exam 4: abnormal psychology

Question 1

reasons for people’s fascinations with psychological disorders (2)

Answer 1

fear of the unknown; cognitive dissonance reduction

Question 2

psychological disorders

Answer 2

ongoing patterns of thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors that are deviant, distressful, and/or dysfunctional

Question 3

deviancy

Answer 3

abnormality/non-normality; can vary by context, culture, and time

Question 4

distress and dysfunction

Answer 4

• distress: psychologically-disturbed people experience anxiety around their behavior
• dysfunction: people with psychological disturbances have problems in daily life functioning because of their behavior

Question 5

early explanations and treatments for disorders

Answer 5

• explanations: strange forces were responsible for abnormal behavior (i.e. celestial bodies, godlike powers, evil spirits); such explanations sometimes lead to heinous treatments in an attempt to cure
• treatments: people with mental disturbances were beaten, burned, and castrated all in attempts to cure; some had holes drilled in their head, teeth were pulled, and some had transfusions with animal blood

Question 6

the medical model for psychological disorders

Answer 6

Psychological disturbances have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and cured through medical intercessions. They are considered to be sicknesses of the mind that arise from things like stress and inhumane conditions.

Question 7

the biopsychosocial approach to psychological disorders

Answer 7

Today, psychologists recognize the importance of both nature and nurture in the etiology of psychopathology. Genes and the environment are implicated as causes for mental disturbances, along with social and culture influences.

Question 8

DSM-V

Answer 8

the guiding text for the organization and classification of psychopathology

Question 9

generalized anxiety disorder (definition and symptoms)

Answer 9

• definition: marked by unexplainable and continual tension
• symptoms: very commonplace disregarding their persistence; continual worry (not linked to anything particular), jitteriness, agitation, sleep deprivation, difficulty with concentration, depressed mood; more common among women (67%) than among men (33%)

Question 10

panic disorder (definition and symptoms)

Answer 10

• definition: marked by sudden, intense dread; so-called “normal anxiety” quickly erupts into a terrifying panic attack
• symptoms: intense fear that something catastrophic is going to happen; heart palpitations, shortness of breath, choking sensation, trembling, dizziness (vertigo)

Question 11

phobias (definition and symptoms)

Answer 11

• definition: intense, irrational fears of an object, activity, or situation; often do not have a specific trigger or cause
• symptoms: tend to incapacitate the person because the feared stimulus must be avoided (fears of commonplace may have had an evolutionary advantage to avoid threatening situations and tend to not incapacitate the person)

Question 12

obsessive-compulsive disorder (definition and symptoms)

Answer 12

• definition: repetitive thoughts or actions
• symptoms: persistent thoughts that interfere with daily life and cause the person distress

Question 13

post-traumatic stress disorder (definition and symptoms)

Answer 13

• definition: lingering memories following a threatening, uncontrollable event
• symptoms: haunting memories and nightmares, social withdrawal, anxiety, insomnia

Question 14

the learning perspective of psychological disorders (fear conditioning through reinforcement and stimulus generalization, observational learning)

Answer 14

• fear conditioning: Anxiety often develops following exposure to unpredictable, uncontrollable negative life events. (two processes)
• reinforcement: When we encounter a feared stimulus, we might feel anxious. In avoiding the feared stimulus, we reduce our anxiety. As a result, the avoided behavior gets reinforced and is more likely to reoccur.
• stimulus generalization: Once a person has developed a phobia of a specific object, anxiety may generalize to other similar objects.
• observational learning: How we see others respond to stimuli matters (especially when we are children).

Question 15

the biological perspective of psychological disorders (genes and the brain, natural selection)

Answer 15

• genes and the brain: Some people, genetically and/or neuroanatomically, are more predisposed than others to anxiety.
• natural selection: People are biologically predisposed to fear-threatening stimuli that were faced by our evolutionary ancestors. These fears, because they are evolutionarily derived, are easy to condition and difficult to extinguish.

