demonstrate that people are not defined by mental illness, and have qualities, interests, and relationships beyond their psychopathology; this can help students recognize the greater context in which mental illness exists ( Grauerholz & Copenhaver, 1994 ).

Real-life examples can also provide a context for students to discuss the various approaches to psychopathology. Indeed, anecdotal evidence suggests that students particularly enjoy assignments that weave case-study material with theoretical perspectives ( Perkins, 1991 ). Further, by having students dissect a case study using several theoretical approaches, students learn how different theories offer specific, but often overlapping, insight into abnormal psychology. Finally, these discussions allow students to consider the values and the limitations of the various approaches with respect to the explanations for and treatment of psychological disorders.

Real-life examples can be introduced in several ways. First, instructors can harness students’ personal experiences. As previously mentioned, students taking an abnormal psychology course often come in with prior knowledge about psychopathology. One fairly innocuous way to include students’ experiences is to start the course by asking students to raise their hand if they, a family member, a significant other, or a close friend have ever been diagnosed or treated with a mental illness. The broad question allows students to respond without indicating who in their lives received the diagnosis or treatment. In our experience, students are typically surprised that almost every student in the class raises her or his hand. This provides an opportunity to talk about the prevalence of mental illness and the importance of maintaining a respectful dialogue throughout the course, knowing that it is likely that at least one student has been affected in relation to almost every course topic. This technique may also be used with individual topics, particularly with common disorders such as those related to anxiety, mood, or eating. If confidentiality is a concern, instructors can also utilize a classroom response system in which students answer potentially sensitive questions by choosing a response via a remote. Aggregated results can then be presented to the class, potentially “normalizing” experiences and increasing participation ( Brewster, 1996 ).

We have also had students approach us to offer to speak about their personal experiences with a mental illness—either their own experiences or that of a close family member or friend. Prior to such presentations, instructors should meet with potential volunteers to assess competence to produce an effective presentation ( Tolman, 2011 ). For instance, it can be helpful to determine if volunteers will overly emphasize negative aspects of their experience, because this can adversely affect students’ attitudes ( Kendra, Cattaneo, & Mohr, 2012 ) or inadvertently introduce risky behaviors (such as methods used by those with eating disorders) ( Yager, 2007 ). Another potential approach is for students to write about their experiences in a way that can be shared with the class anonymously (e.g., posted on the class Web page, read by the instructor). This approach protects the student from potential repercussions, particularly increased stigma, and also allows the instructor to minimize the likelihood that a student may be predominantly motivated by attention seeking. Additionally, the instructor can provide feedback to the student during the writing process, to ensure that the content is maximally instructive to the class. There are also ethical considerations to student disclosure, which are discussed later.

Another option is for instructors to invite guest speakers who live with mental illness, who work for an organization such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness ( NAMI, 2010 ), or who work as mental health clinicians. Having a speaker share her or his own life story and the recovery process can provide information in an accessible manner. It can also be useful to have a practitioner talk about her or his work with people with a mental illness, particularly if the course instructor does not have current clinical experience. University resources, such as a counseling center, student health center, or disability support services office, are potential sources for a clinician guest speaker, providing the dual benefit of teaching students about the treatment of mental illness and raising students’ awareness about the on-campus counseling center.

Published autobiographies written by people who have experienced mental illness or case studies written by clinicians can provide yet another way for students to learn from “real-life” information ( Norcross et al., 2001 ). An added benefit is that autobiographies or case studies avoid some of the aforementioned potential pitfalls of student self-disclosure ( Yager, 2007 ). Several studies suggest that students respond positively to incorporating autobiographies into classroom learning. Norcross and colleagues (2001) found that when autobiographies were used to supplement teaching material, students reported appreciating this style of teaching and believed that the autobiographies enhanced their understanding of mental illness. The authors assert that, for the first time, students experienced psychopathology as a “continuum of normal traits” and commented that the autobiographies “transformed mental disorders from something unfathomable and bizarre in strangers to something understandable and familiar in fellow humans” (p. 127). Banyard (2000) provides students’ qualitative responses to the use of autobiographies as a teaching tool. Students reported that autobiographies “… made it easier to understand the disorder seeing it from an actual patient’s point of view ;… made me realize how a disorder affects one’s sense of self and lifestyle; the readings in the (text) book were effective in portraying the facts … but to gain a clear understanding I needed to be able to empathize … absolutely need a combination of both types of reading” (p.42).

In an experimental investigation of the impact of using a narrative approach, Mann and Himelein (2008) compared a “diagnostic approach” lecture (students learned the DSM-IV criteria, read excerpts written by clinicians, viewed a third-person-perspective video, and participated in a diagnostic task of identifying the disorder based on a ambiguous case) with a “humanizing approach” lecture that utilized first-person narratives, first-person video documentary, and a poetry assignment, where students were instructed to write from the perspective of someone with a mental illness. Students in the narrative-infused classroom showed a significant decrease in stigma in comparison to those in the “diagnostic approach” classroom.

There are several ways in which instructors can use films and other media in the Abnormal Psychology classroom. For example, they can use educational films, news articles, clips from the popular media, and other sources to teach about particular disorders, provide a humanistic and historical perspective of mental illness, or assist in the process of reducing stigmatization and promoting empathy toward the mentally ill.

The inclusion of media portrayals of mental illness can provide an engaging and memorable way to convey information and spur discussion. They can also have the additional benefit of reducing stigma and misperceptions ( Hyler, Gabbard, & Schneider, 1991 ), and increasing empathy toward people with mental illness ( Heston & Kottman, 1997 ; Schulenberg, 2003 ; Wedding & Niemiec, 2003 ). According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s ( U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999 ) report, stigma is the number-one barrier to mental health treatment. Stigma is almost certainly enhanced by inaccurate depictions of mental illness in the media, a potential pitfall that will be discussed more fully later in the section on ethics. Given the detrimental effects of stigma, abnormal psychology courses can use the media to not only highlight the problems of stigma, but also increase empathy in students.

It is important, however, to choose examples in a thoughtful manner to avoid inadvertently perpetuating stereotypes, and to include assignments that explicitly challenge media sensationalization and misinformation. For this reason, we encourage instructors to use media portrayals of mental illness that have been suggested by reputable sources whenever possible. For example, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology’s Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology publishes several peer-reviewed film resources on its Web site, including Nelson’s (2006)   Using Film to Teach Psychology: A Resource of Film Study Guides ( http://teachpsych.org/otrp/resources/nelson06.pdf/ ). There are also texts that identify films useful for teaching abnormal psychology (e.g. Wedding, Boyd, & Niemiec, 2010 ). Furthermore, instructors might utilize publisher-produced videos that accompany the textbook.

Instructors might also assign students to find media clips or articles, and connect this activity to information literacy. For example, Connor-Greene (1993) assigned students to locate newspaper or magazine articles that report psychological research and compare the media coverage with the write-up in the original source (i.e., the published journal article). Such an activity can spur students to be critical consumers of information, learning that the popular press is not necessarily a reliable source. Further, students can learn about the problems that derive from generalizing beyond anecdotal examples presented in media sources and from assuming a causal understanding based on limited information ( Connor-Greene, 2001 ).

In contrast to the problems with the popular media, educational films tend to provide material and facts that are more directly grounded in research. Because educational films hew closer to the facts than many mass media sources, they tend to avoid misleading exaggerations. However, successful use of educational media still requires careful planning in choosing films, providing opportunities for classroom discussion about the movie content and reactions, and drawing connections to the assigned academic readings ( Hudock & Werden, 2001 ; Maynard, 1996 ; Rosenstock, 2003 ).

There is evidence that students value the inclusion of educational films. For example, one study investigating a two-part classroom session, with a lecture in the beginning of the class followed by an educational film, showed positive findings incorporating film to supplement the lecture. Inclusion of film engaged students in thought-provoking discussions and was a useful didactic vehicle for conveying a wide range of psychological information. Students reported a better understanding about psychopathology and showed an increased appreciation for how educational films influence our thinking about mental illness ( Fleming, Piedmont, & Hiam, 1990 )

Additionally, the type of media can impact student learning outcomes. For example, in one study, Corrigan, Larson, Sells, Niessen, & Watts (2007) sought to examine the differences in stigmatizing perceptions in participants who viewed either a 10-minute video of a person with mental illness receiving an intervention or a 10-minute educational video narrated by the same person. Participants who viewed the education video showed an increased willingness to acknowledge that people with mental illness are not to blame for their symptoms and disabilities, whereas those in the intervention video showed increased empathy ( Corrigan et al., 2007 ).

Simulation of mental illness.

In addition to providing students with examples of others’ experiences with mental illness, simulation exercises can help students to develop a greater understanding of the symptoms and impact of mental illness and can foster empathy among students ( Chaffin & Adams, 2012 ; Banks et al., 2004 ; Mantovani, Castelnuovo, Gaggioli, & Riva, 2003 ). For example, in one study of disability broadly defined ( Wurst & Wolford, 1994 ), nondisabled students were asked to choose one of four types of disabilities, and then to enact that role for the day—a visual impairment that simulated macular degeneration (using light-filtered glasses that blocked the central visual field), a hearing deficit (using sound-reducing earplugs), a motor disability (using a wheelchair or crutches), or a psychological disability (not talking for the day). Regardless of the specific disability, students noted the adverse effects of having these disabilities and the challenges of routine tasks that students previously took for granted; moreover, they exhibited an increase in emotional empathy and appreciation for people with disabilities.

Another new technology-based pedagogical technique involves Virtual Reality (VR) Simulators in which participants experience delusions and hallucinations as part of a simulated psychotic episode. Students involved in one study of VR ( Tichon, Loh, & King, 2004 ) described the simulation as more effective than verbal descriptions in creating an understanding of hallucinations. More than 80 percent of students exposed to the VR software found this to be a positive experience and agreed that VR successfully facilitated their learning about schizophrenia. Learning by using technology to understand and experience these diagnoses also may promote the development of empathy and awareness ( Tichon, Loh, & King, 2004 ).

However, a synthesis of 10 studies examined the effects of using simulation of hallucinations to reduce stigma, and found mixed results ( Ando, Clement, Barley & Thornicroft, 2011 ). Although empathy toward those suffering from hallucination increased in some studies, the desire for social distance from people with schizophrenia ( Ando, et al., 2011 ) and stigma also increased ( Brown, 2010 ; Brown, Yolanda, Espenschade, & O’Connor, 2010 ). Furthermore, these studies only show the impact of simulation use on attitudes toward the mentally ill and not on behavioral stigma outcomes (e.g., social interaction and care of people with schizophrenia).

These finding suggests that the use of simulations as part of an effective curriculum is inconclusive and needs additional evaluation for efficacy. Brown and colleagues (2010) noted that simulations are effective when they are personal and contextual; are enjoyable; do not cause discomfort; and are supplemented with other forms of intervention, such as education or contact. Clearly, additional efficacy research is warranted. Further, students should also be cautioned that a brief experience with a disability simulation represents only a glimpse of the actual experience of living with a disability.

An additional beneficial approach for familiarizing students with mental illness is role-playing. Role-playing has been shown to change students’ perceptions of negative stereotypes of people with psychological disorders and increase empathy toward this vulnerable population ( Anderson, Gundersen, Banken, Halvorson, & Schmutte, 1989 ). In a typical role-play activity, students choose a psychological disorder, research its symptoms, depict its characteristics by writing a brief biography, and then role-play the character(s) to the rest of the class. Following role-play, Poorman (2002) observed an increase in students’ self-reported empathy with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index ( Davis, 1980 ), a finding that was supported by interviews from focus groups. Specifically, students, on average, developed an improved understanding of psychopathology, decreased judgmental attitudes, and increased sympathy toward those with mental illness.

Evaluation of student academic performance.

Although many instructors utilize traditional methods of assessment, the content and goals of an abnormal psychology course also lend themselves to less common approaches. For most of our assignments, but especially those that are atypical in structure or objectives, we include grading rubrics to help students understand expectations and to provide clear feedback on their work. (See http://www.williamaltman.info/Bill_Projects/Rubrics.html/ for suggestions regarding rubrics.)

As mentioned previously, cases (real or fictional) of people with psychological disorders can be used for both in-class exercises and take-home assignments. To provide opportunities for students to apply diagnostic criteria, instructors can select a case (or allow them to select one on their own from the popular media) for students to “diagnose.” In addition to enhancing understanding of specific diagnoses, these assignments can highlight some of the challenges inherent in diagnosis, including the requirements for symptom duration or the subjectivity involved in determining if a person’s behavior meets the “impairment” criterion. A diagnostic assignment can also work well as a final, integrative paper, in which students apply and evaluate multiple concepts discussed during the course (e.g., assessment methods, theoretical orientations, treatment approaches). Cases can typically be found in textbooks; moreover, most publishers offer stand-alone texts that present case examples. Case authors often provide related critical thinking questions, which could be used either for class discussion or as an assessment of student comprehension. In addition to written cases, most textbooks provide ancillary video interviews of people with psychological disorders that can be used either in class or for a take-home assignment.

As we discussed earlier, teaching abnormal psychology can provide opportunities to assess critical thinking in the context of the numerous “controversial” issues that invite debate and evaluation. Textbook series such as “Taking Sides” from McGraw-Hill has an edition focused on abnormal psychology (see Halgin, 2013 ). Two sides of a controversial issue are presented with related discussion/critical thinking questions. Students can write reaction/response papers to the readings where they evaluate the different arguments, provide and defend their own opinions, and cite research to support their stance. Additionally, as noted earlier related to Gender Identity Disorder/Gender Dysphoria diagnoses, public radio often airs “human interest” stories that involve questions related to psychopathology. Students could be assigned a podcast and be asked to evaluate the content with regard to accuracy, and type and strength of arguments.

We also discussed activities in which students critically evaluate the popular media’s presentation of psychological issues. To assess students’ development in information literacy, instructors can evaluate their ability to evaluate media portrayals in light of research and theory covered in class. For instance, instructors can lead students through in-class activities where they find psychology-related popular press articles from reputable news sources (the Newseum website provides links to daily newspaper front pages from around the world http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/default.asp/ ). Class discussion might focus on evaluating an article with respect to course concepts, such as diagnostic controversies, new treatment approaches, and ethical issues. On exams, students can then read and critically evaluate a brief, novel article in ways that parallel the previous class discussion. For example, students might read an article on someone who has been involuntarily committed, and discuss the individual situation in light of the pros and cons outlined in class. Then, on the exam, an article on a different person might be presented for students to review and comment. In addition to traditional approaches to evaluation of student learning, instructors can take advantage of the numerous ways to apply abnormal psychology to real-world experiences.

In addition to issues related to content and pedagogy, teaching abnormal psychology raises particular ethical and procedural considerations— considerations often not found in other courses in psychology and other disciplines. Most importantly, abnormal psychology courses commonly include activities that provide exposure to mental illness in the “real-world.” Such activities introduce concerns related to voluntary participation on the part of the student as well as competence to consent to involvement in exercises where people with mental illness are involved. Additionally, such activities can touch on issues of confidentiality, as well as whether the activities actually lead to the intended learning outcomes, such as the reduction of stigma. Lastly, given the prevalence of mental health symptoms in the United States ( U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999 ), course content might overlap with issues directly and currently impacting students’ lives. This can lead to challenges in managing classroom behaviors and in effectively addressing students’ personal concerns.

Competence.

