disorders Flashcards
Historical explanations for abnormal behaviour:
Supernatural forces/demonic possession
Somatogenic hypothesis- general paresis
Freudian psychoanalysis (early 1900s) marked the beginning of psychological interpretations of disordered behaviour
Trephination
ancient treatment that involved chiseling a hole in the skull to allow evil spirits to escape
Medical perspective
General paresis (Somatogenic perspective)
Suggests that when an individual displays symptoms of abnormal behavior, the root cause will be found in a physical examination of the individual
Hormonal imbalance
Chemical deficiency
Brain injury
The neurological bases of abnormal behavior. (MD, Schiz.)
Psychoanalytic perspective
Abnormal behavior stems from childhood conflicts over opposing wishes regarding sex and aggression
Behavioral perspective
Looks at the rewards and punishments in the environment that determine abnormal behavior
Cognitive perspective
People’s thoughts and beliefs are a central component of abnormal behavior
The individual’s perception of reality is not what matters most. Instead, realist model of reality states that accuracy and usefulness of these appraisals should be pursued.
Humanistic perspective
Emphasizes the responsibility people have for their own behavior, even when such behavior is abnormal
Work of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
Sociocultural perspective
People’s behavior, both normal and abnormal, is shaped by the society and culture in which they live
Vulnerability-Stress Mode
modern theory stating that each of us has some degree of vulnerability for developing a psychological disorder, given sufficient stress
Vulnerability (predisposition) can be biological, environmental, or cultural
Disorder is created when a stressor is combined with a vulnerability
Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder
Characterized by temperamental outbursts grossly out of proportion to the situation - Both verbally and physically
Occurs in children between the ages of 6 and 18
Criticism: this defines a child having a temper tantrum, not adisorder
Binge eating disorder
Someone overeating 3 times in three months can be diagnosed with this disorder
Critics find new classification to be overly inclusive
Classifying Abnormal Behavior benefits
Provides a descriptive system.
Allows communication between mental health professionals of diverse backgrounds and theoretical approaches.
Enables researchers to explore the causes of a problem.
Provides a shorthand through which professionals can describe the behaviors that tend to occur together in an individual.
Classifying Abnormal Behavior -
After an initial diagnosis, mental health professionals may overlook other diagnostic possibilities.
Classifying Abnormal Behavior -
After an initial diagnosis, mental health professionals may overlook other diagnostic possibilities.
David Rosenhan (1970s
based on statement that he or she was hearing voices
Pseudo-patients acted in a normal way after that and the hospitals still diagnosed them as severely abnormal
After an initial diagnosis, mental health professionals overlook other diagnostic possibilities
The Stigma of Labeling
Placing labels on individuals powerfully influences the way mental health workers perceive and interpret their actions.
Critics of the D S M argue that labeling an individual as abnormal provides a dehumanizing, lifelong stigma.
Anxiety Disorders (1
Occurrence of anxiety without an obvious external cause that affects daily functioning
The individual may or may not be aware of the irrationality of the fear and anxiety
Major types
Phobic disorder
Panic disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder
Post-traumatic stress Disorder
Anxiety Disorders phobias
Phobias: strong and irrational fears of certain objects or situations
Agoraphobia: fear of open or public places from which escape would be difficult
Social Phobias: excessive fear of situations in which the person might be evaluated and possibly embarrassed
Specific Phobias: such as a fear of dogs, snakes, spiders, heights, etc
Social Phobia
Feeling intense anxiety about being watched and evaluated. Negatively influenced by positive and negative evaluations
High comorbidity with depression and other anxiety disorders
May be specific or generalized
Avoidance and safety behaviour- problem of substance abuse
Panic disorder
Takes the form of panic attacks lasting from a few seconds to several hours
Panic attacks
Anxiety suddenly rises to a peak
One feels a sense of impending and unavoidable doom
Agoraphobia
Fear of being in a situation in which escape is difficult and help unavailable
Fear of fear
a consequence of recurrent attacks
Generalized anxiety disorder:
Experience of long-term, persistent anxiety and worry
Free-floating anxiety
Can markedly interfere with daily functioning
Difficult to concentrate, make decisions, and remember commitments
Often accompanied by physiological symptoms such as:
Muscle tension
Headaches
Dizziness
Heart palpitations
Insomnia
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD
): a severe anxiety disorder that can occur in people who have been exposed to traumatic life events
Severe symptoms of anxiety and distress that were not present before the trauma
Reliving the trauma recurrently in flashbacks, dreams, and fantasies
Becoming numb to the world; avoiding all reminders
Experiences intense survivor guilt in instances where others were killed and the individual was somehow spared
The traumatic event:
Traumas caused by human actions (war, rape, and torture) are five times more likely than natural disasters to cause PTSD
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Obsessions: repetitive and unwelcome thoughts, images, or impulses that invade consciousness, are often abhorrent to the person, and are very difficult to dismiss or control
