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This lesson traces how humanity's understanding of psychological disorders shifted from supernatural explanations — demonic possession, black magic, and spiritual curses — to modern biological and psychosocial frameworks. Drawing from Section 15.3 of OpenStax Psychology 2e, the discussion covers historical phenomena like dancing mania alongside cutting-edge concepts like genetic heritability and the diathesis-stress model. By the end, you'll see how each perspective — supernatural, biological, and diathesis-stress — offers a distinct lens for understanding the origins and causes of psychopathology. In this video: • Supernatural perspectives: how demonic possession and black magic were once the default explanations for mental illness • Dancing mania: the 11th–17th century epidemic where thousands danced until their feet bled, and how historian John Waller explained it • How psychological distress, social contagion, and belief in supernatural forces combined to produce mass behavioral phenomena • The biological perspective: how genetics, chemical imbalances, and brain abnormalities are linked to psychological disorders • Schizophrenia and genetic heritability: why identical twins share ~50% risk even though they share 100% of their genes • The diathesis-stress model: how an underlying predisposition (diathesis) and an adverse environmental trigger (stress) interact in an inverse relationship • Comparing all three perspectives — supernatural, biological, and diathesis-stress — side by side #OpenStax #Psychology #MentalHealth #Psychopathology #PsychologyStudent OpenStax Content adapted from "OpenStax Psychology 2e", by OpenStax licensed under CC BY 4.0. Content based on Web Version: Apr 23, 2026. Read the textbook online https://openstax.org/details/books/psychology-2e Music first girl talking to me. by ikkun (ex. Barradeen) | https://soundcloud.com/ikkunwastaken Royalty Free Music by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
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