Although competence to teach specific content is relevant to any teaching situation, abnormal psychology courses are typically taught by current or former clinicians and by clinicians in training. Although this is the convention, that should not preclude instructors from other disciplines within psychology from teaching the course. In one study, students reported generally positive ratings when their abnormal psychology class was taught by an experimental psychologist ( Smith, 1989 ). For instructors who are concerned about whether they have the expertise to teach abnormal psychology, Sieracki (2009) provides several tips. Although the article, included in the Reference list later, focuses somewhat on clinical graduate students and new instructors, instructors from nonclinical fields might also find the suggestions useful.

Issues of informed consent.

Abnormal psychology courses lend themselves to experiential activities that, although typically interesting to students, can raise ethical concerns related to participation. In the same way that researchers are required to obtain informed consent from subjects, instructors might consider obtaining “informed consent” from students when they are asked to participate in activities that might be distressing, such as visiting a psychiatric facility or participating in in-class activities, such as sharing personal information or participating in pseudo-therapeutic activities. Students should always understand that their participation is voluntary and be afforded opportunities for alternate assignments, particularly if activities are related to grades ( Canu, 2008 ; Scogin & Rickard, 1987 ; Witting, Perkins, Balogh, Whitley, & Keith-Spiegel, 1999 ). When applicable, instructors should prepare students for the possibility of distress ( Scogin & Rickard, 1987 ) and have appropriate interventions prepared ( Canu, 2008 ).

As described in the previous section on pedagogy, introduction of personal accounts by those with mental illness can enhance students’ understanding of specific diagnostic content as well as decrease stigma toward those with psychological disorders ( Banyard, 2000 , Mann & Himelein, 2008 ). This is typically achieved through case literature and videos. Although we assume that consent was obtained from publishers who produce videos of people providing autobiographical accounts of their experiences, it can be useful to discuss relevant issues with students. Connections can be made between ethical discussions of competency to stand trial and competency to consent to share one’s experience for educational purposes.

For instance, if an instructor shows a video of a person experiencing psychotic symptoms, the class might discuss whether consent was obtained when the person was not symptomatic? Additionally, although students typically enjoy case material provided by instructors with clinical experience, ensuring the confidentiality of patients can be challenging, especially in small communities ( Halonen, 2005 ). Instructors might consider getting consent from their patients if they plan on discussing them in any depth during class. When there is any doubt related to confidentiality and consent of the patients being discussed, the instructor should err on the side of discussing published cases rather than her or his own experiences.

Impacting stigma.

As discussed earlier, prior studies suggest that exposure to those with mental health symptoms can reduce stigma (e.g., Banyard, 2000 ; Mann & Himelein, 2008 ; Wurst & Wolford, 1994 ), but stigma-reducing activities can also have unintended negative consequences (e.g. Brown, 2010 ). Limited research suggests that activities that emphasize learning about specific people and that focus on discussion and empathy building might be particularly effective ( Mann & Himelein, 2008 ). Regardless, instructors incorporating simulations, first-person accounts, and the like should use caution and examine the existing literature regarding potential impacts of various pedagogical approaches ( Brown, 2010 ).

Considering stigma is particularly important when utilizing popular media. As noted earlier in the section on pedagogy, accounts in the popular media can also provide challenges related to their negative portrayals of mental illness. In addition to inaccuracies with new media, films and television shows depicting mental illness are generally created for entertainment rather than educational purposes. As a consequence, depictions of people with mental illness are often incorrect or misleading ( Wahl, 1995 ), and are likely to emphasize disturbing characteristics, such as dangerousness ( Wedding & Niemiec, 2003 ). For example, Signorielli (1989) found that more than 70 percent of mentally ill characters in television dramas were depicted, either explicitly or implicitly, as committing acts of violence. This statistic contrasts with the fact that 92 percent of people with mental illnesses never show any signs of violence and only 4 percent of murderers show signs of psychological disturbance ( Swanson, Holzer, Ganju, & Jono, 1990 ). Mental health professionals also tend to be portrayed inaccurately (e.g., they are typically psychiatrists) or as incompetent ( Wedding & Niemiec, 2003 ).

Issues related to students’ own experiences.

In addition to learning more about the experiences of strangers with mental health issues, students in an abnormal psychology class might have their own direct experience with mental illness. The likely presence of students’ prior experiences raises ethical questions about the potential harm related to learning course material, including potentially insensitive comments by classmates and distress related to the personalization of course content. For example, students might become concerned that they or a close friend or family member has a mental illness. Limited data suggest a complex picture; learning about mental disorders has been associated with a decrease in student concern about their own likelihood of having a disorder but a possible increase in concern related to mental illness among family members ( Curtin, Martz, Bazzini, & Vicente, 2004 ; Hardy & Calhoun, 1997 ). To address any concerns a student might have about developing a disorder, instructors can try to emphasize that, in terms of genetics, probabilities do not mean certainties for the development of psychological disorders ( Connor-Greene, 2001 ). Publicizing campus and community resources can also empower students who have concerns about the mental health of themselves or family members ( Hardy & Calhoun, 1997 ).

Classroom management.

As previously stated, many of the topics related to abnormal psychology are intrinsically interesting to students, and often have personal relevance. Informal classroom discussions can be compelling and expand students’ understanding of mental health; however, they can raise classroom management concerns. Instructors should exercise caution that the entertainment aspect does not supersede the educational value ( Halonen, 2005 ) or that classmates are not made uncomfortable by inappropriate personal disclosures ( Perlman, 2007 ). In addition to redirecting discussions that begin to lose their educational value, instructors can suggest meeting individually with students who have difficulty identifying content that is appropriate for class discussion ( Perlman, 2007 ).

A situation in which a student has difficulties with in-class boundaries can be particularly challenging when a student is actively experiencing mental health symptoms that impact his or her classroom behavior. It creates a dilemma for an instructor who wants to be sensitive to the student in question but does not want the situation to negatively impact the rest of the class, either by making other students uncomfortable or consuming teaching time ( Halgin, 1982 ). Speaking with the student outside of class can help the instructor ascertain the student’s awareness of their behavior and any treatment the student might be receiving ( Goss, 1995 ; Halgin, 1982 ). A meeting with the student out of class can also facilitate referral to appropriate treatment resources if warranted (see later).

To manage in-class behaviors, instructors might selectively ignore the student or have another instructor sit with the student during class ( Goss, 1995 ). Halgin (1982) describes a situation in which a student with a thought disorder created regular classroom disruption. During a private meeting with the instructor, the student agreed to consider the educational benefit of his comments before contributing. The student was relatively successful throughout the semester, and the instructor only needed to remind him once about their agreement. In addition, instructors should contact campus mental health professionals directly if they have safety concerns related to a student’s behavior in or out of class ( Goss, 1995 ).

Students might also bring mental health concerns directly to the faculty member teaching the course, including concerns about their own vulnerabilities for certain disorders ( Halonen, 2002 ) or more direct requests for assistance from the instructor for themselves or family members. Although abnormal psychology courses can help students in their personal growth and development, the line between the coursework and “therapy” can become blurred, particularly if instructors have difficulty clarifying boundaries for students ( Halonen, 2002 ).

Perlman (2007) suggests using the APA’s ethics code ( APA, 2002 ) as a guide for interacting with students. For instance, in adhering to principles such as beneficence and nonmaleficence, and fidelity and responsibility, instructors should prioritize listening attentively and demonstrating caring when addressing student concerns. However, instructors should recognize the limits to their role, avoid a situation in which they take on a dual relationship (i.e., instructor, therapist) in a student’s life, and refer students to appropriate campus organizations ( Hardy & Calhoun, 1997 ; Keith-Spiegel, 1994 ; Perlman, 2007 ). Additionally, although safety issues take precedence if a student might pose a danger to themselves or others, “People’s Rights and Dignity” highlights the importance of respecting students’ privacy and confidentiality regarding sharing personal information that students disclose (see Perlman, 2007 for specific suggestions when students present with severe problems).

Although many suggest minimizing interactions with students with mental health concerns, Halgin (1982) asserts that teaching is not restricted to the classroom, and a “limited involvement” approach can positively impact students in nonacademic ways. For instructors choosing limited involvement, Halgin emphasizes an accurate assessment of one’s own competence related to possible clinical interventions, and the importance of identifying possible ethical and liability concerns.

Limitations of an undergraduate course.

Lastly, even in a course that emphasizes accuracy of information and effectively manages challenges related to discussing mental health content, students can be overconfident when applying the information they have learned to real-world experiences. They might overestimate their ability to diagnose and advise, with possible impacts on their personal relationships ( Halonen, 2005 ). Instructors can remind students that experiences in an abnormal psychology class do not qualify them to act as mental health professionals and that professional clinicians use complex methodologies to diagnose and treat ( Tomcho, Wolfe, & Foels, 2006 ). Additionally, emphasizing psychology’s scientific values, such as healthy skepticism and reliance on empiricism to make decisions can help students understand their own limits ( Halonen, 2005 ). Psychology courses, however, rarely provide explicit instruction for how to actively apply course-related material in daily life ( Pury, 2003 ). Providing exercises for students to practice how to respond if those in their lives ask questions or experience symptoms (e.g., refer them to a mental health professional; Pury, 2003 ) can help students apply the skills they have learned while being cognizant of their limitations.

In summary, we hope you enjoy teaching abnormal psychology, one of our favorite courses to teach. In this chapter, we first discussed the content of the typical abnormal psychology course, encouraging instructors to narrow their focus rather than covering the entire textbook and to consider including current topics such as positive psychology and controversies with the DSM ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ). We next discussed pedagogy that is unique to the abnormal psychology course, including the use of autobiographical narratives to better understand psychopathology, incorporating film and media in providing humanistic and historical perspective of mental disorders, and using simulations to improve attitudes toward mental illness.

Finally, we outlined ethical considerations, some of which are particularly relevant to abnormal psychology; these included suggestions to manage content that might have emotional implications for students, connect topics in the course with the APA ethics code (e.g., informed consent, fidelity and responsibility), and manage students’ beliefs regarding their own clinical expertise after taking an undergraduate class. We hope these discussions will help you achieve the learning objectives you outlined for your course, and leave your students with knowledge, skills, and critical thinking tools that will help them navigate mental health issues they encounter in their lives.

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• Anxiety Disorders (includes Panic Disorder, OCD, PTSD, and Phobias) by Nicole Warner, PhD Last Updated Feb 20, 2024 27 views this year
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Module 1: What is Abnormal Psychology?

3rd edition as of July 2023

Module Overview

Cassie is an 18-year-old female from suburban Seattle, WA. She was a successful student in high school, graduating valedictorian and obtaining a National Merit Scholarship for her performance on the PSAT during her junior year. She was accepted to a university on the opposite side of the state, where she received additional scholarships giving her a free ride for her entire undergraduate education. Excited to start this new chapter in her life, Cassie’s parents begin the 5-hour commute to Pullman, where they will leave their only daughter for the first time in her life.

The semester begins as it always does in mid to late August. Cassie meets the challenge with enthusiasm and does well in her classes for the first few weeks of the semester, as expected. Sometime around Week 6, her friends notice she is despondent, detached, and falling behind in her work. After being asked about her condition, she replies that she is “just a bit homesick,” and her friends accept this answer as it is a typical response to leaving home and starting college for many students. A month later, her condition has not improved but worsened. She now regularly shirks her responsibilities around her apartment, in her classes, and on her job. Cassie does not hang out with friends like she did when she first arrived for college and stays in bed most of the day. Concerned, Cassie’s friends contact Health and Wellness for help.

Cassie’s story, though hypothetical, is true of many Freshmen leaving home for the first time to earn a higher education, whether in rural Washington state or urban areas such as Chicago and Dallas. Most students recover from this depression and go on to be functional members of their collegiate environment and accomplished scholars. Some students learn to cope on their own while others seek assistance from their university’s health and wellness center or from friends who have already been through the same ordeal. These are normal reactions. However, in cases like Cassie’s, the path to recovery is not as clear. Instead of learning how to cope, their depression increases until it reaches clinical levels and becomes an impediment to success in multiple domains of life such as home, work, school, and social circles.

In Module 1, we will explore what it means to display abnormal behavior, what mental disorders are, and the way society views mental illness today and how it has been regarded throughout history. Then we will review research methods used by psychologists in general and how they are adapted to study abnormal behavior/mental disorders. We will conclude with an overview of what mental health professionals do.

Module Outline

1.1. Understanding Abnormal Behavior

1.2. classifying mental disorders, 1.3. the stigma of mental illness, 1.4. the history of mental illness, 1.5. research methods in psychopathology, 1.6. mental health professionals, societies, and journals.

Module Learning Outcomes

• Explain what it means to display abnormal behavior.
• Clarify how mental health professionals classify mental disorders.
• Describe the effect of stigma on those who have a mental illness.
• Outline the history of mental illness.
• Describe the research methods used to study abnormal behavior and mental illness.
• Identify types of mental health professionals, societies they may join, and journals they can publish their work in.

Section Learning Objectives

• Describe the disease model and its impact on the field of psychology throughout history.
• Describe positive psychology.
• Define abnormal behavior.
• Explain the concept of dysfunction as it relates to mental illness.
• Explain the concept of distress as it relates to mental illness.
• Explain the concept of deviance as it relates to mental illness.
• Explain the concept of dangerousness as it relates to mental illness.
• Define culture and social norms.
• Clarify the cost of mental illness on society.
• Define abnormal psychology, psychopathology, and mental disorders.

1.1.1. Understanding Abnormal Behavior

To understand what abnormal behavior is, we first have to understand what normal behavior is. Normal really is in the eye of the beholder, and most psychologists have found it easier to explain what is wrong with people then what is right. How so?

Psychology worked with the disease model for over 60 years, from about the late 1800s into the middle part of the 20th century. The focus was simple – curing mental disorders – and included such pioneers as Freud, Adler, Klein, Jung, and Erickson. These names are synonymous with the psychoanalytical school of thought. In the 1930s, behaviorism, under B.F. Skinner, presented a new view of human behavior. Simply, human behavior could be modified if the correct combination of reinforcements and punishments were used. This viewpoint espoused the dominant worldview of the time – mechanism – which presented the world as a great machine explained through the principles of physics and chemistry. In it, human beings serve as smaller machines in the larger machine of the universe.

Moving into the mid to late 1900s, we developed a more scientific investigation of mental illness, which allowed us to examine the roles of both nature and nurture and to develop drug and psychological treatments to “make miserable people less miserable.” Though this was an improvement, there were three consequences as pointed out by Martin Seligman in his 2008 TED Talk entitled, “The new era of positive psychology.” These are:

• “The first was moral; that psychologists and psychiatrists became victimologists, pathologizers; that our view of human nature was that if you were in trouble, bricks fell on you. And we forgot that people made choices and decisions. We forgot responsibility. That was the first cost.”
• “The second cost was that we forgot about you people. We forgot about improving normal lives. We forgot about a mission to make relatively untroubled people happier, more fulfilled, more productive. And “genius,” “high-talent,” became a dirty word. No one works on that.”
• “And the third problem about the disease model is, in our rush to do something about people in trouble, in our rush to do something about repairing damage, it never occurred to us to develop interventions to make people happier — positive interventions.”

Starting in the 1960s, figures such as Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers sought to overcome the limitations of psychoanalysis and behaviorism by establishing a “third force” psychology, also known as humanistic psychology. As Maslow said,

“The science of psychology has been far more successful on the negative than on the positive side; it has revealed to us much about man’s shortcomings, his illnesses, his sins, but little about his potentialities, his virtues, his achievable aspirations, or his full psychological height. It is as if psychology had voluntarily restricted itself to only half its rightful jurisdiction, and that the darker, meaner half.” (Maslow, 1954, p. 354).

Humanistic psychology instead addressed the full range of human functioning and focused on personal fulfillment, valuing feelings over intellect, hedonism, a belief in human perfectibility, emphasis on the present, self-disclosure, self-actualization, positive regard, client centered therapy, and the hierarchy of needs. Again, these topics were in stark contrast to much of the work being done in the field of psychology up to and at this time.

