Download Chapter 12

Psychological Disorders
“Manic Monday” by The Bangles
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
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(Think) On your power point notes, indicate
what you think mental illness is.
(Pair/Share) Share with your neighbor your
thoughts about what mental illness is.
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A woman's mother died. After the funeral
everyone went to the mother's house where everyone
ate and remembered the mother. At the reception
the woman noticed a man and fell head-over-heels
in love with him. People kept occupying her time,
talking to her about her mother. When she finally got
free, she searched all over but the man had left.
The woman was so upset as she hadn't even
gotten his name, she was so taken with him. Two
weeks later, she killed her sister. Why did she kill her
sister?
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Ans: She killed her sister because she thought that since
the man knew her mother and was at her funeral, maybe
he knew her sister and would come to her funeral also.
Then she could meet him.
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A form of “hypochondriasis” can occur when
learning about abnormal psychology.
• You may find that some of the symptoms we
discuss in this chapter sound like something you
have experienced.
• This is normal; happens with medical students,
too!
• Note, though, that all psychological disorders
involve exaggerations of normal tendencies.
• If you can answer, “no” to the question, “Is this
out of the norm for me?”, then you probably do
not have a disorder! 
•
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The medical model takes a
“disease” view, while
psychology sees
psychological disorder as an
interaction of biological,
cognitive, social, and
behavioral factors
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Psychopathology –
Any pattern of emotions, behaviors, or
thoughts inappropriate to the situation and
leading to personal distress or the inability
to achieve important goals
◦
Synonymous terms include:
 Mental illness
 Mental disorder
 Psychological disorder
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Three classic signs suggest severe
psychological disorder
• Hallucinations
• Delusions
• Severe affective disturbances
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Johnny has been
hearing voices that
are not his own and
not coming from
other people. These
voices are mean and
tell him that people
are out to get him.
Johnny is
experiencing what?
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Sally has been telling
people that she is
the President of the
United States when
she clearly is not.
She fully believes
that she is and even
goes to the White
House and insists to
the Secret Service
that she be let in.
Sally is experiencing
what?
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Other signs of a disorder are more subtle, and a
diagnosis depends heavily on clinical judgment;
typically, two or more of these indicators are cause
for concern.
Distress
Unpredictability
Maladaptiveness
Unconventionality
and undesirable
behavior
Irrationality
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• Prolonged
anxiety
• Overwhelmed to the point of
losing concentration.
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• Others
are afraid of the person due
to how the person acts or behaves.
• The person’s behavior interferes with
their own well-being (e.g. drinking
so heavily that the person loses their
job or is in danger of harming others
on the road.)
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• Irrational
speech (e.g. talking to
someone who clearly is not there).
• Talking in ways that are
incomprehensible (e.g. word salad).
• Behavior or emotional responses that
are inappropriate to the situation (e.g.
laughing at the scene of a tragedy).
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• Erratic
and inconsistent behavior from
one event to the next (e.g., laughing
and happy one day and then irritable
and abusive the next – note, this is
something that is continuous and not
just due to “a bad day.”)
• Individual acts as though they are
experiencing a loss of control.
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•
•
The person behaves in
ways that are statistically
rare and violate social
norms (the overall rules of
society).
Being merely “unusual” is
not a sign of abnormality
(e.g., green mohawk);
however, if the individual
is running around town
wearing a green mohawk
and nothing else, then that
is abnormal.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
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Behavioral perspective –
Abnormal behaviors can be acquired
through behavioral learning – operant and
classical conditioning
Cognitive perspective –
Abnormal behaviors are influenced by
mental processes – how people perceive
themselves and their relations with others
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Although most psychologists have
reservations about the medical model, they
do not deny the influence of biology on
thought and behavior.
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The most widely used
system, found in the DSMIV, classifies disorders by
their mental and behavioral
symptoms
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DSM-IV: (newest is DSM – IV R and DSM V is
in the works).
Fourth edition of the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; the
most widely accepted classification system
in the United States – recently revised.
In multiaxial diagnosis, professionals look at
the entire person, not just their “abnormal”
behavior
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Axis I – Clinical Disorders (can be changed through medication or
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Axis II – Personality disorders and Mental Retardation (cannot be
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Axis III – General Medical Conditions
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Axis IV – Psychosocial and Environmental Problems
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Axis V – Global Assessment of Functioning (on a scale of 1-100 how
symptoms can be treated)
changed)
the person is functioning at the time they are first seen – used as a
comparative throughout treatment).
