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Psychological Disorders
According to the Law
The definition of mental disorders rests on
whether:
1- the person is aware of of the
consequences of his actions
2- can control his behavior
If not the person may be declared insane.
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Definitions of Mental Disorder
A Harmful Dysfunction
1- Mental disorders as a violation of cultural
standards or atypical
2- Mental disorder as maladaptive or
harmful behavior
3- Mental disorder as a disturbing emotional
distress.
4- Mental disorder as unjustifiable
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Psychologists’ Definition
• Any behavior or emotional state that
1- causes the individual great suffering or
worry
2- is self-destructive,
3- is maladaptive and disrupts either the
person’s relationships or the larger
community.
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Understanding Psychological
Disorders
The Medical Perspective
Psychological disorders are sicknesses and
can be diagnosed, treated, and even cured.
The Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective
How biological, psychological, and social
factors interact to produce specific
psychological disorders.
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Diagnostic & Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders
• DSM-IV (1994) contains more than 300
mental disorders.
• Provides diagnostic categories
• Does not provide information on causes
• Does not provide information on treatment
• It is organized in 5 axes
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Axis I
Clinical Syndromes
Anxiety disorders
Mood disorders
Dissociative disorders
Substance abuse disorders
Schizophrenia
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Axis II
Developmental and Personality Disorders
Ingrained aspects of the client’s personality
that are likely to affect the person’s ability
to be treated, such as self-involvement or
dependency.
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Axis III
Physical Disorders and Conditions
• Medical conditions that are relevant to the
disorder, such as respiratory or digestive
problems.
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Axis IV
Severity of Psychosocial Stressors
• Social and environmental stressors that can
make the disorder worse, such as job and
housing troubles or having recently left a
network of close friends.
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Axis V
Global Assessment of Functioning
• The client’s overall level of functioning at
work, relationships, and leisure time
including whether the problem was of a
recent origin or of long duration, and how
incapacitating it is.
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Diagnostic Criteria for AttentionDeficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Symptoms must persist for at least six
months
• Symptoms must have begun before age
seven
• Symptoms present in at least two situations
• Disorder impairs functioning
• Symptoms not explained by another
disorder such as:
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Diagnostic Criteria for AttentionDeficit Hyperactivity Disorder
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Anxiety
Schizophrenia
Mania
Dissociative Disorder
Personality Disorder
Developmental Disorder
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Anxiety Disorders
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1- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
2- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
3- Panic Disorder
4- Fears and Phobias
5- Obsession Compulsions
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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• When people are in danger, they produce high
levels of natural opiates, which can temporarily
mask pain. They also produce stress hormones.
• People with PTSD tend to continue producing
these hormones.
• Norepinephrine is higher than normal. It activates
the hippocampus, which is involved with memory
and long term memory.
• At high levels, stress hormones can become toxic
and can damage the brain.
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Phobias
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Acrophobia: fear of heights
Brontophobia: fear of thunder
Claustrophobia: fear of closed places
Porphyrophobia: fear of the color purple
Mysophobia: fear of dirt and germs
Agoraphobia: fear of being away from a safe
place.
• Triskaidekaphobia: fear of number 13
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Obsession Compulsions
• Obsessions
Recurrent, persistent, unwished-for thoughts or
images.
Example: repetitive thoughts about killing a child or
becoming contaminated by shaking hands.
• Compulsions
Repetitive, ritualized behavior that the person feels
must be carried out to avoid disaster.
Example: hand washing, counting, & checking
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Obsession Compulsions
• The orbital cortex sends messages of
impending danger to the caudate nucleus
(prepares the body to respond to external
danger).
• In people with OCD, the orbital cortex
keeps on sending false alarms of danger.
• But the caudate nucleus fails to turn them
off.
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Explaining Anxiety Disorders
The Learning Perspective
The Biological Perspective
Fear Conditioning
Stimulus Generalization
Reinforcement
Observational Learning
Evolution
Genes
Physiology
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Mood Disorders
• 1- Depression
• 2- Mania
• 3- Bipolar
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Symptoms of Depression
• Feeling of despair and hopelessness
• Exaggerating minor failings and ignoring positive
events
• Interpreting losses as signs of personal failures
and concluding that happiness is not possible.
Physical Changes
• Overeating, insomnia, lack of appetite trouble
concentrating, feeling tired all the time
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Mania
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An abnormally high state of exhilaration
Excessive energy
Irrational decisions
Feeling of excessive hopefulness
Speaking rapidly and dramatically
Excessive feeling of ambition
Inflated self esteem
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Stages of Mania
• 1-Hypomania
Patients are energetic, extroverted, and
assertive
• 2-Mania
Loss of judgment
• 3-Delusion with Paranoid Themes
Speech is generally rapid and hyperactive
behavior may lead to violence.
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Causes of Mania
• Excessive production of one or two
neurotransmitters:
• 1-Norepinephrine
• 2-Serotonin
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Bipolar Disorder
Manic-Depressive
• When people alternate between episodes of
depression and one or more episodes of mania.
• Occurs equally in both sexes.
• The onset is between 20-30 with a second peak at
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• Those who have rapid cycling may experience
more episodes of mania and depression that
succeed each other without a period of remission.
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People Who Had Bipolar
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Abraham Lincoln
Van Gough
Vivian Lee
Charles Dickens
Newton
Mark Twain
Edgar Allan Poe
Virginia Wolf
Walt Whitman
Ernest Hemingway
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Theories of Depression
• 1- Biological explanations emphasize genetic and
brain chemistry.
• 2- Social explanations emphasize the stressful
circumstances of people’s lives.