In 1996, Martin Seligman became the president of the American Psychological Association (APA) and called for a positive psychology or one that had a more positive conception of human potential and nature. Building on Maslow and Roger’s work, he ushered in the scientific study of such topics as happiness, love, hope, optimism, life satisfaction, goal setting, leisure, and subjective well-being. Though positive and humanistic psychology have similarities, their methodology was much different. While humanistic psychology generally relied on qualitative methods, positive psychology utilizes a quantitative approach and aims to help people make the most out of life’s setbacks, relate well to others, find fulfillment in creativity, and find lasting meaning and satisfaction ( https://www.positivepsychologyinstitute.com.au/what-is-positive-psychology ).

So, to understand what normal behavior is, do we look to positive psychology for an indication, or do we first define abnormal behavior and then reverse engineer a definition of what normal is? Our preceding discussion gave suggestions about what normal behavior is, but could the darker elements of our personality also make up what is normal to some extent? Possibly. The one truth is that no matter what behavior we display, if taken to the extreme, it can become disordered – whether trying to control others through social influence or helping people in an altruistic fashion. As such, we can consider abnormal behavior to be a combination of personal distress, psychological dysfunction, deviance from social norms, dangerousness to self and others, and costliness to society.

1.1.2. How Do We Determine What Abnormal Behavior Is?

In the previous section we showed that what we might consider normal behavior is difficult to define. Equally challenging is understanding what abnormal behavior is, which may be surprising to you. A publication which you will become intimately familiar with throughout this book, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR; 2022), states that, “Although no definition can capture all aspects of the range of disorders contained in DSM-5″ (pg. 13) certain aspects are required. These include:

• Dysfunction – Includes “clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning” (pg. 14). Abnormal behavior, therefore, has the capacity to make well-being difficult to obtain and can be assessed by looking at an individual’s current performance and comparing it to what is expected in general or how the person has performed in the past. As such, a good employee who suddenly demonstrates poor performance may be experiencing an environmental demand leading to stress and ineffective coping mechanisms. Once the demand resolves itself, the person’s performance should return to normal according to this principle.
• Distress – When the person experiences a disabling condition “in social, occupational, or other important activities” (pg. 14). Distress can take the form of psychological or physical pain, or both concurrently. Alone though, distress is not sufficient enough to describe behavior as abnormal. Why is that? The loss of a loved one would cause even the most “normally” functioning individual pain. An athlete who experiences a career-ending injury would display distress as well. Suffering is part of life and cannot be avoided. And some people who exhibit abnormal behavior are generally positive while doing so.
• Deviance – Closer examination of the word abnormal indicates a move away from what is normal, or the mean (i.e., what would be considered average and in this case in relation to behavior), and so is behavior that infrequently occurs (sort of an outlier in our data). Our culture , or the totality of socially transmitted behaviors, customs, values, technology, attitudes, beliefs, art, and other products that are particular to a group, determines what is normal. Thus, a person is said to be deviant when he or she fails to follow the stated and unstated rules of society, called social norms . Social norms change over time due to shifts in accepted values and expectations. For instance, homosexuality was taboo in the U.S. just a few decades ago, but today, it is generally accepted. Likewise, PDAs, or public displays of affection, do not cause a second look by most people unlike the past when these outward expressions of love were restricted to the privacy of one’s own house or bedroom. In the U.S., crying is generally seen as a weakness for males. However, if the behavior occurs in the context of a tragedy such as the Vegas mass shooting on October 1, 2017, in which 58 people were killed and about 500 were wounded while attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival, then it is appropriate and understandable. Finally, consider that statistically deviant behavior is not necessarily negative. Genius is an example of behavior that is not the norm.

Though not part of the DSM conceptualization of what abnormal behavior is, many clinicians add dangerousness to this list when behavior represents a threat to the safety of the person or others. It is important to note that having a mental disorder does not imply a person is automatically dangerous. The depressed or anxious individual is often no more a threat than someone who is not depressed, and as Hiday and Burns (2010) showed, dangerousness is more the exception than the rule.  Still, mental health professionals have a duty to report to law enforcement when a mentally disordered individual expresses intent to harm another person or themselves. It is important to point out that people seen as dangerous are also not automatically mentally ill.

1.1.3. The Costs of Mental Illness

This leads us to wonder what the cost of mental illness is to society. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) states that mental illness affects a person’s life which then ripples out to the family, community, and world. For instance, people with serious mental illness are at increased risk for diabetes, cancer, and cardiometabolic disease while 18% of those with a mental illness also have a substance use disorder. Within the family, an estimated 8.4 million Americans provide care to an adult with an emotional or mental illness with caregivers spending about 32 hours a week providing unpaid care. At the community level 21% of the homeless also have a serious mental illness while 70% of youth in the juvenile justice system have at least one mental health condition. And finally, depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide and depression and anxiety disorders cost the global economy $1 trillion each year in lost productivity (Source: NAMI, The Ripple Effect of Mental Illness infographic; https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-By-the-Numbers ).

In terms of worldwide impact, data from 2010 estimates $2.5 trillion in global costs, with $1.7 trillion being indirect costs (i.e., invisible costs “associated with income losses due to mortality, disability, and care seeking, including lost production due to work absence or early retirement”) and the remainder being direct (i.e., visible costs to include “medication, physician visits, psychotherapy sessions, hospitalization,” etc.). It is now projected that mental illness costs will be around $16 trillion by 2030. The authors add, “It should be noted that these calculations did not include costs associated with mental disorders from outside the healthcare system, such as legal costs caused by illicit drug abuse” (Trautmann, Rehm, & Wittchen, 2016). The costs for mental illness have also been found to be greater than the combined costs of somatic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and respiratory disorders (Whiteford et al., 2013).

Christensen et al. (2020) did a review of 143 cost-of-illness studies that covered 48 countries and several types of mental illness. Their results showed that mental disorders are a substantial economic burden for societies and that certain groups of mental disorders are more costly than others. At the higher cost end were developmental disorders to include autism spectrum disorders followed by schizophrenia and intellectual disabilities. They write, “However, it is important to note that while disorders such as mood, neurotic and substance use disorders were less costly according to societal cost per patient, these disorders are much more prevalent and thus would contribute substantially to the total national cost in a country.” And much like Trautmann, Rehm, & Wittchen (2016) other studies show that indirect costs are higher than direct costs (Jin & Mosweu, 2017; Chong et al., 2016).

1.1.4. Defining Key Terms

Our discussion so far has concerned what normal and abnormal behavior is. We saw that the study of normal behavior falls under the providence of positive psychology. Similarly, the scientific study of abnormal behavior, with the intent to be able to predict reliably, explain, diagnose, identify the causes of, and treat maladaptive behavior, is what we refer to as abnormal psychology . Abnormal behavior can become pathological and has led to the scientific study of psychological disorders, or psychopathology . From our previous discussion we can fashion the following definition of a psychological or mental disorder: mental disorders are characterized by psychological dysfunction, which causes physical and/or psychological distress or impaired functioning, and is not an expected behavior according to societal or cultural standards.

Key Takeaways

You should have learned the following in this section:

• Abnormal behavior is a combination of personal distress, psychological dysfunction, deviance from social norms, dangerousness to self and others, and costliness to society.
• Abnormal psychology is the scientific study of abnormal behavior, with the intent to be able to predict reliably, explain, diagnose, identify the causes of, and treat maladaptive behavior.
• The study of psychological disorders is called psychopathology.
• Mental disorders are characterized by psychological dysfunction, which causes physical and/or psychological distress or impaired functioning, and is not an expected behavior according to societal or cultural standards

Section 1.1 Review Questions

• What is the disease model and what problems existed with it? What was to overcome its limitations?
• Can we adequately define normal behavior? What about abnormal behavior?
• What aspects are part of the American Psychiatric Association’s definition of abnormal behavior?
• How costly is mental illness?
• What is abnormal psychology?
• What is psychopathology?
• How do we define mental disorders?
• Define and exemplify classification.
• Define nomenclature.
• Define epidemiology.
• Define the presenting problem and clinical description.
• Differentiate prevalence, incidence, and any subtypes.
• Define comorbidity.
• Define etiology.
• Define course.
• Define prognosis.
• Define treatment.

1.2.1. Classification

Classification is not a foreign concept and as a student you have likely taken at least one biology class that discussed the taxonomic classification system of Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species revolutionized by Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus.  You probably even learned a witty mnemonic such as ‘King Phillip, Come Out For Goodness Sake’ to keep the order straight. The Library of Congress uses classification to organize and arrange their book collections and includes such categories as B – Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion; H – Social Sciences; N – Fine Arts; Q – Science; R – Medicine; and T – Technology.

Simply, classification is how we organize or categorize things. The second author’s wife has been known to color-code her Blu Ray collection by genre, movie title, and release date. It is useful for us to do the same with abnormal behavior, and classification provides us with a nomenclature , or naming system, to structure our understanding of mental disorders in a meaningful way. Of course, we want to learn as much as we can about a given disorder so we can understand its cause, predict its future occurrence, and develop ways to treat it.

1.2.2. Determining Occurrence of a Disorder

Epidemiology is the scientific study of the frequency and causes of diseases and other health-related states in specific populations such as a school, neighborhood, a city, country, and the world. Psychiatric or mental health epidemiology refers to the occurrence of mental disorders in a population. In mental health facilities, we say that a patient presents with a specific problem, or the presenting problem , and we give a clinical description of it, which includes information about the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that constitute that mental disorder. We also seek to gain information about the occurrence of the disorder, its cause, course, and treatment possibilities.

Occurrence can be investigated in several ways. First, prevalence is the percentage of people in a population that has a mental disorder or can be viewed as the number of cases divided by the total number of people in the sample. For instance, if 20 people out of 100 have bipolar disorder, then the prevalence rate is 20%. Prevalence can be measured in several ways:

• Point prevalence indicates the proportion of a population that has the characteristic at a specific point in time. In other words, it is the number of active cases.
• Period prevalence indicates the proportion of a population that has the characteristic at any point during a given period of time, typically the past year.
• Lifetime prevalence indicates the proportion of a population that has had the characteristic at any time during their lives.

According to a 2020 infographic by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), for U.S. adults, 1 in 5 experienced a mental illness, 1 in 20 had a serious mental illness, 1 in 15 experienced both a substance use disorder and mental disorder, and over 12 million had serious thoughts of suicide (2020 Mental Health By the Numbers: US Adults infographic). In terms of adolescents aged 12-17, in 2020 1 in 6 experienced a major depressive episode, 3 million had serious thoughts of suicide, and there was a 31% increase in mental health-related emergency department visits. Among U.S. young adults aged 18-25, 1 in 3 experienced a mental illness, 1 in 10 had a serious mental illness, and 3.8 had serious thoughts of suicide (2020 Mental Health By the Numbers: Youth and Young Adults infographic). These numbers would represent period prevalence rates during the pandemic, and for the year 2020. In the, You are Not Alone infographic, NAMI reported the following 12-month prevalence rates for U.S. Adults: 19% having an anxiety disorder, 8% having depression, 4% having PTSD, 3% having bipolar disorder, and 1% having schizophrenia.

Source: https://www.nami.org/mhstats

Incidence indicates the number of new cases in a population over a specific period. This measure is usually lower since it does not include existing cases as prevalence does. If you wish to know the number of new cases of social phobia during the past year (going from say Aug 21, 2015 to Aug 20, 2016), you would only count cases that began during this time and ignore cases before the start date, even if people are currently afflicted with the mental disorder. Incidence is often studied by medical and public health officials so that causes can be identified, and future cases prevented.

Finally, comorbidity describes when two or more mental disorders are occurring at the same time and in the same person. The National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) study conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and published in the June 6, 2005 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, sought to discover trends in prevalence, impairment, and service use during the 1990s. The first study, conducted from 1980 to 1985, surveyed 20,000 people from five different geographical regions in the U.S. A second study followed from 1990-1992 and was called the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS). The third study, the NCS-R, used a new nationally representative sample of the U.S. population, and found that 45% of those with one mental disorder met the diagnostic criteria for two or more disorders. The authors also found that the severity of mental illness, in terms of disability, is strongly related to comorbidity, and that substance use disorders often result from disorders such as anxiety and bipolar disorders. The implications of this are significant as services to treat substance abuse and mental disorders are often separate, despite the disorders appearing together.

1.2.3. Other Key Factors Related to Mental Disorders

The etiology is the cause of the disorder. There may be social, biological, or psychological explanations for the disorder which need to be understood to identify the appropriate treatment. Likewise, the effectiveness of a treatment may give some hint at the cause of the mental disorder. More on this in Module 2.

The course of the disorder is its particular pattern. A disorder may be acute , meaning that it lasts a short time, or chronic, meaning it persists for a long time. It can also be classified as time-limited , meaning that recovery will occur after some time regardless of whether any treatment occurs.

Prognosis is the anticipated course the mental disorder will take. A key factor in determining the course is age, with some disorders presenting differently in childhood than adulthood.

Finally, we will discuss several treatment strategies in this book in relation to specific disorders, and in a general fashion in Module 3. Treatment is any procedure intended to modify abnormal behavior into normal behavior. The person suffering from the mental disorder seeks the assistance of a trained professional to provide some degree of relief over a series of therapy sessions. The trained mental health professional may prescribe medication or utilize psychotherapy to bring about this change. Treatment may be sought from the primary care provider, in an outpatient facility, or through inpatient care or hospitalization at a mental hospital or psychiatric unit of a general hospital. According to NAMI, the average delay between symptom onset and treatment is 11 years with 45% of adults with mental illness, 66% of adults with serious mental illness, and 51% of youth with a mental health condition seeking treatment in a given year. They also report that 50% of white, 49% of lesbian/gay and bisexual, 43% of mixed/multiracial, 34% of Hispanic or Latinx, 33% of black, and 23% of Asian adults with a mental health diagnosis received treatment or counseling in the past year (Source: Mental Health Care Matters infographic, https://www.nami.org/mhstats ).

• Classification, or how we organize or categorize things, provides us with a nomenclature, or naming system, to structure our understanding of mental disorders in a meaningful way.
• Epidemiology is the scientific study of the frequency and causes of diseases and other health-related states in specific populations.
• Prevalence is the percentage of people in a population that has a mental disorder or can be viewed as the number of cases divided by the total number of people in the sample.
• Incidence indicates the number of new cases in a population over a specific period.
• Comorbidity describes when two or more mental disorders are occurring at the same time and in the same person.
• The etiology is the cause of a disorder while the course is its particular pattern and can be acute, chronic, or time-limited.
• Prognosis is the anticipated course the mental disorder will take.

Section 1.2 Review Questions

• What is the importance of classification for the study of mental disorders?
• What information does a clinical description include?
• In what ways is occurrence investigated?
• What is the etiology of a mental illness?
• What is the relationship of course and prognosis to one another?
• What is treatment and who seeks it?
• Clarify the importance of social cognition theory in understanding why people do not seek care.
• Define categories and schemas.
• Define stereotypes and heuristics.
• Describe social identity theory and its consequences.
• Differentiate between prejudice and discrimination.
• Contrast implicit and explicit attitudes.
• Explain the concept of stigma and its three forms.
• Define courtesy stigma.
• Describe what the literature shows about stigma.

In the previous section, we discussed the fact that care can be sought out in a variety of ways. The problem is that many people who need care never seek it out. Why is that?  We already know that society dictates what is considered abnormal behavior through culture and social norms, and you can likely think of a few implications of that. But to fully understand society’s role in why people do not seek care, we need to determine the psychological processes underlying this phenomenon in the individual.