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Ideally, accurate diagnoses
lead to proper treatments, but
diagnoses may also become
labels that depersonalize
individuals and ignore the
social and cultural contexts in
which their problems arise
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Insanity –
A legal term, not a psychological or
psychiatric one, referring to a person who is
unable, because of a mental disorder or
defect, to confirm his or her behavior to the
law
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Major depression –
Form of depression that does not alternate
with mania
◦ Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) –
Believed to be caused by deprivation of sunlight
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Bipolar disorder –
Mental abnormality involving swings of
mood from mania to depression
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Generalized anxiety disorder –
Characterized by persistent and pervasive
feelings of anxiety, without any external
cause
Panic disorder –
Marked by panic attacks that have no
connection to events in a person’s present
experience
Agoraphobia –
Fear of public places/open spaces
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Phobias–
A group of anxiety disorders involving a
pathological fear of a specific object or
situation
Preparedness hypothesis –
Notion that we have an innate tendency,
acquired through natural selection, to
respond quickly and automatically to stimuli
that posed a survival threat to our ancestors
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Obsessive-compulsive disorder –
Condition characterized by patterns of
persistent, unwanted thoughts and behaviors
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Somatoform disorders –
Psychological problems appearing in the form
of bodily symptoms or physical complaints
Conversion disorder –
Somatoform disorder marked by paralysis,
weakness, or loss of sensation, but with no
discernable physical cause
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Glove Anesthesia
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Hypochondriasis –
Somatoform disorder involving excessive
concern about health and disease
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Dissociative disorders –
Group of pathologies involving
“fragmentation” of the personality
Dissociative
amnesia
Dissociative
fugue
Depersonalization
disorder
Dissociative
identity disorder
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Dissociative
amnesia
Dissociative fugue
Depersonalization
disorder
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A
psychologically
induced loss of
memory for
personal
information
Dissociative
identity disorder
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Dissociative
amnesia
Dissociative fugue
Depersonalization
disorder
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Dissociative
amnesia with the
addition of “flight”
from one’s home,
family, and job
Dissociative
identity disorder
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Dissociative
amnesia
Dissociative Fugue
Depersonalization
disorder
Dissociative
identity disorder
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Abnormality
involving the
sensation of mind
and body having
separated
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Dissociative
amnesia
Dissociative Fugue
Depersonalization
disorder
Dissociative
identity disorder
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Condition in which the
individual displays
multiple identities
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Anorexia nervosa –
Eating disorder involving persistent loss of
appetite that endangers an individual’s
health – stemming from psychological
reasons rather than organic causes
Bulimia –
Eating disorder characterized be eating
binges followed by “purges,” induced by
vomiting or laxatives; typical initiated as a
weight-control measure
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Schizophrenia –
Psychotic disorder involving distortions in
thoughts, perceptions, and/or emotions
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Disorganized
Catatonic
Paranoid
Undifferentiated
Residual
Positive
Negative
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Disorganized
Catatonic
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Features incoherent
speech, hallucinations,
delusions, and bizarre
behavior
Paranoid
Undifferentiated
Residual Type
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Disorganized
Catatonic
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Involves stupor or
extreme excitement
Paranoid
Undifferentiated
Residual Type
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Disorganized
Catatonic
Paranoid
Undifferentiated
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Prominent feature:
combination of
delusions and
hallucinations
Residual Type
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Disorganized
Catatonic
Paranoid
Undifferentiated
Residual Type
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Persons displaying a
combination of
symptoms that do not
clearly fit in one of the
other categories
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Disorganized
Catatonic
Paranoid
Undifferentiated
Residual Type
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Individuals who have
had a past episode of
schizophrenia but are
free of symptoms
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Positive
Schizophrenia
Negative
Schizophrenia
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Any form in which the
person displays active
symptoms
(e.g. delusions,
hallucinations)
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Positive
Schizophrenia
Negative
Schizophrenia
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Any form distinguished
by deficits, such as
withdrawal and poverty
of thought processes
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Evidence for the causes of schizophrenia
has been found in a variety of factors
including genetics, abnormal brain
structure, and biochemistry
Diathesis-stress hypothesis –
Genetic factors place the individual at risk,
but environmental stress factors transform
this potential into an actual schizophrenic
disorder
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Personality disorders –
Conditions involving a chronic, pervasive,
inflexible, and maladaptive pattern of
thinking, emotion, social relationships, or
impulse control
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Narcissistic personality disorder –
Characterized by a grandiose sense of selfimportance, a preoccupation with fantasies of
success and power, and a need for constant
attention
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Antisocial personality disorder –
Characterized by a long-standing pattern of
irresponsible behavior indicating a lack of
conscience and a diminished sense of
responsibility to others
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Borderline personality disorder –
An unstable personality given to impulsive
behavior
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Mild depression
Physical
complaints
Parent-child
problems
Bereavement
Marital
problems
Academic
problems
Job problems
Malingering
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Autism –
A developmental disorder marked by
disabilities in language, social interaction,
and the ability to understand another
person’s state of mind
Dyslexia –
A reading disability, thought by some experts
to involve a brain disorder
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Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder –
A developmental disability involving short
attention span, distractibility, and extreme
difficulty in remaining inactive for any period
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Shyness, a distressing pattern of avoiding or
withdrawing from social contact is treatable,
but it is not a DSM-IV disorder
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Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007