Chapter 12 Psychological Disorders Defining Abnormality Abnormal behavior

Chapter 12: Psychological Disorders

Defining Abnormality • Abnormal behavior: deviant, maladaptive, or personally distressful over a relatively long period of time • Deviant: unusual and unacceptable in a culture • Maladaptive: interferes with one’s ability to function effectively in the world • Personal distress: the person finds their behavior troubling

Classifying Abnormal Behavior • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) • APA system to diagnose and classify abnormal behavior

Problems with DSM-IV • Descriptive only; does not discuss causes • Danger of applying labels • Affects staff and clinicians • Affects the individual • Reliance on the biological perspective • Inflexible, all-or-none categories • “Meet 5 of the 8 criteria…” • Diagnoses affect insurance benefits, carry social stigma, etc.

According to your textbook, "abnormality" does NOT involve behaviors that are: A. ) out of the individual's control B. ) deviant C. ) personally distressful D. ) maladaptive

Other Important Factors You are just fine! …probably.

Anxiety & Related Disorders • Anxiety disorder: the occurrence of anxiety that is uncontrollable, disproportionate to the actual danger, and disruptive to everyday life

Anxiety & Related Disorders • Generalized anxiety disorder: long-term, persistent anxiety and worry • Persistent anxiety for at least 6 months • Unable to identify a specific reason for the anxiety • Panic disorder: panic attacks that last from a few seconds to several hours • No identifiable stimuli • Feeling of impending doom, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, sweating, dizziness

Anxiety & Related Disorders • Phobic disorder: intense, irrational fears of specific objects or situations • Severity depends on the specific stimuli that triggers the anxiety

Anxiety & Related Disorders

OCD • Obsessive-compulsive: • Obsessions: persistent, unwanted thoughts or ideas • Compulsions: irresistible urges to repeatedly carry out some act that seems strange and unreasonable • Completing compulsions leads to a short-term reduction in anxiety

OCD • OCD-Related Disorders: • Hoarding: compulsive collecting, poor organization skills, and difficulty discarding things • Excoriation: the compulsion of picking at one’s skin, sometimes to the point of injury • Trichotillomania: compulsively pulling at the hair from the scalp, eyebrows, and other body areas • Body Dysmorphic Disorder: a distressing preoccupation with imagined or slight flaws in one’s physical appearance

OCD & Anxiety Causes • Causes: • Deficiencies in neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA) • Genetics • Tendency to experience negative thoughts • Overactive autonomic nervous system • Learned events from childhood (phobias)

PTSD • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): anxiety disorder that develops through exposure to a traumatic event that has overwhelmed the person’s abilities to cope • Flashbacks (reliving the event) • Avoiding emotions and emotional experiences • Exaggerated startle response • Sleep difficulties, nightmares • Memory and concentration difficulties • Impulsive outbursts, aggressiveness

Li Chen has always been deathly afraid of spiders. Her fear is so pronounced that once after she saw a spider in her bedroom and would not go back into the room for a month. This fear is unreasonable, because she has never had a bad experience with spiders. Li Chen would most likely be diagnosed with which of the following? A. ) obsessive-compulsive disorder B. ) a specific phobia C. ) ADHD D. ) Asperger's Syndrome

Mood Disorders • Mood disorders: disturbances in emotional feelings strong enough to interfere with daily living

Mood Disorders • Major depression: severe form of depression; lasts at least 2 weeks • Interferes with concentration, decisionmaking, and sociability • Affects 1 in 5 people • Women more than men • Rates are increasing worldwide

Mood Disorders • Causes: • Genetics • Neurotransmitters (serotonin) • Over-sensitivity to negative environmental feedback • Learned helplessness: powerlessness and a perceived lack of control • Rumination, negative thoughts and beliefs

Mood Disorders • Bipolar disorder: extreme mood swings with one or more episodes of mania • Mania: extended state of intense, wild elation • Little sleep, tremendous energy, impulsive behavior • Swings can last a few months to years • Depressive periods typically last longer

Eating Disorders • Anorexia nervosa: relentless pursuit of thinness through starvation • Weight less than 85% of normal • Distorted body image • Physical health consequences • Highest mortality rate of any psychological disorder (5. 6% die) • Bulimia: binging and purging eating pattern • Often maintain normal weight range • Chronic health problems

Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders • Why? • Body Dysmorphic Disorder • Usually begins with a diet that gets out of hand • Individuals are often successful, attractive, perfectionistic • Possibly genetic link (regulation of serotonin) • Society/peer pressure

Dissociative Disorders • Dissociative disorders: separation of critical parts of the personality that normally work together • Dissociative amnesia: extreme memory loss caused by extensive psychological stress • Dissociative fugue: development of amnesia coupled with a desire to run away from home • Sufferer often assumes a new identity

Dissociative Disorders • Dissociative identity disorder: two or more distinct personalities within the same person • Very rare disorder • Different allergies, eyeglass prescriptions, accents, etc. • Severe childhood trauma and sexual abuse is common • Sufferers are sometimes aware of the other personalities, sometimes not

Schizophrenia • Schizophrenia: • Disturbances of thought and language • Withdrawal from others • Typically diagnosed in early adulthood (18 -25) • Negative symptoms: • Flat affect: display of little/no emotion • Slurred speech

Schizophrenia • Positive symptoms: • Delusions: firmly held, unshakable beliefs with no basis in reality • Hallucinations: sensory experiences that occur in the absence of real stimuli • Referential thinking: giving personal meaning to completely random events • Unusual motor behavior, including catatonia (immobility and unresponsiveness)

Schizophrenia • Causes: biological factors: • Genetics (48% chance between twins) • 1% chance in general population • Brain abnormalities • Structural abnormalities • Less use of frontal lobes • Enlarged ventricles (deterioration of brain tissue) • Regulation of neurotransmitters • Excess dopamine

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia • Causes: environmental factors: • Diathesis-stress model: inborn predisposition + environmental stressors • Mother’s illness (rubella and influenza during mid-pregnancy) • Birth month hypothesis: babies born during late winter/early spring have a higher incidence of schizophrenia • Virus? Infection?

Paula believes she is Marilyn Monroe, and frequently dresses the way Ms. Monroe dressed and signs "autographs" for people in public places. Paula is experiencing _____. A. ) a delusion B. ) a hallucination C. ) a conduct disorder D. ) a mood disorder

Personality Disorders • Personality disorders: a set of inflexible, maladaptive personality traits that keep a person from functioning properly in society • Roots in childhood • Disorder must span several years to be diagnosed • Difficult to treat

Personality Disorders • Antisocial: Individuals show no regard for the moral and ethical rules of society • 2 -4% of adults in the U. S. • Often appear intelligent and likeable • Manipulative, deceptive, and lack remorse • Can be violent, but not necessarily • Genetic predisposition may interact with testosterone • Early childhood abuse may act as a trigger • Low levels of activity in the prefrontal cortex, low levels of autonomic nervous system response

Personality Disorders • Borderline: pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and emotions, and marked impulsivity • Frantic efforts to avoid being abandoned • Self-damaging impulsive behavior (reckless sex, drugs, drinking, spending, etc. ) • Often related to self-harm (cutting, selfmutilating) • Causes include genetics, childhood abuse, hypervigilance to stress in the environment