Social cognition is the process through which we collect information from the world around us and then interpret it. The collection process occurs through what we know as sensation – or detecting physical energy emitted or reflected by physical objects. Detection occurs courtesy of our eyes, ears, nose, skin and mouth; or via vision, hearing, smell, touch, and taste, respectfully. Once collected, the information is relayed to the brain through the neural impulse where it is processed and interpreted, or meaning is added to this raw sensory data which we call perception .

One way meaning is added is by taking the information we just detected and using it to assign people to categories , or groups. For each category, we have a schema , or a set of beliefs and expectations about a group of people, believed to apply to all members of the group, and based on experience. You might think of them as organized ways of making sense of experience. So, it is during our initial interaction with someone that we collect information about them, assign the person to a category for which we have a schema, and then use that to affect how we interact with them. First impressions, called the primacy effect , are important because even if we obtain new information that should override an incorrect initial assessment, the initial impression is unlikely to change. We call this the perseverance effect , or belief perseverance .

Stereotypes are special types of schemas that are very simplistic, very strongly held, and not based on firsthand experience. They are heuristics , or mental shortcuts, that allow us to assess this collected information very quickly. One piece of information, such as skin color, can be used to assign the person to a schema for which we have a stereotype. This can affect how we think or feel about the person and behave toward them. Again, human beings tend to imply things about an individual solely due to a distinguishing feature and disregard anything inconsistent with the stereotype.

Social identity theory (Tajfel, 1982; Turner, 1987) states that people categorize their social world into meaningfully simplistic representations of groups of people. These representations are then organized as prototypes , or “fuzzy sets of a relatively limited number of category-defining features that not only define one category but serve to distinguish it from other categories” (Foddy and Hogg, as cited in Foddy et al., 1999). We construct in-groups and out-groups and categorize the self as an in-group member. The self is assimilated into the salient in-group prototype, which indicates what cognitions, affect, and behavior we may exhibit. Stereotyping, out-group homogeneity, in-group/out-group bias, normative behavior, and conformity are all based on self-categorization.

How so? Out-group homogeneity occurs when we see all members of an outside group as the same. This leads to a tendency to show favoritism to, and exclude or hold a negative view of, members outside of, one’s immediate group, called the in-group/out-group bias . The negative view or set of beliefs about a group of people is what we call prejudice , and this can result in acting in a way that is negative against a group of people, called discrimination . It should be noted that a person can be prejudicial without being discriminatory since most people do not act on their attitudes toward others due to social norms against such behavior. Likewise, a person or institution can be discriminatory without being prejudicial. For example, when a company requires that an applicant have a certain education level or be able to lift 80 pounds as part of typical job responsibilities. Individuals without a degree or ability to lift will be removed from consideration for the job, but this discriminatory act does not mean that the company has negative views of people without degrees or the inability to lift heavy weight. You might even hold a negative view of a specific group of people and not be aware of it. An attitude we are unaware of is called an implicit attitude , which stands in contrast to explicit attitudes, which are the views within our conscious awareness.

We have spent quite a lot of space and time understanding how people gather information about the world and people around them, process this information, use it to make snap judgements about others, form groups for which stereotypes may exist, and then potentially hold negative views of this group and behave negatively toward them as a result. Just one piece of information can be used to set this series of mental events into motion. Outside of skin color, the label associated with having a mental disorder can be used. Stereotypes about people with a mental disorder can quickly and easily transform into prejudice when people in a society determine the schema to be correct and form negative emotions and evaluations of this group (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). This, in turn, can lead to discriminatory practices such as an employer refusing to hire, a landlord refusing to rent an apartment, or avoiding a romantic relationship, all due to the person having a mental illness.

Overlapping with prejudice and discrimination in terms of how people with mental disorders are treated is stigma , or when negative stereotyping, labeling, rejection, and loss of status occur. Stigma takes on three forms as described below:

• Public stigma – When members of a society endorse negative stereotypes of people with a mental disorder and discriminate against them. They might avoid them altogether, resulting in social isolation. An example is when an employer intentionally does not hire a person because their mental illness is discovered.
• Label avoidance –To avoid being labeled as “crazy” or “nuts” people needing care may avoid seeking it altogether or stop care once started. Due to these labels, funding for mental health services could be restricted and instead, physical health services funded.
• Self-stigma – When people with mental illnesses internalize the negative stereotypes and prejudice, and in turn, discriminate against themselves. They may experience shame, reduced self-esteem, hopelessness, low self-efficacy, and a reduction in coping mechanisms. An obvious consequence of these potential outcomes is the why try effect, or the person saying ‘Why should I try and get that job? I am not worthy of it’ (Corrigan, Larson, & Rusch, 2009; Corrigan, et al., 2016).

Another form of stigma that is worth noting is that of courtesy stigma or when stigma affects people associated with a person who has a mental disorder. Karnieli-Miller et al. (2013) found that families of the afflicted were often blamed, rejected, or devalued when others learned that a family member had a serious mental illness (SMI). Due to this, they felt hurt and betrayed, and an important source of social support during a difficult time had disappeared, resulting in greater levels of stress. To cope, some families concealed their relative’s illness, and some parents struggled to decide whether it was their place to disclose their child’s condition. Others fought with the issue of confronting the stigma through attempts at education versus just ignoring it due to not having enough energy or desiring to maintain personal boundaries. There was also a need to understand the responses of others and to attribute it to a lack of knowledge, experience, and/or media coverage. In some cases, the reappraisal allowed family members to feel compassion for others rather than feeling put down or blamed. The authors concluded that each family “develops its own coping strategies which vary according to its personal experiences, values, and extent of other commitments” and that “coping strategies families employ change over-time.”

Other effects of stigma include experiencing work-related discrimination resulting in higher levels of self-stigma and stress (Rusch et al., 2014), higher rates of suicide especially when treatment is not available (Rusch, Zlati, Black, and Thornicroft, 2014; Rihmer & Kiss, 2002), and a decreased likelihood of future help-seeking intention (Lally et al., 2013). The results of the latter study also showed that personal contact with someone with a history of mental illness led to a decreased likelihood of seeking help. This is important because 48% of the university sample stated that they needed help for an emotional or mental health issue during the past year but did not seek help. Similar results have been reported in other studies (Eisenberg, Downs, Golberstein, & Zivin, 2009). It is also important to point out that social distance, a result of stigma, has also been shown to increase throughout the life span, suggesting that anti-stigma campaigns should focus on older people primarily (Schomerus, et al., 2015).

One potentially disturbing trend is that mental health professionals have been shown to hold negative attitudes toward the people they serve. Hansson et al. (2011) found that staff members at an outpatient clinic in the southern part of Sweden held the most negative attitudes about whether an employer would accept an applicant for work, willingness to date a person who had been hospitalized, and hiring a patient to care for children. Attitudes were stronger when staff treated patients with a psychosis or in inpatient settings. In a similar study,

Martensson, Jacobsson, and Engstrom (2014) found that staff had more positive attitudes towards persons with mental illness if their knowledge of such disorders was less stigmatized; their workplaces were in the county council where they were more likely to encounter patients who recover and return to normal life in society, rather than in municipalities where patients have long-term and recurrent mental illness; and they have or had one close friend with mental health issues.

To help deal with stigma in the mental health community, Papish et al. (2013) investigated the effect of a one-time contact-based educational intervention compared to a four-week mandatory psychiatry course on the stigma of mental illness among medical students at the University of Calgary. The curriculum included two methods requiring contact with people diagnosed with a mental disorder: patient presentations, or two one-hour oral presentations in which patients shared their story of having a mental illness, and “clinical correlations” in which a psychiatrist mentored students while they interacted with patients in either inpatient or outpatient settings. Results showed that medical students held a stigma towards mental illness and that comprehensive medical education reduced this stigma. As the authors stated, “These results suggest that it is possible to create an environment in which medical student attitudes towards mental illness can be shifted in a positive direction.” That said, the level of stigma was still higher for mental illness than it was for the stigmatized physical illness, type 2 diabetes mellitus.

What might happen if mental illness is presented as a treatable condition? McGinty, Goldman, Pescosolido, and Barry (2015) found that portraying schizophrenia, depression, and heroin addiction as untreated and symptomatic increased negative public attitudes towards people with these conditions. Conversely, when the same people were portrayed as successfully treated, the desire for social distance was reduced, there was less willingness to discriminate against them, and belief in treatment effectiveness increased among the public.

Self-stigma has also been shown to affect self-esteem, which then affects hope, which then affects the quality of life among people with severe mental illness. As such, hope should play a central role in recovery (Mashiach-Eizenberg et al., 2013). Narrative Enhancement and Cognitive Therapy (NECT) is an intervention designed to reduce internalized stigma and targets both hope and self-esteem (Yanos et al., 2011). The intervention replaces stigmatizing myths with facts about illness and recovery, which leads to hopefulness and higher levels of self-esteem in clients. This may then reduce susceptibility to internalized stigma.

Stigma leads to health inequities (Hatzenbuehler, Phelan, & Link, 2013), prompting calls for stigma change. Targeting stigma involves two different agendas: The services agenda attempts to remove stigma so people can seek mental health services, and the rights agenda tries to replace discrimination that “robs people of rightful opportunities with affirming attitudes and behavior” (Corrigan, 2016). The former is successful when there is evidence that people with mental illness are seeking services more or becoming better engaged. The latter is successful when there is an increase in the number of people with mental illnesses in the workforce who are receiving reasonable accommodations. The federal government has tackled this issue with landmark legislation such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. However, protections are not uniform across all subgroups due to “1) explicit language about inclusion and exclusion criteria in the statute or implementation rule, 2) vague statutory language that yields variation in the interpretation about which groups qualify for protection, and 3) incentives created by the legislation that affect specific groups differently” (Cummings, Lucas, and Druss, 2013). More on this in Module 15.

• Stigma is when negative stereotyping, labeling, rejection, and loss of status occur and take the form of public or self-stigma, and label avoidance.

Section 1.3 Review Questions

• How does social cognition help us to understand why stigmatization occurs?
• Define stigma and describe its three forms. What is courtesy stigma?
• What are the effects of stigma on the afflicted?
• Is stigmatization prevalent in the mental health community? If so, what can be done about it?
• How can we reduce stigmatization?
• Describe prehistoric and ancient beliefs about mental illness.
• Describe Greco-Roman thought on mental illness.
• Describe thoughts on mental illness during the Middle Ages.
• Describe thoughts on mental illness during the Renaissance.
• Describe thoughts on mental illness during the 18th and 19th centuries.
• Describe thoughts on mental illness during the 20th and 21st centuries.
• Describe the status of mental illness today.
• Outline the use of psychoactive drugs throughout time and their impact.
• Clarify the importance of managed health care for the treatment of mental illness.
• Define and clarify the importance of multicultural psychology.
• State the issue surrounding prescription rights for psychologists.
• Explain the importance of prevention science.

As we have seen so far, what is considered abnormal behavior is often dictated by the culture/society a person lives in, and unfortunately, the past has not treated the afflicted very well. In this section, we will examine how past societies viewed and dealt with mental illness.

1.4.1. Prehistoric and Ancient Beliefs

Prehistoric cultures often held a supernatural view of abnormal behavior and saw it as the work of evil spirits, demons, gods, or witches who took control of the person. This form of demonic possession often occurred when the person engaged in behavior contrary to the religious teachings of the time. Treatment by cave dwellers included a technique called trephination , in which a stone instrument known as a trephine was used to remove part of the skull, creating an opening. Through it, the evil spirits could escape, thereby ending the person’s mental affliction and returning them to normal behavior. Early Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian, and Chinese cultures used a treatment method called exorcism in which evil spirts were cast out through prayer, magic, flogging, starvation, having the person ingest horrible tasting drinks, or noisemaking.

1.4.2. Greco-Roman Thought

Rejecting the idea of demonic possession, Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) said that mental disorders were akin to physical ailments and had natural causes. Specifically, they arose from brain pathology , or head trauma/brain dysfunction or disease, and were also affected by heredity. Hippocrates classified mental disorders into three main categories – melancholia, mania, and phrenitis (brain fever) – and gave detailed clinical descriptions of each. He also described four main fluids or humors that directed normal brain functioning and personality – blood which arose in the heart, black bile arising in the spleen, yellow bile or choler from the liver, and phlegm from the brain. Mental disorders occurred when the humors were in a state of imbalance such as an excess of yellow bile causing frenzy and too much black bile causing melancholia or depression. Hippocrates believed mental illnesses could be treated as any other disorder and focused on the underlying pathology.

Also noteworthy was the Greek philosopher Plato (429-347 B.C.), who said that the mentally ill were not responsible for their actions and should not be punished. It was the responsibility of the community and their families to care for them. The Greek physician Galen (A.D. 129-199) said mental disorders had either physical or psychological causes, including fear, shock, alcoholism, head injuries, adolescence, and changes in menstruation.

In Rome, physician Asclepiades (124-40 BC) and philosopher Cicero (106-43 BC) rejected Hippocrates’ idea of the four humors and instead stated that melancholy arises from grief, fear, and rage; not excess black bile. Roman physicians treated mental disorders with massage or warm baths, the hope being that their patients would be as comfortable as they could be. They practiced the concept of contrariis contrarius , meaning opposite by opposite, and introduced contrasting stimuli to bring about balance in the physical and mental domains. An example would be consuming a cold drink while in a warm bath.

1.4.3. The Middle Ages – 500 AD to 1500 AD

The progress made during the time of the Greeks and Romans was quickly reversed during the Middle Ages with the increase in power of the Church and the fall of the Roman Empire. Mental illness was yet again explained as possession by the Devil and methods such as exorcism, flogging, prayer, the touching of relics, chanting, visiting holy sites, and holy water were used to rid the person of demonic influence. In extreme cases, the afflicted were exposed to confinement, beatings, and even execution. Scientific and medical explanations, such as those proposed by Hippocrates, were discarded.

Group hysteria, or mass madness , was also seen when large numbers of people displayed similar symptoms and false beliefs. This included the belief that one was possessed by wolves or other animals and imitated their behavior, called lycanthropy , and a mania in which large numbers of people had an uncontrollable desire to dance and jump, called tarantism . The latter was believed to have been caused by the bite of the wolf spider, now called the tarantula, and spread quickly from Italy to Germany and other parts of Europe where it was called Saint Vitus’s dance .

Perhaps the return to supernatural explanations during the Middle Ages makes sense given events of the time. The black death (bubonic plague) killed up to a third, or according to other estimates almost half, of the population. Famine, war, social oppression, and pestilence were also factors. The constant presence of death led to an epidemic of depression and fear. Near the end of the Middle Ages, mystical explanations for mental illness began to lose favor, and government officials regained some of their lost power over nonreligious activities. Science and medicine were again called upon to explain psychopathology.

1.4.4. The Renaissance – 14th to 16th centuries

The most noteworthy development in the realm of philosophy during the Renaissance was the rise of humanism , or the worldview that emphasizes human welfare and the uniqueness of the individual. This perspective helped continue the decline of supernatural views of mental illness. In the mid to late 1500s, German physician Johann Weyer (1515-1588) published his book, On the Deceits of the Demons, that rebutted the Church’s witch-hunting handbook, the Malleus Maleficarum , and argued that many accused of being witches and subsequently imprisoned, tortured, and/or burned at the stake, were mentally disturbed and not possessed by demons or the Devil himself. He believed that like the body, the mind was susceptible to illness. Not surprisingly, the book was vehemently protested and banned by the Church. It should be noted that these types of acts occurred not only in Europe, but also in the United States. The most famous example, the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, resulted in more than 200 people accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 deaths.

