Transcript Psychological Disorders

PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION
Sixth Edition
by
Karen Huffman
PowerPoint  Lecture Notes Presentation
Chapter 14
Psychological Disorders
Paul J. Wellman
Texas A&M University
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Lecture Overview
• Issues in Identifying Psychological
Disorders
• Anxiety Disorders
• Schizophrenia
• Mood Disorders
• Other Disorders
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Abnormal Behavior
• Behavior is abnormal with regard to
– Statistical infrequency: how does the frequency of
the behavior compare to others in the culture?
– Disability of dysfunction: Person is abnormal if
their behavior interferes with their daily lives
– Personal distress: Is the person unhappy about
their behavior?
– Violation of norms: A behavior is abnormal if it
differs from social norms
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Statistical Issues in
Abnormality
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Culture-Bound Disorders
• An issue is the extent to which mental
disorders are similar across cultures
• In some instances, there are culture-specific
disorders
– Running Amok: syndrome evident in Thai culture in
which a person becomes wildly aggressive,
thereby injuring others
– Brain Fog: syndrome evident in West Africa in
which schooling produces excessive mental and
physical tiredness
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Culture-General Issues
• Other issues are found across cultures:
– Nervous
– Feel apart, alone
– Trouble sleeping
– Can’t get along
– Can’t do anything
– Nothing turns out right
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Weak all over
Worry all the time
Personal worries
Low spirits
Restless
Hot all over
Explanations of Abnormality
• Demonology assumes that evil spirits reside
within a person
– Trephining: open the skull to let the spirit out
• Medical Model assumes that abnormal
behaviors reflect mental or physical illness
– Treatment of abnormality would take place in a
hospital setting (e.g. mental hospital)
– Treatments would be administered by a physician
(Psychiatrist)
– Medical model looks for symptoms and signs of
disorder; leads to development of a classification
system (DSM system)
– Treatments often involve drugs
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Diagnoses
• Mental illness, like physical illness, will
have different causes, have different
symptoms, and should lead to different
treatments
• The medical model requires a diagnostic
system to sort symptoms, so as to arrive
at a differential diagnosis
– Psychiatry has devised the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Anxiety Disorders
• Symptoms of anxiety include rapid
breathing, dry mouth, and increased heart
rate
• Anxiety disorders include:
– Generalized Anxiety Disorder refers to longlasting anxiety that is not focused on an object
or situation (unspecific or free-floating)
– Panic Disorder refers to brief but intense
bouts of anxiety
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
– Phobias are strong irrational fears of objects
or of situations
• Specific phobias are tied to objects (knives)
• Social phobias are tied to situations (stage fright)
– Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is
characterized by diffuse anxiety related to
recurring thoughts and images (obsessions).
• Compulsions are impulses to exert some action
(e.g. hand-washing)
– Posttraumatic Stress Disorder refers to
anxiety related to suffering a traumatic event
(disaster, assault, war)
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Causes of Anxiety Disorders
• Learning perspective argues that phobias
are the result of learning/conditioning
– Classical conditioning
• Specific objects are paired with a frightening event
• The object can then elicit fear
• Phobias endure because the person avoids the
feared stimulus and thus cannot extinguish the
fear
– Operant conditioning: the person reduces
their anxiety by avoiding the feared object
– Social learning (observation and modeling)
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Phobia Conditioning
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
• Biological perspectives on anxiety
disorders:
– Evolutionary argument that we are
predisposed to fear what our ancestors
feared
– Altered biochemistry in brain contributes to
anxiety disorder
• Cognitive processes: focus is on distortions
of thinking
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Schizophrenia
• Psychosis refers to a general lack of contact
with reality
• Schizophrenia is a form of psychosis involving
disorders of perception, language, thought,
emotion, and behavior
– Prevalence of schizophrenia is 1 in 100
– Schizophrenia rarely emerges after age 45
– Schizophrenia is a severe disorder that accounts for
half of all admissions to mental hospitals
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Schizophrenia Symptoms
• Perceptual Symptoms
– Sensory filtering and perception is impaired
– Hallucinations are perceptions without
sensations
• Language and Thought Disturbance
– Word salad: jumbled speech
– Delusions are mistaken beliefs that are
maintained despite contrary evidence
• Paranoid: others are talking about the person
• Persecution: others are out to get the person
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
• Emotional Disturbance
– Emotional affect in schizophrenia can be
enhanced or flattened (no affect)
• Behavioral Disturbance
– Unusual actions that have meaning to the
person
• Shaking their head to clear out bad thoughts…
– Catalepsy refers to an immobile stance that
can be held for hours (like a statue)
– Refusal to communicate with others
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Classification of Schizophrenia
• Positive symptoms involve distorted or
excessive mental activity
– Delusions, hallucinations,altered emotions, erratic
behaviors
– Positive symptoms occur during acute episodes
• Negative symptoms involve behavioral and
mental deficits
– Flattened emotions, social withdrawal
– Negative symptoms are chronic (long-term) and
may not respond well to drug treatment
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Biological Views of Schizophrenia
• Genetics: identical twins are more similar in
regard to schizophrenia than are fraternal twins
(43 to 83 % concordance)
– Much higher than siblings (9% concordance)
• Neurotransmitters: Dopamine activity is
excessive in the schizophrenic brain
– Drugs that relieve schizophrenia block dopamine
receptors
• Brain damage: enlarged ventricles are evident
in schizophrenia
• Drug actions: positive and negative symptoms
of schizophrenia are induced by ketamine
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Heritability of Schizophrenia
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Schizophrenia Issues
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Mood Disorders
• Mood Disorders are characterized by
extreme disturbances in emotional states
– Major Depressive Disorder refers to
prolonged intensely reduced mood without
an obvious cause
• Interferes with ability to function and to enjoy life
– Bipolar Disorder refers to alternating state of
reduced mood (depression) and mania
(increased mood)
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Causes of Mood Disorders
• Biological causes
– Variations in brain transmitters norepinephrine and
serotonin
– Abnormal function in frontal cortex
• Psychosocial causes: learned helplessness
theory suggests that depression results from a
history of being unable to control or escape
from aversive events
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Myths of Suicide
• People who talk about suicide are
unlikely to commit suicide
• Suicides usually do not warn others
• Suicidal persons are fully committed to
dying
• Men and women are equally likely to
commit suicide
• Only depressed people commit suicide
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Copyright
Copyright 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York,
NY. All rights reserved. No part of the material protected
by this copyright may be reproduced or utilized in any
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storage and retrieval system, without written permission
of the copyright owner.
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E