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Gen Psy Lecture 12 Psychopathology and Therapy
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Lecture 12. Psychopathology and Therapy
What are mental problems and how they are cured?
When people are sick in the mind, they cannot control themselves. That is the reason why previously people thought that
these people are demon possessed. The issue of insanity is important because insane people are not charged even it they have
committed murder. Also, mentally sick people have low chance of recovery and they are often stigmatized. Yet, many times,
we cannot differentiate sane from insane. In this class, we will discuss the notion of abnormality, disorders, and therapies.
1.
Abnormality
People are described as abnormal not because their behaviors deviate from the average person, but because they cannot
function effectively in their daily lives, and may even cause problems to others.
As for why some people are abnormal, the most popular explanation is that they have something wrong inside them
(pathological) whether it is somatogenic or psychogenic. Yet, it might be that they are dealing with a difficult situation. Liang
even regards schizophrenia is a transitional stage necessary for the normal development of some people. Other people even
think that mentally sick people are victimized by the society through labeling.
For the pathology approach, there are mainly three different models:
The psychoanalytic model asserts that mental problems are the result of psychic illness resulting from the conflict between
id and superego over ego; the humanistic model; self incongruence; the learning /cognitive model, the results of learning
error or thinking error; and the medical model, biochemical illness.
2.
Disorders
In identifying a mental problem, DSM IV uses five different criteria for psychodiagnosis. We will discuss only four kinds
of disorders here in terms of their symptoms, classifications, and etiologies.
The anxiety disorders disrupt normal functioning either because of too high anxiety level or because of the side effects in
suppressing anxiety. For the former, there are generalized anxiety, phobic anxiety, and panic disorder. For the latter, there is
the obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The substance related disorder, people have dependence on or addiction to a drug. They used drug to escape displeasure,
make the dominate attention, and even without liking experience. Alcoholism may be due to higher stress relief function or
people underestimate their level of intoxication. Treatments are alcoholics anonymous, antabuse, and moderation training.
Quiting Opiate may have to suffer through the withdrawal symptoms, or use methadone or buprenorphine.
The mood disorders produce depression alone or together with mania in altercation. The former is major depression, and
the latter is called bipolar disorder.
The schizophrenic disorder has five different major symptoms such as loose association, delusion, and hallucination.
There are four different types of schizophrenia: paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, and undifferentiated.
As for the causes, in each of the disorders, different approaches have different explanations.
3.
Therapies
There are mainly three different strategies: use of drug, talking and conditioning. Different kinds of practices could be
developed from these.
The biochemical therapy use drug treatment, electroconvulsive therapy, and neurosurgery. Psychoanalysis used free
association to probe the unconscious for repressed conflict and treatment involves emotional catharsis through transference
and counter-transference, and insight through interpretation. Rogerians use client center therapy with a therapist showing
genuineness, transparency, and unconditional love to make the client accepting their alienated self. Both used talking therapy.
Behavior therapy modify behaviors with classical and operant conditioning with well defined goals. Cognitive therapies try to
alter clients’ concept, thoughts and beliefs. Other methods include family system therapy, brief therapy, group therapy, and
self-help groups.
To control mental illness, we could use intervention, maintenance, and prevention.
4.
Relationship to faith
Faith could be used in a number of standard therapies including cognitive therapy, narrative therapy and
hypnotherapy. New models of therapies may be constructed construing premises with biblical concepts and psychological
theories and techniques to produce the effect.
Gen Psy Lecture 12 Psychopathology and Therapy
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Vocabulary for Psychopathology and Psychotherapy
1. Abnormality and Anxiety Disorders
TERMS
DEFINITIONS
1. ____________
Proposes that abnormality is a result of disturbances in biochemistry or errors in learning or thinking.
2. ____________
Fear of going out to public places.
3. ____________
The legal status indicating that a person cannot be held responsible for his or her actions because of mental illness.
4. ____________
Urges to engage in senseless rituals.
5. ____________
Having multiple separate dimensions or axes.
6. ____________
Caused by physical factors as in the case of biochemical imbalance.
7. ____________
The percentage of twin pairs or other pairs of relatives that exhibit the same disorder.
8. ____________
An anxiety disorder that is characterized by recurrent attacks of overwhelming anxiety that usually occur suddenly and
unexpectedly.
9. ____________
Identification of a syndrome among the various classified mental disorder.
10. ___________
Caused by psychological factors.
11. ___________
Persistent, uncontrollable intrusions of unwanted thought.
12. ___________
Persistent and irrational fear of heights.
Insanity, pathological model, somatogenic, psychogenic, acrophobia, agoraphobia, panic disorder, obsessive, compulsive, concordance,
psychodiagnosis, multiaxial.
2. Disorders
TERMS
1. _____________
2. _____________
3. _____________
4. _____________
5. _____________
6. ____________
7. _____________
8. _____________
9._____________
10._____________
11. _____________
12. _____________
DEFINITIONS
False beliefs that one is famous or important.
Excitement and elation. State of extreme optimism and energy.
The state of believing that one has a lot of enemies. Characterized by delusions of persecution.
Persistent feelings of sadness and despair and a loss of interest in previous sources of pleasure.
The period of stability and "normality" in patients with bipolar disorder when they are neither in manic nor in
depressive episodes.
Sensory perceptions that occur in the absence of a real, external stimulus or are gross distortions of perceptual input.
Actual self being in line with self-image.
A class of disorders marked by disturbances in thought that spill over to affect perceptual, social, and emotional
processes.
Chemicals in the brain (neurotransmitter). Abnormalities in them may cause certain mental disorders.
A subtype of schizophrenia characterized by slow movement and muscular rigidity.
A self-help group trying to abstain from alcohol use and help others to do the same.
An alternative to methadone to reduce withdrawal symptoms in quitting opiates.
Mania, depression, normalcy, congruence, delusion of grandeur, biochemical, hallucination, schizophrenia, paranoid, catatonic. buprenorphine,
alcoholics anonymous.
3. Therapy
TERMS
1. _______________
2. _______________
3. _______________
4. _______________
5. _______________
6. _______________
7. _______________
8. _______________
9. _______________
10._______________
11._______________
DEFINITIONS
Complete, nonjudgmental acceptance of the client as a person.
An emotional release of built up feelings and emotional energy that occurs during psychoanalysis.
A behavior therapy used to reduce phobic clients' anxiety responses through counterconditioning.
A biomedical treatment in which electric shock is used to produce a cortical seizure accompanied by convulsions.
Occurs when clients unconsciously start relating to their therapist in ways that mimic critical relationships in their
lives.
Having an unpleasant and distressing nature.
A biomedical intervention for mental disorders that involves surgery and the removal of certain part or structure of
the brain.
Drugs such as tricylic that gradually elevate mood and help bring people out of a depression.
Drugs such as valium used to gradually reduce psychotic symptoms, including hyperactivity, mental confusion,
hallucinations, and delusions.
Understanding the client's world from the client's point of view.
A technique of psychoanalysis in which clients spontaneously express their thoughts and feelings exactly as they
occur, with as little censorship as possible.
Free association, catharsis, transference, unconditional positive regard, empathy, desensitization, aversive, electroconvulsive therapy,
neurosurgery, antipsychotic drug, antidepressant
Key:
Abnormality and anxiety disorder: 3,1,6,10,12,2,8,11,4,7,9,5. Disorders: 2,4,5,7,1,9,6,8,3,10.12,11 Therapy: 11,2,5,1,10,3,6,4,7,9,8.