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PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION
Sixth Edition
by
Karen Huffman
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Chapter 14
Psychological Disorders
Paul J. Wellman
Texas A&M University
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Lecture Overview
• Issues in Identifying Psychological
Disorders
• Anxiety Disorders
• Schizophrenia
• Mood Disorders
• Other Disorders
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Abnormal Behavior
• Behavior is abnormal with regard to
– Statistical infrequency: how does the frequency of
the behavior compare to others in the culture?
– Disability of dysfunction: Person is abnormal if
their behavior interferes with their daily lives
– Personal distress: Is the person unhappy about
their behavior?
– Violation of norms: A behavior is abnormal if it
differs from social norms
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Statistical Issues in
Abnormality
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Culture-Bound Disorders
• An issue is the extent to which mental
disorders are similar across cultures
• In some instances, there are culture-specific
disorders
– Running Amok: syndrome evident in Thai culture in
which a person becomes wildly aggressive,
thereby injuring others
– Brain Fog: syndrome evident in West Africa in
which schooling produces excessive mental and
physical tiredness
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Culture-General Issues
• Other issues are found across cultures:
– Nervous
– Feel apart, alone
– Trouble sleeping
– Can’t get along
– Can’t do anything
– Nothing turns out right
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Weak all over
Worry all the time
Personal worries
Low spirits
Restless
Hot all over
Explanations of Abnormality
• Demonology assumes that evil spirits reside
within a person
– Trephining: open the skull to let the spirit out
• Medical Model assumes that abnormal
behaviors reflect mental or physical illness
– Treatment of abnormality would take place in a
hospital setting (e.g. mental hospital)
– Treatments would be administered by a physician
(Psychiatrist)
– Medical model looks for symptoms and signs of
disorder; leads to development of a classification
system (DSM system)
– Treatments often involve drugs
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Diagnoses
• Mental illness, like physical illness, will
have different causes, have different
symptoms, and should lead to different
treatments
• The medical model requires a diagnostic
system to sort symptoms, so as to arrive
at a differential diagnosis
– Psychiatry has devised the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Anxiety Disorders
• Symptoms of anxiety include rapid
breathing, dry mouth, and increased heart
rate
• Anxiety disorders include:
– Generalized Anxiety Disorder refers to longlasting anxiety that is not focused on an object
or situation (unspecific or free-floating)
– Panic Disorder refers to brief but intense
bouts of anxiety
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
– Phobias are strong irrational fears of objects
or of situations
• Specific phobias are tied to objects (knives)
• Social phobias are tied to situations (stage fright)
– Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is
characterized by diffuse anxiety related to
recurring thoughts and images (obsessions).
• Compulsions are impulses to exert some action
(e.g. hand-washing)
– Posttraumatic Stress Disorder refers to
anxiety related to suffering a traumatic event
(disaster, assault, war)
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Causes of Anxiety Disorders
• Learning perspective argues that phobias
are the result of learning/conditioning
– Classical conditioning
• Specific objects are paired with a frightening event
• The object can then elicit fear
• Phobias endure because the person avoids the
feared stimulus and thus cannot extinguish the
fear
– Operant conditioning: the person reduces
their anxiety by avoiding the feared object
– Social learning (observation and modeling)
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Phobia Conditioning
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
• Biological perspectives on anxiety
disorders:
– Evolutionary argument that we are
predisposed to fear what our ancestors
feared
– Altered biochemistry in brain contributes to
anxiety disorder
• Cognitive processes: focus is on distortions
of thinking
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Schizophrenia
• Psychosis refers to a general lack of contact
with reality
• Schizophrenia is a form of psychosis involving
disorders of perception, language, thought,
emotion, and behavior
– Prevalence of schizophrenia is 1 in 100
– Schizophrenia rarely emerges after age 45
– Schizophrenia is a severe disorder that accounts for
half of all admissions to mental hospitals
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Schizophrenia Symptoms
• Perceptual Symptoms
– Sensory filtering and perception is impaired
– Hallucinations are perceptions without
sensations
• Language and Thought Disturbance
– Word salad: jumbled speech
– Delusions are mistaken beliefs that are
maintained despite contrary evidence
• Paranoid: others are talking about the person
• Persecution: others are out to get the person
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
• Emotional Disturbance
– Emotional affect in schizophrenia can be
enhanced or flattened (no affect)
• Behavioral Disturbance
– Unusual actions that have meaning to the
person
• Shaking their head to clear out bad thoughts…
– Catalepsy refers to an immobile stance that
can be held for hours (like a statue)
– Refusal to communicate with others
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Classification of Schizophrenia
• Positive symptoms involve distorted or
excessive mental activity
– Delusions, hallucinations,altered emotions, erratic
behaviors
– Positive symptoms occur during acute episodes
• Negative symptoms involve behavioral and
mental deficits
– Flattened emotions, social withdrawal
– Negative symptoms are chronic (long-term) and
may not respond well to drug treatment
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Biological Views of Schizophrenia
• Genetics: identical twins are more similar in
regard to schizophrenia than are fraternal twins
(43 to 83 % concordance)
– Much higher than siblings (9% concordance)
• Neurotransmitters: Dopamine activity is
excessive in the schizophrenic brain
– Drugs that relieve schizophrenia block dopamine
receptors
• Brain damage: enlarged ventricles are evident
in schizophrenia
• Drug actions: positive and negative symptoms
of schizophrenia are induced by ketamine
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Heritability of Schizophrenia
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Schizophrenia Issues
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Mood Disorders
• Mood Disorders are characterized by
extreme disturbances in emotional states
– Major Depressive Disorder refers to
prolonged intensely reduced mood without
an obvious cause
• Interferes with ability to function and to enjoy life
– Bipolar Disorder refers to alternating state of
reduced mood (depression) and mania
(increased mood)
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Causes of Mood Disorders
• Biological causes
– Variations in brain transmitters norepinephrine and
serotonin
– Abnormal function in frontal cortex
• Psychosocial causes: learned helplessness
theory suggests that depression results from a
history of being unable to control or escape
from aversive events
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Myths of Suicide
• People who talk about suicide are
unlikely to commit suicide
• Suicides usually do not warn others
• Suicidal persons are fully committed to
dying
• Men and women are equally likely to
commit suicide
• Only depressed people commit suicide
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Copyright
Copyright 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York,
NY. All rights reserved. No part of the material protected
by this copyright may be reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without written permission
of the copyright owner.
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E