ATC Psychology

1. ATC Psychology Chapter 15 Psychological Disorders

2. Psychopathology • Psychopathology—involves patterns of thinking and behaving that are maladaptive, disruptive, or uncomfortable either for the person affect or for others.

3. Understanding Psychological Disorders: Some Basic Issues • What is Abnormal? • There are several approaches to defining normality, but none is perfect. No behavior is universally abnormal.

4. Infrequency • Those behaviors displayed by the greatest number of people are considered normal. • Statistical infrequency considers behavior that is atypical or rare to be abnormal. • However, some behavior that is rare, such as creative genius, extraordinary language skills, or world-class athletic ability, is valued; therefore, statistical infrequency alone is not an adequate criterion.

5. Personal Suffering • Psychological problems causing distress require treatment. Because some people with disorders may not experience distress, personal suffering cannot be the only criterion for abnormality.

6. Norm Violation • People who behave in ways that are bizarre, unusual, or distributing enough to violate social norms or cultural rules are termed abnormal.

7. Behavior in Context • A Practical Approach—The context of behavior (whether behavior is bizarre, dysfunctional, or harmful), the sociocultural context in which the behavior occurs (where and when behavior occurs).

8. Behavior in Context • A Practical Approach—The consequences of behavior are all taken into consideration when judging whether behavior is abnormal. • A practical approach also considers whether behavior causes impaired functioning. • Cultures and subcultures determine which behaviors are appropriate for a given situation.

9. Explaining Psychological Disorders • For centuries people believed behavior was due to supernatural influences—action of gods or demons. Today Western cultures look to other causes to explain psychopathology.

10. Biological Factors • The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates introduced the medical model, in which he explained that psychological disorders resulted from imbalances among four humors.

11. Biological Factors • The medical model eventually evolved into the concept of mental illness. • The medical model is now termed the neurobiological model because it looks at problems in anatomy and physiology of the brain and other areas.

12. Psychological Processes • In this view, mental disorders are caused by inner turmoil or other psychological events. • Include the psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and phenomenological approaches

13. Sociocultural Context • Sociocultural explanations rely on factors such as gender and age, physical and social situations, cultural values and expectations, and historical eras. • Culture-general disorders appear in most societies, while culture-specific forms appear only in certain ones.

14. Diathesis-Stress as an Integrative Approach • According to the diathesis-stress model, genetics, early learning, and biological processes may all contribute to psychological disorders.

15. Classifying Psychological Disorders • A Classification System: DSM-IV • The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) describes each form of disorder and provides criteria for diagnosis.

16. DSM-IV • Consists of a series of evaluations on five dimensions called axes. Every person is rated on each axis. • Axis I comprises descriptive criteria of 16 major mental disorders. • Axis II contains personality disorders and mental retardation. • Axis III comprises physical conditions or disorders • Axis IV has types and levels of stress. • Axis V has a rating of the highest level of functioning.

17. DSM-IV • Neurosis, characterized by anxiety, and psychosis, whose symptoms include a break with reality, are not longer major diagnostic categories in DSM.

18. Purposes and Problems of Diagnosis • The major goals of diagnosis are to help identify appropriate treatment for clients and to accurately and consistently group patients with similar disorders so that research efforts can more easily identify underlying causes of mental illness. • Two limitations of diagnosis are validity and reliability is the degree to which different diagnosticians give the same label to one patient.

19. Anxiety Disorder • Phobia—an anxiety disorder involving a strong, irrational fear of an object or situation that should not cause such a reaction.

20. Anxiety Disorder • Specific phobias involve fear of specific physical objects, places, or activities.

21. Anxiety Disorder • Social phobias involve fear of being embarrassed by doing something impulsive, outrageous, or humiliating.

22. Anxiety Disorder • Agoraphobia is a strong fear of being separated from a safe place like home or of being trapped in a place from which escape might be difficult.

23. Generalized Anxiety Disorder • The condition called generalized anxiety disorder involves milder but long-lasting feelings of anxiety, worry, dread, or apprehension that are not focused on any particular object or situation.

24. Generalized Anxiety Disorder • Free-floating anxiety is a term sometimes used to describe the nonspecific nature of this anxiety.

25. Panic Disorder • Periodic episodes of extreme terror (panic attacks) without warning or obvious cause are characteristic of people with panic disorder.

26. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder • The persistent intrusion of thoughts or images or a compulsive need to perform certain behavior patterns are symptoms of OCD. • When the obsessive thinking or compulsive behaviors are interrupted, severe anxiety results.

27. Causes of Anxiety Disorders • Biological Factors—include abnormal levels of particular neurotransmitters, and oversensitive brainstem mechanisms.

