Copyright © 2005 Allyn & Bacon

Chapter 11:

Psychological Disorders

Psychological Disorder

The presence of a constellation of symptoms that create significant distress or impair work, school, family, relationships, or daily living

Symptoms Cognitive

Emotional

Behavioral

Psychological Disorders

Four factors

Deviance (atypical)

Distress

Dysfunction (disability)

Danger

What is Abnormal Behavior?

Insanity, is a legal ruling that an accused

individual is not responsible for a crime.

Contrary to the public's understanding of

the insanity plea, such pleas are

infrequently used and rarely successful.

Explaining Abnormality

The medical model views abnormal behaviors as

no different from illnesses and seeks to identify

symptoms and prescribe medical treatments.

The psychodynamic model considers abnormal

behavior as the result of unconscious conflicts,

often dating from childhood.

Explaining Abnormality The humanistic model suggest that inappropriate

thoughts, behaviors, and emotions can be the result of conditions of worth and if our ideal self becomes mismatched with our real self.

The cognitive model suggests that our interpretation of events and our beliefs influence our behavior.

The behavioral model views abnormal behaviors as learned through classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and modeling.

The sociocultural model emphasizes the importance of social and cultural factors in the frequency, diagnosis, and conception of disorders.

Explaining Abnormality

Bio-psycho-social

Perspective

assumes that biological,

sociocultural, and

psychological factors

combine and interact to

produce psychological

disorders

Has become the

prevailing explanation

among most

psychologists.

Biological

(Evolution,

individual

genes, brain

structures

and chemistry)

Psychological

(Stress, trauma,

learned helplessness,

mood-related perceptions

and memories)

Sociocultural

(Roles, expectations,

definition of normality

and disorder)

Labels and Abnormality

Rosenhan “On being sane in insane

places”

8 pseudopatients claimed to hear voices

Admitted to psychiatric hospitals

Stopped reporting symptoms

Normal behaviors were interpreted as pathological

Doctors rarely responded to questions

Many real patients were not fooled

Categorizing Disorders

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV-TR) - Provides rules for diagnosing psychological disorders that have increased reliability. Axis I: clinical disorders

Axis II: personality disorders and mental retardation

Axis III: general medical conditions

Axis IV: psychosocial and environmental problems

Axis V: global assessment of functioning

Classifying and Counting

Psychological Disorders

Phobias, alcohol and drug abuse or

dependence, and major depressive

disorder are among the most common

psychological disorders.

Mood Disorders

Major depressive disorder

A mood disorder in which a person, for no apparent reason,

experiences two or more weeks of depressed moods,

feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or

pleasure in most activities

Lifetime prevalence

Women 20%

Men 12%

Dysthymia

A mood disorder similar to major depression, but is less

severe and more chronic (long-lasting) in nature

Lifetime prevalence 6%

Mood Disorders

Suicide

Is often associated with depression, is one of the

leading causes of death in the United States.

Attempted by 30% of depressed people

The risk factors

Include being male, being unmarried, and being

depressed.

Mood Disorders

Bipolar disorder occurs when a person’s moods

swings between depression and mania.

Formerly called manic depression

Lifetime prevalence 1%

The symptoms of mania include euphoria,

increased energy, poor judgment, impulsivity,

insomnia, decreased sleep, and self

aggrandizement.

Mania

Manic episode

Prodromal phase

Often cycles with depression

Explaining Mood Disorders The brain

Hereditary factors

Often runs in families

Lower levels of serotonin and norepinephrine

Frontal lobe

Increased activity

Amygdala

The person

Attributional style – How the person interprets their surroundings.

Learned helplessness – typified by when someone doesn’t feel in

control the outcome of their situation.

The group

Diminished social support network

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety Disorders –

Are characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that attempt to reduce anxiety

Anxiety Disorders Generalized Anxiety Disorder

The person is typically tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal

Phobia

persistent, irrational fear of a specific object or situation

The most frequently diagnosed phobia is agoraphobia

Anxiety Disorders

Panic disorder

Frequent panic attacks (which resemble heart

attacks) marked by a minutes-long episode of

intense dread in which a person experiences

terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or

other frightening sensation are the main symptom

of panic disorder. It is also characterized by

Biological and cognitive explanations for this

disorder have been proposed.

Lifetime prevalence 3%

Anxiety Disorders

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Obsessions

Are senseless thoughts, images, or impulses that

occur repeatedly; they are often accompanied by

Compulsions

Are irresistible, repetitive acts that are often performed

to reduce the anxiety caused by the obsessions.

Compulsions include:

Checking

Washing

Ordering

Lifetime prevalence 2%

Anxiety Disorders Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Traumatic event

Symptoms

Re-experience event

Avoidance and emotional numbing

Heightened arousal

Lifetime prevalence 8% (among Americans)

Prevalence strongly affected by environment

Violence

Disasters

Possible Genetic Predisposition

Schizophrenia Is a type of psychosis

Person has a break with reality

May experience positive symptoms (e.g., delusions,

hallucinations, disorganization)

May experience negative symptoms (e.g., extreme

withdrawal, flat affect, alogia, or avolition)

Four subtypes Paranoid

Disorganized

Catatonic

Undifferentiated __________________

Residual

Stress Disorders

Dissociative disorders involve disruptions in some function of the mind.

Dissociative amnesia occurs when memories cannot be recalled; in dissociative fugue, memory loss is accompanied by travel.

Dissociative identity disorder is characterized by the presence of two or more personalities in the same individual. Formally known as multiple personality disorder

Should not be confused with schizophrenia

Explaining Schizophrenia

The Brain

Hereditary

Schizophrenia tends to run in families.

The risk of developing the disorder increases with the

degree of genetic relatedness between an individual

and a family member who has schizophrenia.

Ventricle size

The Dopamine Hypothesis

This neurotransmitter, seems to be involved in the

development of schizophrenia

Explaining Schizophrenia

A widely accepted explanation among

psychologists and physicians is:

A predisposition that may be inherited,

with the actual development of the

disorder requiring the presence of other

factors including exposure to high levels

of stress.

Diathesis-Stress Model

Eating Disorders

Anorexia nervosa

Bulimia nervosa

Factors

Genetic predisposition

Gender

Cultural factors

Lifetime prevalence 0.5%-4%

Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are long-standing

dysfunctional patterns of behavior.

Categorizations of Personality Disorders

Dramatic Types

Antisocial personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder

Narcissistic personality disorder

Histrionic personality disorder

Personality Disorders

Anxious Types

Dependent personality disorder

Avoidant personality disorder

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

Odd Types

Paranoid personality disorder

Schizoid personality disorder

Schizotypal personality disorder