Download Psychological Disorders

Abnormal Psychology
Psychological Disorders
A harmful dysfunction in which thoughts, feelings, or behaviors
are maladaptive, unjustifiable, disturbing, and atypical.
Criteria for Psychological Disorders
• Maladaptive – destructive to oneself or
others.
• Unjustifiable – without a rational basis.
• Disturbing – troublesome to other people.
• Atypical – so different that it violates a
norm.
• “MUDA” (mnemonic).
Early Theories
• Abnormal behavior was evil
spirits trying to get out.
• Trephining was often used.
Trephening
Early Theories
• Another way to deal with the demons
was to make the body extremely
uncomfortable.
History of Mental Disorders
• In the 1800’s,
disturbed people
were no longer
thought of as
madmen, but as
mentally ill.
They were first put in hospitals.
Did this mean better treatment?
Early Mental Hospitals
• They were nothing more than barbaric
prisons.
•The patients were chained
and locked away.
•Some hospitals even charged admission
for the public to see the “crazies”, just
like a zoo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy72y2jLVOc
Philippe Pinel
• French doctor worked
to eliminate the
institutional brutality
(and declare that these
people are sick and “a
cure must be found”).
Medical Model
• Late 1800’s - it was believed that mental
illness had a physical or organic cause.
General Paresis and Syphilis examples.
But it doesn’t emphasize environmental
explanations like stress or upbringing.
Many disorders are psychogenic: the origin
is psychological, not physical.
Current Perspectives
• Bio-psycho-social model: assumes biological,
psychological and socio-cultural factors
interact to produce specific psychological
disorders. Most common view today.
Some disorders occur worldwide (schizophrenia)
while others are culture-bound (i.e. “anorexia” &
“susto” – fear of black magic in Latin America).
DSM-IV
• Diagnostic Statistical
Manual of Mental
Disorders: the big book
of disorders.
• DSM will classify
disorders.
• Critics say it’s biased
towards the medical
model.
Two Major Classifications in the DSM
Neurotic Disorders
• Distressing but one can
still function in society
and act rationally.
Psychotic Disorders
• Person loses contact with
reality, experiences
distorted perceptions.
John Wayne Gacy
Danger of Diagnostic Labels
• In Rosenhan’s study his associates were
faking symptoms of hearing voices.
• They were ALL admitted for schizophrenia.
• None were exposed as imposters.
• They all left diagnosed with schizophrenia
in remission.
• What did this study show?
• 1.) It showed the biasing power of
diagnostic labels.
Childhood Disorders
• ADHD:
• Hyperactive behavior;
can’t stay on task long.
• 3-5% of children.
• Mostly boys.
• Ritalin, Adderall, and
Concerta – treatments.
Childhood Disorders
• Autism – often severely
incapacitating, developmental
disability appearing in the first 3
years.
• 1 out of 110.
• Trouble forming attachments with
people.
Anxiety Disorders
• A group of conditions where
the primary symptoms are
anxiety or defenses against
anxiety.
• The patient fears something
awful will happen to them.
• They are in a state of
apprehension or nervousness.
• Are they a neurosis or
psychosis?
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
• Marked by disruptive levels
of persistent feelings of
apprehension and tenseness.
• Symptoms include
restlessness, feeling on edge,
irritability, sleep disturbance.
• 2 out of 3 – women.
Panic Disorder
• An anxiety disorder marked by
a sudden bout of intense,
unexplained panic, in which a
person experiences terror and
accompanying chest pain,
choking and other frightening
sensations.
• Can cause secondary disorders
like agoraphobia.
Phobias
• Marked by disruptive, irrational
fears of objects, activities, or
situations.
• Specific phobias – like
arachnophobia.
• Agoraphobia – fear of public
places.
Examples of Phobias
Name of the phobia:
Fear of:
Xenophobia
Strangers
Ophidiophobia
Snakes
Panaphobia
Everything
Santa Claustrophobia
Stuck in chimneys
Numerophobia
Numbers
Arachnophobia
Spiders
Murophobia
Mice
Mikrophobia
Germs
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Persistent unwanted
thoughts (obsessions)
cause someone to feel
the need to engage in
a particular repetitive
action (compulsion) .