The number of asylums , or places of refuge for the mentally ill where they could receive care, began to rise during the 16th century as the government realized there were far too many people afflicted with mental illness to be left in private homes. Hospitals and monasteries were converted into asylums. Though the intent was benign in the beginning, as the facilities overcrowded, the patients came to be treated more like animals than people. In 1547, the Bethlem Hospital opened in London with the sole purpose of confining those with mental disorders. Patients were chained up, placed on public display, and often heard crying out in pain. The asylum became a tourist attraction, with sightseers paying a penny to view the more violent patients, and soon was called “Bedlam” by local people; a term that today means “a state of uproar and confusion” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bedlam).

1.4.5. Reform Movement – 18th to 19th centuries

The rise of the moral treatment movement occurred in Europe in the late 18th century and then in the United States in the early 19th century. The earliest proponent was Francis Pinel (1745-1826), the superintendent of la Bicetre, a hospital for mentally ill men in Paris. Pinel stressed respectful treatment and moral guidance for the mentally ill while considering their individual, social, and occupational needs. Arguing that the mentally ill were sick people, Pinel ordered that chains be removed, outside exercise be allowed, sunny and well-ventilated rooms replace dungeons, and patients be extended kindness and support. This approach led to considerable improvement for many of the patients, so much so, that several were released.

Following Pinel’s lead, William Tuke (1732-1822), a Quaker tea merchant, established a pleasant rural estate called the York Retreat. The Quakers believed that all people should be accepted for who they are and treated kindly. At the retreat, patients could work, rest, talk out their problems, and pray (Raad & Makari, 2010). The work of Tuke and others led to the passage of the Country Asylums Act of 1845, which required that every county provide asylum to the mentally ill. This sentiment extended to English colonies such as Canada, India, Australia, and the West Indies as word of the maltreatment of patients at a facility in Kingston, Jamaica spread, leading to an audit of colonial facilities and their policies.

Reform in the United States started with the figure largely considered to be the father of American psychiatry, Benjamin Rush (1745-1813). Rush advocated for the humane treatment of the mentally ill, showing them respect, and even giving them small gifts from time to time.  Despite this, his practice included treatments such as bloodletting and purgatives, the invention of the “tranquilizing chair,” and reliance on astrology, showing that even he could not escape from the beliefs of the time.

Due to the rise of the moral treatment movement in both Europe and the United States, asylums became habitable places where those afflicted with mental illness could recover. Regrettably, its success was responsible for its decline. The number of mental hospitals greatly increased, leading to staffing shortages and a lack of funds to support them. Though treating patients humanely was a noble endeavor, it did not work for some patients and other treatments were needed, though they had not been developed yet. Staff recognized that the approach worked best when the facility had 200 or fewer patients, but waves of immigrants arriving in the U.S. after the Civil War overwhelmed the facilities, and patient counts soared to 1,000 or more. Prejudice against the new arrivals led to discriminatory practices in which immigrants were not afforded the same moral treatments as native citizens, even when the resources were available to treat them.

The moral treatment movement also fell due to the rise of the mental hygiene movement , which focused on the physical well-being of patients. Its leading proponent in the United States was Dorothea Dix (1802-1887), a New Englander who observed the deplorable conditions suffered by the mentally ill while teaching Sunday school to female prisoners. Over the next 40 years, from 1841 to 1881, she motivated people and state legislators to do something about this injustice and raised millions of dollars to build over 30 more appropriate mental hospitals and improve others. Her efforts even extended beyond the U.S. to Canada and Scotland.

Finally, in 1908 Clifford Beers (1876-1943) published his book, A Mind that Found Itself , in which he described his struggle with bipolar disorder and the “cruel and inhumane treatment people with mental illnesses received. He witnessed and experienced horrific abuse at the hands of his caretakers. At one point during his institutionalization, he was placed in a straitjacket for 21 consecutive nights” ( https://www.mhanational.org/our-history ). His story aroused sympathy from the public and led him to found the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, known today as Mental Health America, which provides education about mental illness and the need to treat these people with dignity. Today, MHA has over 200 affiliates in 41 states and employs 6,500 affiliate staff and over 10,000 volunteers.

“In the early 1950s, Mental Health America issued a call to asylums across the country for their discarded chains and shackles. On April 13, 1953, at the McShane Bell Foundry in Baltimore, Md., Mental Health America melted down these inhumane bindings and recast them into a sign of hope: the Mental Health Bell.

Now the symbol of Mental Health America, the 300-pound Bell serves as a powerful reminder that the invisible chains of misunderstanding and discrimination continue to bind people with mental illnesses. Today, the Mental Health Bell rings out hope for improving mental health and achieving victory over mental illnesses.”

For more information on MHA, please visit: https://www.mhanational.org/

1.4.6. 20th – 21st Centuries

The decline of the moral treatment approach in the late 19th century led to the rise of two competing perspectives – the biological or somatogenic perspective and the psychological or psychogenic perspective.

     1.4.6.1. Biological or Somatogenic Perspective. Recall that Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen said that mental disorders were akin to physical disorders and had natural causes. Though the idea fell into oblivion for several centuries, it re-emerged in the late 19th century for two reasons.  First, German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926) discovered that symptoms occurred regularly in clusters, which he called syndromes . These syndromes represented a unique mental disorder with a distinct cause, course, and prognosis. In 1883 he published his textbook, Compendium der Psychiatrie (Textbook of Psychiatry), and described a system for classifying mental disorders that became the basis of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) that is currently in its 5th edition Text Revision (published in 2022).

Secondly, in 1825, the behavioral and cognitive symptoms of advanced syphilis were identified to include a belief that everyone is plotting against you or that you are God (a delusion of grandeur), and were termed general paresis by French physician A.L.J. Bayle. In 1897, Viennese psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebbing injected patients suffering from general paresis with matter from syphilis spores and noted that none of the patients developed symptoms of syphilis, indicating they must have been previously exposed and were now immune. This led to the conclusion that syphilis was the cause of the general paresis. In 1906, August von Wassermann developed a blood test for syphilis, and in 1917 a cure was found. Julius von Wagner-Jauregg noticed that patients with general paresis who contracted malaria recovered from their symptoms. To test this hypothesis, he injected nine patients with blood from a soldier afflicted with malaria. Three of the patients fully recovered while three others showed great improvement in their paretic symptoms. The high fever caused by malaria burned out the syphilis bacteria. Hospitals in the United States began incorporating this new cure for paresis into their treatment approach by 1925.

Also noteworthy was the work of American psychiatrist John P. Grey. Appointed as superintendent of the Utica State Hospital in New York, Grey asserted that insanity always had a physical cause. As such, the mentally ill should be seen as physically ill and treated with rest, proper room temperature and ventilation, and a nutritive diet.

The 1930s also saw the use of electric shock as a treatment method, which was stumbled upon accidentally by Benjamin Franklin while experimenting with electricity in the early 18th century. He noticed that after suffering a severe shock his memories had changed, and in published work, he suggested physicians study electric shock as a treatment for melancholia.

            1.4.6.2. Psychological or Psychogenic Perspective. The psychological or psychogenic perspective states that emotional or psychological factors are the cause of mental disorders and represented a challenge to the biological perspective. This perspective had a long history but did not gain favor until the work of Viennese physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815). Influenced heavily by Newton’s theory of gravity, he believed that the planets also affected the human body through the force of animal magnetism and that all people had a universal magnetic fluid that determined how healthy they were. He demonstrated the usefulness of his approach when he cured Franzl Oesterline, a 27-year-old woman suffering from what he described as a convulsive malady. Mesmer used a magnet to disrupt the gravitational tides that were affecting his patient and produced a sensation of the magnetic fluid draining from her body. This procedure removed the illness from her body and provided a near-instantaneous recovery. In reality, the patient was placed in a trancelike state which made her highly suggestible. With other patients, Mesmer would have them sit in a darkened room filled with soothing music, into which he would enter dressed in a colorful robe and pass from person to person touching the afflicted area of their body with his hand or a rod/wand. He successfully cured deafness, paralysis, loss of bodily feeling, convulsions, menstrual difficulties, and blindness.

His approach gained him celebrity status as he demonstrated it at the courts of English nobility. However, the medical community was hardly impressed. A royal commission was formed to investigate his technique but could not find any proof for his theory of animal magnetism. Though he was able to cure patients when they touched his “magnetized” tree, the result was the same when “non-magnetized” trees were touched. As such, Mesmer was deemed a charlatan and forced to leave Paris. His technique was called mesmerism , better known today as hypnosis.

The psychological perspective gained popularity after two physicians practicing in the city of Nancy in France discovered that they could induce the symptoms of hysteria in perfectly healthy patients through hypnosis and then remove the symptoms in the same way. The work of Hippolyte-Marie Bernheim (1840-1919) and Ambroise-Auguste Liebault (1823-1904) came to be part of what was called the Nancy School and showed that hysteria was nothing more than a form of self-hypnosis. In Paris, this view was challenged by Jean Charcot (1825-1893), who stated that hysteria was caused by degenerative brain changes, reflecting the biological perspective. He was proven wrong and eventually turned to their way of thinking.

The use of hypnosis to treat hysteria was also carried out by fellow Frenchman Pierre Janet (1859-1947), and student of Charcot, who believed that hysteria had psychological, not biological causes. Namely, these included unconscious forces, fixed ideas, and memory impairments. In Vienna, Josef Breuer (1842-1925) induced hypnosis and had patients speak freely about past events that upset them. Upon waking, he discovered that patients sometimes were free of their symptoms of hysteria. Success was even greater when patients not only recalled forgotten memories but also relived them emotionally. He called this the cathartic method , and our use of the word catharsis today indicates a purging or release, in this case, of pent-up emotion.

By the end of the 19th century, it had become evident that mental disorders were caused by a combination of biological and psychological factors, and the investigation of how they develop began. Sigmund Freud’s development of psychoanalysis followed on the heels of the work of Bruner, and others who came before him.

1.4.7. Current Views/Trends

            1.4.7.1. Mental illness today. An article published by the Harvard Medical School in March 2014 called “The Prevalence and Treatment of Mental Illness Today” presented the results of the National Comorbidity Study Replication of 2001-2003, which included a sample of more than 9,000 adults. The results showed that nearly 46% of the participants had a psychiatric disorder at some time in their lives. The most commonly reported disorders were:

• Major depression – 17%
• Alcohol abuse – 13%
• Social anxiety disorder – 12%
• Conduct disorder – 9.5%

Also of interest was that women were more likely to have had anxiety and mood disorders while men showed higher rates of impulse control disorders. Comorbid anxiety and mood disorders were common, and 28% reported having more than one co-occurring disorder (Kessler, Berglund, et al., 2005; Kessler, Chiu, et al., 2005; Kessler, Demler, et al., 2005).

About 80% of the sample reported seeking treatment for their disorder, but with as much as a 10-year gap after symptoms first appeared. Women were more likely than men to seek help while whites were more likely than African and Hispanic Americans (Wang, Berglund, et al., 2005; Wang, Lane, et al., 2005). Care was sought primarily from family doctors, nurses, and other general practitioners (23%), followed by social workers and psychologists (16%), psychiatrists (12%), counselors or spiritual advisers (8%), and complementary and alternative medicine providers (CAMs; 7%).

In terms of the quality of the care, the article states:

Most of this treatment was inadequate, at least by the standards applied in the survey. The researchers defined minimum adequacy as a suitable medication at a suitable dose for two months, along with at least four visits to a physician; or else eight visits to any licensed mental health professional. By that definition, only 33% of people with a psychiatric disorder were treated adequately, and only 13% of those who saw general medical practitioners.

In comparison to the original study conducted from 1991-1992, the use of mental health services has increased over 50% during this decade. This may be attributed to treatment becoming more widespread and increased attempts to educate the public about mental illness. Stigma, discussed in Section 1.3, has reduced over time, diagnosis is more effective, community outreach programs have increased, and most importantly, general practitioners have been more willing to prescribe psychoactive medications which themselves are more readily available now. The article concludes, “Survey researchers also suggest that we need more outreach and voluntary screening, more education about mental illness for the public and physicians, and more effort to treat substance abuse and impulse control disorders.” We will explore several of these issues in the remainder of this section, including the use of psychiatric drugs and deinstitutionalization, managed health care, private psychotherapy, positive psychology and prevention science, multicultural psychology, and prescription rights for psychologists.

            1.4.7.2. Use of psychiatric drugs and deinstitutionalization . Beginning in the 1950s, psychiatric or psychotropic drugs were used for the treatment of mental illness and made an immediate impact. Though drugs alone cannot cure mental illness, they can improve symptoms and increase the effectiveness of treatments such as psychotherapy. Classes of psychiatric drugs include anti-depressants used to treat depression and anxiety, mood-stabilizing medications to treat bipolar disorder, anti-psychotic drugs to treat schizophrenia, and anti-anxiety drugs to treat generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder

Frank (2006) found that by 1996, psychotropic drugs were used in 77% of mental health cases and spending on these drugs grew from $2.8 billion in 1987 to about $18 billion in 2001 (Coffey et al., 2000; Mark et al., 2005), representing over a sixfold increase. The largest classes of psychotropic drugs are anti-psychotics and anti-depressants, followed closely by anti-anxiety medications. Frank, Conti, and Goldman (2005) point out, “The expansion of insurance coverage for prescription drugs, the introduction and diffusion of managed behavioral health care techniques, and the conduct of the pharmaceutical industry in promoting their products all have influenced how psychotropic drugs are used and how much is spent on them.” Is it possible then that we are overprescribing these mediations? Davey (2014) provides ten reasons why this may be so, including leading suffers from believing that recovery is in their hands but instead in the hands of their doctors; increased risk of relapse; drug companies causing the “medicalization of perfectly normal emotional processes, such as bereavement” to ensure their survival; side effects; and a failure to change the way the person thinks or the socioeconomic environments that may be the cause of the disorder. For more on this article, please see: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/why-we-worry/201401/overprescribing-drugs-treat-mental-health-problems . Smith (2012) echoed similar sentiments in an article on inappropriate prescribing. He cites the approval of Prozac by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1987 as when the issue began and the overmedication/overdiagnosis of children with ADHD as a more recent example.

A result of the use of psychiatric drugs was deinstitutionalization , or the release of patients from mental health facilities. This shifted resources from inpatient to outpatient care and placed the spotlight back on the biological or somatogenic perspective.  When people with severe mental illness do need inpatient care, it is typically in the form of short-term hospitalization.

            1.4.7.3. Managed health care. Managed health care is a term used to describe a type of health insurance in which the insurance company determines the cost of services, possible providers, and the number of visits a subscriber can have within a year. This is regulated through contracts with providers and medical facilities. The plans pay the providers directly, so subscribers do not have to pay out-of-pocket or complete claim forms, though most require co-pays paid directly to the provider at the time of service. Exactly how much the plan costs depends on how flexible the subscriber wants it to be; the more flexibility, the higher the cost. Managed health care takes three forms:

• Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) – Typically only pay for care within the network. The subscriber chooses a primary care physician (PCP) who coordinates most of their care. The PCP refers the subscriber to specialists or other health care providers as is necessary. This is the most restrictive option.
• Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO) – Usually pay more if the subscriber obtains care within the network, but if care outside the network is sought, they cover part of the cost.
• Point of Service (POS) – These plans provide the most flexibility and allow the subscriber to choose between an HMO or a PPO each time care is needed.

Regarding the treatment needed for mental illness, managed care programs regulate the pre-approval of treatment via referrals from the PCP, determine which mental health providers can be seen, and oversee which conditions can be treated and what type of treatment can be delivered. This system was developed in the 1980s to combat the rising cost of mental health care and took responsibility away from single practitioners or small groups who could charge what they felt was appropriate. The actual impact of managed care on mental health services is still questionable at best.

