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Psychological Pathology

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine

  • 26 Accesses

Synonyms

Abnormal psychology; Psychopathology

Definition

The scientific study of psychological disorders and their causes.

Description

Psychological pathology is the study of the causes, components, course, and consequences of psychological disorders. These are characterized by abnormality and dysfunction.

Abnormality

Psychological disorders are defined by diagnostic criteria, like those outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM; American Psychiatric Association [APA] 2000) or the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Conditions (ICD; World Health Organization 2007). These criteria are composed of “marker symptoms,” or thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors identified as abnormal for a variety of reasons (e.g., because they cause distress, disadvantage, or disability or are highly inflexible or irrational; Stein et al. 2010). Symptoms can be understood as qualitatively different from normal or as extreme variants of...

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References and Readings

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, text revision (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

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  • Stein, D. J., Phillips, K. A., Bolton, D., Fulford, K. W. M., Sadler, J. Z., & Kendler, K. S. (2010). What is a mental/psychiatric disorder? from DSM-IV to DSM-V. Psychological Medicine, 40, 1759–1765.

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  • World Health Organization. (2007). International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems, 10th revision, version for 2007. Retrieved 1 Jan 2011 from http://apps.who.int/classifications/apps/icd/icd10online/

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Health Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Maxine Holmqvist

Authors
  1. Maxine Holmqvist
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maxine Holmqvist .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioral Medicine Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    Marc D. Gellman

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Holmqvist, M. (2020). Psychological Pathology. In: Gellman, M.D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39903-0_1174

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39903-0_1174

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-39901-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-39903-0

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