Common Examples of OCD
Common Obsessions:
Common
Compulsions:
Contamination fears of germs, dirt,
Washing
etc.
Imagining having harmed self or
others
Repeating
Imagining losing control of
aggressive urges
Checking
Intrusive sexual thoughts or urges Touching
A need to have things "just so"
Hoarding or saving
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Flashbacks or
nightmares following a
person’s involvement in
or observation of an
extremely stressful
event.
• Memories of the event
cause anxiety.
• War veterans and
“shell shock.”
Biological Causes of Anxiety Disorders
• Heredity or predisposition (twin studies).
• Brain function - (PET scans
of OCD patients show higher
frontal lobe activity).
• Evolution – likely to fear
situations that posed threat
to early humans.
Learning Factors and Anxiety Disorders
• Conditioning - remember
Little Albert?
• Observational learning –
seeing someone else respond
with fear (i.e. a sibling).
• Reinforcement – learning to
associate emotions with
actions and the results that
follow those actions.
Mood Disorders
• Psychological disorders characterized by
emotional extremes (i.e. depression, mania, or
both).
Major Depressive Disorder
• Most common disability in the
world (6% of men & 10% of women).
• Unhappy for at least two weeks
with no apparent cause.
• Feelings of worthlessness and
diminished interest in most
activities.
• May have suicidal thoughts.
Bipolar Disorder
• Formally called manic depression.
• Involves periods of depression
and manic episodes.
• Manic episodes may involve long
periods of little sleep, racing
thoughts, and set impossible
goals.
• May have bursts of creative
energy during manic states (like
van Gogh).
Famous People with Bipolar
Bipolar Brain
Postpartum Depression
• Depression after
childbirth (“baby blues”).
• 5% to 10% of women.
• Sadness, fatigue, insomnia,
reduced libido, etc.
• Usually the first few
months after giving birth.
Seasonal Affective Disorder
• Experience depression
during the winter
months.
• Based not on
temperature, but on
amount of sunlight.
Suicide
Suicide rates increase with age.
Suicide
But teen suicide rates increased from 1960
to 1990, but have dropped since 1990.
Biological Causes of Mood Disorders
• Heredity – twin studies.
• Brain function – PET scans
have shown lower brain activity
during depressed states.
• Serotonin and Norepinephrine
are lacking during times of
depression (Prozac helps
restore these
neurotransmitter levels).
Social-Cognitive Factors and Mood Disorders
• Learned helplessness.
• Attributions (explanatory
style) – Stable, internal and
global.
Dissociative Disorders
Dissociative Disorders
• Disorders in which the
sense of self has
become separated
(dissociated) from
previous memories,
thoughts, or feelings.
Dissociative Amnesia
• A partial or total
forgetting of past
experiences, without
organic cause.
• Usually in reaction to
a traumatic event.
Organic Amnesia
(not a dissociative disorder)
• Results from other medical trauma (e.g.
a blow to the head, stroke, alcoholism).
Dissociative Fugue
• A form of dissociative amnesia characterized
by physical relocation and the assumption of a
new identity with amnesia for the previous
identity. (“Traveling amnesia”).
•These journeys can last hours, even several days,
months or years.
Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D.)
• Used to be known as Multiple
Personality Disorder.
• Rare & controversial disorder
where the person exhibits two
or more distinct and
alternating personalities.
• Number of cases increased
dramatically during the 1980’s
(popular book “Sybil”).
• Claims of child sexual abuse.
Somatoform Disorders
• Disorders in which
symptoms take a bodily
form without apparent
physical cause.
• Two types…
Hypochondriasis
• Characterized by
imagined symptoms of
illness.
• They usually believe
that the minor issues
(headache, upset
stomach) are indicative
of more severe
illnesses.
Conversion Disorder
• Loss or impairment
of some motor or
sensory function due
to a psychological
conflict.
• Formerly known as
hysteria.
• Many of Freud’s
patients suffered
from this.