            1.4.7.4. Multicultural psychology. As our society becomes increasingly diverse, medical practitioners and psychologists alike must take into account the patient’s gender, age, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic (SES) status, and culture and how these factors shape the individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Additionally, we need to understand how the various groups, whether defined by race, culture, or gender, differ from one another. This approach is called multicultural psychology .

In August 2002, the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Council of Representatives put forth six guidelines based on the understanding that “race and ethnicity can impact psychological practice and interventions at all levels” and the need for respect and inclusiveness. They further state, “psychologists are in a position to provide leadership as agents of prosocial change, advocacy, and social justice, thereby promoting societal understanding, affirmation, and appreciation of multiculturalism against the damaging effects of individual, institutional, and societal racism, prejudice, and all forms of oppression based on stereotyping and discrimination.” The guidelines from the 2002 document are as follows:

• “Guideline #1: Psychologists are encouraged to recognize that, as cultural beings, they may hold attitudes and beliefs that can detrimentally influence their perceptions of and interactions with individuals who are ethnically and racially different from themselves.
• Guideline #2: Psychologists are encouraged to recognize the importance of multicultural sensitivity/responsiveness, knowledge, and understanding about ethnically and racially different individuals.
• Guideline #3: As educators, psychologists are encouraged to employ the constructs of multiculturalism and diversity in psychological education.
• Guideline #4: Culturally sensitive psychological researchers are encouraged to recognize the importance of conducting culture–centered and ethical psychological research among persons from ethnic, linguistic, and racial minority backgrounds.
• Guideline #5: Psychologists strive to apply culturally-appropriate skills in clinical and other applied psychological practices.
• Guideline #6: Psychologists are encouraged to use organizational change processes to support culturally informed organizational (policy) development and practices.”

Source: https://apa.org/pi/oema/resources/policy/multicultural-guidelines.aspx

This type of sensitivity training is vital because bias based on ethnicity, race, and culture has been found in the diagnosis and treatment of autism (Harrison et al., 2017; Burkett, 2015), borderline personality disorder (Jani et al., 2016), and schizophrenia (Neighbors et al., 2003; Minsky et al., 2003). Despite these findings, Schwartz and Blankenship (2014) state, “It should also be noted that although clear evidence supports a longstanding trend in differential diagnoses according to consumer race, this trend does not imply that one race ( e.g ., African Americans) actually demonstrate more severe symptoms or higher prevalence rates of psychosis compared with other races ( e.g ., Euro-Americans). Because clinicians are the diagnosticians and misinterpretation, bias or other factors may play a role in this trend caution should be used when making inferences about actual rates of psychosis among ethnic minority persons.” Additionally, white middle-class help seekers were offered appointments with psychotherapists almost three times as often as their black working-class counterparts. Women were offered an appointment time in their preferred time range more than men were, though average appointment offer rates were similar between genders (Kugelmass, 2016). These findings collectively show that though we are becoming more culturally sensitive, we have a lot more work to do.

            1.4.7.5. Prescription rights for psychologists . To reduce inappropriate prescribing as described in 1.4.7.2, it has been proposed to allow appropriately trained psychologists the right to prescribe. Psychologists are more likely to utilize both therapy and medication, and so can make the best choice for their patient. The right has already been granted in New Mexico, Louisiana, Guam, the military, the Indian Health Services, and the U.S. Public Health Services. Measures in other states “have been opposed by the American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association over concerns that inadequate training of psychologists could jeopardize patient safety. Supporters of prescriptive authority for psychologists are quick to point out that there is no evidence to support these concerns” (Smith, 2012).

            1.4.7.6. Prevention science. As a society, we used to wait for a mental or physical health issue to emerge, then scramble to treat it. More recently, medicine and science has taken a prevention stance, identifying the factors that cause specific mental health issues and implementing interventions to stop them from happening, or at least minimize their deleterious effects. Our focus has shifted from individuals to the population. Mental health promotion programs have been instituted with success in schools (Shoshani & Steinmetz, 2014; Weare & Nind, 2011; Berkowitz & Beer, 2007), in the workplace (Czabała, Charzyńska,  & Mroziak, B., 2011), with undergraduate and graduate students (Conley et al., 2017; Bettis et al., 2016), in relation to bullying (Bradshaw, 2015), and with the elderly (Forsman et al., 2011). Many researchers believe it is the ideal time to move from knowledge to action and to expand public mental health initiatives (Wahlbeck, 2015). The growth of positive psychology in the late 1990s has further propelled this movement forward. For more on positive psychology, please see Section 1.1.1.

• Some of the earliest views of mental illness saw it as the work of evil spirts, demons, gods, or witches who took control of the person, and in the Middle Ages it was seen as possession by the Devil and methods such as exorcism, flogging, prayer, the touching of relics, chanting, visiting holy sites, and holy water were used to rid the person of demonic influence.
• During the Renaissance, humanism was on the rise which emphasized human welfare and the uniqueness of the individual and led to an increase in the number of asylums as places of refuge for the mentally ill.
• The 18th to 19th centuries saw the rise of the moral treatment movement followed by the mental hygiene movement.
• The psychological or psychogenic perspective states that emotional or psychological factors are the cause of mental disorders and represented a challenge to the biological perspective which said that mental disorders were akin to physical disorders and had natural causes.
• Psychiatric or psychotropic drugs used to treat mental illness became popular beginning in the 1950s and led to deinstitutionalization or a shift from inpatient to outpatient care.

Section 1.4 Review Questions

• How has mental illness been viewed across time?
• Contrast the moral treatment and mental hygiene movements.
• Contrast the biological or somatogenic perspective with that of the psychological or psychogenic perspective.
• Discuss contemporary trends in relation to the use of drugs to treat mental illness, deinstitutionalization, managed health care, multicultural psychology, prescription rights for psychologists, and prevention science.
• Define the scientific method.
• Outline and describe the steps of the scientific method, defining all key terms.
• Identify and clarify the importance of the three cardinal features of science.
• List the five main research methods used in psychology.
• Describe observational research, listing its advantages and disadvantages.
• Describe case study research, listing its advantages and disadvantages.
• Describe survey research, listing its advantages and disadvantages.
• Describe correlational research, listing its advantages and disadvantages.
• Describe experimental research, listing its advantages and disadvantages.
• State the utility and need for multimethod research.

1.5.1. The Scientific Method

Psychology is the “scientific study of behavior and mental processes.” We will spend quite a lot of time on the behavior and mental processes part throughout this book and in relation to mental disorders. Still, before we proceed, it is prudent to further elaborate on what makes psychology scientific. It is safe to say that most people outside of our discipline or a sister science would be surprised to learn that psychology utilizes the scientific method at all. That may be even truer of clinical psychology, especially in light of the plethora of self-help books found at any bookstore. But yes, the treatment methods used by mental health professionals are based on empirical research and the scientific method.

As a starting point, we should expand on what the scientific method is.

The keyword here is systematic , meaning there is a set way to use it. What is that way? Well, depending on what source you look at, it can include a varying number of steps. I like to use the following:

Table 1.1: The Steps of the Scientific Method

Science has at its root three cardinal features that we will see play out time and time again throughout this book. They are:

• Observation – To know about the world around us, we have to be able to see it firsthand. When a mental disorder afflicts an individual, we can see it through their overt behavior. An individual with depression may withdraw from activities he/she enjoys, those with social anxiety disorder will avoid social situations, people with schizophrenia may express concern over being watched by the government, and individuals with dependent personality disorder may leave major decisions to trusted companions. In these examples and numerous others, the behaviors that lead us to a diagnosis of a specific disorder can easily be observed by the clinician, the patient, and/or family and friends.
• Experimentation – To be able to make causal or cause and effect statements, we must isolate variables. We must manipulate one variable and see the effect of doing so on another variable. Let’s say we want to know if a new treatment for bipolar disorder is as effective as existing treatments, or more importantly, better. We could design a study with three groups of bipolar patients. One group would receive no treatment and serve as a control group. A second group would receive an existing and proven treatment and would also be considered a control group. Finally, the third group would receive the new treatment and be the experimental group. What we are manipulating is what treatment the groups get – no treatment, the older treatment, and the newer treatment. The first two groups serve as controls since we already know what to expect from their results. There should be no change in bipolar disorder symptoms in the no-treatment group, a general reduction in symptoms for the older treatment group, and the same or better performance for the newer treatment group. As long as patients in the newer treatment group do not perform worse than their older treatment counterparts, we can say the new drug is a success. You might wonder why we would get excited about the performance of the new drug being the same as the old drug. Does it really offer any added benefit? In terms of a reduction of symptoms, maybe not, but it could cost less money than the older drug and that would be of value to patients.
• Measurement – How do we know that the new drug has worked? Simply, we can measure the person’s bipolar disorder symptoms before any treatment was implemented, and then again once the treatment has run its course.  This pre-post test design is typical in drug studies.

1.5.2. Research Methods

Step 3 called on the scientist to test his or her hypothesis. Psychology as a discipline uses five main research designs. They are:

            1.5.2.1. Naturalistic and laboratory observation . In terms of naturalistic observation , the scientist studies human or animal behavior in its natural environment, which could include the home, school, or a forest. The researcher counts, measures, and rates behavior in a systematic way and, at times, uses multiple judges to ensure accuracy in how the behavior is being measured. The advantage of this method is that you see behavior as it happens, and the experimenter does not taint the data. The disadvantage is that it could take a long time for the behavior to occur, and if the researcher is detected, then this may influence the behavior of those being observed.

Laboratory observation involves observing people or animals in a laboratory setting. The researcher might want to know more about parent-child interactions, and so, brings a mother and her child into the lab to engage in preplanned tasks such as playing with toys, eating a meal, or the mother leaving the room for a short time. The advantage of this method over the naturalistic method is that the experimenter can use sophisticated equipment to record the session and examine it later. The problem is that since the subjects know the experimenter is watching them, their behavior could become artificial. Clinical observation is a commonly employed research method to study psychopathology; we will talk about it more throughout this book.

            1.5.2.2. Case studies. Psychology can also utilize a detailed description of one person or a small group based on careful observation. This was the approach the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, took to develop his theories. The advantage of this method is that you arrive at a detailed description of the investigated behavior, but the disadvantage is that the findings may be unrepresentative of the larger population, and thus, lacking generalizability . Again, bear in mind that you are studying one person or a tiny group. Can you possibly make conclusions about all people from just one person, or even five or ten? The other issue is that the case study is subject to researcher bias in terms of what is included in the final narrative and what is left out. Despite these limitations, case studies can lead us to novel ideas about the cause of abnormal behavior and help us to study unusual conditions that occur too infrequently to analyze with large sample sizes and in a systematic way.

            1.5.2.3. Surveys/Self-Report data. This is a questionnaire consisting of at least one scale with some questions used to assess a psychological construct of interest such as parenting style, depression, locus of control, or sensation-seeking behavior. It may be administered by paper and pencil or computer. Surveys allow for the collection of large amounts of data quickly, but the actual survey could be tedious for the participant and social desirability , when a participant answers questions dishonestly so that they are seen in a more favorable light, could be an issue. For instance, if you are asking high school students about their sexual activity, they may not give genuine answers for fear that their parents will find out. You could alternatively gather this information via an interview in a structured or unstructured fashion.

            1.5.2.4. Correlational research. This research method examines the relationship between two variables or two groups of variables. A numerical measure of the strength of this relationship is derived, called the correlation coefficient . It can range from -1.00, a perfect inverse relationship in which one variable goes up as the other goes down, to 0 indicating no relationship at all, to +1.00 or a perfect relationship in which as one variable goes up or down so does the other. In terms of a negative correlation, we might say that as a parent becomes more rigid, controlling, and cold, the attachment of the child to parent goes down. In contrast, as a parent becomes warmer, more loving, and provides structure, the child becomes more attached. The advantage of correlational research is that you can correlate anything. The disadvantage is that you can correlate anything, including variables that do not have any relationship with one another. Yes, this is both an advantage and a disadvantage. For instance, we might correlate instances of making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with someone we are attracted to sitting near us at lunch. Are the two related? Not likely, unless you make a really good PB&J, but then the person is probably only interested in you for food and not companionship. The main issue here is that correlation does not allow you to make a causal statement.

A special form of correlational research is the epidemiological study in which the prevalence and incidence of a disorder in a specific population are measured (See Section 1.2 for definitions).

            1.5.2.5. Experiments. This is a controlled test of a hypothesis in which a researcher manipulates one variable and measures its effect on another variable. The manipulated variable is called the independent variable (IV) , and the one that is measured is called the dependent variable (DV) . In the example under Experimentation in Section 1.5.1, the treatment for bipolar disorder was the IV, while the actual intensity or number of symptoms serve as the DV.  A common feature of experiments is a control group that does not receive the treatment or is not manipulated and an experimental group that does receive the treatment or manipulation. If the experiment includes random assignment , participants have an equal chance of being placed in the control or experimental group. The control group allows the researcher (or teacher) to make a comparison to the experimental group and make a causal statement possible, and stronger. In our experiment, the new treatment should show a marked reduction in the intensity of bipolar symptoms compared to the group receiving no treatment, and perform either at the same level as, or better than, the older treatment. This would be the initial hypothesis made before starting the experiment.

In a drug study, to ensure the participants’ expectations do not affect the final results by giving the researcher what he/she is looking for (in our example, symptoms improve whether the participant is receiving treatment or not), we might use what is called a placebo , or a sugar pill made to look exactly like the pill given to the experimental group. This way, participants all are given something, but cannot figure out what exactly it is. You might say this keeps them honest and allows the results to speak for themselves.

Finally, the study of mental illness does not always afford us a large sample of participants to study, so we have to focus on one individual using a single-subject experimental design . This differs from a case study in the sheer number of strategies available to reduce potential confounding variables , or variables not originally part of the research design but contribute to the results in a meaningful way. One type of single-subject experimental design is the reversal or ABAB design . Kuttler, Myles, and Carson (1998) used social stories to reduce tantrum behavior in two social environments in a 12-year old student diagnosed with autism, Fragile-X syndrome, and intermittent explosive disorder. Using an ABAB design, they found that precursors to tantrum behavior decreased when the social stories were available (B) and increased when the intervention was withdrawn (A). A more recent study (Balakrishnan & Alias, 2017) also established the utility of social stories as a social learning tool for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using an ABAB design. During the baseline phase (A), the four student participants were observed, and data recorded on an observation form. During the treatment phase (B), they listened to the social story and data was recorded in the same manner. Upon completion of the first B, the students returned to A, which was followed one more time by B and the reading of the social story. Once the second treatment phase ended, the participation was monitored again to obtain the outcome. All students showed improvement during the treatment phases in terms of the number of positive peer interactions, but the number of interactions reduced in the absence of social stories. From this, the researchers concluded that the social story led to the increase in positive peer interactions of children with ASD.

            1.5.2.6. Multi-method research. As you have seen above, no single method alone is perfect. All have strengths and limitations. As such, for the psychologist to provide the most precise picture of what is affecting behavior or mental processes, several of these approaches are typically employed at different stages of the research study. This is called multi-method research.

• The scientific method is a systematic method for gathering knowledge about the world around us.
• A systematic explanation of a phenomenon is a theory and our specific, testable prediction is the hypothesis .
• Replication is when we repeat the study to confirm its results.
• Psychology’s five main research designs are observation, case studies, surveys, correlation, and experimentation.
• No single research method alone is perfect – all have strengths and limitations.

