Chapter 11: Psychological Disorders

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Chapter 11 Psychological Disorders

• Michael L. Farris
• Psychology 101

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What is Normal?

• Normal Curve (Coon, p. 495) A bell-shaped curve
  with a large number of scores in the middle,
  tapering to very few extremely high and low
  scores (please see the illustration on page 495).
• Situational Context (Coon, p. 495) The social
  situation, behavioral setting, or general
  circumstances in which an action takes place.
• Before any behavior can be defined as abnormal,
  we must consider the situational CONTEXT in which
  it occurs.
• Is it normal to stand outside and water a lawn?
  It depends on whether it is raining. Is it
  abnormal for a grown man to remove his pants and
  expose himself to another man or woman in a place
  of business? It depends on whether the other
  person is a bank clerk or a doctor!
• Almost any imaginable behavior can be considered
  normal in some contexts, as the example on Coon,
  p. 495 (about the rugby team whose airplane
  crashed in the Andes in 1972, forcing the
  survivors to eat the bodies of those who died in
  the crash. Yum!).

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Cultural Relativity

• Perceptions and judgments made relative to the
  value of ones culture.
• Culture is one of the most influential contexts
  in which any behavior is judged.
• In some cultures it is considered normal to
  defecate or urinate in public or to appear naked
  in public.
• In our culture such behaviors would be considered
  unusual or abnormal. Thus, cultural relativity
  can affect the diagnosis of mental disorders
  (Coon, p. 495).

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Disorders

• Mental Disorder (Nevid, Pgs. 386-387 Coon pg.
  496) A significant impairment in psychological
  functioning. A list of DSM-IV categories of
  disorders is listed on page 499, in Table 14.4.
• Organic Mental Disorder (Coon p. 498) A mental
  or emotional problem caused by malfunction of the
  brain. Brain pathology includes drug damage,
  diseases of the brain, injuries, poisons, and so
  on (please refer to Table 14.2 on Coon, page 497).

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Mood Disorder

• Mood disorder (Nevid pages 400-403, Coon
  pages 500-501) A major disturbance in mood or
  emotion, such as depression or mania.
• Mood disorders primarily involve
  disturbances in affect, or emotion. Afflicted
  persons may be manic, which means agitated,
  euphoric, and hyperactive, or they may be
  depressed. Some cycle between mania and
  depression (manic depression, or bipolar
  disorder). In each case, extremes of mood are
  intense or long lasting.
• In addition, depressed individuals run a
  high risk of suicide. Mood disorders may include
  psychotic symptoms, and they are sometimes caused
  by mental conditions or drug abuse.

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Anxiety disorder (Nevid Pgs. 389-393, Coon Pgs.
500-501)

• Disruptive feelings of fear, apprehension, or
  anxiety, or distortions in behavior that are
  anxiety related. Anxiety disorders may take the
  form of panic (in which the person suffers sudden
  unexplainable feelings of panic), phobias
  (excessive, irrational fears), or generalized
  anxiety (chronic and persistent anxiety). Other
  anxiety disorders are post traumatic stress
  disorder (high anxiety that persists long after
  an extremely distressing event, such as military
  combat) and acute stress disorder (high anxiety
  that occurs immediately after a highly
  distressing event, such as an airliner crash).
• A pattern known as obsessive-compulsive behavior
  is also associated with anxiety.

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Somatoform and Dissociative

• Somatoform disorder (Nevid Pgs. 394, 396-397
  Coon, Pgs. 500-501) Physical symptoms that mimic
  disease or injury (paralysis, blindness, illness,
  or chronic pain, for example) for which there is
  no identifiable physical cause. In such cases it
  is assumed that psychological factors underlie
  the symptoms.
• Dissociative disorder (Nevid Pgs. 394, 396-397
  Coon, Pgs. 500-501) Temporary amnesia, multiple
  personality, or depersonalization (feelings of
  being outside ones body, of behaving like a
  robot, or of being in a dream world).

