Transcript Psychological Disorders

Psychological Disorders
Chapter 15
Psychological Disorders
• Mental processes or behavior patterns that
cause emotional distress and/or
substantial impairment in functioning
What is abnormal?
• Human behavior lies along a continuum,
from well adjusted to mal-adjusted
• Where along the continuum does behavior
become abnormal?
Criteria
• Is the behavior considered strange within
the person’s own culture?
• Does the behavior cause personal
distress?
• Is the behavior maladaptive?
• Is the person a danger to himself or to
herself?
• Is the person legally responsible for his or
her acts?
Prevalence of psychological
Disorders
• 22% of Americans are diagnosed with a
psychological disorder annually in the US
• The lifetime risk of being diagnosed with a
psychological disorder is 50%
Insanity
• A legal, not psychological term
• Means an individual is not legally
responsible for his/her behavior due to a
psychiatric illness or some other
temporary or permanent mental condition
DSM-IV/TR
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
• Lists the criteria for assigning various
diagnoses
• All psychological disorders are organized
into various categories
ANXIETY DISORDERS
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Characterized by chronic worry that is so
severe that it interferes with daily
functioning
Panic Disorder
• Characterized by recurrent, unpredictable
panic attacks of overwhelming anxiety,
fear, or terror
• During these attacks people experience
palpitations, trembling, shaking, choking or
smothering sensations, and the feeling
that they are going to die or lose their
sanity
Phobias
• There are three categories of phobias
– Agoraphobia
– Social phobia
– Specific phobia
Agoraphobia
• Fear of being in situations where escape is
impossible or help is not available in case
of incapacitating anxiety
Social Phobia
• Fear of social situations where one might
be embarrassed or humiliated by
appearing clumsy or incompetent
Specific Phobia
• A marked fear of a specific object or
situation and a catchall for all other
phobias
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders
• Characterized by obsessions (persistent,
recurring, involuntary thoughts, images, or
impulses that cause great distress) and/or
compulsions (persistent, irresistible,
irrational urges to perform an act or ritual
repeatedly)
MOOD DISORDERS
• A major depressive disorder characterized
by feelings of great sadness, despair, guilt,
worthlessness, hopelessness, and, in
extreme cases, suicidal intentions
• Lifetime rates of depression vary widely
from one culture to another
• Women are more likely to suffer from
depression than men all over the world
Bipolar Disorder
• Mood disorder in which a person suffers
from manic episodes (periods of extreme
elation, euphoria, and hyperactivity)
alternating with major depression
Proposed causes of mood
disorders
• 1. genetic predisposition
• 2. imbalance in neurotransmitters
norepinephrine and serotonin
• 3. tendency to turn hostility and
resentment inward rather than expressing
it
• 4. distorted and negative views of oneself,
the world, the future
• 5. stress
• Heredity is a major cause of mood
disorders.
• Negative thought patterns also contribute
to these disorders.
• Major life stresses may trigger a mood
disorder.
Suicide
• Depression is linked to suicide along with
other disorders.
• Elderly, white males highest rate of
suicide- perhaps due to poor health or
loneliness
• Women more likely to attempt, men more
likely to be successful
• Asian Americans have the lowest rate of
all US ethnic groups
SCHIZOPHRENIA
• Positive symptoms: abnormal behaviors
and characteristics- hallucinations,
disorganized thinking, delusions,
disorganized speech, bizarre behavior,
inappropriate affect
• Negative symptoms: social withdrawal,
apathy, loss of motivation, very limited
speech, slowed movements, flat affect,
poor hygiene and grooming
4 types of schizophrenia
•
•
•
•
Paranoid
Disorganized
Catatonic
Undifferentiated
Risk factors
• Genetic predisposition
• Stress in people who are predisposed
• Excessive dopamine activity in the brain
SOMATOFORM AND
DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS
• Involve bodily symptoms that cannot be
identified as any of the known medical
conditions
Hypochondriasis
• Persistent fear that bodily symptoms are
the signs of some serious disease
Conversion disorder
• Loss of motor or sensory functioning in
some part of the body, such as paralysis
or blindness
Dissociative amnesia
• Loss of memory for limited periods of their
life or for their entire personal identity
Dissociative fugue disorder
• People forget their entire identity, travel
away form home, may assume new
identity somewhere else
Dissociative identity disorder
• Multiple personality
• Two or more distinct, unique personalities
occur in the same person, each taking
over at different times
• Most patients are female and victims of
early, severe physical and/or sexual abuse
Other Psychological Disorders
• Gender identity disorder: people feel their
psychological gender identity is different form
that which is typically associated with their
biological sex
• Paraphilias:sufferers have recurrent sexual
urges, fantasies, and behaviors that involve
children, other non-consenting partner, or nonhuman objects
• Sexual dysfunction: a problem with sexual
desire, arousal, orgasm
3 Clusters of Personality Disorders
• People with personality disorders have
long-standing, inflexible, maladaptive
patterns of behavior that cause problems
in social relationships at work
• Often cause personal distress
• Many are unable to change and always
blame others for their problems
continued
• Cluster A: characterized by odd behavior
• Cluster B: erratic emotions and overly
dramatic behavior
• Cluster C: disorders associated with
extreme levels of fearfulness and anxiety