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PSYCHOLOGY
MENTAL DISORDERS
CHAPTER 18
ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR (actions on a
regular basis)
• Person who suffers from extreme anxiety, endless worry,
long periods of depression
• Bizarre behavior – misinterpret the actions and words of
others, fall apart over minor things
• Unable to perform daily activities
• Perceives the world as a threatening environment
Types of Mental Disorders
• Anxiety – generalized feeling of apprehension and dread
which causes bodily reactions (sweat, heart pounding,
etc.)
Types of Anxiety
– Panic disorder
– Phobic disorders (list on page 509)
– Obsessive-compulsive disorder
PANIC DISORDER
• Cannot relax – overwhelming feelings of anxiety
• Usually starts randomly with physical reactions
• Once one has occurred, panic attacks will repeat
themselves
• Can lead to phobias:
– Specific: dogs, height, elevators
– Agoraphobia – fear of leaving familiar environment
– Causes: association and learning from past experience
OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER
• Obsession: constant thoughts about performing
a certain act
• Compulsive: Behavior (acting out your
obsession)
• Causes: inability to resolve guilt, anxiety,
insecurity; can be caused by a chemical
imbalance
SOMATOFORM DISORDER
• Psychology issues expressed in bodily symptoms
• There is no actual physical problem
• Two types:
– 1. Conversion – serious psychological trauma is changed into a
symbolic physical dysfunction
• Example: Witness a terrible human torture – become frozen with
fear, visual system shuts down – can no longer see
– 2. Hypochondriasis (hypochondriac) – excessive concerns
about health
DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS
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Amnesia – traumatic events “disappear” from memory
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Selecting Forgetting – “forgetting” only things that are very traumatic
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Fugue – condition of having amnesia for one’s current life and starting
a new one somewhere else
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Dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality) – personal identity
– Separate personalities act independently from the others
– Rare disorder
– Causes: history of very traumatic experiences; childhood abuse
– Dominant or stronger personality knows about the weaker, but not
the other way around
– Not considered schizophrenic because this disorder doesn’t have
trouble thinking or communicating
MOOD DISORDERS
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Three types
– Depression
– Mania (bipolar – up and down mood swings)
• Extreme agitation
• Restlessness
• Rapid speech
• Trouble concentrating
• Delusions about one’s power and influence
• Flight of ideas-thoughts and speech go in all directions with no
unifying concept
– Schizophrenia
Causes
– Lifetime of separations, losses, unpleasant things
– Poor self image
– Feel responsible for bad events
– Chemical imbalance due to Serotonin-high (mania) or low (depression)
– Hereditary
PSYCHOSIS OR PSYCHOTIC DISORDER
• Severe mental disorder involving disorganized thought processes
• Confused and extreme emotional responses
• Distorted perceptions of reality
• Periods of psychotic behavior can alternate with periods of calm and
coherence (comes in cycles)
• Dopamine – brain chemical that causes speech and thoughts; if too
much it can lead to schizophrenia
FOUR TYPES OF PSYCHOSIS
• Serious distortion of mental processes (hard to
understand what they are saying or thinking
• Hallucinating – seeing or hearing something that is not
present
• Delusion – belief in something that is not true
• Inappropriate emotional responses – laugh at tragic
events
SCHIZOPHRENIC DISORDERS
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Only affects about 1% of population
Appears in late adolescence or early adulthood
One third have only one episode and get better
One third have severe symptoms and do not respond to treatment
One third are in and out of institutions
Garbled speech, hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thoughts
WORD SALAD: words mixed together-incoherent
Example: Sometimes it feels and smells like someone has screwed a
quarter-pound hamburger into my head and arms and legs and if you shine
a headlight inside it will drill you.
CLANG ASSOCIATION: psychotic speech in which words are rhymed.
Example: You wear clothes and how much does this watch cost? Have you
a sister? I have three and they are all fine girls, curls, furls, isn’t that funny?
The clang comes with “girls, curls, furls.”
Three Types of Schizophrenia
• Catatonic
– Disturbance of movement
– May not speak or say little
– Person is in a stupor
• Paranoid
– feelings of suspicion and persecution
– Grandiose beliefs-superhuman power
• Undifferentiated
– lacks any distinguishing symptoms
DYSTHYMIC DISORDER
Moderate Depression
4-12% affected
Called the common cold of mental health
Usually clears up without treatment
Symptoms: lack of energy, sadness, loss of interest in
activities, people, loss of sense of humor
Common after the loss of a loved one
How do you know when it is not normal?
Lasts too long
Appears out of nowhere
MAJOR DEPRESSION
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Extremely low emotional state
Loss of appetite and energy
Hopelessness
Suicidal thoughts
Very slow speech
Inability to carry out simple daily tasks
SCHIZOPHRENIA (a psychosis)
Thought disorders
• Catatonic schizophrenia – hallucinations, delusions
• Paranoid schizophrenia – inappropriate emotions
• Undifferentiated – lacks any distinguishing symptoms
PERSONALITY DISORDERS
• Antisocial personality (sociopath, psycopath) –
criminal behavior, lack of guilt
• Borderline personality – dependency,
possessiveness
ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER
(SOCIOPATH, PSYCOPATH)
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Constant conflict with the law
Lack of conscience
Drugs or psychological treatment do not help
Causes:
– Family history of neglect
– Abusive or alcoholic parents
– For some – no real answer
BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER
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Intense and unstable relationships
Very dependent on other people
Very insecure and clingy
Use self-destruction to manipulate others
Very possessive
May make suicide threats
Unstable emotions
Causes:
– Tends to run in families – is it biology or association and learning?
– Difficult to treat in psychotherapy-person is usually suspicious or
manipulative
– Person has trouble developing working relationship with therapistoften switch from one to another