Lecture 14: Psychological Disorders Flashcards
Psychological Disorders
Ongoing patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions (doesn’t need to be all three components) that are:
Deviant Distressful and Dysfunctional
Discuss Psychological Disorders touching base on fascinations, culture, and trends
People tend to be fascinated by anything exceptional, abnormal or unusual
Rates and symptoms of psychological disorders vary by culture
Standards for what is deemed as deviant are based on culture and time context
There is no known society where there aren’t people who suffer from schizophrenia and depression
Medical Model
Focus is on genetic abnormalities in brain structure and biochemistry
Psychological disorders have physical causes that can be diagnosed and treated (like the way your brain is structured)
Acknowledge that psychological factors like trauma and stress play a role
Biopsychosocial Approach
Mental illness denotes a sickness that must be found and cured (thought of as something that can be stopped or easy to obey)
in addition there might be an issue in the persons environment, interpretation of events, habits, social skills, etc.
Believe all behavior is normal and abnormal arising from interactions between nature and nurture
Negative emotions contribute to illness
Classification of Disorders aims to ?
- Describe the disorder
- Predict the disorders future course
- Identify appropriate treatment
- Stimulate research to identify causes
Define DSM-5 and what it outlines
Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; outlines the classification system
What does Classification lead to?
Classification creates pre-perceptions which leads to labeling and by extension leads to stigma
David Rosenhan experiment ADD MORE
David Rosenhan a psychologist, and 7 of his colleagues were curious about the bias of labels.
lied on two questions answered the rest truthfully and were then hospitalized for 19 days misdiagnosed.
This experiment highlighted the detriments of labeling. One you fix a label its hard to see beyond that label.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Unexplainably and continually tense and uneasy
Symptoms might seem commonplace, their persistence is not (ex: excessive worry that goes on for long periods of time; gittery agitated and sleep deprived)
Difficult to identify the cause —> avoid removing the cause?
More common in women
Rare past age 50
Panic Disorder
Sudden episodes of intense dread
Anxiety escalates into a panic attack
Strikes suddenly wreaks havoc, and disappears leaving its mark
panic attacks misdiagnosed as a heart attacks or physical illnesses
Prevalence is high ?
Smokers are at higher risk because nicotine is a stimulant that intensifies symptoms
Phobias
irrationally and intensely of a specific object or situation
irrational fear that causes the person to avoid the stimulus that causes the fear
Not all phobias have specific triggers
Common forms include:
1. Claustrophobia (fear of closed space),
2. Acrophobia (fear of heights),
3. Hydrophobia (fear of water),
4. Agoraphobia (fear of being in a situation where escape might be hard).
Social Phobia is shyness taken to the extreme
YOU CAN HAVE PHOBIA WITHOUT THE DISORDER
Obsessive-Compulsive disorder
Troubled by repetitive thoughts or actions
persistently interferes with everyday living and causes distress
2%-3% of the population develop OCD (usually teens and early 20’s)
obsessive thoughts that wont go away
These behaviors occur to try and calm obsessive thoughts which just reinforces disordered behavior
ex: washing hands so frequent that your skin starts to break
or checking if the door is locked multiple times within a 5 minute time span
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Lingering Memories, nightmares etc. for weeks after a severely threatening, uncontrollable event
re-experiencing the event after it has long passed. Avoiding stimuli, difficulty concentrated symptoms must last at least a month
7% of the population has suffered from PTSD
Common among war veterans and those who are survivors of accidents disasters and violent and sexual assaults
the greater ones emotional distress the higher the risk for PTSD symptoms
Some PTSD symptoms might be genetically predisposed
Etiology of Anxiety Disorders
what can anxiety disorders be attributed to and where do they stem from
anxiety affects how we feel and think
froyed argues from repressed memories signals etc.
Learning Perspective:
_____________
_____________ _____________
two different ways of understanding how we learn to respond to anxiety
Conditioning: through conditioning the short list of naturally frightening events can multiply into a long list of human fears.
- stimulus generalization
ex: child bit by pit-bull running in park–> overgeneralize fear to all dogs - reinforcement maintains phobias and compulsions. Avoiding situations will reduce feeling but reinforces behavior of escaping to reduce anxiety feelings
Observational Learning : by observing others fears we learn to fear certain things
- ex: parents react to certain situations with feelings of anxiety we are likely to become fearful in similar ways
Biological Perspective
__________ _____________
____________
why are some people more vulnerable than others?
This perspective believes there is more to anxiety than conditioning and observational learning
Seeks to help uncover why few people develop lasting phobias and while others do not
Natural Selection: fear things that were life threatening to ancestors. Might not apply to us but as though imprinted on our DNA we fear them ex: fears of animals closed spaces heights and darkness, storms
Genetics: argue generally that some people are more predisposed to anxiety than others
“anxiety gene” than effects serotonin
serotonin production levels = important relevance with anxiety
Dissociative Disorders
1.) _______ ________
2.) ______ _________
3.)____ ______ _____
Conscious awareness becomes separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings
1.) Dissociative amnesia: Sudden loss of memory for important personal information, that is too extensive to be due to normal forgetting
–> in other words– missing some aspects
2.) Dissociative Fugue: Loss of memory for ones entire life, along with sense of personal identity
–> NOT PERMANANT
—>do not know who you are
3.) Dissociative Identity Disorder: Exhibiting two or more distinct and alternating personalities (usually after an extremely traumatic event in ones life)
Mood Disorders Come in 2 main forms:
1.)
2.)
1.) Major Depressive Disorder: Prolonged feelings of hopelessness; lethargy
2.) Bipolar Disorder: Alternates between depression and mania or a person in a state of mania
True or False: depression is the number one reason people seek mental health services
True
Major Depressive Disorder occurs when at least 5 signs of depression last for 2 or more weeks
Depressed mood
Diminished Interest in Pleasure
Significant weight loss or gain
Changes in appetite
Insomnia
Fatigue
Feelings of worthlessness
Diminished ability to think
Suicidal ideations
Bipolar Disorder:
During the manic phase the individual is…
is a mood disorder in which an individual alternates between depression and mania
Over-talkative
Overactive
Elated (super excited and happy)
Little need for sleep
Few sexual inhibitions
Irritated by advice (view most suggestions as unwanted advice even if they might need it )
True or False: men and women are equally impacted by Bipolar Disorder
Biological Perspective: Mood disorders
_______ ________
________ _________
Genetic Influences : Research demonstrated that mood disorders run in families
–> Ex: in identical twins if one has depression chances are 1 in 2 that the other twin will also develop it
with bipolar disorder, in identical twins, there is a 70% chance other will have Bipolar disorder if one has it; In fraternal its 2 in 10
Adopted individuals often have a close biological relative who suffers from the same mood disorder
Depressed Brain: tends to be less brain activity during depressed states and increased brain activity during manic states. Left frontal lobe active when experience positive emotions = likely to be inactive when in period of major depression. Two neurotransmitters play a role in mood disorders norepinephrine = scarce and overabundant amount in mania serotonin also scare during depression and
Social Cognitive Perspective
________ _________ ________
__________ _____________ _________
Self-Defeating Beliefs: shame for personal limitations vs shame for letting down others
Negative Explanatory Style: who or what we blame for our everyday behaviors
- (externalize the blame –> strong emotions of anger or associate with i’m not smart enough good enough capable/self blaming –> more likely to feel depressed)