Compulsions: repetitive behavioural responses that can be resisted only with great difficulty
Compulsions reduce the anxiety associated with the intrusive thoughts
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder causes
Genetic factors
Overactive autonomic nervous system
Locus coruleus orverstimulated limbic system PD
Biological causes
Differences in specific brain regions
Cortical thickness-OCD
Psychological factors:
Freudian perspective-Little Hans
displacement
Obsessional neurosis
Compulsions as “undoing”
Weak defenses are the causes of anxiety and phobias
Neurotic Anxiety
occurs when unacceptable impulses threaten to overwhelm the ego’s defenses and explode into consciousness
The Role of Learning
Classically conditioned fear responses after a traumatic experience
Most phobic individuals do not report traumatic experiences
Observational learning
Operant conditioning
Motivation to reduce or escape anxiety
Negative reinforcement
Phobic avoidance.. (extinction becomes impossible)
Anxiety Disorders cognitive disorders
Maladaptive thought patterns and beliefs (the way we deal with threat)
Intrusive thoughts
Catastrophizing and looming cognitive style (Riskind et al., 2000)**.
Exaggerated misinterpretations of stimuli
The way outside world is perceived
Avoidance and safety behaviors
Sociocultural factors:
Culture-Bound Disorders: disorders that occur only in certain locales
Ataque de nervois, hikiko mori, koro,
Example: anorexia nervosa is found almost exclusively in developed countries, where being thin is a cultural obsession
Dissociative Disorders:
psychological dysfunctions characterized by the separation of different facets of a person’s personality that are normally integrated.
involve a breakdown of normal personality integration, resulting in significant alterations in memory or identity
Three forms:
Psychogenic amnesia
Psychogenic fugue
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative amnesia
a disorder in which significant, selective memory loss occurs.
Forgotten material is still present in memory but is repressed.
The term repressed memories is sometimes used.
Dissociative fugue:
a form of amnesia in which the individual leaves home suddenly and assumes a new identity.
After a period of time, they suddenly realize that they are in a strange place and forget the time spent wandering.
Dissociative Identity (Multiple Personality) Disorder
two or more separate personalities coexist in the same person
A primary (host) personality appears more often than the other (alter) personalities
May or may not know about the existence of the others
Can differ in age, gender, behaviours, etc.
Can also differ physiologically
Assessing Sanity
Assessing sanity: mental and criminal hx; structured interview and testing.
Beware of malingering
Kenneth Bianchi
“Hillside Strangler”
Four experts diagnosed him with DID
Depression:
Most feel temporary depression at some point
Typically due to a traumatic or sad event
Typically fade after the event has passed
Major depressive disorder
Severe form of depression that interferes with concentration, decision making, and sociabil
Dysthymia
a less intense form of depression that has less dramatic effects on personal and occupational functioning
More chronic and longer-lasting
Symptoms of Mania:
Person is often euphoric
Sees no limits to what he or she can accomplish (grandiosity)
Failure to consider negative consequences
Hyperactive, frantic behaviour, spending too much, mind highly active
High energy/ libido
Irritable and aggressive when questioned
Rapid speech; lessened need for sleep
Bipolar disorder
a disorder in which a person alternates between periods of euphoric feelings of mania and periods of depression.
Formerly known as manic-depressive disorder.
May occur over a few days or over a period of years.
Periods of depression are usually longer than manic periods.
Mood Disorders
Initial episode typically lasts 5-10 months without treatment
40% will not experience another episode
50% will experience a recurrence about 3 years after the initial episode
Interval between episodes tends to become shorter over the years
10% will remain chronically depressed
Manic episodes are less common but far more likely to recur
Causes of Mood Disorders
Genetic and biological factors
Psychological causes
Psychodynamic approach-Result of feelings of loss or of anger directed at oneself- depressed women study
Environmental factors
Stresses of life produce a reduction in positive reinforcers
Cognitive and emotional factors
Response to learned helplessness (Seligman)
Faulty cognitions (Aaron Beck)
Cognitive processes:
Depressive Cognitive Triad:
Negative thoughts concerning:
The world
Oneself
The future
Information processing biases (memory, attention, interpretation)
Rumination
Depression in Women
Reasons
Greater stress for women than men at certain times in life
Such as simultaneously earning a living and being the primary caregiver for her children
They are at higher risk for physical and sexual abuse
Typically earn lower wages than men
Biological factors
Neurotic disorders
Neurosis refers toa class of functional mental disorder involving distress but not delusions or hallucinations, where behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder
Psychotic Disorders
Psychotic disorders aresevere mental disorders that cause abnormal thinking and perceptions. People with psychoses lose touch with reality. Two of the main symptoms are delusions and hallucinations.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia: includes severe disturbances in thinking, speech, perception, emotion, and behaviour
Greek word for “split mind”.
