Our Lady of Fatima University Introduction to Psychology (Finals) Study Guide PDF

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY (Finals) WEEK 14: Psychological Disorders Lesson Objectives: Differentiate the types of abnormal behavior Describe and explain maladaptive behaviors through the proper identification of human’s reactions to frustration Learning Overview: Explanation...

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY (Finals) WEEK 14: Psychological Disorders Lesson Objectives: Differentiate the types of abnormal behavior Describe and explain maladaptive behaviors through the proper identification of human’s reactions to frustration Learning Overview: Explanations of mental illness and defining abnormal behavior | How disorders relate to biological and psychological models | Types of psychological disorders | Types and symptoms of anxiety disorders | Types of mood disorders and their causes | Types of eating disorders | Types of dissociative disorders | Main symptoms, types and causes of schizophrenia | Types and causes of personality disorders | Future directions in psychopathology Lesson Discussion A. Explanations of mental illness and defining abnormal behavior Early Explanations of Mental Illness In ancient times holes were cut in an ill person’s head to let out evil spirits in a process called trepanning. Hippocrates believed that mental illness came from an imbalance in the body’s four humors. In the Middle Ages, the mentally ill were labeled as witches. Definitions of Abnormality Psychopathology: Study of abnormal behavior. Psychological disorders: Any pattern of behavior that causes people significant distress, causes them to harm others, or harms their ability to function in daily life.  Statistically rare Deviant from social norms Situational context: Social or environmental setting of a person’s behavior. Subjective discomfort: Emotional distress or emotional pain. Maladaptive: Anything that does not allow a person to function within or adapt to the stresses and everyday demands of life. Sociocultural Perspective Cultural relativity: The need to consider the unique characteristics of the culture in which behavior takes place. Culture-Bound Syndromes: Disorders found only in particular cultures. B. How disorders relate to biological and psychological models Biology and Psychopathology Biological model: Behavior is caused by biological changes in the chemical, structural, or genetic systems of the body. Psychological Viewpoints of Psychopathology Psychoanalytic theorists: Assume that abnormal behavior stems from repressed conflicts and urges that are fighting to become conscious. Behaviorists: See abnormal behavior as learned. Cognitive theorists: See abnormal behavior as coming from irrational beliefs and illogical patterns of thought. C. Types of psychological disorders DSM-IV-TR: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Version IV, Text Revision is a manual of psychological disorders and their symptoms. There are five axes in the DSM-IV-TR, which include clinical disorders, personality disorders, general medical conditions, psychosocial and environmental problems, and a global assessment of functioning. Over one-fifth of all adults over age 18 suffer from a mental disorder in any given year. Major depression is one of the most common psychological disorders worldwide.  D. Types and symptoms of anxiety disorders Anxiety Disorders: Disorders in which the main symptom is excessive or unrealistic anxiety and fearfulness. Free-floating anxiety: Anxiety that is unrelated to any realistic, known source. Phobia: Irrational, persistent fear of an object, situation, or social activity. o Social phobia: Fear of interacting with others or being in social situations that might lead to a negative evaluation. o Specific phobia: Fear of objects or specific situations or events. ▪ Claustrophobia: Fear of being in a small, enclosed space. ▪ Acrophobia: Fear of heights. ▪ Agoraphobia: Fear of being in a place or situation from which escape is difficult or impossible. Panic disorder: Disorder in which panic attacks occur frequently enough to cause the person difficulty in adjusting to daily life.  o Panic attack: Sudden onset of intense panic in which multiple physical symptoms of stress occur, often with feelings that one is dying. Obsessive-compulsive disorder: Disorder in which intruding, recurring thoughts or obsessions create anxiety that is relieved by performing a repetitive, ritualistic behavior (compulsion). Panic disorder with agoraphobia: Fear of leaving one’s familiar surroundings because one might have a panic attack in public. Acute stress disorder (ASD): Disorder resulting from exposure to a major stressor with symptoms of anxiety, dissociation, recurring nightmares, sleep disturbances, problems in concentration, and moments in which people seem to "relive" the event in dreams and flashbacks for as long as 1 month following the event. