Download Module 22 Assessment & Anxiety Disorders

Module 22
Assessment & Anxiety Disorders
Virginia Union University
Introduction to Psychology
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Consists of obsessions, which are persistent,
recurring irrational thoughts, impulses or
images that a person is unable to control and
that interfere with normal functioning, and
compulsions, which are irresistible impulses to
perform over and over some senseless behavior
or ritual
▫ Hand washing, check things, counting, putting
things in order
▫ Effects about 3% of adults in the US
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Symptoms
▫ Obsessions & compulsions (or sometimes obsessions
alone) that are very time consuming & performed to
reduce anxiety
 Ex: cleaning, checking & counting or buying, hoarding &
putting things in order
• Treatment
▫ After being treated with drugs, given exposure therapy
 Exposure therapy involves gradually exposing the person
to the actual anxiety-producing situations or objects that
her or she is attempting to avoid and continuing the
exposure treatments until anxiety decreases
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• A disabling condition that results from
personally experiencing an event that involves
actual or threatened death or serious injury or
from witnessing or hearing of such an event
happening to a family member or close friend.
• People suffering from PTSD experience a
number of psychological symptoms, including
recurring and disturbed memories, terrible
nightmares and intense fear, anxiety.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Treatment
▫ May involve drugs, but some form of cognitive
behavioral therapy (CBT) is more effective in the
long-term
 CBT provides emotional support to replace feelings
of fear with a sense of courage
• PTSD & Hurricane Katrina Survivors
Somatoform Disorders
• Marked by recurring, multiple, and significant
bodily (somatic) symptoms that extend over several
years.
• The bodily symptoms (e.g., pain, vomiting,
paralysis, blindness) are not under voluntary
control, have no known physical causes, and are
believed to be caused by psychological factors.
▫ Among the most commons health problems seen in
medical practice
▫ 2 most common: somatization disorder & conversion
disorder
Somatization Disorder
• Begins before age 30
• Last several years
• Characterized by multiple symptoms
• Pain, gastrointestinal, sexual & neurological symptoms
that have no physical causes but are triggered by
psychological problems or distress
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Disorder especially common among women
Leads to higher than normal health care costs
Family background: cold & unsupportive, abusive
Stress coping mechanism
Conversion Disorder
• Changing anxiety or emotional distress into real physical,
motor, sensory, or neurological symptoms (headaches,
nausea, dizziness, loss of sensation, paralysis) for which no
physical or organic cause can be identified
• Usually associated with psychological factors like depression,
concerns about health, or the occurrence of a stressful
situation
• Emotional areas of brain activated inappropriately, can
influence other brain activity/physical symptoms
• Physical symptoms removes the person from a threatening or
anxiety producing situation
Mass Hysteria
• Condition experienced by a group of people who,
through suggestion, observation, or other
psychological process, develop similar fears,
delusions, abnormal behaviors, or physical
symptoms
Taijin Kyofusho (TKS)
• Unique anxiety disorder found in Japanese but not Western cultures
• Kind of social phobia characterized by a terrible fear of offending
others through awkward social or physical behavior
▫ staring, blushing, giving off an offensive odor, having an unpleasant
facial expression, or having trembling hands
• Is the 3rd most commons psychiatric disorder among Japanese
college students & more common in males
• Cultural values
▫ Japanese place great emphasis on appropriately conducting oneself in
public
▫ Japanese children punished for not displaying appropriate public
behaviors
Class Announcements
• Evaluation/Cross Cultural Project Meeting
Schedules
• Class Study Groups