Download Disorders and Treatment Ch 18 & 19

What are Psychological Disorders?
 Behavior patterns or mental processes that cause
serious personal suffering or interfere with a person’s
ability to cope with everyday life
Identifying Psychological
Disorders
 Difficult
 Defining what is “normal” and “abnormal” is difficult
 Those with psych. disorders don’t usually differ much
from “normal” people
 Main difference is exaggeration of certain behaviors or
mental processes
Symptoms of Psychological
Disorders
 Typicality: untypical behavior
 Maladaptivity: interferes with normal life
 Emotional Discomfort
 Socially Unacceptable Behavior: violates a
society’s accepted norms may also be indication of
psych. disorder
 Cultural context of behavior must be taken into account
 Culture-bound syndromes: clusters of symptoms that
define/describe an illness (ex in book)
Classifying Psychological
Disorders
 DSM-5: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders
 Recognizes 18 different categories of psychological
disorders
 Categorized by observable signs
 Subject to ongoing revision (newest version released
May 2013)
Anxiety Disorders
 Anxiety: apprehensive for long periods of time
 Nervousness, inability to relax, and concern about
losing control
 Physical symptoms: trembling, sweating, rapid
heart rate, shortness of breath, increased blood
pressure, flushed face, and feelings of
faintness/light-headedness
 Feelings happens all/most of the time
 Among the most common disorders in the USA
Types of Anxiety Disorders
 Phobic Disorder
 Simple Phobia: persistent excessive/irrational fear of a
particular object/situation
 Social Phobia: persistent fear of social situations in
which one might be exposed to the close scrutiny of
others and thus be observed doing something
embarrassing or humiliating
 Systematic Desensitization: common treatment
 Panic Disorder: recurring and unexpected panic
attacks
 Panic attack: relatively short period of intense
fear/discomfort, shortness of breath, dizziness, rapid
heart rate, trembling or shaking, sweating, choking,
nausea that lasts few minutes to few hours
 Usually have fear of another attack
 Agorophobia: fear of being in places/situations in
which escape may be difficult/impossible
 Afraid of crowded places
 Most have panic attacks when they can’t avoid situations
they fear
 Generalized Anxiety Disorder: excessive or unrealistic
worry about life circumstances that lasts for at least 6 mos
 Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:
 Obsessions: thoughts, ideas, mental images that occur over
and over again
 Compulsions: repetitive ritual behaviors, often involving
checking or cleaning something
 Ex: washing windows in house daily
Stress Disorders
 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: intense, persistent
feelings of anxiety that are caused by an experience
so traumatic that it would produce stress in almost
anyone
 Flashbacks, nightmares/unwelcome thoughts, numbness
of feeling, avoidance of stimuli associated with the
trauma, increased tension which may lead to sleep
disturbances, irritability, poor concentration
 Acute Stress Disorder: short-term disorder with
symptoms similar to PTSD, follows traumatic
event, symptoms occur immediately or within a
month of the event, anxiety lasts shorter time
Dissociative Disorders
 Dissociation: separation of certain personality
components/mental processes from conscious thought
 Types of Dissociatve Disorders
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Dissociative Amnesia
Dissociative Fugue
Dissociative Identity Disorder
Depersonalization Disorder
Dissociative Amnesia
 Serious loss of memory, usually following a
particularly stressful/traumatic event
 Typically can’t remember any events that occurred for
certain period of time surrounding the traumatic event
 May last for few hours, may persist for years
 Memory is likely to return as suddenly as it was lost
Dissociative Fugue
 Amnesia and start a new life
 When fugue comes to an end, don’t remember what
happened during fugue state
Dissociative Identity
Disorder
 AKA: Multiple Personality Disorder
 Existence of 2 or more personalities within a single
individual
 Personalities may/may not be aware of the others, at
least 2 take turns controlling the individual’s behavior
 Different voice, facial expressions, as well as selfperceived age, gender, and physical characteristics
 Different allergies and eyeglass prescriptions
 Behave differently than others
Causes of Dissociative Identity
Disorder
 Severe abuse in childhood
 Typically severe physical, sexual, and/or psychological
abuse
 Less often it is preceded by other types of trauma
Depersonalization Disorder
 Feelings of detachment from one’s mental processes or
body
 Describe feeling as though they are outside their
bodies, observing themselves at a distance
 Common symptom of other disorders and a disorder
in its own right
 Likely to be preceded by a stressful event
Somatoform Disorders
 Somatization: expression of psychological distress
through physical symptoms
 Have psychological problems but experience
inexplicable physical symptoms
Conversion Disorder
 Bodily symptoms without physical problems
 Ex: may develop the inability to see overnight or move
their legs with no medical explanation
 Person is not faking it
 Many show little concern about their symptoms
Hypochondriasis
 A person’s unrealistic preoccupation with thoughts
that he/she has a serious disease
 Become absorbed by minor physical symptoms
and sensations, convinced that the symptoms
indicate a serious medical illness
 Maintain their erroneous beliefs despite
reassurances from doctors that there is nothing
