What is abnormality in mental health?
Terms like ‘ideal mental health’ and ‘normal’ are not without problems and can be the source of disagreement. This can be seen in the fact that the way we view ‘norms’ …
Course: Defining Mental Health: A Short Introduction
Introduction to ‘Exploring models of abnormality’
In this activity, you will see that norms are not what they seem and the concept of ‘abnormality’ can be problematic when considering mental health issues. So, in this activity …
What’s next?
Next week we will cover a range of topics that will include how we diagnose a mental illness. In this we will delve into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of …
A review of the week
During this week we have covered a range of topics and learned more about how we think about and define mental health issues. Mental health is a broad area that …
Neurotic and psychotic symptoms
One reason why mental health issues are so difficult to define is that a person living with them may display many different symptoms. A consequence of this is that symptoms …
How widespread are mental health issues?
How we define mental illness is important as this is how we categorise individuals. We often talk about ‘mental health’ when we are in fact referring to ‘mental ill health’ …
What is ideal mental health?
The best way to think about how to define mental illness is to think about what is meant by the term ‘mental health’. A definition that is commonly used by …
What do experts mean by ‘mental health’ (and ‘illness’) and ‘normality’?
So far we have looked at myths and misconceptions about people with mental health issues, now let’s explore what experts have to say about the issue. How do we define …
Introduction to myths and misconceptions about people living with mental health issues
Mental health issues cover a broad range of categories and affect people in very different ways. There are many misconceptions and myths about mental health which influence our perception of …
An important note about terminology used in this course
You will notice that this course uses terminology that not everybody may be comfortable using. This includes: Abnormality Mental illness Disorder These are used by clinical experts (APA 2013) when …
The big question
This course has a big question. The big question provides a focus for your learning in the course and helps you think about what you will need to learn. The …
Why study mental health?
This short introduction allows you to meet Lucy Anacleto, the tutor behind the course who will explain why mental health is such an important subject to study further. The video …