Psychological Disorders/ Abnormal Psychology

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Psychological Disorders/Abnormal Psychology

• Mods 45 thru 49
• Pgs. 623 665

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What is normal?

• If someone is too depressed to get out of bed for
  weeks, do they have a disorder?
• What if they just experienced a severe loss?
• How long is okay?
• What if, the day after experiencing a severe
  loss, they went out partying? Is that wrong too?

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• Most abnormals depicted on TV with severe
  problems are usually inaccurate.
• Only a handful of the disturbed are dangerous.
• The average mental patient is confused, withdrawn
  and will bother no one.
• Statistically, mental patients are less violent
  than the general public.

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• If you choose an emotionally disturbed person at
  random, odds are that they wont be much
  different from you or your friends in most areas
  except for an exaggeration in certain areas.
• Medical Students Syndrome there are many
  instances when reading about lung collapses that
  med students get pains in their chest. Dont let
  this happen to you here.

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How can we define psychological disorders?

• Does being different from everybody else make one
  have a disorder?
• Not necessarily but, being atypical is part of
  the definition of a disorder.

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To be considered disordered, other people must
find the atypical behavior disturbing.

• These standards vary depending on cultural and
  historical context.
• Killing during wartime vs. peace.
• Burping at the end of a meal is a compliment in
  some countries.
• 200 years ago, everyone walked around England and
  America with white wigs on.
• If youre afraid of a tiny mouse and jump on
  tables screaming, its ok if you have
  agoraphobia (fear of public places) you have a
  disorder.

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• Would you agree that there is something abnormal
  in all of us? There must be something youve
  done that you would rather not have others know
  about.
• Winning!
• Historically, madness supernatural forces

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Disorders are behaviors that are maladaptive.
Like when a smokers nicotine dependence produces
physical damage.

• Abnormal behavior is most likely to be considered
  disordered when others find it rationally
  unjustifiable.
• If you can justify it or no one is disturbed
  by it, its acceptable.
• shes an entertainer

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• So, mental health workers label behavior
  psychologically disordered when they judge it 1.
  atypical, 2. disturbing, 3. maladaptive and 4.
  unjustifiable.
• Manson Clip - Saved
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vo2oZWpqtNi4safety_
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• The current authoritative scheme for classifying
  psychological disorders is the American
  Psychiatric Associations (APA) Diagnostic and
  Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders --
• DSM IV-R
• Most health insurance companies require a DSM IV
  diagnosis before paying for therapy.

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Anxiety Disorders

• We all feel it at one time or another
• Before the game, match, show or event.
• Looking down from a ledge.
• Speaking in front of people, etc.
• But, for some people, two thirds of whom are
  women, anxiety becomes so distressing and
  persistent that they suffer an anxiety disorder.

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3 Types

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder in which a person
  feels unexplainably tense and uneasy.
• Phobic Disorder in which a person feels
  irrationally afraid of a specific object of
  situation
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in which a person
  is troubled by repetitive thoughts and/or actions.

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Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• Sufferers are continually tense and jittery,
  apprehensive about bad things that might happen,
  and experiencing all the symptoms of autonomic
  nervous system arousal (racing heart, clammy
  hands, stomach butterflies).

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• One of the worst characteristics of GAD is that
  the person cannot identify, and therefore cannot
  avoid, its cause.

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Panic Attack

• For no apparent reason, the anxiety may at times
  suddenly escalate into a terrifying panic attack
  an episode of intense dread, usually lasting
  several minutes. Chest pain, choking or
  smothering sensations, trembling, dizziness, or
  fainting typically accompany the panic.
• The experience is unpredictable and so
  frightening that the sufferer may then avoid
  situations where the attacks have occurred.
• Anxiety attack on plane
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v9_JjUER_r08playnex
  t1listPLA1ADBF0A6333DAA6safety_modetruepersi
  st_safety_mode1
• How not to help a person having an anxiety attack
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vi0GW0Vnr9Ycfeature
  relatedsafety_modetruepersist_safety_mode1

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Phobic Disorders

• Phobic anxiety focuses on some specific object,
  activity or situation. Phobias are irrational
  fears.
• List of phobias -- http//www.alphadictionary.com/
  articles/phobias.html
• Deliberately forcing a person to overcome their
  fears can be very dangerous. Throwing a person
  in the ocean who has thalassophobia can be
  harmful.
• Phobia clip 332 Saved
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v9rl7Lr6eDLcsafety_
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• Pop up phobia book

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Agoraphobia

• Fear of open places and/or public situations.
• How can it start?
• Perhaps suffering a panic attack in a specific
  place will trigger a fear of being in that
  situation again.
• More agoraphobics are women. Society?
• Most have a specific boundary they cannot cross,
  whether it be the doorway, a certain street, the
  town border etc.