Section 1.5 Review Questions

• What is the scientific method and what steps make it up?
• Differentiate theory and hypothesis.
• What are the three cardinal features of science and how do they relate to the study of mental disorders?
• What are the five main research designs used by psychologists? Define each and then state its strengths and limitations.
• What is the advantage of multi-method research?
• Identify and describe the various types of mental health professionals.
• Clarify what it means to communicate findings.
• Identify professional societies in clinical psychology.
• Identify publications in clinical psychology.

1.6.1. Types of Professionals

There are many types of mental health professionals that people may seek out for assistance. They include:

Table 1.2: Types of Mental Health Professionals

For more information on types of mental health professionals, please visit:

https://www.mhanational.org/types-mental-health-professionals

1.6.2. Professional Societies and Journals

One of the functions of science is to communicate findings. Testing hypotheses, developing sound methodology, accurately analyzing data, and drawing sound conclusions are important, but you must tell others what you have done too. This is accomplished by joining professional societies and submitting articles to peer-reviewed journals. Below are some of the organizations and journals relevant to applied behavior analysis.

1.6.2.1. Professional Societies

• Website – https://div12.org/
• Mission Statement – “The mission of the Society of Clinical Psychology is to represent the field of Clinical Psychology through encouragement and support of the integration of clinical psychological science and practice in education, research, application, advocacy and public policy, attending to the importance of diversity.”
• Publications – Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice and the newsletter Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice(quarterly)
• Other Information – Members and student affiliates may join one of eight sections such as clinical emergencies and crises, clinical psychology of women, assessment psychology, and clinical geropsychology
• Website – https://www.clinicalchildpsychology.org/
• Mission Statement – “Our mission is to serve children, adolescents and families with the best possible clinical care based on psychological science. SCCAP strives to integrate scientific and professional aspects of clinical child and adolescent psychology, in that it promotes scientific inquiry, training, and clinical practice related to serving children and their families.”
• Publication – Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
• Website – https://www.aacpsy.org/
• Mission Statement – The American Academy of Clinical Psychology seeks to “recognize and promote advanced competence within Professional Psychology,” “provide a professional community that encourages communication between and among Members and Fellows of the Academy,” “provide opportunities for advanced education in Professional Psychology,” and “expand awareness and availability of AACP Members and Fellows to the public through promotion and education.”
• Publication – Bulletin of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology (newsletter)
• Website – http://www.sscpweb.org/
• Mission Statement – “ The Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology (SSCP) was established in 1966. Its purpose is to affirm and continue to promote the integration of the scientist and the practitioner in training, research, and applied endeavors. Its members represent a diversity of interests and theoretical orientations across clinical psychology. The common bond of the membership is a commitment to empirical research and the ideal that scientific principles should play a role in training, practice, and establishing public policy for health and mental health concerns. SSCP has organizational affiliations with both the American Psychological Association (Section III of Division 12) and the Association for Psychological Science.”
• Other Information – Offers ten awards ranging from early career award, outstanding mentor award, outstanding student teacher award, and outstanding student clinician award.
• Website – http://www.asch.net/
• Mission Statement – “To provide and encourage education programs to further, in every ethical way, the knowledge, understanding, and application of hypnosis in health care; to encourage research and scientific publication in the field of hypnosis; to promote the further recognition and acceptance of hypnosis as an important tool in clinical health care and focus for scientific research; to cooperate with other professional societies that share mutual goals, ethics and interests; and to provide a professional community for those clinicians and researchers who use hypnosis in their work.”
• Publication – American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
• Other Information – Offers certification in clinical hypnosis

1.6.2.2. Professional Journals

• Website – http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1468-2850
• Published by – American Psychological Association, Division 12
• Description – “ Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice presents cutting-edge developments in the science and practice of clinical psychology and related mental health fields by publishing scholarly articles, primarily involving narrative and systematic reviews as well as meta-analyses related to assessment, intervention, and service delivery.”
• Website – https://www.clinicalchildpsychology.org/JCCAP
• Published by – American Psychological Association, Division 53
• Description – “It publishes original contributions on the following topics: (a) the development and evaluation of assessment and intervention techniques for use with clinical child and adolescent populations; (b) the development and maintenance of clinical child and adolescent problems; (c) cross-cultural and socio-demographic issues that have a clear bearing on clinical child and adolescent psychology in terms of theory, research, or practice; and (d) training and professional practice in clinical child and adolescent psychology, as well as child advocacy.”
• Website – http://www.asch.net/Public/AmericanJournalofClinicalHypnosis.aspx
• Published by – American Society of Clinical Hypnosis
• Description – “The Journal publishes original scientific articles and clinical case reports on hypnosis, as well as reviews of related books and abstracts of the current hypnosis literature.”
• Mental health professionals take on many different forms with different degree requirements, training, and the ability to prescribe mediations.
• Telling others what we have done is achieved by joining professional societies and submitting articles to peer-reviewed journals.

Section 1.6 Review Questions

• Provide a general overview of the types of mental professionals and the degree, training, and ability to prescribe medications that they have.
• Briefly outline professional societies and journals related to clinical psychology and related disciplines.

Module Recap

In Module 1, we undertook a relatively lengthy discussion of what abnormal behavior is by first looking at what normal behavior is. What emerged was a general set of guidelines focused on mental illness as causing dysfunction, distress, deviance, and at times, being dangerous for the afflicted and others around him/her. Then we classified mental disorders in terms of their occurrence, cause, course, prognosis, and treatment. We acknowledged that mental illness is stigmatized in our society and provided a basis for why this occurs and what to do about it. This involved a discussion of the history of mental illness and current views and trends.

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. The word scientific is key as psychology adheres to the strictest aspects of the scientific method and uses five main research designs in its investigation of mental disorders – observation, case study, surveys, correlational research, and experiments. Various mental health professionals use these designs, and societies and journals provide additional means to communicate findings or to be good consumers of psychological inquiry.

It is with this foundation in mind that we move to examine models of abnormality in Module 2.

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Explore the Psychology Landscape: 30 Unique Topics for Your Research Paper

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Hello there, future psychologists! Choosing the right research paper topic is like selecting the perfect pair of glasses. The right ones will give you a clear vision, enhancing your ability to examine and understand the world around you. But the wrong pair? Well, they can make the world look blurry and confusing.

When it comes to psychology - the intricate science of mind and behavior - this decision becomes even more crucial. Your choice of topic can set the direction for your research, shape your hypothesis, and influence your understanding of the intricate labyrinth that is the human mind.

In this blog post, we're here to guide you on this exciting journey. We've curated a list of 30 engaging psychology research paper topics across various subfields. We'll also be sharing some crucial resources to power your research and providing valuable tips for writing your psychology research paper.

Ready? Let's dive into the captivating world of psychology research!

Unveiling 30 Engaging Psychology Research Paper Topics

Good research begins with a good question, and a good question begins with a topic that piques your interest. To get your gears turning, we've compiled a list of diverse research topics that span various branches of psychology.

General Psychology: Unraveling the Complexities of the Human Mind

• The Impact of Sleep on Cognitive Functions
• Exploring the Concept of Emotional Intelligence
• The Role of Personality Traits in Career Choices
• Mindfulness and Its Effect on Mental Health
• How Parenting Styles Influence Child Development

Social Psychology: Dissecting the Interactions and Influences Among Individuals

• The Phenomenon of Social Loafing in Work Groups
• Impact of Social Media on Body Image Perceptions
• The Influence of Stereotypes on Personal Identity
• Prosocial Behavior and Its Triggers
• The Psychological Effects of Bullying

Abnormal Psychology: A Deep Dive Into Psychological Disorders

• Exploring Treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• The Psychological Impact of Chronic Illness
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Anxiety Disorders
• The Role of Genetics in Depression
• Understanding the Psychopathology of Eating Disorders

Developmental Psychology: The Evolution of Mind and Behavior over the Lifespan

• The Role of Play in Cognitive Development of Children
• Impact of Divorce on Childhood Development
• Understanding the Aging Process from a Psychological Perspective
• The Effect of Birth Order on Personality Development
• Gender Identity Development in Adolescence

Cognitive Psychology: Understanding Mental Processes

• The Impact of Multitasking on Cognitive Performance
• Memory Retention: Techniques and Strategies
• Exploring the Cognitive Process of Decision Making
• The Relationship Between Language and Cognition
• How Perception Influences Reality

Behavioral Psychology: Examining the Link Between Mind and Behavior

• The Application of Operant Conditioning in Classroom Settings
• The Effect of Positive Reinforcement on Behavior Change
• The Role of Behavioral Therapy in Treating Phobias
• The Impact of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior
• Nature versus Nurture: The Ongoing Debate in Behavioral Psychology

By no means is this an exhaustive list, but it's a start. Remember, the most effective research topic is one that intrigues you. Find something you're passionate about, and the research will not just be an assignment, but an exciting journey of discovery.

Each of these topics invites in-depth exploration and can serve as a strong foundation for a compelling research paper. Now, with your topic in hand, let's move to the next stage of your research journey: finding reliable resources!

Essential Research Tools: Navigating Databases and Online Resources for Psychology Students

Just as a carpenter needs the right tools to build a house, you need the right resources to build your research paper. Thankfully, in this digital age, there are numerous reputable resources available at your fingertips. Here are some key tools to power your research:

PsycINFO : Managed by the American Psychological Association (APA), PsycINFO is a goldmine for psychology students. It provides abstracts and citations to scholarly literature in the field of psychology, and related disciplines such as medicine, psychiatry, education, and more.

PubMed : A free search engine offering access to references and abstracts from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books, PubMed covers fields including psychology and behavioral sciences.

Google Scholar : An accessible and user-friendly tool, Google Scholar is great for broad searches. It allows you to search scholarly articles, theses, books, abstracts, and more from various academic publishers, professional societies, and universities.

JSTOR : This digital library contains a wealth of academic journals, books, and primary sources across a wide range of disciplines, including psychology.

PsycArticles : Another APA database, PsycArticles offers full-text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in psychology from nearly 80 journals.

Your University Library : Don't forget your university library. Most institutions provide access to numerous databases and journals, both physical and digital. Librarians can also be valuable guides in your research journey.

Remember, when you gather information, always evaluate your sources for credibility. The strength of your research paper lies in the quality of the evidence you provide. Up next, we'll explore some strategies to help you transform your research into an impactful psychology research paper.

From Research to Writing: Structuring Your Psychology Research Paper

In this section, we will delve into the crucial steps of transforming your research into a compelling, well-structured psychology research paper. The process can be challenging, especially when trying to present complex psychological concepts clearly and persuasively. But don't worry, help is available. If you're struggling with the structure or writing of your paper, consider checking out our detailed guide , where we provide comprehensive help for dealing with such difficulties. Let's now proceed to explore some crucial steps for writing your psychology research paper.

Write a Strong Thesis Statement : Your thesis statement will guide your entire paper. It should be clear and concise, usually one to two sentences long. It should state your main argument and the points you will use to support it.

Create an Outline : An outline is like a roadmap for your research paper. It will help you organize your thoughts, arguments, and evidence, and make the writing process smoother. Your outline should include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Write the Introduction : The introduction is your opportunity to hook your reader's attention and present your thesis statement. It should provide some background information on your topic and briefly outline what the reader should expect in the rest of the paper.

Craft Body Paragraphs : Each body paragraph should focus on one main idea that supports your thesis. Begin with a topic sentence, provide evidence or an argument, and then explain the significance of this information in relation to your thesis.

Write a Conclusive Summary : The conclusion should summarize your main points and restate your thesis in a new way. It should provide a sense of closure and may also suggest further avenues for research or discussion.

Revise, Edit, and Proofread : The first draft is never perfect. Take the time to revise your work for clarity and coherence, edit for grammar and punctuation, and proofread for spelling errors.

Writing a psychology research paper is a rigorous but rewarding process. If you need additional support, remember that you can always rely on a trusted source like Writers Per Hour to write your psychology research paper .

And that's a wrap! We hope this blog post has sparked some inspiration and provided useful tips for your next psychology research paper. Happy researching and writing!

Choosing the right topic is a crucial first step towards writing a compelling psychology research paper. We hope that this list of our psychology research paper topics has sparked your curiosity and inspired you to delve deeper into the captivating world of psychology.

Remember, the most effective research paper doesn't just provide facts—it challenges established notions, contributes new insights, and provokes thought and discussion. Select a topic that resonates with you, one that fuels your passion and curiosity.

In case you find yourself struggling with the writing process or need assistance structuring your research, do not hesitate to seek professional help. Research paper experts like those at Writers Per Hour are always ready to assist you in turning your chosen topic into a compelling, well-researched paper.

Ultimately, it is your passion and unique perspective that will transform your chosen topic into an engaging research paper. Happy writing!

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List Of 18 Research Paper Topics On Abnormal Psychology

Abnormal psychology is one of the most enchanting fields of knowledge and below is a list of 18 research paper topics on abnormal psychology. Some of the topics have annotations shedding more light on them:

• What is Abnormal Psychology? Just as the name implies, this particular paper was interested in defining and redefining abnormal psychology. It seeks to understand what the field of study truly entails and what has been attached to it over time even without any deep connection to its core principles.
• The Pathological Basis of Abnormal Psychology: One of the most amazing things about abnormal psychology is that it is a scientific study of what is deemed to be aberrant or unusual behavior. The purpose of this topic is to seek to understand the immediate and remote causes of these types of behaviors. The topic treats abnormal psychological processes as diseases, but more importantly, seeks to understand the underlying mechanisms that are causing and sustaining these diseases.
• Psychopathology of Abnormal Psychology in Humans: This focuses on the psychopathological mechanisms behind what is considered the weird manifestations of some people.
• Abnormal Psychology in Animals: This is still a developing area of knowledge, but giant strides are being made in understanding why some animals differ from others behaviorally.
• The Future of Abnormal Psychology: It focuses on what will happen decades or even centuries from now in this fast-developing field of knowledge.
• Psychological Basis of Aberrant Behavior in Serial Killers: For centuries, serial killers have captured our imaginations, and this is one of the 18 research paper topics on abnormal psychology that is specifically dedicated to studying the behavior of this dreaded category of people.
• The Evolution of the Study of Abnormal Behavior: The field as we know it today has evolved over time, this topic is an in-depth study of this change.
• Pathophysiology of Psychopathic Individuals
• Pharmacological Approach to Subjects of Abnormal Psychology
• The Theory of Multiple Causality
• Evolutionary Biology and Aberrant Behaviors
• Disorders of Adult Personality and Behavior
• Studies of Delusion in the Very Young
• Pathology of Mental Disorders in Adults
• Genetic Basis of Abnormal Psychology
• Sociocultural Impact on the Processes of Abnormal Psychology
• Features of Abnormal Psychology
• Therapeutic Approaches to Abnormal Psychology

These are just a few of some of the research paper topics that have been explored in the fantastic world of abnormal psychology.

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Great Psychology Research Paper Topics

Table of contents

• 1 Psychology Research Paper Definition and Purpose
• 2.1 Social Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.2 Clinical Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.3 Experimental Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.4 Developmental Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.5 Criminal Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.6 Cultural Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.7 Health Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.8 Sports Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.9 Educational Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.10 Social Media Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.11 Abnormal Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.12 Cognitive Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.13 Controversial Psychology Research Paper Topics
• 2.14 Developmental Psychology
• 2.15 Child Psychology
• 3 Psychology Research Paper Tips
• 4 Conclusion

If you are looking for psychology research topics to help you write a better paper and complete it in less time, this page is for you. We will present various research paper topics and give you important details you need to include in your creation. This is not an easy type of writing. You can see a lot of controversial topics in psychology for research paper and a lot more psychology research topics for high school students that are too complicated and require research or even conducting an experiment. Psychology research topics for college students are even more important and even more complicated due to their nature.

