Today it’s great to have Colin DeYoung on the podcast. Dr. DeYoung is a professor in the psychology department at the University of Minnesota and the director of the Personality, Individual Differences and Behavioral Genetics program. He researches the structures and sources of psychological traits using neuroscience methods to investigate their biological substrates. He developed a general theory of personality: Cybernetic Big Five Theory which identifies psychological functions associated with major personality traits as well as their connection to other elements of personality and various life outcomes including mental illness.
Topics
- Definitions of mental illness
- The problem with DSM-5’s diagnostic categories
- The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP)
- What is cybernetics?
- A Cybernetic Theory of Psychopathology
- How Colin’s theory differs from abnormal psychology
- Differences between mental disorder and psychopathology
- Characteristic adaptations and personality traits
- Moving towards a dimensional model of psychopathology
- What qualifies as cybernetic dysfunction?
- Narcissism, anti-social behavior, and successful psychopaths
- Legal interventions for risky profiles without stigmatization
- The need for non-pharmacological interventions
Resources
A Cybernetic Theory of Psychopathology [pdf]
Understanding Psychopathology: Cybernetics and Psychology on the Boundary between Order and Chaos [pdf]
A cybernetic perspective on the nature of psychopathology: Transcending conceptions of mental illness as statistical deviance and brain disease [pdf]