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/OCD

• At times, we may all be obsessed with senseless
  or offensive thoughts that will not go away.
• We sometimes engage in rigid behavior like
  rechecking the locked door, stepping over cracks
  in the sidewalk, lining up our books and pencils
  just right before studying or whatever..

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• Obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors cross
  the fine line between normality and disorder when
  they become so persistent that they interfere
  with the way we live or when they cause distress.
• Obsession an endless preoccupation with an urge
  or thought.
• Ex. What happens when you hear a song just as
  youre leaving your house or car.
• Multiply that 100x when thoughts will not leave
  the person alone.

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Compulsion

• A ritualized behavior that a person must act out.
  Each time he/she does so, anxiety is decreased.
• A compulsive handwasher is obsessed with
  cleanliness.
• The compulsion is the action, the obsession is
  the thought.
• Howie Manel clip 218
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?veg14F72pY-4safety_
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• As Good As It Gets clip 107
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v44DCWslbsNMfeature
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Explaining Anxiety Disorders

• Dont write, just read.
• Psychoanalytic perspective assumes that,
  beginning in childhood, intolerable impulses,
  ideas and feelings get repressed.
• Repetitive hand washing, for instance, may help
  suppress anxiety over ones dirty urges.
• Learning perspective links general anxiety with
  learned helplessness. Some fears arise from
  stimulus generalization. Fear of heights may
  lead to a fear of airplaines without ever being
  on a plane.
• Biological perspective explains our
  anxiety-proness in evolutionary, genetic and
  physiological terms. Maybe a lack of serotonin?

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• Brain scans of people with obsessive compulsive
  disorder reveal unusually high activity in an
  area of the frontal lobes just above the eyes.
  Antidepressant drugs control OC behavior by
  dampening this activity

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Somatoform Disorders

• Psychological issues are expressed in bodily
  symptoms, but there is no actual physical
  problem.
• We all feel a little worse when life isnt going
  so well, but this is dramatic.
• 2 types
• 1. Conversion Disorder another name is
  hysterical blindness. (More common in Freuds
  day than now)
• Ex. A person who has witnessed a terrible human
  torture or slaughter (the Holocaust) may have
  their visual system shut down.
• Or, a person who was in a car accident was unable
  to help others because of fear may develop a
  sort of paralysis.
• These people are not faking it. Doctors would
  stick them with needles and they have no
  reaction.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v_2NbEV8cFzssafety_
  modetruepersist_safety_mode1 Band Brothers
  300

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• 2. Hypochondriasis Less unusual. Overly
  concerned about their health.
• A slight headache is interpreted as brain cancer,
  or the sniffles as pneumonia.
• Often, when children only got attention and
  support from other people when they were sick.

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Dissociative Disorders (rare)

• When a person experiences a sudden loss of memory
  or change in identity.
• Part of ones life become disconnected with other
  parts.
• Only when these experiences are severe and
  prolonged do they suggest a dissociative disorder.

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• 1. Amnesia
• The failure to recall events, can be caused by
  head injury or alcoholic intoxication. But
  psychogenic amnesia usually begins as a response
  to intolerable psychological stress.
• The memories are still inside of the person, but
  they are cut off from consciousness.
• Patients usually exhibit Selective Forgetting
  remembering how to drive, talk, type etc.
• Combat soldiers blot out certain parts of the
  horror, but still remember childhood memories.

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• 2. Psychogenic Fugue (complicated)
• Also involves forgetting, but it also involves
  fleeing ones home and identity for days, months
  or years.
• When awakening from a fugue state, people
  remember their old identities but typically deny
  remembering what occurred during the fugue.
• Can also be caused by severe stress. Maybe
  conflict with spouse.

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• 3. Multiple Personality Disorder
• Controversial. Massive dissociation of self from
  ordinary consciousness.
• Instead of forgetting events, they forget a
  portion of themselves. That portion begins to
  live a life of their own.
• Usually a good and bad person. Possibly caused
  by a history of escaping from problems.
• Perhaps a history of severe child abuse or
  traumatic experience.
• There have been cases where the different
  personality would write with the opposite hand,
  be able to play an instrument or speak a
  different language.
• Sybil

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Mood Disorders

• The mood of an individual is his/her emotional
  state angry, depressed, happy etc.
• A mood disorder is an exaggerated up mood,
  depressed state, or an alternation between up and
  down.
• There is a mild disorder called dysthymic
  disorder which is the common cold of mental
  health.
• A moderate depression and can clear up without
  treatment. Lack of energy, unhappiness, loss of
  interest in activities, no sense of humor etc.
• In many cases, as in the loss of a loved one, it
  serves a purpose. If it appears out of nowhere,
  there may be a problem.

