Abnormal Psychology

Question 0

Diagnosis

Answer 0

Identification of nature and cause of an illness

Question 1

Mental disorder

Answer 1

Normal brain functioning gone wrong

Question 2

DSM

Answer 2

Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: lists disorders+symptoms; 5th edition since 1952; 20 different classifications (neurodevelopmental disorders, bipolar and related disorders, sexual dysfunctions, dissociative disorders, personality disorders…).

Question 3

Psychiatrists

Answer 3

Medical doctors trained to specialize in mental illness; work along with clinical psychologists.

Question 4

Therapists

Answer 4

Counselors and social workers

Question 5

Anxiety disorders

Answer 5

Disruptive condition that can interfere with functioning in daily life (GAD, OCD, phobias).

Generalized anxiety disorder: 3% of Americans; excessive and uncontrollable worry that is disproportionate to circumstances; physical symptoms: fatigue, nausea, headache, trembling, insomnia; probably genetic; associated with addiction to alcohol and sedatives; amygdala involved.

Phobias: specific phobias (ophidiophobia, triskaidekaphobia, specific social anxiety); social phobia; paruresis; often understood in terms of negative classical conditioning.

OCD: obsessions: intrusive ideas and thoughts that a person cannot stop thinking about; compulsions: behaviors that are used to cope with anxiety; often ritualistic; 4th most-common psychological disorder (1 in 50 Americans); potential causes: serotonin present at abnormal levels in the brains of people with OCD; somewhat heritable.

Question 6

Panic attack

Answer 6

A period of intense fear or discomfort in which the person experiences numerous symptoms within about a ten-minute time period. Symptoms include sweating, shaking, racing heart, shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, fear of losing control…

Question 7

Panic attack

Answer 7

A period of intense fear or discomfort in which the person experiences numerous symptoms within about a ten-minute time period. Symptoms include sweating, shaking, racing heart, shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, fear of losing control…

Question 8

Major depressive syndrome

Answer 8

Mood disorder that affects 8-12% of people at some point in their lives; changes in sleep and eating patterns; loss of interest; irritability; recurrent suicidal thoughts; lasts for more than 2weeks; set off by traumatizing events; biological underpinnings; low levels of serotonin and norepinephrine; basal ganglia, hippocampus, and thalamus shaped differently; low self-esteem, general negative emotionality, tendency to blame self for bad things that happen; also associated with social isolation.

Question 9

Dysthymic disorder

Answer 9

Milder mood disorder than major depression but more long-lasting (over 2years).

Question 10

Mania

Answer 10

Mood disorder; feeling of being high, decreased need for sleep, inflated self-esteem, fast speech, general agitation; delusions, hallucinations in extreme cases.

Question 11

Bipolar disorder

Answer 11

Mood disorder characterized by episodes of both major depressive disorder and mania; more associated with suicide than depression; 3 levels from most to least extreme: bipolar disorder 1, bipolar disorder 2, cyclothymia.

Question 12

Dissociative disorders

Answer 12

General term for disorders that cause disturbances in consciousness, memory, identity, or perception; the mind dissociates itself from another part.

E.g.: dissociative amnesia, dissociative identity disorder, fugue state…

Question 13

Dissociative amnesia

Answer 13

Different from the kind of amnesia caused by injury or illness; the mind loses track of the part of itself that stores important personal information.

Retrograde amnesia: patients forget their pasts, but can form new memories.

Anterograde amnesia: patients can remember their pasts, but cannot form new memories.

Question 14

Dissociative fugue (fugue state)

Answer 14

Temporarily forgetting your personal identity (a few hours/days); once the memory’s back, memory of the fugue state is unavailable.

Question 15

Dissociative identity disorder (multiple-personality disorder)

Answer 15

Two or more personalities (usually less than 10) that cannot access each other’s memory, and the experiences undertaken by one personality are not remembered by the others (one primary + alters); relationship can occur or not between alters; thought to be caused by trauma during childhood (physical, sexual abuse), stress (environmental stressors), or insufficient nurturing.

Different physical characteristics among personalities: differences in heart rate, electrical brain activity, blood pressure, vision, asthma and allergies, sexual orientation, and even left- or right- handedness.

Question 16

Substance-related disorder

Answer 16

Heritable; high dopamine levels make individual prone to addiction; cultural norms.

Substance abuse (maladaptive pattern of use) =/= substance dependence (withdrawal symptoms)

Question 17

Schizophrenia

Answer 17

Psychotic disorder; patients lose touch with reality; differences in onset between genders not well understood; auditory hallucinations; positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions, disordered thought or speech) and negative symptoms (blunted affect, anhedonia, social withdrawal, near-catatonic state: completely unresponsive to the world, lack of motivation, alogia: stopping speaking entirely); potential causes: genetic, high levels of dopamine, larger ventricles and smaller hippocampi.

5 main types: the paranoid type, the disorganized type, the catatonic type, the undifferentiated type, the residual type.

Question 18

Eating disorders and BDD

Answer 18

Specific behaviors toward food; patients have an unrealistic sense of how much they weigh and how they look.

Body dysmorphic disorder: preoccupation with the body’s faults: body obsession+grooming compulsion; associated with depressive syndrome and suicidal thoughts; related to people seeking plastic surgery.

Anorexia: extreme measures to reduce weight, even if the weight is normal or below-normal (same with bulimia); patients take in 600/800 calories a day; consequences: no periods, kidney and heart malfunctions, dental problems, osteoporosis; doctors focus on restoring weight and treating psychological symptoms.

Bulimia: cycle of binging and purging; vomiting, abusing laxatives or exercising excessively; consequences: electrolyte imbalances, permanent damage to stomach and esophagus, tooth eroding.

Question 19

Personality disorders

Answer 19

Patterns of behavior and interpretations of experience that are stable, but different from how most people think and act.

Borderline personality disorder: everything is either all-good or all-bad and wide sings between the two; unstable relationships result.

Histrionic personality disorder: exhibits attention-seeking behavior; more concerned with getting attention and being entertaining than finding real friends.

Narcissistic personality disorder: inflated sense of self-worth; little regard for the feelings of others.

Schizoid personality disorder: socially withdrawn, cold, indifferent.

Antisocial personality disorder: charismatic manipulation, loose sense of right and wrong, no empathy for others at all (psychopaths).