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Neurosis and Insanity

• Neurosis (Nevid pg. 389, Coon pg. 501) An
  outdated term once used to refer, as a group, to
  anxiety disorders, somatoform disorders,
  dissociative disorders, and some forms of
  depression. The term neurosis is fading from use
  because it tends to lump together too many
  separate problems. Even so, you may sometimes
  hear the term neurosis used to loosely refer to
  problems involving excessive anxiety.
• Insanity (Coon, p. 501) A legal term that refers
  to a mental inability to manage ones affairs or
  to be aware of the consequences of ones actions.
  Persons who are declared legally insane are not
  legally responsible for their actions. If
  necessary, they can be involuntarily committed to
  a mental hospital. An example from page 501 in
  our text is Mark David Chapman, who was declared
  insane after he killed former Beatle John Lennon.
  Chapman claimed that devils forced him to kill
  Lennon.
• Legally, insanity is established by testimony
  from expert witnesses (psychologists and
  psychiatrists). An expert witness is a person
  recognized by a court of law as being qualified
  to give opinions on a specific topic. In
  practice, those who are involuntarily committed
  are usually judged to be a danger to themselves
  or to others, or they are severely mentally
  disabled.

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Antisocial Personality

• Antisocial personality (Nevid, Pgs. 410-412
  Coon, Pg. 503) A person who lacks a conscience,
  is emotionally shallow, impulsive, selfish,
  and tends to manipulate others.
• Such people, who are sometimes referred to as
  sociopaths or psychopaths, typically have a long
  history of conflict with society.
• Antisocial persons are irresponsible, lacking
  in judgment and morals, and unable to learn from
  experience. They are also incapable of deep
  feelings, including guilt, shame, fear, loyalty,
  and love.
• In short, the sociopath is poorly socialized
  and has a general disregard for the truth
  (DSM-IV, 1994).

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Paraphilias (Coon, pgs. 504-505)

• Compulsive or destructive deviations in sexual
  preferences or behavior. Typically, they cause
  guilt, anxiety, or discomfort for one or both
  participants. The paraphilias cover a wide
  variety of behaviors, including
• Pedophilia sex with children, or child
  molesting. Child molesters, who are usually
  males, are often depicted as despicable perverts
  lurking in dark alleys. In fact, most are
  married and two thirds are fathers. Many are
  rigid, passive, puritanical, or religious. In
  one half to two thirds of all cases of
  pedophilia, the offender is a friend,
  acquaintance, or relative of the child.
  Molesters are also often thought of as child
  rapists. However, most molestations rarely
  exceed fondling (Sue et al., 1996).

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Paraphilias

• Fetishism sexual arousal associated with
  inanimate objects.
• Exhibitionism flashing, or displaying the
  genitals to unwilling viewers. This is a common
  problem. Roughly 35 of all sexual arrests are
  for flashing. Exhibitionists are typically
  male and married and most come from strict or
  repressive backgrounds. They typically feel a
  deep sense of inadequacy. This leads to a
  compulsive need to prove their manhood by
  frightening women. Exhibitionists have the
  highest repeat rate among sexual offenders.
  While they are usually harmless, those who
  approach closer than arms reach may be
  dangerous. In general, a woman confronted by an
  exhibitionist can assume that his goal is to
  shock and alarm her. By becoming visibly upset
  she actually encourages him (Hyde, 1996).
• Voyeurism peeping, or viewing the genitals of
  others without their permission.

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Paraphilias

• Transvestic fetishism achieving sexual arousal
  by wearing clothing of the opposite sex.
• Sexual sadism deriving sexual pleasure from
  inflicting pain.
• Sexual masochism desiring pain as part of the
  sex act.
• Frotteurism sexually touching or rubbing
  against a non-consenting person, usually in a
  public place such as a subway.

