Defining Abnormal Behavior

Defining and Explaining Abnormal Behavior

• Abnormal behavior is deviant, maladaptive, or personally distressful over a relatively long period.
• Persistent abnormal behavior may lead to a diagnosis of a psychological disorder.

Criteria to Distinguish Normal from Abnormal Behavior

• Deviant behavior does not conform to accepted social standards and deviates from what is considered normal and accepted.
  • It's important to consider the context of the behavior.
• Maladaptive behavior interferes with everyday functioning.
  • It's important to consider the context of the behavior.
• Personal distress over a long period is another criterion.

Theoretical Approaches to Psychological Disorders

• Biological
• Psychological
• Sociocultural
• Biopsychosocial

Biological Approach

• Attributes psychological disorders to organic, internal causes.
• Focuses on the brain, genetic factors, and neurotransmitter functioning as sources of abnormality.
• Aligns with the medical model, which views psychological disorders as medical diseases with biological origins.

Psychological Approach

• Emphasizes the role of experiences, thoughts, emotions, and personality characteristics in explaining psychological disorders.

Sociocultural Approach

• Emphasizes the social contexts in which a person lives, including culture.
• Culture establishes norms for socially acceptable behavior.
• Evaluations of behavior must consider the norms in the individual's culture of origin.

Biopsychosocial Model

• Integrates biological, psychological, and sociocultural approaches to understanding mental illness.
• Considers the variety of interacting factors.
• Advocates for a holistic approach to assessment, diagnosis, and multi-dimensional treatment.

Vulnerability-Stress Hypothesis

• Pre-existing conditions (genetic characteristics, personality dispositions, or experiences) may put a person at risk of developing a psychological disorder.

Classification of Abnormal Behavior

• Provides a common basis for communication and understanding of the likelihood of a particular disorder.
• Can also cause stigma, which is a mark of shame that leads others to avoid or act negatively toward a person.

DSM Classification System

• DSM-5-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, text revision) is the major classification of psychological disorders in North America.

Critiques of the DSM

• Treats disorders as medical illnesses, potentially taking an overly biological view of conditions rooted in social experience.
• Focuses strictly on problems.
• Emphasis on strengths can destigmatize psychological disorders.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

• Range of neurodevelopmental disorders involving impaired social interaction and communication, repetitive behavior, and restricted interests.
• Presents with a range of symptoms.
• Has no single cause.

Somatic Symptom Disorder

• A psychological disorder in which a person experiences one or more bodily (somatic) symptoms.
• Involves excessive thoughts and feelings about these symptoms that interfere with everyday functioning.

ADHD

• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a common psychological disorder.
• Involves inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity.

Anxiety Disorders

• Uncontrollable and disruptive psychological disorders.
• Features motor tension, hyperactivity, and apprehensive expectations and thoughts.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• Persistent anxiety for at least six months.
• Individual is unable to specify the reasons for the anxiety.
• Can cause fatigue, muscle tension, stomach problems, and difficulty sleeping.
• May be caused by genetic predisposition, GABA deficiency, respiratory system abnormalities, and problems in regulating the sympathetic nervous system.

Panic Disorder

• Individual experiences recurrent, sudden onsets of intense terror, often without warning and with no specific cause.
• Can produce severe palpitations, extreme shortness of breath, chest pains, sweating, and more.
• Factors that underlie may be genetic predisposition, genes that direct action of norepinephrine, GABA, serotonin

Specific Phobia

• An anxiety disorder involving an irrational, overwhelming, persistent fear of a particular object or situation.
• Fears can come from differences in neuroticism and also cognitive and behavioural factors

Social Anxiety Disorder

• An anxiety disorder in which the individual has an intense fear of being humiliated or embarrassed in social situations.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• A psychological disorder in which the individual has anxiety-provoking thoughts that will not go away.
• Involves urges to perform repetitive, ritualistic behaviors to prevent or produce some future situation.
• Obsessions are recurrent thoughts.
• Compulsions are recurrent behaviors used to cope with or neutralize obsessive thoughts.

Factors Contributing to OCD

• Genetic component.
• Low levels of serotonin and dopamine.
• High levels of glutamate.
• Avoidance learning may contribute to the maintenance of compulsive symptoms.

OCD-Related Disorders

• Hoarding disorder involves compulsive collecting, poor organization skills, and difficulty discarding items.
• Excoriation disorder is skin picking to the point of injury.
• Trichotillomania is hair pulling, potentially leading to baldness.
• Body dysmorphic disorder is distressing preoccupation with imagined or slight flaws in physical appearance.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

• Develops through exposure to a traumatic event, severely oppressive situation, cruel abuse, or disaster.

Depressive Disorders

• Psychological disorders in which the individual suffers from depression, an unrelenting lack of pleasure in life.

Major Depressive Disorder

• A psychological disorder involving a significant depressive episode and depressed characteristics for at least two weeks.

Persistent Depressive Disorder

• Experience less extreme depressive mood for over two years.
• Involves hopelessness, lack of energy, poor concentration, and sleep problems.

Biological Factors in Depressive Disorders

• Genes, brain structure and function, neurotransmitters.

Psychological Factors in Depressive Disorders

• Behavioral View: Learned hopelessness due to exposure to aversive circumstances with no control.
• Cognitive View: Accumulation of distorted negative thoughts and beliefs that contribute to a sense of hopelessness.

Sociocultural Factors in Depressive Disorders

• Low socioeconomic status increases likelihood of depression.
• Women are more likely to be diagnosed with depression than men.

Bipolar Disorder

• A psychological disorder characterized by extreme mood swings that include one or more episodes of mania, an overexcited, unrealistically optimistic state.
• Mania also features impulsivity.

Bipolar I Disorder

• Individuals experience extreme manic episodes during which they may experience hallucinations.

Bipolar II Disorder

• Milder version where individuals may experience a less extreme level of euphoria called hypomania.

Factors in Development of Bipolar Disorder

• Genetic factors.
• Differences in brain activity.

Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder

• A depressive disorder in children who show persistent irritability and recurrent episodes of out-of-control behavior.

Dissociation

• Psychological states in which a person feels disconnected from immediate experience.

Dissociative Disorders

• Psychological disorders that involve a sudden loss of memory or change in identity due to the dissociation of the individual's conscious awareness from previous memories and thoughts.
• Often a way of dealing with extreme stress.
• Rooted in extremely traumatic life events.

Dissociative Amnesia

• A dissociative disorder characterized by extreme memory loss caused by extensive psychological stress.
• Aspects of the individual's own identity and autobiographical experiences are forgotten.
• Tends not to reoccur.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

• A dissociative disorder in which the individual has two or more distinct personalities or selves, each with its own memories, behaviors, and relationships.
• High rates of extraordinarily severe sexual or physical abuse during early childhood is related to condition.
• Vast majority are women.
• Some experts say that this is social construction where people make sense of their experiences by adopting the category.