Transcript Social Psychology: Personal Perspectives (Chapter 14)

Psychological disorders
(Chapter 16)
Second Lecture Outline:
Depression
Personality Disorders
Dissociative Identity Disorder
Mood Disorders
• Unipolar depression
• 10-20% depressed
at some point in life
• multiple causes
• low self-esteem, loss
of motivation,
pessimism
• women > men
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Bipolar disorder
1% of population
genetically mediated
depressive and
manic symptoms
• mania related to
high energy and
shifts of attention
Symptoms of depression
Persistent sad, anxious, or "empty" mood
Loss of interest or pleasure in activities
Restlessness, irritability, crying
Feelings of guilt, worthlessness,
helplessness, hopelessness
Sleeping disruption, early-morning
awakening
Appetite and/or weight loss or overeating
and weight gain
Decreased energy, fatigue, feeling
"slowed down"
Thoughts of death or suicide
Difficulty concentrating, remembering, or
making decisions
Causes of Depression
• Attachment explanations: Depression results
from loss of a significant relationship
• Behavioral: Learned helplessness due to
uncontrollable punishment. Dogs.
• Cognitive: Beck’s errors in thinking
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Arbitrary inference “They hate me.”
Selective abstraction “Lawn has weeds”
Stability “I am a failure”
Lack of control: “Nothing I do will help my
situation”
Psychophysiology of
Depression
• Low levels of neurotransmitters are
linked to depression
• Drugs affect serotonin reuptake (SRIs)
• Prozac
• Mania treated with lithium carbonate:
mood-leveling drug
• Epinephrine decreased during
depression -- hormonal factors
Biological basis: NMR Scans
Who were the lambs, Clarice?
Personality Disorders
• Stable & extreme personality features that
affect happiness or adjustment
• Examples:
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Paranoid: suspicious of others
Borderline: Mood and self-image unstable
Narcissistic: Self-centred, no empathy
Histrionic: Dramatic, manipulative, shallow
Antisocial: Break law, cheat & lie, no concern for
others, lack empathy, impulsive, brain involvement
Dissociative Disorders
• Dissociative amnesia: Memory loss for
specific events or people
• Fugue: Total memory loss after stress,
relocation and starting a new life
• Dissociative Identity Disorder (MPD)
– two or more identities that coexist
– associated with child trauma such as abuse
– abused children “leave their bodies”
– hearing voices