Chunxiao Bao
Psychology101
03/10/2016
Homework #3

* How has mental illness been defined in the past? Contrast these explanations for how abnormal behavior and thinking is defined today. (3 points)

1)Ancient peoples have assumed that some among them who were behaving oddly were possessed by evil spirits. Hippocrates was the first recorded attempt to explain abnormal behavior as due to some biological process. During the Renaissance, belief in demonic possession (in which the possessed person was seen as a victim) gave way to a belief in witchcraft, and mentally ill persons were most likely called witches and put to death.
2) One way to define normal and abnormal is to use a statistical definition.
Another way of defining abnormality is to see it as some- thing that goes against the norms or standards of the society in which the individual lives.
Abnormal behavior that includes at least two of these five criteria is perhaps best classified by the term psychological disorder, which is defined as any pattern of behavior that causes people significant distress, causes them to harm themselves or others, or harms their ability to function in daily life. 1. Is the behavior unusual, such as experiencing severe panic when faced with a stranger or being severely depressed in the absence of any stressful life situations? 
 2. Does the behavior go against social norms? (And keep in mind that social norms change over time—e.g., homosexuality was once considered a psychological dis- order rather than a variation in sexual orientation.) 
 3. Does the behavior cause the person significant subjective discomfort? 
 4. Is the behavior maladaptive or result in an inability to function? 
 5. Does the behavior cause the person to be dangerous to self or others, as in the case of someone who tries to commit suicide or who attacks other people