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/TRDiagnostic 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 non-human 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

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• 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