Sigmund Freud
Psychotic Disorders
Schizophrenia
• Is not one disorder but a
group of disorders.
• It is not “split personality.”
• Typically develops in late
adolescence.
Schizophrenia
• About 1% of people are
diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Symptoms of Schizophrenia:
1. Disorganized thinking.
2. Disturbed Perceptions.
3. Inappropriate Emotions and
Actions.
1.) Disorganized Thinking
• The thinking of a person
with schizophrenia is
fragmented and bizarre.
• Disorganized thinking
comes from a breakdown in
selective attention - they
cannot filter out
information.
• Often causes . . .
Delusions (false beliefs)
• Delusions of Persecution • Delusions of Grandeur
(people are out to get you). (belief that you are
more important than
you really are).
2.) Disturbed Perceptions
• Hallucinations –
(usually auditory) is a
false perception.
3.) Inappropriate Emotions and Actions
•
•
•
•
Laugh at inappropriate times.
Flat Effect (emotionless).
Senseless, compulsive acts.
Catatonia - motionless waxy
flexibility.
Types of Schizophrenia
Paranoid Schizophrenia
• Always paranoid and
preoccupied with delusions
of persecution or grandeur
as well as hallucinations.
• Always looking over your
shoulder like somebody is
out to get you!
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGnl8dqEoPQ&feature=results_
main&playnext=1&list=PL135E3BF70B9D590C
Catatonic Schizophrenia
• Flat emotion.
• Waxy flexibility.
• Little movement,
activity or speech.
Disorganized Schizophrenia
• Disorganized speech or behavior, or
flat or inappropriate emotion.
• Clang associations: speaking in
rhyme.
• “I’m the worst
systematic, sympathetic
quite pathetic, apologetic,
paramedic.“
• Word salad: nonsense talk.
• “It’s all over for a squab true tray
and there ain’t no music. I’ve got to
travel all the time to keep my
energy alive.”
Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
• Term used as a label
for schizophrenia that
don't match any of
the established types
of schizophrenia (i.e.
paranoid, catatonic, or
disorganized)
Biological Causes of Schizophrenia
• No known single cause.
• Possible causes:
• Excess of dopamine
receptors (6x).
• Low activity in frontal
lobes.
• Genetics (50% chance
for identical twins).
Biological Causes of Schizophrenia
• Possible causes:
• Enlarged ventricles (fluid
filled spaces) in the brain.
• Shrinkage of brain tissue
in limbic system.
• Prenatal viruses.
Psychological Causes of Schizophrenia
• There is NO proof that any
social or psychological
factors “cause”
schizophrenia.
• We don’t know what role
stress or disturbed family
communications play.
• The just appear to be
correlated.
Personality Disorders
• Characterized by rigid and
lasting behavior patterns that
disrupt social functioning.
• 3 main clusters:
• A.) Related to anxiety
• B.) Odd or Eccentric Behaviors
• C.) Dramatic or Impulsive
Behaviors
A.) Related to Anxiety
• Avoidant Personality
Disorder – sensitive
about being rejected so
relationships become
difficult.
• Dependent Personality
Disorder – are clingy
and submissive.
B.) Odd or Eccentric Behaviors
• Paranoid Personality
Disorder – show deep
distrust of other people.
• Schizoid Personality
Disorder – are detached
from social relationships
(true hermits).
C.) Dramatic or Impulsive Behaviors
• Borderline Personality
Disorder (following slides).
• Antisocial Personality
Disorder (following slides).
Borderline Personality Disorder
• Characterized by unstable emotions and
relationships.
People with this disorder are prone to
constant mood swings and bouts of anger.
Borderline Personality Disorder
• They will take their anger
out on themselves, causing
themselves injury (cutting).
Suicidal threats and actions
are not uncommon.
Antisocial Personality Disorder
• Antisocial personality disorder is
characterized by a lack of conscience.
• People with this disorder are prone to criminal behavior
never feel sorry for harming others.
Antisocial Personality Disorder
• Also known as “sociopaths”. Examples would be
Charles Manson & Hannibal Lecter.
They are often aggressive and are much more concerned
with their own needs than the needs of others.