A group of severe mental disorders characterized by marked disturbance of thought, withdrawal, inappropriate or flat emotions, delusions and hallucinations
Psychotic disorder - involves a loss of contact with reality, as well as bizarre behaviours and experiences
Schizophrenia (1) Characteristics
Decline from previous level of functioning
Disturbances of thought and speech
Loose associations, derailment
Echolaila, echopraxia
Formal thought disorder
Delusions (False beliefs)
Hallucinations and perceptual disorders (false sensory perceptions)
Inappropriate emotional displays (flat or inappropriate affect)
Withdrawal
Delusions
false beliefs that are sustained in the face of evidence that normally would be sufficient to destroy them
Persecution or grandeur
Erotomanic style
somatic
Schizophrenia 2 types
Positive: bizarre behaviours such as delusions, hallucinations, and disordered speech and thinking
Represent pathological extremes of normal processes
Negative: absence of normal reactions, such as a lack of emotional expression, loss of motivation, and an absence of speech
The distinction suggests two different kinds of triggers and has implications for predicting treatment outcomes.
schizophrenia time
Onset: early adulthood
Process schizophrenia: symptoms develop slowly and subtly.
Reactive schizophrenia: symptoms are sudden and conspicuous.
Schizophrenia
Negative symptoms are associated with a poorer prognosis than positive symptoms
Schizophrenia affects 1-2% of the population, but many need hospitalization
About 10% remain permanently impaired
About 65% show intermittent periods of normal functioning
About 25% recover from the disorder
schizop biologixal causes
More common in some families, suggesting genetic factors.
Some researchers suggest epigenetic factors are involved.
Epigenetics looks at the way in which genes are expressed and influenced by the environment.
Biochemical imbalances may be involved.
The dopamine hypothesis suggests it results form excess activity in areas of the brain that use dopamine.
Medication: EPSE
schizop brain
Structural abnormalities have been found in the brains of people with schizophrenia.
Reduced amounts of grey matter: Abnormal pruning process
Abnormal brain function in certain brain regions during hallucinations.
Is schizophrenia a neurodevelopmental disorder?
Mother’s exposure to an infectious disease during pregnancy (Flu epidemic).
Season of birth (more chance if you are born in winter).
Maternal malnutrition during pregnancy (Chinese major crop failure in 1960’s)
Birth complications (diminished oxygen supply)
schizop Situational causes:
Freudian explanation: Schizophrenia occurs when people regress to earlier stages of life.
Weak ego and no resources to deal with the impulses (oral)
Emotional and communication patterns of the families of people with schizophrenia.
Expressed emotion
: an interaction style characterized by high levels of criticism, hostility, and emotional intrusiveness within a family.
Social Causation Hypothesis
attributes higher prevalence to increased levels of stress that low-income people experience
Social Drift Hypothesis
as schizophrenia develops, personal and occupational functioning deteriorates, so that people drift down the socioeconomic ladder
causes of schizophrenia
Predisposition model of schizophrenia – Individuals inherit a predisposition or an inborn sensitivity to schizophrenia
If stressors are strong, and are coupled with a genetic predisposition, they result in the appearance of schizophrenia
Diathesis-stress model
Antisocial personality disorder
Individuals show no regard for the moral and ethical rules of society or the rights of others
Sometimes called a sociopathic personality
Lack guilt or anxiety about their wrongdoing
Impulsive
Lack the ability to withstand frustration
Manipulative
Deceptive
May have excellent social skills
Borderline personality disorder
Characterized by problems with
Regulating emotions and thoughts
Displaying impulsive and reckless behavior
Having unstable relationships with others
Difficulty developing a secure sense of who they are
Tend to rely on relationships with others to define their identity
Emotional volatility leads to impulsive and self-destructive behavior
Narcissistic personality disorder
Characterized by an exaggerated sense of self-importance
Expect special treatment from others
Inability to experience empathy for others
