Download Overview of the Day - College of Humanities and Social and

Overview of the Day
Define mental illness
Models of mental illness
Classifying mental illness
Explain the the following disorders:
anxiety, somatoform, dissociative
Ask you to think about: are mental
disorders really disorders?
Film (multiple personality)
Mental Illness
Behavior that is:
atypical
disturbing
maladaptive (harmful)
not rationally justifiable
Models of Mental Illness
Medical
Sociocultural
Biosocial
Evolutionary
Anxiety Disorders
 General Anxiety Disorder
Unfocused, out of control feelings, continually tense, jittery,
dizziness, worried about bad things that will happen; hard to
pinpoint cause*
 Panic attack
About a minute-long episode of intense fear that something
horrible is going to happen*
 Phobic disorders
Irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object or situation *
 Obsessive-compulsive disorder*
Obsession with thoughts and ideas
Compulsive behaviors
Explaining Anxiety Disorders
Unpredictable aversive events in the past*
Stimulus generalization
Biological predisposition (contributes to
survival)*
Snakes, spiders, heights
Genetically transmitted
Somatoform Disorders
Types
Conversion disorder
Hypochondriasis
Reasons
Unconscious conflict
Anxiety
Dissociative Disorders
Disruptions in conscious awareness and
sense of identity*
Types
Amnesia (failure to recall events)
Fugue (forgetting and fleeing from one’s home)
Multiple personality (2 or more distinct
personalities)
Causes
Emotional trauma as children
Flee inward, escape traumatic memories
Summary of the Day
Define mental illness
Models of mental illness
Classifying mental illness
Explain the the following disorders:
anxiety, somatoform, dissociative
Ask you to think about: are mental
disorders really disorders?
Overview of the Day
Mood disorders
Schizophrenia
Personality disorders
Prevalence of psychological disorders
Labeling
Evolutionary perspective
Film (schizophrenia)
Depression
 Symptoms:
lack of energy, feelings of worthlessness, unable to
eat, sleep, concentrate normally, lack of interest in
sex and other normal pleasures in life
 Causes
Social-cognitive: loss (relationship, exclusion from
group, not achieving goals; self defeating beliefs
(negative explanatory style); vicious cycle of
depression
Biological: genetic (predisposed), chemical changes
in the brain (norepinephrine and serotonin both
scarce during depression)
Bi-polar (Manic Depressive)
Disorder
Symptoms: depression alternating with
wild, euphoric, hyperactive states,
grandiose optimism (overspending)
Many creative people tend to suffer from this
disorder or a milder form of it [called
cyclothymia]
Causes: primarily biological (genetic, brain
chemistry)
Costs and benefits of treatment?
Schizophrenia
 Umbrella term for disturbances in nearly every
dimension of human psychological functioning
 Symptoms:
disorganized thinking and language (word salad),
disturbed perceptions, inappropriate emotions and
actions; “split” from reality.
 Onset occurs in young adulthood (late teens 20s), only
10-20% ever recover; over 50% never show signs of
improvement; 2-3 % of people worldwide are
schizophrenic
Causes of Schizophrenia
Genetics
Brain chemistry (too much dopamine)
Brain architecture (enlarged ventricles)
Interaction between biology and
environment: diathesis stress model
 people with underlying genetic predispositions
will become vulnerable or develop illness under
stress
3/4 of recovered patients who return to highly
emotionally charged homes regress, while only 1/4
of those do who return to families low in
emotionality
Personality Disorder
Symptoms: inflexible, enduring, and social
maladaptive behavior pattern
Causes
biological predisposition (especially for
sociopaths)
interaction between biology and environment
Types of Personality Disorders
 Histrionic (shallow, attention-getting emotionality)
 Narcissistic (egocentric, exaggerated self-importance,
find criticism hard to accept)
 Borderline (unstable, identity, unstable relationships,
unstable emotions)
 Anti-social (the most troubling of all: sociopath,
psychopath): flat affect, minimal arousal under stress;
lack of conscious, excessive manipulating people
through cons deception, with lack of remorse or concern
with consequences, lack of empathy, often abusive
Alternative Perspectives
Labeling theory
Evolutionary perspective
How to explain the persistence of
“maladaptive” behaviors
Actually adaptive
Confers some survival/reproductive benefits
Cost associated with some other benefit
Cost to person who has it, but not to relatives
Modern world
Summary of the Day
Mood disorders
Schizophrenia
Personality disorders
Prevalence of psychological disorders
Labeling
Evolutionary perspective