Psychological Disorders Chapter 14 Copyright Allyn Bacon 2006

What Is Abnormal? Defining Mental Disorders • 4 Criteria for defining abnormal behavior: 1. Is the behavior considered strange or rare within the person’s own culture? 2. Does the behavior cause personal distress? 3. Is the behavior maladaptive? 4. Is the person a danger to self of others? • Is the person legally responsible for his or her acts? Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

A 5 th criterion: Is applied to behavior that may violate criminal laws. Insanity is a legal, not psychological, term. Means person is not legally responsible for their actions due to a psychological illness. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

What Is Abnormal? Prevalence of Psychological Disorders • What percentage of people will develop a mental disorder in their life time? • 50%. • In any given year, what percentage of people have a mental disorder? • 26% Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

• Americans use 95% of all the psych. Meds in the world •

What Is Abnormal? Explaining Psychological Disorders • Biological perspective? : abnormal behavior is from a physical cause. (i. e. genetic, biochemical imbalances, structural problems in the brain, etc. • Treatment = drug therapy. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

What causes Abnormal behavior? • Biopsychosocial Perspective: physical causes are central, but recognizes the influence of biological, psychological, and social factors in disorders and their treatment. • Psychodynamic perspective: disorders stem from early childhood experiences and unresolved, unconscious conflicts. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

What causes Abnormal behavior? • Learning perspective: learned and sustained in the same way as any behavior, i. e. rewards, punishment, & modeling. • Cognitive perspective: faulty thinking or distorted perceptions result in most disorders. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

• Humanistic Perspective: the result of blocking a person’s drive to achieve selfactualization.

What Is Abnormal? Explaining Psychological Disorders (continued) • All psychologists use the same criteria to dx. • The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR). Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Anxiety Disorders • Anxiety disorder: vague, fearful thoughts about what might happen in the future (a state of mind called anxiety) become so frequent, they interfere with a person’s social and occupational functioning. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Anxiety Disorders • Generalized anxiety disorder: excessive worry for 6 months or more. • Causes them to feel tense, tired, and irritable, and to have difficulty concentrating and sleeping. • affects twice as many women as men. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Anxiety Disorders • Panic disorder: an anxiety disorder in which a person experiences panic

Anxiety Disorders Phobias • Phobia: a persistent, irrational fear of some specific object, situation, or activity that poses no real danger. • Phobics realize their fears are irrational, but feel compelled to avoid the feared situations or objects. • Agoraphobia: intense fear of being in a situation where escape is not possible or help would not come. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Anxiety Disorders Phobias (continued) • Social phobia: irrational fear and avoidance of social situations in which one might embarrass or humiliate oneself. • performance anxiety is a type of this • Can limit performance at work, advancing in their careers, pursuing education, social lives etc. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Anxiety Disorders • Specific phobias: • In order of frequency (1) situational phobias, (2) fear of the natural environment, (3) animal phobias, and (4) blood – injection – injury phobias. • Classical conditioning usually used. Teaches patients to associate pleasant emotions with feared objects or situations. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Anxiety Disorders Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) • Obsession: a persistent, involuntary thought, that causes great distress. • i. e. worry about contamination or whether they performed a certain act, such as turning off the stove or locking the door. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Anxiety Disorders • Compulsion: a persistent, irrational urge to perform an act or ritual repeatedly. • The person knows acts are irrational , but cannot resist doing them without experiencing a buildup of anxiety that can be relieved only by yielding to the compulsion. • i. e. cleaning and washing behaviors, counting, checking, touching objects, hoarding, and excessive organizing. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Mood Disorders (Ch 14 cont. ) • Major depressive disorder: great sadness, despair, guilt, worthlessness, hopelessness and a loss of ability to experience pleasure. • psychomotor disturbances. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Mood Disorders Bipolar Disorder - manic episodes alternate with periods of depression, usually with relatively normal periods in between. • Manic episode: the high, inflated self-esteem, wild optimism, and hyperactivity. • Can lose touch with reality and have delusions of grandeur. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Mood Disorders Causes of Mood Disorders • Biological factors play a major role in

Mood Disorders Causes of Mood Disorders (continued) • view themselves, world, and the future in negative ways. • believe they are unworthy, inadequate, & attribute their perceived failures to their own physical, mental, or moral inadequacies. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Mood Disorders • The vast majority of first episodes of depression strike after major

Schizophrenia • Schizophrenia is a loss of contact with reality (called psychosis), hallucinations, delusions,

Schizophrenia Positive Symptoms: • Hearing voices is the most common type of hallucination. • Most often, voices accuse or curse the patients or continually comment on their behavior. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Schizophrenia Positive Symptoms (continued) • Delusions: a false belief, not shared by others. • Delusions of grandeur: a false belief that one is a famous person or has some great knowledge, ability, or authority. • Delusions of persecution: a false belief that some person or agency is trying to harass, spy on, cheat, kill or harm them etc. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Schizophrenia Positive Symptoms of Schizophrenia (continued) • Derailment: does not follow one line of thought to completion. Shifts from one subject to another in conversation or writing. • Grossly disorganized behavior: such as childlike silliness, inappropriate sexual behavior, disheveled appearance, and peculiar dress. • Inappropriate affect: facial expressions, tone of voice, and gestures may not reflect the emotion that would be expected under the circumstances. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006

Schizophrenia Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia • Social withdrawal, apathy, loss of motivation, lack of goal-directed activity, very limited speech, slowed movements, poor hygiene and grooming, etc. • Flat affect: showing practically no emotional response at all, even though they often report feeling the emotion. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006