©2002 prentice hall psychological disorders. ©2002 prentice hall psychological disorders defining...

©2002 Prentice Hall

Psychological Disorders


Psychological Disorders

Defining and Diagnosing Disorder Anxiety Disorders Mood Disorders Personality Disorders Dissociative Identity Disorder Drug Abuse and Addiction Schizophrenia


Defining and Diagnosing Disorder

Dilemmas of Definition

Diagnosis: Art or Science?


Dilemmas of Definition

Possible Models for Defining Disorders: Mental disorder as a violation of cultural standards. Mental disorder as maladaptive or harmful behavior. Mental disorder as emotional distress.

Mental Disorder: Any behavior or emotional state that causes an individual great suffering or worry, is self-defeating or self-destructive, or is maladaptive and disrupts the person’s relationships or the larger community.


Diagnostic and Statistical Manual

Axis I: Clinical Syndromes Axis II: Personality Disorders Axis III: General Medical Conditions Axis IV: Psychosocial and Environmental

Conditions Axis V: Global Assessment of Functioning

Scale


Concerns About Diagnostic System

The danger of overdiagnosis. The power of diagnostic labels. Confusion of serious mental disorders with

normal problems. The illusion of objectivity


Projective Tests

Projective Tests: Psychological tests used to infer a person’s motives, conflicts, and unconscious dynamics on the basis of the person’s interpretations of ambiguous stimuli.

Rorschach Inkblot Test: A projective personality test that asks respondents to interpret abstract, symmetrical inkblots. A sample inkblot


Objective Tests

Inventories: Standardized objective questionnaires requiring written responses; they typically include scales on which people are asked to rate themselves.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): A widely used objective personality test.


Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety and Panic

Fears and Phobias

Obsessions and Compulsions


Anxiety and Panic

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A continuous state of anxiety marked by feelings of worry and dread, apprehension, difficulties in concentration, and signs of motor tension.

Panic Disorder: An anxiety disorder in which a person experiences recurring panic attacks, feelings of impending doom or death, accompanied by physiological symptoms such as rapid breathing and dizziness.


Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): An anxiety disorder in which a person who has experienced a traumatic or life-threatening event has symptoms such as psychic numbing, reliving the the trauma, and increased physiological arousal.


Fears and Phobias

Phobia: An exaggerated, unrealistic fear of a specific situation, activity, or object.


Obsessions and Compulsions

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): An anxiety disorder in which a person feels trapped in repetitive, persistent thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive, ritualized behaviors (compulsions) designed to reduce anxiety.


Mood Disorders

Depression and Bipolar Disorder

Theories of Depression


Depression

Major Depression: A mood disorder involving disturbances in emotion (excessive sadness), behavior (loss of interest in one’s usual activities), cognition (thoughts of hopelessness), and body function (fatigue and loss of appetite).


Symptoms of Depression

Depressed mood Reduced interest in almost all activities Significant weight gain or loss, without dieting Sleep disturbance (insomnia or too much sleep) Change in motor activity (too much or too little) Fatigue or loss of energy Feelings of worthlessness or guilt Reduced ability to think or concentrate Recurrent thoughts of death

DSM IV Requires 5 of these within the past 2 weeks


Gender, Age, & Depression

Women are about twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with depression. True around the world

After age 65, rates of depression drop sharply in both sexes.


Theories of Depression

Biological explanations emphasize genetics and brain chemistry.

Social explanations emphasize the stressful circumstances of people’s lives.

Attachment explanations emphasize problems with close relationships.

Cognitive explanations emphasize particular habits of thinking and ways of interpreting events.

“Vulnerability-Stress” explanations draw on all four explanations described above.


Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder: A mood disorder in which episodes of depression and mania (excessive euphoria) occur.

Mood


The Bipolar Brain

Bipolar disorder can have rapid mood swings

These wild changes are shown in brain activity (right)


Personality Disorders

Problem Personalities

Antisocial Personality Disorder


Problem Personalities

Personality Disorder: Rigid, maladaptive patterns that cause personal distress or an inability to get along with others.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder: A disorder characterized by an exaggerated sense of self-importance and self-absorption.

Paranoid Personality Disorder: A disorder characterized by habitually unreasonable and excessive suspiciousness and jealousy.


Antisocial Personality Disorder

Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD): A disorder characterized by antisocial behavior such as lying, stealing, manipulating others, and sometimes violence; and a lack of guilt, shame and empathy. Sometimes called psychopathy or sociopathy


Emotions and Antisocial Personality Disorder

People with APD were slow to develop classically conditioned responses to anger, pain, or shock.

Such responses indicate normal anxiety.


Dissociative Identity Disorder

a.k.a., “Multiple Personality”


Dissociative Disorders

Dissociative Disorders: Conditions in which consciousness or identity is split or altered.

Dissociative Identity Disorder: A controversial disorder marked by the appearance within on person of two or more distinct personalities, each with its own name and traits; commonly known as “Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD).”


Flaws in MPD Diagnosis

Flaws in Underlying Research Pressure and Suggestions by Clinicians Influence of the Media


Drug Abuse and Addiction

Biology and Addiction

Learning, Culture, and Addiction

Debating the Causes of Addiction


Learning, Culture, and Addiction

Addiction patterns vary according to cultural practices and the social environment.

Policies of total abstinence tend to increase addiction rates rather than reduce them.

Not all addicts have withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking a drug.

Addiction does not depend on the properties of the drug alone, but also on the reason for taking it.


Drugs and Vietnam Veterans

US Soldiers who tested “drug positive” in Vietnam showed a dramatic drop in drug use when they returned to civilian life.

This contradicts what the biomedical model of addiction would predict.


Debating the Causes of Addiction

Problems with drugs are more likely when: A person has a physiological vulnerability to a drug. A person believes she or he has no control over the drug. Laws or customs encourage people to take the drug in

binges, and moderate use is neither tolerated nor taught. A person comes to rely on a drug as a method of coping

with problems, suppressing anger or fear, or relieving pain. Members of a person’s peer group use drugs or drink

heavily, forcing the person to choose between using drugs or losing friends.


Schizophrenia

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Theories of Schizophrenia


Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Bizarre Delusions Hallucinations and Heightened

Sensory Awareness Disorganized, Incoherent Speech Grossly Disorganized and

Inappropriate Behavior


Delusions and Hallucinations

Delusions: False beliefs that often accompany schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.

Hallucinations: Sensory experiences that occur in the absence of actual stimulation.


Positive and Negative Symptoms

Positive Symptoms – Cognitive, emotional, and behavioral excesses

Examples of Positive Symptoms Hallucinations Bizarre Delusions Incoherent Speech Inappropriate/Disorganized Behaviors


Positive and Negative Symptoms

Negative Symptoms – Cognitive, emotional, and behavioral deficits

Examples of Negative Symptoms Loss of Motivation Emotional Flatness Social Withdrawal Slowed speech or no speech


Theories of Schizophrenia

Genetic Predispositions Structural Brain Abnormalities Neurotransmitter Abnormalities Prenatal Abnormalities


Genetic Vulnerability to Schizophrenia

The risk of developing schizophrenia (i.e., prevalence) in one’s lifetime increases as the genetic relatedness with a diagnosed schizophrenic increases

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