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Capella University — Psychology

PSYC3110: Abnormal Psychology

A complete guide to Capella's PSYC3110. This course covers how psychology classifies, understands, and explains psychological disorders — using the DSM-5 diagnostic framework and the major theoretical models of what causes psychopathology.

UndergraduateAbnormal PsychologyDSM-5APA 7th Edition

PSYC3110 teaches that "abnormal" in clinical psychology is a technical, criteria-based classification — not a vague judgment about strangeness — grounded in specific, defined diagnostic criteria and models of causation.

The DSM-5 diagnostic framework

PSYC3110 covers how the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) defines and classifies mental disorders using specific symptom criteria, duration requirements, and functional impairment thresholds. Students survey major diagnostic categories — mood disorders, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders — learning the defining features that distinguish each.

Models of psychopathology

The course examines competing models for explaining why psychological disorders develop — biological/medical models (genetics, neurochemistry), cognitive-behavioral models (learned maladaptive thought and behavior patterns), and the diathesis-stress model (a genetic/biological vulnerability that requires an environmental trigger to manifest) — teaching students that most contemporary understanding integrates multiple models rather than favoring one exclusively.

Key topics in PSYC3110

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Worked example: applying the diathesis-stress model

  • Diathesis (vulnerability): A person has a genetic predisposition toward major depressive disorder, inherited through family history
  • Without significant stress: The vulnerability may never manifest as a diagnosable disorder
  • Stress trigger: A significant life stressor (job loss, relationship breakdown) interacts with the underlying vulnerability
  • Outcome: The combination of vulnerability and trigger produces a depressive episode meeting DSM-5 criteria
  • Lesson: This model explains why the same stressor affects different people differently, and why genetic risk alone doesn't guarantee a disorder will develop

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Frequently asked questions

Why does a DSM-5 diagnosis require both specific symptom criteria and evidence of functional impairment, not symptoms alone?

The DSM-5 generally requires that a set of specific symptoms be present for a minimum duration and also cause clinically significant distress or impairment in important areas of functioning (social, occupational, or other) before a diagnosis is warranted — this functional impairment requirement exists specifically to distinguish normal, transient human experiences (occasional sadness, situational anxiety, everyday worry) from a diagnosable disorder. PSYC3110 teaches this distinction because someone can experience some symptoms that overlap with a disorder's criteria (feeling sad for a few days, for instance) without meeting the full diagnostic threshold, which requires both a sufficient symptom cluster over a sufficient duration and evidence that these symptoms are genuinely impairing the person's ability to function in their life — without this requirement, normal human emotional experiences risk being inappropriately pathologized as clinical disorders.

Why do most contemporary explanations of psychopathology integrate multiple models rather than relying on a single explanatory framework?

Purely biological models can explain genetic and neurochemical contributions to disorders but don't fully account for why environmental experiences and learned behavior patterns clearly influence symptom onset and course, while purely cognitive-behavioral models can explain learned thought and behavior patterns but don't fully account for genetic vulnerability differences between individuals facing similar environmental circumstances. PSYC3110 teaches integrative models like the diathesis-stress model specifically because contemporary research consistently shows that most psychological disorders arise from a genuine interaction between biological vulnerability and environmental factors, rather than either factor alone being sufficient or necessary — this integrated understanding also has direct clinical implications, since it suggests effective treatment often needs to address both biological factors (sometimes through medication) and learned cognitive-behavioral patterns (through therapy) together, rather than assuming a single-cause, single-treatment model will be sufficient for most people experiencing psychological disorders.