Psychological Disorders Chapter 15 Psychological Disorders Mental processes

Psychological Disorders Chapter 15

Psychological Disorders • Mental processes or behavior patterns that cause emotional distress and/or substantial impairment in functioning

What is abnormal? • Human behavior lies along a continuum, from well adjusted to mal-adjusted • Where along the continuum does behavior become abnormal?

Criteria • Is the behavior considered strange within the person’s own culture? • Does the behavior cause personal distress? • Is the behavior maladaptive? • Is the person a danger to himself or to herself? • Is the person legally responsible for his or her acts?

Prevalence of psychological Disorders • 22% of Americans are diagnosed with a psychological disorder annually in the US • The lifetime risk of being diagnosed with a psychological disorder is 50%

Insanity • A legal, not psychological term • Means an individual is not legally responsible for his/her behavior due to a psychiatric illness or some other temporary or permanent mental condition

DSM-IV/TR Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders • Lists the criteria for assigning various diagnoses • All psychological disorders are organized into various categories

ANXIETY DISORDERS

Generalized Anxiety Disorder • Characterized by chronic worry that is so severe that it interferes with daily functioning

Panic Disorder • Characterized by recurrent, unpredictable panic attacks of overwhelming anxiety, fear, or terror • During these attacks people experience palpitations, trembling, shaking, choking or smothering sensations, and the feeling that they are going to die or lose their sanity

Phobias • There are three categories of phobias – Agoraphobia – Social phobia – Specific phobia

Agoraphobia • Fear of being in situations where escape is impossible or help is not available in case of incapacitating anxiety

Social Phobia • Fear of social situations where one might be embarrassed or humiliated by appearing clumsy or incompetent

Specific Phobia • A marked fear of a specific object or situation and a catchall for all other phobias

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders • Characterized by obsessions (persistent, recurring, involuntary thoughts, images, or impulses that cause great distress) and/or compulsions (persistent, irresistible, irrational urges to perform an act or ritual repeatedly)

MOOD DISORDERS

• A major depressive disorder characterized by feelings of great sadness, despair, guilt, worthlessness, hopelessness, and, in extreme cases, suicidal intentions

• Lifetime rates of depression vary widely from one culture to another • Women are more likely to suffer from depression than men all over the world

Bipolar Disorder • Mood disorder in which a person suffers from manic episodes (periods of extreme elation, euphoria, and hyperactivity) alternating with major depression

Proposed causes of mood disorders • 1. genetic predisposition • 2. imbalance in neurotransmitters norepinephrine and serotonin • 3. tendency to turn hostility and resentment inward rather than expressing it • 4. distorted and negative views of oneself, the world, the future • 5. stress

• Heredity is a major cause of mood disorders. • Negative thought patterns also contribute to these disorders. • Major life stresses may trigger a mood disorder.

Suicide • Depression is linked to suicide along with other disorders. • Elderly, white males highest rate of suicide - perhaps due to poor health or loneliness • Women more likely to attempt, men more likely to be successful • Asian Americans have the lowest rate of all US ethnic groups

SCHIZOPHRENIA • Positive symptoms: abnormal behaviors and characteristics- hallucinations, disorganized thinking, delusions, disorganized speech, bizarre behavior, inappropriate affect • Negative symptoms: social withdrawal, apathy, loss of motivation, very limited speech, slowed movements, flat affect, poor hygiene and grooming

4 types of schizophrenia • • Paranoid Disorganized Catatonic Undifferentiated

Risk factors • Genetic predisposition • Stress in people who are predisposed • Excessive dopamine activity in the brain

SOMATOFORM AND DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS • Involve bodily symptoms that cannot be identified as any of the known medical conditions

Hypochondriasis • Persistent fear that bodily symptoms are the signs of some serious disease

Conversion disorder • Loss of motor or sensory functioning in some part of the body, such as paralysis or blindness

Dissociative amnesia • Loss of memory for limited periods of their life or for their entire personal identity

Dissociative fugue disorder • People forget their entire identity, travel away form home, may assume new identity somewhere else

Dissociative identity disorder • Multiple personality • Two or more distinct, unique personalities occur in the same person, each taking over at different times • Most patients are female and victims of early, severe physical and/or sexual abuse

Other Psychological Disorders • Gender identity disorder: people feel their psychological gender identity is different form that which is typically associated with their biological sex • Paraphilias: sufferers have recurrent sexual urges, fantasies, and behaviors that involve children, other non-consenting partner, or nonhuman objects • Sexual dysfunction: a problem with sexual desire, arousal, orgasm

3 Clusters of Personality Disorders • People with personality disorders have long-standing, inflexible, maladaptive patterns of behavior that cause problems in social relationships at work • Often cause personal distress • Many are unable to change and always blame others for their problems

continued • Cluster A: characterized by odd behavior • Cluster B: erratic emotions and overly dramatic behavior • Cluster C: disorders associated with extreme levels of fearfulness and anxiety