These papers usually need a week or even a month to be completed. It is no wonder why so many students want to buy psychology paper and get over it in a minute. If you are one of them, you can use help from our writers. Some are even therapists, so they can help you more than you can imagine. We will also present to you research topics in psychology for college students so you can get more basic types of help if you need it or at least get some inspiration.

Psychology Research Paper Definition and Purpose

All interesting psychology research topics are designed to focus on psychology. You will have to write about a condition, disorder, experiment, or even a literature review. Keep in mind that you can also write about psychology research topics on social media or social elements of society. Yes, psychology affects that as well. The best psychology research topics are complex, and they can even mandate that you perform complete research and provide a lab report. These psychology research topics in 2023 are all common and very popular at the moment. We must add that personality psychology research topics can be extremely difficult.

The first thing here is to know how to write a psychology research paper well and get the grade you are looking for. Always keep in mind that you must use accurate and trustworthy data and research details. The false data here is a huge mistake and something that will cost you a grade. Luckily there are interesting psychology topics that will keep you busy. In a nutshell, these essays aim to present your findings or understanding of a topic. This affects all topics about psychology, and each psychology research paper will have to be unique, have a good balance, and answer all the questions a reader may have.

Writing Tips for Psychology Research Papers

There are a lot of tips we can give you here. These can be used for all unique psychology research topics and can help you write the paper you will be happy with. You will use these tips if you are writing undergraduate research topics psychology, or any other. They are mandatory and will help you get the desired grade. You can use them when writing psychology research topics, cognitive psychology, or any other type. Anyway, here are the tips you are going to need.

• Choose the topic you will love . This can help. You will be more interested in conducting proper research and can enjoy writing. If possible, pick a topic that means something to you. All psychology topics for research can be fun.
• Keep all things simple . You need to write a research paper that is well-researched, simple, and answers all the questions directly. Psychology research topics and clinical psychology are a bit different, but you should use the same tip here.
• Choose trustworthy sources . When writing on any general psychology topics, you need to use a good source or better-said sources. This is true for all research paper writings due to a simple reason. A research paper must be 100% accurate. Good psychology research topics will be perfect if you use this type of help.
• Start soon . All good topics are complicated, so you will need a lot of time to complete them. This means starting as soon as you can. Using this tip, you will have enough time to write and get help if you need it. If you don’t have the time, you can write my research paper type of help and get the research essay done within minutes. Yes, it does work well.

Social Psychology Research Paper Topics

All of these research paper topics are basically a combination of science here and society. As such, we can see all the topics that are common and actually look related more to philosophy than anything else. Nevertheless, these are common topics, and they are very interesting. You will probably have to write good psychology on something like this.

• What effects does racism have?
• Gender role in the modern world
• Side effects of gender discrimination
• Peer pressure and the effect it has on teenagers
• Violent cartoons and their Effect on small children
• How divorce will affect a child
• Explain homophobia
• Explain social depression
• Social cognition: What is it?
• Social Issues and Culture

Clinical Psychology Research Paper Topics

This part of the science will examine and reveal the behavior of people and how they act and react in everyday life. These may touch on behavioral therapy and also cognitive development in one way or another. Below are a few paper topics that are very common, and you will probably have to write on some of them.

• Discrimination from health workers explained
• Human development in developing and developed countries
• Multitasking explained by therapists
• Religion as a factor in the development
• PTSD Analysis and how it affects people
• Internet addiction and which problems it does cause
• Stress in marriages: How does it affect people and marriage?
• Adult separation anxiety and the Effect on Children
• Impact of Patients in Asylums on Staff
• Why do people prefer to watch sports rather than participate

Experimental Psychology Research Paper Topics

When we mention psychology, many of you will instantly think of multiple personalities or something similar. This part of the content is a bit different. Here it is mostly about experiments that were conducted all over the world and found how our brain works, how disorders work, and so much more. Keep in mind that you may have to conduct your own experiment if you have to write on this topic. Many people will need research paper help or at least guidance in order to complete it. These are some of the hardest essays you will have to complete in your life.

• Colors and the effect they have on our mood
• How can breakfast affect our personality and mood during that day?
• The worst medical experiments in history
• Explain dehumanization in poisons
• Mood freezing: Causes, symptoms, and treatment
• Controlling aggression, but how?
• Cloning can help couples without children
• Group belonging and the link to an individual belonging
• Violence and internet use link
• Explain double foot in the door

Developmental Psychology Research Paper Topics

These can be very hard but can be very rewarding as well. As you can assume, good cognitive psychology research topics here will be about forming personality in children, problems, and all the rest that may affect that. Yes, you will write about children most of the time, so you may want to pay close attention to the data you are using. The psychological elements here are massive and very important.

• What kind of effect does bullying has on children?
• Violent PC games and their effect on behavior?
• Too much time online: How will children react?
• Abusive parents: Huge problem these days
• Are gender roles in children still present?
• Abused children’s personality issues
• Mental health issues: Long-term effects
• Things that can cause faster aging
• Medications and their Effect on your mental health
• Sleeping disorder and the effect it has on your mental health

Criminal Psychology Research Paper Topics

Some of you may believe that this is a part of forensic psychology. In general, here, you will have to write why a person will commit a crime and whether any mental issues or links made him do that. You may also have to write about one criminal’s prevention, details, and specifics.

• Brain dysfunction and criminals
• Psychological traits of a serial killer
• What is needed to ”make” a serial killer
• Are criminals made or born
• How childhood and abuse make criminals
• Worst serial killers in history
• Prevention of criminal behavior
• Differences between criminals and ordinary people
• Common disorders of criminals
• What starts violent behavior

Cultural Psychology Research Paper Topics

For the lack of a better word, here you will have to write about how culture affects our mind when forming or later in life. Try to remember that your essay must be well-organized. A too-broad or even too-narrow paper will make the reader get lost in your words. This is not something you will want. The psychological factors are of extreme importance.

• Analyzing culture and its development of it
• Comparing two different cultures
• Culture and its Effects on People
• How cultures around the world view sex
• Definition of global culture
• Explain multicultural communities
• Nationalism and culture are compared and explained
• Do animals have culture?
• Culture of isolated communities
• Check different cultures and the languages

Health Psychology Research Paper Topics

Here you may have to touch anxiety disorders or anything else. In general, you will have to write an essay about brain health. Some ideas focus completely on disorders, while others focus on keeping your mind healthy and dealing with all sorts of issues. For most people, these titles are very amusing and can be very beneficial. You will basically have to cover different psychological elements of the science.

• Rare mental problems
• Stress and it has on the mind
• Substance abuse and the side effects
• Why is depression so common these days?
• The mental health of young people
• Postpartum depression and the treatment
• The mental health of Native Americans
• Common disorders in children
• How mental problems affect the physical condition
• Understanding all eating disorders

Sports Psychology Research Paper Topics

You may have to write about the mind of athletes or how they are affected in the world. The psychological factors here are very powerful and massive, the lack of a better word. These ideas are simple and will keep you busy and interested, especially if you are into sports. Now you can see the best examples of papers related to sports psychology.

• Use of neuro-linguistic programming in sports
• Doping in sports: How does it change the sport and the athlete?
• Sport aggression is explained and defined
• Attention and concentration in shooting sports
• How can you reduce aggression in sports fans
• Emotion and Needs in Sports for Women
• Children of professional athletes: Differences to ordinary children
• Gender studies: Modern problems in sports
• Mental Recovery of athletes after Trauma
• Personality and choosing to do sports

Educational Psychology Research Paper Topics

The psychological elements here are all about education and the effects it has on the mind. This is a simple definition. We can add that you will have to complete paper topics that are also focused on education later in life and the effects they have on our minds.

• Bullying and the effects it has on education and the mind
• Importance of proper teacher program for children
• Child Abuse and its link to Education
• How memory loss affects education
• Education of children with special needs
• Anxiety and depression as huge issues for education
• What motivates children to continue with higher education?
• Goals, gender, and result in education
• Parental Involvement for Children at School
• Perspectives of attention-seeking students

Social Media Psychology Research Paper Topics

Don’t think that here you will have to enjoy paper writing that is all about Facebook and Instagram. You will have to prove how these platforms affect our mental health. You can write about pros, cons, and so much more, so you do need to conduct a lot of research and include tons of details. Here are great ideas that you will like.

• Is Facebook beneficial for humans?
• Instagram: pros and cons for the mind
• Twitter and the effects it has on education
• Addiction to social platforms
• Cyberbullying and Facebook link
• Doing Business and the Correlation with Facebook or Instagram
• Is real-world communication affected by Facebook and similar platforms
• Are these sites killing our productivity?
• Advantages of using these platforms
• Downsides of using these platforms

Abnormal Psychology Research Paper Topics

The main goal here is to explain or research disorders and explain them to people. You will have to use accurate and latest data in order to justify your claims. You may have to explain eating disorders but also severe psychosis.

• Can PC games affect our minds?
• Pros and cons of making marijuana legal
• Prevention of teen suicide
• ICD 10 classification of mental disorders
• Mental problems caused by technology
• History of abnormal psychology
• How effective CBT is for treating anxiety in children
• All about aggression
• Most severe mental disorders
• Extremely rare disorders in humans

Cognitive Psychology Research Paper Topics

This part of the science will affect all the details about memory, language use, processing of information, and so much more of one person. As you can see, the topics are mostly focused on problems and solutions. You need to stay focused while writing and pay close attention to details.

• Autism and how it affects modern society
• How can you recover from losing your memory?
• Judgment in the decision-making process
• Measuring the attention span of your child
• Why will you encounter your memories?
• What factors affect problem-solving in children?
• How speech disorders affect children
• Why will you repress some of your memory?
• Can we use experiments to measure cognitive capability?
• Explain human memories and how they are formed

Controversial Psychology Research Paper Topics

So, what are the most controversial topics in psychology?

• Is it ethical to have clients as Facebook friends?
• Homosexuality.
• Ethics of the Milgram experiment.
• Are women always the victims, or are they also perpetrators of domestic violence?
• Crime as a justification for coping with past trauma – how justified is it?
• Social networks, online dating, and their impact on teenagers.
• Ethics surrounding the Stanford prison experiment.
• The adult content in cartoons and animes.
• Fetishes and sexually deviant behavior.
• Child sexual abuse – when a parent is a perpetrator.

Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology is one of the most popular fields here since it studies the cognitive development of an individual throughout the entire lifespan. When you write your paper , you might want to check PapersOwl to make things easier. Here, we have some general ideas on where you might want to start:

• The effects of social media on adolescent development: A critical review of research.
• How do parenting styles influence the development of emotional regulation in children?
• The impact of early childhood experiences on adult attachment styles.
• The role of peer relationships in adolescent identity development.
• Examining the long-term effects of childhood trauma on adult mental health and well-being.
• The importance of cultural and ethnic identity in the development of racial attitudes and prejudice.
• Gender identity development: A critical analysis of current theories.
• The effects of poverty on child development: An overview of current research.
• The development of empathy and prosocial behavior in children: The role of parenting and socialization.
• Examining the effects of technology on infant and toddler development: A review of current literature.

Child Psychology

This is yet another exciting field of psychology that focuses on the peculiarities in the development of the child. This is also a prolific ground for finding a proper topic for your paper:

• Influence of video games on Children
• The emotional development of a child
• The role of play in child development: A review of current literature.
• The effects of parenting styles on child socialization and emotional development.
• The impact of divorce and family conflict on child adjustment and well-being.
• How to promote positive sibling relationships in childhood and adolescence.
• The relationship between childhood ADHD and academic achievement: A meta-analysis.
• The effects of media exposure on child behavior and attitudes: An overview of research.
• The development of moral reasoning in children and adolescents.
• The effects of child abuse and neglect on mental health outcomes in adulthood.
• The importance of temperament in child development: A review of current theories.
• How cultural values and beliefs influence parenting practices and child development.
• Does death metal make children smarter?
• Society and children’s cognitive development.

There are more branches of psychology you might want to discuss, so you need to consider your specialization when choosing a proper topic for your study. There are different psychology essay samples , so you just need to pick the one that suits you best and would potentially make for a great paper.

Psychology Research Paper Tips

Do not expect choosing a psychology topic for your paper to be quick or easy! Remember, research takes quite a long time and usually takes even more time than you expect, so do not choose a topic that doesn’t excite you. It is easier to stay motivated and keep writing your project paper when you choose something you are genuinely interested in and passionate about.

After you’ve decided on what you are going to write, the next step is to start searching for some information about it. Take a deep breath and begin your research by looking through encyclopedias, textbooks, and pay attention to all the sources that are cited in the readings. Pay a visit to the library, and use its catalogs to search for different books. You can also look through online databases like PsycNET or PsycINFO to find more recent information.

We hope you have found our examples useful. So, feel free to use any of them while working on your assignment! We understand how hard and challenging school tasks are, so if you are struggling with them, you can buy psychology papers, don’t be afraid to contact us – we will do it for you!

Selecting the proper topic is the most important part of approaching any paper, especially when it comes to complex disciplines such as psychology. There are many branches in this discipline, so choosing one perfect topic might be even more challenging than it seems. That is why we have some general suggestions for you so you could choose your perfect topic yourself.

Now you will have to find a good topic and start your paper writing task. This can be complicated and will take a lot of time, so you may want to stay focused and pay close attention to the details, specifics, and so much more. Always remember that you can get help when you need it and get over a task you don’t like. Don’t forget that you can choose a title you are passionate about that will keep you interested in writing for as long as possible.

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Resources: Discussions and Assignments

Module 2 discussion: research and ethics in abnormal psychology assignment.

STEP 1: Choose to investigate a controversial method of treatment (from recent history – within the last twenty years – or currently being used). Consider the following as examples (you could use one of these or find something different):

• Attachment Therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_therapy , (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4acOXrijMA )
• Scared Straight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scared_Straight !, Juvenile Bootcamps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_camp_(correctional) (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM0H19A1WEM ),
• Conversion Therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_therapy .

STEP 2: Research your topic via journal articles, open-source content, videos, and/or available textbooks. You should have at least 2 appropriate sources (examples of an inappropriate source would be a blog or opinion piece).

STEP 3: Create a PowerPoint (or another similar type of video presentation) of no more than 5 minutes in length.

Sample PowerPoint presentation using Google slides: (You can use this as a template)

An Investigation of a Controversial Treatment Method

The presentation should include the following information:

• An introduction of the controversial treatment method you’ve investigated to include a brief background history (how/why did it start?)
• Current (or recent) studies and/or research to show its effectiveness (or lack thereof).
• The ethical issues with the method (*Refer to APA’s General Principles: https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index ) Are the professionals carrying out this method acting with beneficence and nonmaleficence? Are they acting with fidelity and responsibility? Are they honest and transparent and supporting/advocating for justice? Are they being respectful of people’s rights and dignity? Why or why not?
• Your conclusion should summarize your main points and your overall assessment of the methods/treatment that was or is being conducted along with your educated opinion as to why this should or should not continue.
• Include a reference page at the end – cite all sources according to APA.

*Tips: include pictures and embed short videos to keep your audience engaged. (Just be sure to cite your sources).

STEP 4: Record the presentation with audio (again: keep it to a 5-minute maximum). You may include a video of yourself as well, though this is not required. Here is a “how-to” guide from wikihow: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-PowerPoint-Presentation-That-Includes-Audio-and-Video-Files and another guide from Microsoft Support Center if using this tool: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/record-a-presentation-2570dff5-f81c-40bc-b404-e04e95ffab33

STEP 5: Submit your presentation into the discussion forum to share with your classmates.

Grading Rubric