Download Abnormal Psychology

Abnormal Psychology
A.K.A. Psychological Disorders
A “harmful dysfunction” in which behavior
is judged to be atypical, disturbing,
maladaptive and unjustifiable.
Early Theories
• Abnormal behavior was evil
spirits trying to get out.
• Trephining was often used.
Conditions for Psychologically Disabled
Medical Model Improves Conditions
• Eventually the medical model came to
dominate understandings of mental illness.
• The medical model assumes that diseases
have physical causes that can be diagnosed
based on their symptoms and be treated and
in most cases cured.
• Assumption of medical model drastically
improves conditions in mental hospitals.
• BUT, the medical model often times
promotes the myth that disorders are
brought on by single causes.
Historical Trend of
Deinstitutionalization
• Starting in the 1950s and 1960s more and
more drugs began being used to “cure”
psychological disorders.
• Because of this there was a policy of
deinstitutionalization instituted where
patients were removed from mental
institutions to live in family based or
community based environments.
Most Mental Health Professionals Assume
Disorders Have Interlocking Causes
Bio-Psycho-Social
Perspective:
assume biological,
psychological, and
socio-cultural
factors interact
to produce
disorders.
Biological
(Evolution,
individual
genes, brain
structures
and chemistry)
Sociocultural
(Roles, expectations,
definition of normality
and disorder)
Psychological
(Stress, trauma,
learned helplessness,
mood-related perception
and memories)
Psychological Disorders
Psychological behaviors run a continuum from very
mild to extreme. Everyone has these behaviors to
one degree or another. It is not until a behavior or
feeling interferes with your quality of life that
they become a disorder.
Psychological Disorders are:
Atypical (deviant)
Disturbing (distressing)
Maladaptive (dysfunctional)
Unjustifiable
DSM IV-V
• Diagnostic
Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders:
the big book of
disorders.
• DSM will classify
disorders and
describe the
symptoms.
• DSM will NOT explain
the causes or possible
cures.
Perspectives and Disorders
Psychological School/Perspective
Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic
Humanistic
Behavioral
Cognitive
Sociocultural
Biomedical/Neuroscience
Biopsychosocial
Cause of the Disorder
Defining Disorders
DSM IV-Diagnostic and statistical manual vol. 4.: attempts to
describe psychological disorders, without explaining the causes,
predicts the future course, and suggests treatments. It focuses
on observable behaviors to make diagnoses.
Categorizes 400+ disorders, in 17 categories.
Axis I: refers to clinical disorders which need clinical attention. Includes
most mental disorders
Ex: Depression, Schizophrenia, Phobia, etc.
Axis II: Includes personality disorders and mental retardation.
Ex: Antisocial, Narcissistic, Avoidant, etc.
Axis III: relates to physical conditions which may contribute to mental illness.
Ex: brain injury, cancer, HIV, etc.
Axis IV: relates to psycho-social events in a persons life which may contribute
to mental illness.
Ex: death of a loved one, divorce, new job, etc.
Axis V: relates to a rating clinician gives patient on how well they are
functioning in life presently and within the last year.
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
Advantages of Diagnosis and the DSM-IV
• Diagnosis can facilitate communication
• Diagnosis can provide etiology (study of causation)
clues
• Diagnosis provides prognosis (likely outcome)
• Diagnosis can give direction for treatment plans
Disadvantages of Diagnosis and the DSM-IV
• Diagnosis is not theoretically neutral
• No clear line between normal and abnormal in many
cases
• Reliability is still a problem (if 5 psychologists
examine a patient will they all come up with the same
diagnosis?)
• Diagnostic labels may take on a life of their own and
are hard to remove – LABELING THEORY – Rosenhan
– this can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy.
David Rosenhan Tests Power of Labeling
and Its Reliability
Describe Rosenhan’s study:
What does this say about the impact of labeling?
KNOW WHAT CATEGORY ANY
DISORDER FITS INTO
Categories of Disorder:
1. Anxiety & OCD
2. Somatoform
5. Dissociative
6. Mood Disorders
7. Personality
8. Schizophrenia
9. Facticious (Not in Book)
1. 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
intense apprehension,
uneasiness,
uncertainty, or fear.
Phobias (Specific & Social)
• A person experiences
sudden episodes of
intense dread.
• Must be an irrational
fear.
• Phobia List
Anxiety Disorders
Phobias:
Panic Disorder
• An anxiety disorder
marked by a minuteslong episode of
intense dread in which
a person experiences
terror and
accompanying chest
pain, choking and
other frightening
sensations.
Agoraphobia
• An intense fear of public
places, being due to their
vastness or crowdedness
• Generally involves the
fear of having a panic
attack and not being able
to escape
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• An anxiety disorder in which a person
is continuously tense, apprehensive and
in a state of autonomic nervous system
arousal.
The patient is constantly worried, feels
inadequate, is oversensitive, can’t
concentrate and suffers from insomnia.
Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder
• Persistent unwanted
thoughts
(obsessions) cause
someone to feel the
need (compulsion)
to engage in a
particular action.
• Obsession about
dirt and germs may
lead to compulsive
hand washing.
• How would Skinner
explain OCD?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
a.k.a. PTSD (Trauma-related disorder)
• Flashbacks or
nightmares following
a person’s
involvement in or
observation of an
extremely stressful
event.
• Memories of the
event cause anxiety.
Causes of Anxiety Disorders from
Learning Perspective (Behavioral)
1. Fear Conditioning : ex: rape victim may develop
fear of being alone in apartment.
2. Stimulus Generalization: ex: fear of heights
leads to fear of flying even without flying.
3. Reinforcement (ENCOURAGES behavior):
avoiding places you have phobia about rewards you
by lessening your anxiety; compulsions are
negatively reinforced because they REMOVE the
anxiety of the obsession
4. Observational Learning/Modeling
ex: monkeys with snakes; possibly me with frogs
Causes of Anxiety Disorders from
Biological Perspective
1. Evolution: certain fears help
us survive.
2. Genes: correlations with
identical twins and phobias.
3. Physiology: brain chemistry.
Often see increased brain
activities in brain areas
involving impulse control. Ex:
picture overactive frontal
lobe activity involved in
directing attention.
Causes of Anxiety Disorders & OCD
from Cognitive Perspective
•
An individual interprets (or misinterprets) a
harmless situation as a dangerous or
threatening situation.
Motor Disorders (Not in Book)
Tourette’s Syndrome:
involves involuntary twitching
and the making of unusual
sounds.
dopamine which helps control
movement and norepinephrine,
which helps body respond to
stress seems to be involved in
Tourette’s Syndrome.