Transcript March9
Abnormal Psychology (Chapter
18)
Lecture Outline:
“Abnormality”
Diagnosis
Anxiety Disorders
Abnormality
• Behavior is statistically unusual,
nonadaptive, labeled “abnormal”, or has
perceptual/cognitive distortion
• Historical examples of abnormal
behavior:
– psychosis: demon possession, syphillis
– mentally retarded individuals & midgets
were “court-jesters”
– Salem witch trials: girls may have ingested
Models of abnormality
• Psychodynamic: Intrapsychic conflict
– e.g., sexual abuse and conversion disorder
• Humanistic: Oversensitivity to others
– e.g., alcoholism for social anxiety
• Behavioral: Reinforcement/Punishment
– e.g., snake bite leads to snake phobia
• Cognitive: Distorted thinking
– e.g., negative thoughts and depression
• Medical: Physiological imbalance
Diagnosis: DSM-IV
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th
Ed. (APA, 1994)
• Axis I: Clinical syndromes/ Mental
disorders
• Axis II: Personality and Disorders
• Axis III: General Medical Conditions
• Axis IV: Psychosocial and
Environmental Problems
• Axis V: GAF Scale (1:low to 100:high)
Anxiety Disorders
• Symptoms of anxiety:
– Mood: tension, apprehension and panic
– Cognitive: catastrophe, concentration
– Somatic: Sweat, pulse, dizzy, pounding
– Motor: Tics, bite nails, pace, fidget
• Case examples of clients with anxiety
disorders, with emphasis on panic
disorder (video #92)
Specific kinds of anxiety
disorders
• Phobias: Simple, social, and
agoraphobia
• Panic Disorder: Bouts of intense and
uncontrollable anxiety
• Generalized anxiety disorder: Chronic
• Stress Disorder: PTSD
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
– obsession: unwanted impulses or thoughts
– compulsion: uncontrolled repetitive act
Diversity of anxiety
• Examples of cases of anxiety from the
National Institute of Mental Health
– http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/anxiety.
htm#anx4
Etiology (Cause) of Anxiety
• Psychodynamic: External threats
– guilt after id-superego struggle
• Learning theory: Classical conditioning
– sexual anxiety after unprotected sex
• Cognitive: Anxious cognitions
– public speaking catastrophes
• Humanistic-Existential: “A” gets a “B”
• Physiological: Autonomic reactivity