physically wrong with them
 Many visit doctor after doctor trying to find one
who will find the cause of their symptoms
Mood Disorders
 Mood changes that seem inappropriate for or
inconsistent with the situations to which they are
responding
 2 general categories
 Depression: involves feelings of helplessness,
hopelessness, worthlessness, guilt, and great sadness
 Bipolar Disorder: cycle of mood changes from
depression to wild elation and back again
 Very common psychological disorders
Major Depression
 Most common of all psychological disorders
 DSM-IV identifies 9 symptoms, to diagnose 5 must be
present and symptoms must last for at least 2 weeks,
and occur nearly every day during that period
 As many as 15% of severely depressed individuals
eventually commit suicide
Bipolar Disorder
 AKA manic depression
 Mania: extreme excitement characterized by
hyperactivity and chaotic behavior
 For some may be irritability instead of elation
 Severe cases: delusions about being superior or others
being jealous of them
 Impulsive behaviors
 Severe mood swings between depression and
mania
Schizophrenia
 Usually considered the most serious of the
psychological disorders
 Loss of contact with reality
 Can be very disabling, could even lead to affected
person’s inability to function independently
 Usually develops gradually, but can appear
suddenly
 Most obvious symptoms: hallucinations, delusions,
and thought disorders
Paranoid Schizophrenia
 Delusions or frequent auditory hallucinations, all
relating to a single theme
 May have delusions of grandeur, persecution, or
jealousy
 Tend to have less disorganized thoughts and bizarre
behavior than do people with other types
 May be agitated, confused, and afraid
Disorganized
Schizophrenia
 Incoherent in their thought and speech and
disorganized in their behavior
 Usually also have delusions and hallucinations, but
they tend to be fragmentary and unconnected
 Either emotionless or show inappropriate emotions
 May neglect their appearance and hygiene
Catatonic Schizophrenia
 Disturbance of movement: activity may slow to a
stupor and then suddenly switch to agitation
 May hold fixed position for hours
 May exhibit waxy flexibility: others can mold them
into strange poses that they hold for hours
Personality Disorders
 Patterns of inflexible traits that disrupt social life or
work and/or distress the affected individual
 Usually show up by late adolescence and affect all
aspects of an individual’s personality (thought
processes, emotions, and behavior)
Paranoid Personality
Disorder
 Tend to be distrustful and suspicious of others
 Tend to perceive other people’s behavior as
threatening or insulting
 Difficult to get along with
 Often lead isolated lives
 Not confused about reality but view of reality is
distorted and they are unlikely to see their mistrust
and suspicions as unfounded or abnormal
Schizoid Personality
Disorder
 Have no interest in relationships with others
 Lack emotional responsiveness
 Do not have tender feelings for, or become attached to,
others
 Tend to be loners
 Similar symptoms as schizophrenia but do not have
delusions or hallucinations and may stay in touch with
reality
Antisocial Personality
Disorder
 Behavior pattern that violates the rules, laws, and morals of
society
 Do not feel guilt or remorse
 Continue their behaviors despite the threat of social
rejection or punishment
 Early life: may run away from home, hurt others or animals
 Adulthood: aggressive and reckless, have a hard time
holding a job, fail to pay bills and debts, or break the law
Avoidant Personality
Disorders
 Desire relationships with others but they are
prevented from forming them by tremendous fear
of the disapproval of others
 Act shy and withdrawn in social situations, always
afraid they will say or do something foolish or
embarrassing
 Symptoms similar to those of social phobia and
those with this disorder usually have social phobias
as well
 Not all who have social phobias have avoidant
personality disorder
Therapy
 Approaches mental health professionals use to treat
psychological problems and disorders
 Psychotherapy: psychologically based therapy where
focus is on interactions between a professional and
client
Goals of Therapy
 Help troubled individuals
 Gain insight on problems
 Provide a caring, trusting relationship with mental
health professional
 Hope for recovery
 Bringing about changes in the individuals seeking help
 Use a psychological perspective to guide therapeutic
practice
Individual vs. Group
Therapy
 Individual
 Personal attention
 May talk more freely if
with only a therapist
and not an audience
 Group
 Helps people realize
they are not alone
 Benefit from others’
insights
 Supporting one another
 Practice coping and
other social skills
 Shows therapy can
work
 More affordable
 Many types of groups
Psychoanalytic Approach
 Free Association
 Dream Analysis
 Intense, long-term therapy
Humanistic Approach
 Person-Centered
 Carl Rogers
 Nondirective Therapy
 Active listening
 Unconditional positive regard
Cognitive Therapy and Behavior
Therapy
 Goal: help clients develop new ways of thinking and
behaving
 Cognitive Therapy
 Rational-Emotive Therapy: Albert Ellis
 Beck’s Cognitive Therapy
Behavior Therapy
 Counterconditioning
 Systematic Desensitization
 Aversive Conditioning
 Operant Conditioning
 Token economy
 Successive approximations to desired behavior
(shaping/chaining)
Biological Therapy
 Drug Therapy
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Antianxiety Drugs
Antidepressant drugs
Lithium
Antipsychotic drugs
 Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
 Psychosurgery
 Prefrontal Labotomy