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Agoraphobia

• Agoraphobia (Nevid, Pg. 390) The person
  fears that something extremely embarrassing will
  happen to them if they leave the house or enter
  unfamiliar situations.
• For example, an agoraphobic person may
  refuse to go outside because she fears having a
  sudden attack of dizziness, or diarrhea, or
  shortness of breath.
• Being outside the home alone, being in a
  crowd, standing in line, being on a bridge, or in
  a car, bus, or train can be impossible for an
  agoraphobic.
• About 7 of all adults suffer from
  agoraphobia during their lifetime.

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (Nevid, Pg. 391)
  an extreme preoccupation with certain thoughts
  and compulsive performance of certain behaviors.
  You have probably experienced a mild obsessional
  thought, such as a song or stupid commercial
  jingle that repeats over and over in your mind.
  This may be irritating, but its usually not
  terribly disturbing. True obsessions are images
  or thoughts that intrude into consciousness
  against a persons will. They are so disturbing
  that they can cause anxiety or extreme
  discomfort.
• The most common obsessions are about violence or
  harm (such as poisoning ones spouse or being hit
  by a car), about being dirty or unclean,
  about whether one has performed some action (such
  as turning off the stove), and about committing
  immoral acts.
• Obsessions usually give rise to compulsions.
  These are irrational acts a person feels driven
  to repeat. Often, the compulsive act (for
  example, washing ones hands repeatedly) helps
  control or block out anxiety caused by an
  obsession (the feeling of being dirty or
  unclean). Compulsive attention to detail and
  rigidly following procedures and rules makes the
  highly anxious person feel more secure. Doing so
  helps keep activities totally under control.

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Psychosis and Delusion

• Psychosis (Nevid, p.407 Coon pgs. 514-515) A
  withdrawal from reality marked by hallucinations
  and delusions, disturbed thought and emotions,
  and by personality disorganization. Psychosis
  reflects a loss of contact with shared views of
  reality. Paranoid psychosis (Nevid, p. 408
  Coon, p. 517) is a delusional disorder centered
  especially on delusions of persecution (an
  example is a UFO abductee).
• Delusion (Nevid, p. 383 Coon pgs. 514-515) A
  false belief held against all contrary evidence.
  Disturbed persons insist their delusions are
  true, even when the facts contradict them. An
  example is a 43 year old schizophrenic man who
  was convinced he was pregnant (Mansouri
  Adityanjee, 1995).

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Hallucination and Dementia

• Hallucination (Nevid, p.383 Coon, pgs.
  514-515) An imaginary sensation, such as seeing,
  hearing, or smelling things that dont exist in
  the real world. The most common psychotic
  hallucination is hearing voices. Sometimes these
  voices command patients to hurt themselves.
  Unfortunately, many obey.
• Dementia (Nevid, p.334 Coon, pgs.
  516-517) Serious mental impairment caused by
  physical deterioration of the brain. In
  dementia, we see major disturbances in memory,
  reasoning, judgment, impulse control, and
  personality. This combination usually leaves the
  person confused, suspicious, apathetic, or
  withdrawn.
• The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimers
  disease (an age related disease characterized by
  memory loss, mental confusion, and in its later
  stages, by a nearly total loss of mental
  abilities). Other common causes include
  circulatory problems, repeated strokes, or
  general shrinkage and atrophy of the brain.

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Schizophrenia, S.A.D., Psychotherapy

• Schizophrenia (Nevid, p.406 Coon, pgs. 518-519)
  A psychosis characterized by delusions,
  hallucinations, apathy, and a split between
  thought and emotion. One person in 100 will
  become schizophrenic, and roughly half of all the
  people admitted to mental hospitals are diagnosed
  as schizophrenic. Most are young adults
  (remember the film in class about the adolescent
  brain?), but schizophrenia can occur at any age.
• Seasonal Affective Disorder (Coon, p. 527)
  Depression that occurs only during fall and
  winter presumably related to decreased exposure
  to sunlight. Phototherapy involves exposing SAD
  patients to one or more hours of very bright
  fluorescent light each day. Light therapy works
  best when it is used early in the morning.
• Psychotherapy (Nevid, p. 418 Coon, p. 529) Any
  psychological treatment for behavioral or
  emotional problems.