• 3- Attachment explanations emphasize problems
with close relationships.
• 4- Cognitive explanations emphasize particular
habits of thinking and interpreting events
• 5- “Vulnerability-stress” explanations draw on all
four explanations.
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Biological Explanation
• Genes may exert their influence by creating
biochemical imbalances
• The low production of the neurotransmitters
norepinephrine and serotonin may be the cause of
depression.
• The brains of depressed people seem less active.
• The frontal lobes are 7% smaller in severely
depressed patients.
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Cognitive Explanations
• Internality
The reason for misery is internal
• Stability
The situation is permanent
• Lack of Control
There is no control over the situation
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Learned Helplessness
• Pessimistic Explanatory Style
• Brooding and Ruminating about
Unhappiness
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Vulnerability-Stress Model of
Depression
• Upsetting Events
Loss of loved ones
Loss of job
Failure
Trauma
Violence
Temporary unhappiness
• Individual Vulnerability
Biological predisposition
Low self-esteem
Insecure attachment
Learned helplessness
Negative thinking
Pessimism
Brooding
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Personality Disorders
• 1- Paranoid Personality Disorder
• 2- Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• 3- Antisocial Personality Disorder
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Paranoid Personality Disorder
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Unfounded suspiciousness
Mistrust of other people
Irrational jealousy
Secretiveness
Doubt about the loyalty of others
Delusions of being persecuted by others.
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Narcissistic Personality Disorder
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Exaggerated sense of self-importance
Self-absorption
Fantasies of unlimited success & power
Demand of constant attention & admiration
Feeling of entitlement of special favors
Narcissistic people cant find a good match
because they expect perfection.
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Symptoms of Antisocial
Personality Disorder
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1- They repeatedly break the law.
2- They are deceitful, using lies to con others.
3- They are impulsive and unable to plan ahead.
4- They repeatedly get into fights or assaults.
5- They show reckless disregard to their own
safety or that of others.
• 6- They are constantly irresponsible, failing to
meet their obligations.
• 7- They lack remorse for actions that harm others.
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Causes for APD
• 1- Abnormalities in the brain and central
nervous system
• 2- Problems with impulse control
• 3- Brain damage
• 4- Vulnerability-stress explanations
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Emotion
• You perceive the sensory stimulus.
• The adrenal gland sends two hormones:
epinephrine and norepinephrine.
• They activate the sympathetic nervous system.
• That produces a state of arousal or alertness that
provides the body with the energy to act (the
pupils dilate, the heart beats faster, and breathing
speeds up).
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Vulnerability – Stress Explanation
• Biological
vulnerability
Brain damage
Genetic predisposition
Birth complications
Central nervous system
abnormalities
• Stressful Experiences
Physical abuse
Maternal rejection
Lack of contact comfort
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Dissociative Disorders
• 1- Amnesia
• 2- Fugue
• 3- Dissociative Identity Disorder
(Multiple Personality Disorder)
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Causes of Addiction
• 1- The Disease Model
• 2- The Learning Model
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The Disease Modal
“The Disease Concept of Alcoholism”
by E. M. Jellinek
• Alcoholism is a disease over which an individual
has no control and from which he or she never
recovers
• Addiction is due to a person’s biochemistry,
metabolism, and genetic predisposition.
• Genetic Predisposition:
– Contribute to traits that predispose the person to
become alcoholic.
– May affect biochemical processes in the brain that
make some people more susceptible than others.
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The Learning Model of Addiction
1- Addiction patterns vary according to cultural
practices and the social environment.
2- Policies of total abstinence tend to increase rates
of addiction rather than reduce them.
3- Not all addicts have withdrawal symptoms when
they stop taking a drug.
4- Addiction does not depend on properties of the
drug alone, but also on the reason for taking it.
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Active Symptoms of
Schizophrenia
• 1- Bizarre delusions (Paranoid/Identity)
• 2- Hallucinations and heightened sensory
awareness (auditory, visual, or tactile)
• 3- Disorganized, incoherent speech
• 4- Grossly disorganized and inappropriate
behavior
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Negative Symptoms of
Schizophrenia
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Loss of motivation
Poverty of speech
Making only brief and empty replies
Diminished thought and emotionality
Emotional flatness
Unresponsive facial expressions
Poor eye contact
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Explanation of Schizophrenia
• 1- Genetic predisposition
• 2- Structural brain abnormalities
• 3- Neurotransmitter
abnormalities
• 4- Prenatal abnormalities
• 5- The Vulnerability-stress
approach
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Genetic Predisposition
Risk of Developing Schizophrenia
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Identical twins……less than 50%
Child of 2 schizophrenic parents... 34-46%
Fraternal twins ….less than 20%
Children with 1 schizophrenic parent 12%
Siblings ….. Less than 10%
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Brain Abnormalities
• Signs of cerebral damage
• Decreased brain weight
• Reduced numbers of neurons in the
prefrontal cortex
• Decrease in volume of the limbic regions
• Abnormalities in the thalamus
• Enlarged ventricles or spaces in the brain
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Neurotransmitter Abnormalities
• Serotonin
• Glutamate
• Dopamine
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Prenatal Abnormalities
• Malnutrition
• Infectious virus during prenatal
development
• Mother’s exposure to influenza virus during
the second trimester of pregnancy
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Vulnerability – Stress Explanation
• Biological
Vulnerability
Genetic predisposition
Birth complications that
damage the brain
Prenatal damage due to
viral infection
• Stressful Experiences
Unstable family life
Extreme stress in late
adolescence and early
adulthood.
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