Week 5: Psychological Disorders Part 1 Flashcards
Judgement of Abnormality (Three Ds)
- Distressing to self or others
- Dysfunctional for person or society
- Deviant: violates social norms
Abnormal Behaviour
Behaviour that is personally distressing, personally dysfunctional and/or so culturally deviant that other people judge it to be inappropriate or maladaptive.
Vulnerability-stress model
Each of us has some degree of vulnerability (ranging from very low to very high) for developing a psychological disorder, given sufficient stress.
The vulnerability, or predisposition, can have a biological basis, be due to a personality factor, previous environmental and social factors, or cultural factors.
Four components of Anxiety Components
(1) a subjective-emotional component
(2) a cognitive component
(3) physiological responses
(4) behavioural responses
Anxiety disorders
Where the frequency and intensity of anxiety responses are out of proportion to the situations that trigger them
Phobic disorders
Phobias are strong and irrational fears of certain objects or situations.
Agoraphobia involves an excessive fear of situations such as using public transport, being in a crowd or being outside the home. The individual fears these situations because they believe that escape would be difficult, or help unavailable if panic-like symptoms or other distressing, embarrassing or incapacitating events were to occur
Social phobia fear social situations in which they may be negatively evaluated by others.
Specific phobias are characterised by an intense fear of a specific object or situation
Panic disorder
The symptoms of panic disorder occur suddenly and unpredictably, and they are much more intense.
Panic attacks may occur in many anxiety disorders and other mental disorders.
The panic attacks can occur predictably, in the presence of the fear object
Unexpected panic attacks are then followed by psychological or behavioural problems, such as persistent, intense worry and fear about experiencing further panic attacks, and/or behavioural changes aimed at reducing the likelihood of their occurrence
Generalised anxiety disorder
A chronic (ongoing) state of diffuse, or free-floating, anxiety and worry that is not attached to specific situations or objects.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Individuals with these disorders feel compelled to act in a rigid, repetitive way to reduce their anxiety or distress
Obsessions are 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 are repetitive behavioural responses that can be resisted only with great difficulty.
Post-traumatic stress disorder
PTSD is now listed separately from anxiety disorders, grouped together with other trauma and stress-related disorders.
PTSD is a severe disorder that can occur in people who have been exposed to traumatic life events
PTSD may increase vulnerability to the subsequent development of other disorders.
Causal factors in anxiety and related disorders
- Biological factors
- Psychological factors - The role of learning From the behavioural perspective, classical conditioning,
observational learning or operant conditioning can all contribute to the development of an
anxiety disorder. - Cognitive factors
-Sociocultural factors -> culture-bound disorders
Somatic symptom and related disorders
involve physical complaints or disabilities that suggest a medical problem but which do not always have a known biological cause and are not produced voluntarily by the person.
Example: Conversion disorder , in which serious neurological symptoms, such as paralysis, loss of sensation or blindness, suddenly occur
Dissociative disorders
Dissociative disorders involve a breakdown of normal personality integration, resulting in significant alterations in memory or identity.
Three forms that such disorders can take are dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue and dissociative
identity disorder.
In dissociative amnesia , a person responds to a stressful event with extensive but selective
memory loss.
Dissociative fugue , where a person loses all sense of personal identity, gives up her or his customary life, wanders to a new faraway location and establishes a new identity.
In dissociative identity disorder (DID) (formerly called multiple personality disorder), two or more separate personalities coexist in the same person. -> Caused potentially by trauma-dissociation theory , the development of new personalities occurs in response to severe stress