Question 16

somatoform disorders (hypochondriasis and conversion disorder)

Answer 16

• somatoform disorders: psychological disorders in which the symptoms are somatic (bodily); not in our thoughts, feelings, or behaviors but in our bodies; have no apparent physical cause (two broad categories)
• hypochondriasis: a somatoform disorder in which people interpret normal physical sensations as symptoms of a dreaded physical disease; people convince themselves that there is something really wrong with them; the symptoms are real but the causes are psychological
• conversion disorder: a rare somatoform disorder in which the person experiences genuine, specific physical symptoms without a physiological cause

Question 17

dissociative disorders (definition)

Answer 17

disorders of consciousness marked by serious long-term gaps in memory; to cope with past stressful situations, a person is said to dissociate to separate from painful memories, thoughts, and feelings; people mentally erase unwanted parts of their life from memory

Question 18

amnesia

Answer 18

a type of dissociative disorder; a partial or complete loss of self- relevant (not procedural) memories; can last from varying periods of time; may be caused by physical trauma or by intoxication; most common dissociative disorder

Question 19

fugue states

Answer 19

a type of dissociative disorder that involves lapses of memory that are more extensive than amnesia; in extreme cases, people may forget their name, wander from home, take on a new identity, find a new spouse, get a new job, and start a new life; can last from a couple of hours to several years

Question 20

dissociative identity disorder

Answer 20

a type of dissociative disorder; an extremely rare condition in which a person displays two or more distinct (unique) personalities that alternately control the central person and tend to have their own voice, pattern of speech, mannerisms, habits, memories, sexual orientation, style of dress, pattern of handwriting, and physical characteristics (brainwave patterns, blood pressure ratings, eyeglass prescription, reactions to medicine); the original personality oftentimes denies the awareness of others

Question 21

facts about dissociative identity disorder (2)

Answer 21

highly skewed toward females (9 times more prevalent in women); typically preceded by a history of repeated abuse that begins at an early age and tends to be at the hands of people who ought to be caring for the child the most

Question 22

the case of Jonah (Jonah, Usoffah Abdulla, Sammy, King Young)

Answer 22

• Jonah: the square (central personality) that was like a dud (nothing unique); had 3 alter egos that had different patterns of brainwave activity and of physiological arousal
• Usoffah Abdulla: known as the warrior (got into fights); had knowledge of the other personalities; developed when Jonah was about the age of 9 or 10 after a gang of white boys attacked Jonah
• Sammy: the mediator (calmed down the situation); had access to the other alters and to the central personality; was the first alter ego to form (at about the age of 6) when Jonah witnessed his mother stabbing his father to death
• King Young: the lover (ladies couldn’t resist); had access to the other personalities as well as Jonah; developed a year or two after Sammy when his mother dressed Jonah up in girls’ clothes and sent him to school

Question 23

major depressive disorder

Answer 23

a mood disorder characterized by deep sadness and despair; person is plagued by hopelessness and lethargy that profoundly impairs the person’s ability to function; symptoms must persist for at least two weeks and not be caused by drugs or other medical conditions

Question 24

warning signs of depression (5)

Answer 24

diminished pleasure or interest in things that are typically joys; intense feelings of worthlessness, guilty, and self-blame; restlessness and agitation; fatigue and a lack of energy; recurring thoughts of death and suicide

Question 25

bipolar disorder and mania (psychological benefits and downsides and social benefits)

Answer 25

• bipolar disorder: characterized by uncontrollable fluctuations between states of depression and mania; euphoric overactive state (mania) that lasts from several days to months
• mania: quite exhilarating in a mild form
• psychological benefits: boundless energy, high self-esteem and self-confidence
• social benefits: tend to be quite entertaining, witty, imaginative, filled with ambitious and creative schemes
• psychological effects: happen when the highs become too high; easily distracted, the person stays awake at night, extremely sensitive to stimulation (because of overstimulation in the brain), may harbor illusions of grandeur, followed by a deep dive into depression

Question 26

the biological perspective of mood disorders (genetic influences, the depressed brain, neurotransmitters)

Answer 26

• genetic influences: Mood disorders tend to run in families. The heritability of major depression is about 35 to 40 percent.
• the depressed brain: During depressive states, there is less activity in the brain. The left prefrontal cortex (responsible for pleasant emotions) is more or less dormant/inactive during major states of depression. Conversely, there is much more activity in the brain during states of mania.
• neurotransmitters: norepinephrine increases arousal and boosts mood; scarce during periods of depression in the brain; overabundant during periods of mania; serotonin is scarce in the brain during periods of depression

Question 27

the social-cognitive perspective of mood disorders (definition, rumination, pessimism, negative explanatory style)

Answer 27

• definition: how we think and behave contributes to our psychological experiences
• rumination: people with depression tend to ruminate on failure (failure can be defined in many ways)
• pessimism: people with depression tend to have a pessimistic outlook on life
• negative explanatory style: people with depression tend to interpret failure events with a negative explanatory style (internal, gullible, stable styles of attribution)

Question 28

schizophrenia (definition)

Answer 28

a most dreaded disorder; affects about 1 in 100 people; translates literally as “split mind;” does not refer to multiple personalities, rather, it refers to a split from reality; manifests as disorganized thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions

Question 29

schizophrenia symptoms (5)

Answer 29

incoherent thinking, delusions (of influence, grandeur, reference, persecution), hallucinations, disturbance of affect, bizarre behavior

Question 30

schizophrenia symptoms (incoherent thinking, delusions (of influence, grandeur, reference, persecution), hallucinations, disturbance of affect, bizarre behavior)

Answer 30

• incoherent thinking: may be mentally disorganized and confused; seems to be on a different wavelength; tends to be most evident in speech; word salad (drifts illogically from one topic to another and may involve invented words)
• delusions: persistent false beliefs
• delusions of influence: one’s thoughts are being broadcast in public, stolen from one’s mind, or controlled by evil (malevolent) forces
• delusions of grandeur: one is famous (or ought to be famous) or powerful (capable of controlling the weather, planets, other people)
• delusions of reference: The belief that one is the primary recipient of others’ actions
• delusions of persecution: one is the target of secret plots by others
• hallucinations: sensory experiences that occur without actual sensory stimulation
• disturbance of affect: some people might have what’s called “flattened affect,” meaning they may sit still for hours, wear a blank expression on their faces, speak in a low monotonic voice, avoid eye contact, and show little concern or interest in much of anything; others may express emotions in ways that are highly animated, overly exaggerated, or inappropriate to the situation
• bizarre behavior: people might withdraw socially, go into social exile, and/or cease to function effectively at work; may talk to themselves, repeat like parrots what others say to them, spend hours in statue-like poses (catatonia), walk backward or in circles, or take their clothes off in public

Question 31

schizophrenia brain abnormalities (dopamine over-activity, abnormal brain activity)

Answer 31

• dopamine over-activity: The brains of deceased patients with schizophrenia have a six-fold excess of receptors for dopamine (too much dopamine in the brain). This excess may create symptoms such as hallucinations and paranoia.
• abnormal brain activity: People with schizophrenia have low activity in the frontal lobes (responsible for planning, coordination of planning, coherence of thought). Things like reasoning, planning, and problem-solving are functionally affected and deficient with that low brain activity in the frontal lobes.

Question 32

schizophrenia genetic and psychological factors (diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia)

Answer 32

• genetic factors: There is a strong genetic basis for schizophrenia (1/10 of fraternal twins and 1/2 of identical twins if their twin has it)
• diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia: There is a genetic component to schizophrenia, but a genetic vulnerability is not enough to produce schizophrenia. Social factors also must be present.

Question 33

precursors to (3), and warning signs of (5), schizophrenia

Answer 33

precursors: having a mother whose own schizophrenia was severe and long-lasting, birth complications (low birth weight, being oxygen-deprived), early separation from one’s parents
- warning signs: short attention span, poor muscle coordination, having behaviors that are disruptive and withdrawn from others, being emotionally unpredictable, having poor peer relations or engaging in solo play

Question 34

personality disorders

Answer 34

marked by maladaptive behavior and, more importantly, high inflexibility (not changing); people are typically not anxious, depressed, or confused, nor have they lost touch with reality; trapped in their own rigid, self-defeating patterns of behavior that begin in adolescence and typically become rigid by adulthood; mostly have no motivation to change

Question 35

less common personality disorders (schizoid, obsessive-compulsive, paranoid, histrionic, narcissistic, avoidant)

Answer 35

• schizoid: isolated and emotionally detached
• obsessive-compulsive: perfectionistic
• paranoid: highly sensitive and suspicious of others
• histrionic: melodramatic and seeking of others’ attention
• narcissistic: entirely self-centered and ego-inflated
• avoidant: very strong fear of rejection

Question 36

borderline personality disorder (definition and symptoms)

Answer 36

• definition: a personality disorder that involves a pervasive lack of identity and impulsivity; 66% women, 33% men
• symptoms: unstable self-image, moods, and social relationships; who they are and how they feel tends to vary with the passage of time; uncertainty about who one is (i.e. values); complaint about feeling empty and bored and about being left alone; clingy but tends to have relationships that are rocky and stormy (transient and fleeting); impulsivity

Question 37

antisocial personality disorder (in adolescents vs adults)

Answer 37

• adolescents: skip school, run away from home, set fires, harm animals, steal, cheat, get into fights (signs are typically found in men and typically emerge in adolescence)
• adults: pattern of deviancy becomes more rigid and is bumped up a notch; may behave irresponsibly toward their spouse or parent (steal money, abuse); drive recklessly, drink excessively, behave unlawfully