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Mood disorders come in two principal forms

• 1. Major Depression the person experiences the
  hopelessness and lethargy of prolonged depression
  until eventually rebounding to normalcy.
• Feelings of worthlessness, slow speech, thoughts
  of death or suicide.
• Many patients have trouble with everyday tasks.
  Some can lie motionless for hours.
• Usually there is a great deal of anger inside
  (sometimes directed at the self)
• Affects many more women than men.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vIeZCmqePLzMsafety_
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• Mania is the opposite of depression.
• Extreme up moods. Doesnt seem so bad. But this
  is restlessness, no concentration, very rapid
  speech.
• Thoughts are moving so quickly, they get out of
  control and get confused.
• Ex. I went to the store where I kept the
  containers of milk which all babies should have
  in order to survive which not everyone can do
  because of the threat of nuclear war between
  countries which are divisions of various parts of
  the land which is filled normally with rock and
  dirt.
• Grandiose optimism and self esteem.

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• 2. Bipolar Disorders swings between ups and
  downs -- mania and depression.
• Used to be called manic depression.
• Causes 80-90 of the time, they disappear by
  themselves within six months. However, they
  usually reoccur.
• Maybe a lifetime of loss, setbacks, poor self
  image.
• Chemical imbalance serotonin, norepinephrine.
• Possibly inherited. Depression is also
  contagious. Constantly being around people that
  are down or depressed will affect you. Vicious
  cycle.
• Combination of psychological factors, physical
  factors and chemical factors.

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Schizophrenic Disorders

• A major/serious disorganization of the thought
  process. Distorted perceptions of the world.
  Roses are red
• 4 Major Symptoms all four need not be present,
  but at least two.
• 1. Thought disorder distortion of the thinking
  process.
• 2. Hallucinating seeing or hearing things that
  are not there.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile1v0vvU-Ajw
  bok (oral hallucinations link)
• 3. Delusions inaccurate beliefs. Prophets or
  avenging angels etc.
• 4. Inappropriate emotional response no rsponse
  to something interesting. Then laugh at tragic
  events. They dont really think its funny, they
  are confused, a malfunction of the brain.
• Affects 1 of the population.

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• It almost never appears earlier than adolescence
  or early adulthood. So it is probably caused by
  a chemical imbalance.
• It may not be psychologically caused because
  psychological problems occur at any age.
• They speak in what is called word salad.
  Incoherent, no sense and often try to rhyme words.

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Types of Schizophrenia

• Catatonic schizophrenia disturbance of
  movement. Usually say very little. Wont move
  for hours.
• Paranoid Schizophrenia feelings of
  suspiciousness or the opposite grandiose
  beliefs.
• In and out of Psychotic Episodes schizophrenics
  are not out of touch with reality all of the
  time. They go in and out of episodes.
• One chemical key to schizophrenia is the
  neurotransmitter dopamine. Too much of it.
• May be genetic.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vuJOT45wXErksafety_
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Personality Disorders

• Originally called psychopaths or sociopaths.
• Inflexible and enduring patterns of behavior that
  impair ones social functioning sometimes
  coexist with one of the other psychological
  disorders, but need not involve anxiety,
  depression or loss of contact with reality.
• Typically a male whose lack of conscience becomes
  plain before the age 15, as he begins to lie,
  steal, fight or display unrestrained sexual
  behavior
• In adulthood, he may be unable to keep a job, be
  irresponsible as a spouse and parent, and be
  assaultive or otherwise criminal.

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• They may be intellectual and charming.
• Most criminals show responsible concern for their
  family and friends antisocial personalities feel
  little and fear little.
• Clip 1000 Mind of a Psychopath saved.
• No concern, guilt or anxiety.
• Drugs and/or psychological treatment do not help.
• They will want to help and cooperate, but as soon
  as theyre out, they repeat behavior.
• Manson 12
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXREnvJRkif0feature
  relatedsafety_modetruepersist_safety_mode1
• Many have a history of rough family treatment,
  abuse or neglect.