Abnormal Psychology Made Easy

Compare the supernatural model with demonology and moon myths, including mass hysteria, to explain abnormal behavior, and the biological model with four humors and treatments like bloodletting and insulin shock.

Explore the psychoanalytic model of abnormal behavior, detailing Freud's three-part mind—id, ego, superego—unconscious conflicts, defense mechanisms, psychosexual stages, and techniques like free association, dreams analysis, and transference.

Explains the behavioral and humanistic models of abnormal behavior, highlighting classical and operant conditioning, Pavlov, Watson, Skinner, Thorndyke, and Maslow's hierarchy toward self-actualization.

Systematically assess and diagnose by collecting and analyzing information with reliable, valid, and standardized tools such as interviews, questionnaires, tests, ratings, and observations.

Explore the DSM's limitations and comorbidity, and learn how clinical assessment uses interviews, mental status examination, reliability and validity to predict, plan, and evaluate treatments.

Explore systems of classification for abnormal psychology, including categorical, dimensional, and prototypical approaches, and review DSM and ICD frameworks for organizing mental disorders.

Explore psychological tests: MMPI with 550 items and 10 clinical scales, self-report inventories, intelligence scales (Wechsler, preschool and adult), and projective tests, with advantages and limitations.

Explore projective and neuropsychological tests, including the Rorschach and thematic perception test, Bender visual motor test, Luria-Nebraska and Halstead batteries, GSR, biofeedback, and brain imaging methods.

Explore the five anxiety disorders: panic, generalized anxiety, OCD, PTSD, and phobias, and their symptoms, causes, and treatments, including systematic desensitization, flooding, CBT, and benzodiazepines.

Follow a freelance photographer's experience of social anxiety, including fear of interactions and sweating. Moving out worsens isolation and affects work, prompting help-seeking.

Explore a personal account of social anxiety, detailing fear of judgment, avoidance of conversation, and symptoms like sweating, blushing, and a shaky voice, while highlighting therapy as a path.

Investigate phobias in abnormal psychology by examining loneliness and the urge to talk about feelings, as portrayed in the video on phobias.

Explore mood disorders, including depressive and bipolar disorders, and DSM-5 categories such as major depressive disorder, seasonal affective disorder, and cyclothymic disorder.

In this video on mood disorders, a student under exam stress turns to stimulants, experiences elevated energy and confidence, then extreme sleep loss and risky behavior, affecting academics and relationships.

Explore sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy, and circadian rhythm problems like jet lag and delayed sleep phase disorder; learn their diagnosis and treatment.

Explore abnormal psychology concepts in a shipboard scene, tracing how characters lean, rolling on the waves, and show support, tying these dynamics to sleep disorder themes.

Narcolepsy is a neurological sleep disorder causing daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, sleep paralysis, and fragmented night sleep, often starting in adolescence, with research exploring hypocretin neuron loss and future replacement therapies.

Explore somatic symptom disorders, including somatic symptom disorder and conversion disorder, where bodily distress persists despite unclear medical explanations, and learn treatment emphasizing daily functioning and doctor–patient relationships.

Explore somatic symptom disorder in abnormal psychology through a clear, engaging video that presents core concepts within the course framework.

Explore dissociative disorders—amnesia, depersonalization, and dissociative identity disorder—and how trauma shapes memory and identity. Learn about diagnosis, causes, and treatments such as psychotherapy, CBT, DBT, and antidepressants.

Explore how stress links to dissociative amnesia, showing appetite loss, sleep disturbances, and inability to recall recent events at school.