28. Causes of Anxiety Disorders • Cognitive Factors—A person suffering from an anxiety disorder may exaggerate the danger associated with certain stimuli and underestimate his or her coping skills, causing anxiety and depression.

29. Psychological Disorders and Learning • Phobias start with distressing thoughts followed by operantly rewarded behaviors. Phobias can also be explained by classical conditioning. People may be biologically prepared to learn certain fears and avoid stimuli that had potential for harm to our evolutionary ancestors. Rare phobias may be a product of classical conditioning, but common ones such as snakes, fire, height, and insects may be due to a biological preparedness to react negatively to certain potentially hazardous things.

30. Somatoform Disorders • Somatoform Disorders are characterized by physical symptoms with no physical cause.

31. Somatoform Disorders • In conversion disorder, a person appears to be, but is actually not, functionally impaired (for example, blind, deaf, or paralyzed). • The physical symptoms often help reduce stress, and the person may seem unconcerned about them.

32. Somatoform Disorders • Hypochondriasis involves strong fears of a specific severe illness that are usually accompanied by complaints of many vague symptoms.

33. Somatoform Disorders • In somatization disorder, a person makes dramatic but vague reports about a multitude of physical problems rather than a specific illness.

34. Somatoform Disorders • Pain disorder—is characterized by severe, often constant, pain with no apparent physical cause.

35. Dissociative Disorders • Are characterized by a sudden, usually temporary, disruption in memory, consciousness, or identity.

36. Dissociative Disorders • Dissociative Fugue is characterized by sudden memory loss and the assumption of a new identity in a new locale.

37. Dissociative Disorders • In dissociative amnesia, a person has sudden memory loss without leaving home and creating a new identity.

38. Dissociative Disorders • The most dramatic and least common dissociative disorder is dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder (MPD). • Having more than one identity, each of which speaks, acts, and writes differently.

39. Dissociative Disorders • Causes • Psychodynamic theorists believe that dissociative disorders are methods of repressing (forgetting) unwanted impulses or memories. • Behavioral theorists believe that dissociative disorders are examples of learned behavior patterns that have become so discrepant that a person may feel like and be perceived as a different person from time to time.

40. Dissociative Disorders • Dissociative Identity Disorders are currently appearing more frequently in society. • Recent studies have drawn several conclusions about people displaying multiple personalities: • Many have experiences they would like to forget or avoid (such as child abuse) • Many are skilled at self-hypnosis • Most can escape trauma by creating “new personalities” to deal with stress.

41. Mood Disorders • Mood Disorders or affective disorders, are characterized by persistent extreme mood swings that are inconsistent with environmental events.

42. Depressive Disorders • Major depressive disorder involves feelings of sadness, hopelessness, inadequacy, worthlessness, and guilt that persist for long periods. • Also common are changes or disturbances of eating habits, sleep, decision making, and concentration. • In extreme cases, depressed people exhibit delusions.

43. Depressive Disorders • A more common pattern of depression is dysthymic disorder, which involves symptoms similar to those of major depressive disorder but to a lesser degree and spread out over a longer time period.

44. Suicide and Depression • Repeated bouts of depression and suicide are closely linked. • Interpersonal crises, intense feelings of frustration, anger or self-hatred, the absence of meaningful life goals, and constant exposure to stress are associated with suicide and depression. • Student populations, the elderly, and females have a higher incidence of suicide than the general population. • Those who say they are thinking about suicide are much more likely to attempt it than the general population.

45. Bipolar Disorder • Bipolar I Disorder is characterized by alternating feelings of extreme depression and mania over a period of days, weeks, or years. • It is relatively rare in comparison to major depressive disorder. • Bipolar II Disorder, which features major depressive episodes alternating with less severe manic episodes. • Cyclothymic Disorder is a slightly more common pattern of less extreme mood swings.

46. Causes of Mood Disorders • Biological Factors—altered levels and possibly dysregulation of norepinepherine and serotonin, changes in the control of stress-related hormone cortisol, abnormal biological rhythms, and genetic influences. • There is strong evidence that bipolar disorders may be inherited.

47. Causes of Mood Disorders • Behavioral theorists believe that people become depressed when they lose important reinforcements. • Learned helplessness can also be a causative factor in depression.

48. Causes of Mood Disorders • Psychological Factors—Traditional psychodynamic theorists believe that people with strong dependency needs turn inward the feelings of worthlessness, guilt, and blame that are really meant for others.

49. Causes of Mood Disorders • Cognitive theorists believe that negative mental habits (such as focusing on and exaggerating the dark side of events and being generally pessimistic) and attributional style can lead to depression.

50. Schizophrenia • Schizophrenia symptoms include severely disturbed thinking, emotions, perception, and behavior, which impairs a person’s ability to communicate and function on a daily basis.