disorders. abnormal psychology the study of people who suffer from psychological disorders

Disorders

Abnormal Psychology

• The study of people who suffer from psychological disorders

Anxiety Disorders

Phobias• Intense, unwarranted fear of a situation or

object• Agoraphobia is the fear of open, public spaces• Social phobias is the fear of a situation in

which one could embarrass oneself in public

• Contact with the feared object of situation results in anxiety

Anxiety Disorders

Generalized Anxiety Disorder• Constant, low-level anxiety

Anxiety Disorders

Panic Disorder

• Intense anxiety for no apparent reason

• Anxiety over anticipation of a panic attack

Anxiety Disorders

Obsessive Compulsive• Obsessive (persistent and unwanted) thoughts

cause the need (compulsion) to engage in a particular action• Even to the extent that no other behavior can take

place• Anxiety is released when the compulsive

behavior is performed

Anxiety Disorders

Post Traumatic Stress• Flashbacks or

nightmares following a trauma

• Memories of the event cause anxiety

Anxiety Disorders

What causes anxiety disorder?


• Psychoanalytic theory: unresolved, unconscious conflicts between the id, ego, superego

• Behaviorist theory: because all behavior is learned, anxiety must be learned through operant or classical conditioning, or cognitive learning


• Cognitive theorists: dysfunctional thinking like irrational thoughts


• What would an evolutionary theorist say?• What about a biological psychologist?


Somatoform Disorders

• Physiological manifestations of psychological problems• Hypochondriasis - physical complaints without

physical cause• Conversion disorder – severe physical disorder like

paralysis or blindness without a physical cause

Body dysmorphic disorder

What causes somatoform disorder?

What causes somatoform disorder?

• Psychodynamic theorists: outward manifestations of unresolved unconscious conflicts

• Behavioral theorists: reinforcement for behavior, like attention one gets being sick

Dissociative Disorder

• Disruption in the conscious processes• Psychogenic amnesia• Fugue• Dissociative identity

disorder

Psychogenic amnesia

• Person cannot remember things, but there is no physiological basis for the disruption in memory

Fugue • rare psychiatric disorder

after a traumatic event when an individual dissociates from his identity and detaches himself from the current surroundings

• often the individual flees to an unfamiliar location, experiences a temporary amnesia affecting his personal identity, and partially or completely adopts a new identity

Dissociative identity disorder

• Multiple personalities

• the presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states that take control of a person's behavior

Dissociative identity disorder

What causes Dissociative Disorders?

• Psychoanalytic theory: trauma is repressed causing a split consciousness

• Behavioral theory: to not think about trauma is rewarding and produces amnesia

• Critics question the validity of Dissociative Identity Disorder

Affective (mood) Disorders

• Experience of extreme or inappropriate emotions• Major depressive disorder (unipolar depression)• Seasonal affective disorder• Bipolar disorder (manic depression)• Dysthymic disorder is less intense than major

depression, but lasts years

Major Depressive Disorder

• Unipolar depression• Unhappy for more

than 2 weeks without clear reason

• Loss of appetite, fatigue, changes in sleep, lack of interest, worthlessness

Bipolar Disorder

• Periods of major depression

• Mania, High energy • Risky behavior• Spurts of euphoria• no desire to sleep• racing thoughts• Confidence, power• Irritability, anxiety

Seasonal Affective Disorder

• Depression at certain time of year, usually winter

Dysthemia

What causes Mood Disorder?

Biological component to affective disorders

• Low levels of serotonin (depression)• More receptors for acetylcholine (bipolar)• Low levels of norepinephrine (depression)

• Genetic component because depression and bipolar seem to run in families

• Neurotransmitters: chemical transmitters signal from neurons across synapses; at the axon endings of motor neurons, they stimulate the muscle fibers

• Serotonin: inhibitory neurotransmitter involved in emotion and mood and perception (depression, anger control, obsessive-compulsive disorder, suicide, increased appetite for carbohydrates, trouble sleeping, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, and fibromyalgia)

review

• Acetylcholine: found in sensory neurons, autonomic nervous system, stimulation of muscles (gastro-intestinal system); plays part in REM (dream) sleep; link between loss of acetylcholine and Alzheimer's disease

• Norepinephrine: strongly associated with autonomic, sympathetic nervous system "high alert" increased heart rate and blood pressure, released by adrenal glands into the blood stream (noradrenalin) forming memories; depleted by stress, increased by exercise

review

Psychoanalytic

• Anger directed inward• Loss during the psychosexual stage• Overly punitive superego

Behavior theorists• Mood disorder brings about some

kind of reinforcement like attention or sympathy

Cognitive theorists

• Unreasonably negative ideas about self• Cognitive triad (Aaron Beck) • The self, the world, the future

• Pessimistic attributional style• Internal v. external (I’m bad v. the world is bad) • global v. specific (I’m a bad student v. I have trouble

with math)• stable v. unstable (I will always be a bad student v. I

had a bad day today)

Combination behavioral & cognitive• Martin Seligman – learned helplessness– Some dogs learned to not get shocked– Others believed they lacked the ability to control

their fate

• Depression has a high correlation to feelings of learned helplessness

Schizophrenic Disorders

• Onset in young adulthood• Severe, debilitating• Disordered, distorted

thinking• Delusions– Of persecution– Of grandeur

• Hallucinations (perception in the absence of sensory stimulation)

Schizophrenic Disorders

4 types of schizophrenia

• Disorganized (make up words, rhyming words, inappropriate or flat affect)

• Paranoid (delusions of persecution)

• Catatonic (odd movements, waxy flexibility)

• Undifferentiated (disordered thinking)

Cause of schizophrenia - Biological

• Dopamine hypothesis– High levels of dopamine in frontal lobes associated

with schizophrenia– Low levels of dopamine in motor areas associated

with Parkinson’s – Anti-psychotic drugs lower dopamine levels, but

can cause tremors– L-Dopa, used to treat Parkinson’s increases

dopamine levels and in excess, causes schizophrenic symptoms

• Dopamine: inhibitory neurotransmitter (blocks a neuron from firing at receptor site); Strongly associated with reward mechanisms (nicotine, cocaine, opium, heroin, and alcohol increase level of dopamine)

review

Cause of schizophrenia - Biological

• Enlarged brain ventricles• Brain asymmetries• Genetic predisposition– Identical twins have close to 50% relationship

Cause of schizophrenia - environmental

• Double binds – contradictory messags• Diathesis stress model – environmental

stressors trigger biological predisposition

Personality Disorders

• Well established, maladaptive ways of behaving

• Negatively affect people’s ability to function

Antisocial personality disorder

AvoidantObsessive Compulsive

SchizoidSchizotypal

Borderline Dependent Paranoid

NarcissisticHistrionic

• Little regard for other people’s feelings• World seen as a hostile place• Criminals have a high incidence of antisocial

personality disorder

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Other Psychological Disorders

• Paraphilia or Psychosexual disorder– Pedophilia– Zoophilia– Fetishism– Voyeur– Masochist– sadist


• Eating disorder– Anorexia nervosa– bulimia– Obesity

• Substance Use disorder• Substance dependence


• Developmental Disorders– Autism– ADHD– Alzheimer’s disease

DSM IVR

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR)

• Diagnostic tool• Rosenhan Study (1978) – do labels outlast

their usefulness?

disorders. abnormal psychology the study of people who suffer from psychological disorders

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