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Disorder resulting from exposure to a major stressor, with symptoms of anxiety, dissociation, nightmares, poor sleep, reliving the event, and concentration problems, lasting for more than 1 month. Generalized anxiety disorder: Disorder in which a person has feelings of dread and impending doom along with physical symptoms of stress, which lasts six months or more. Causes of Anxiety Disorders Psychoanalytic explanations point to repressed urges and desires that are trying to come into conscious, creating anxiety that is controlled by the abnormal behavior. Behaviorists state that disordered behavior is learned through both positive and negative reinforcement. Cognitive psychologists believe that excessive anxiety comes from illogical, irrational thought processes. o Magnification: Tendency to interpret situations as far more dangerous, harmful, or important than they actually are. o All-or-nothing thinking: Tendency to believe that one’s performance must be perfect or the result will be a total failure. o Overgeneralization: Tendency to interpret a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat and failure. o Minimization: Tendency to give little or no importance to one’s successes or positive events and traits. Biological explanations of anxiety disorders include chemical imbalances in the nervous system, in particular serotonin and GABA systems. E. Types of mood disorders and their causes Mood Disorders Affect: In psychology, an emotional reaction. Mood disorders: Disorders in which mood is severely disturbed. Major depression: Severe depression that comes on suddenly and seems to have no external cause.  Figure 14.2 Prevalence of Major Depressive Disorder As the most common mood disorder, major depressive disorder has seen an increase in diagnosis with each decade. From 1936 to 1945, the prevalence of major depression in the population was about 3 percent, with the onset of symptoms occurring at around ages 18 to 20. By 1966 to 1975, the prevalence had jumped to about 23 percent of the population, and the age of onset had dropped to the early teens. Manic: Having the quality of excessive excitement, energy, and elation or irritability. Bipolar disorder: Severe mood swings between major depressive episodes and manic episodes. Figure 14.1 The Range of Emotions Most people experience a range of emotions over the course of a day or several days, such as mild sadness, calm contentment, or mild elation and happiness. A person with a mood disorder experiences emotions that are extreme and, therefore, abnormal. Causes of Mood Disorders Learning theories link depression to learned helplessness. Cognitive theories see depression as the result of distorted, illogical thinking. Biological explanations of mood disorders look at the function of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine systems in the brain. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD): Mood disorder caused by the body’s reaction to low levels of sunlight in the winter months. F. Types of eating disorders Eating Disorders Anorexia nervosa (anorexia): Condition in which a person reduces eating to the point that a weight loss of 15 percent below the ideal body weight or more occurs. Bulimia nervosa (bulimia): Condition in which a person develops a cycle of "binging," or overeating enormous amounts of food at one sitting, and then using unhealthy methods to avoid weight gain.  G. Types of dissociative disorders Dissociative Disorders: Disorders in which there is a break in conscious awareness, memory, the sense of identity, or some combination. Dissociative amnesia: Loss of memory for personal information, either partial or complete. Dissociative fugue: Traveling away from familiar surroundings with amnesia for the trip and possible amnesia for personal information. Dissociative identity disorder: Disorder occurring when a person seems to have two or more distinct personalities within one body. Depersonalization disorder: Dissociative disorder in which a person feels detached and disconnected from themselves, their bodies, and their surroundings. Development of Dissociative Disorders Psychoanalytic explanations point to repression of memories, seeing dissociation as a defense mechanism against anxiety. Cognitive and behavioral explanations see dissociative disorders as a kind of avoidance learning. Biological explanations point to lower-than-normal activity levels in the areas responsible for body awareness in people with dissociative disorders.  H. Main symptoms, types and causes of schizophrenia Psychotic: The break away from an ability to perceive what is real and what is fantasy. Schizophrenia: Severe disorder in which the person suffers from disordered thinking, bizarre behavior, hallucinations, and is unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Positive symptoms: Symptoms of schizophrenia that are excesses of behavior or occur in addition to normal behavior; hallucinations, delusions, and distorted thinking. o Delusions: False beliefs held by a person who refuses to accept evidence of their falseness. ▪ Delusional disorder: Psychotic disorder in which the primary symptom is one or more delusions (may or may not be schizophrenia). ▪ Hallucinations: False sensory perceptions, such as hearing voices that do not really exist. Negative symptoms: Symptoms of schizophrenia that are less than normal behavior or an absence of normal behavior; poor attention, flat affect, and poor speech production. o Flat affect: A lack of emotional responsiveness. Types of Schizophrenia 1. Disorganized: Type of schizophrenia in which behavior is bizarre and childish and thinking, speech, and motor actions are very disordered. 2. Catatonic: Type of schizophrenia in which the person experiences periods of statue-like immobility mixed with occasional bursts of energetic, frantic movement and talking. 3. Paranoid: Type of schizophrenia in which the person suffers from delusions of persecution, grandeur, and jealousy, together with hallucinations. Causes of Schizophrenia Psychoanalytic theories see schizophrenia as resulting from a severe breakdown of the ego, which has become overwhelmed by the demands of the id and results in childish, infantile behavior. Behaviorists focus on how reinforcement, observational learning, and shaping affect the development of the behavioral symptoms of schizophrenia. Cognitive theorists see schizophrenia as severely irrational thinking. Biological explanations focus on dopamine, structural defects in the brain, inflammation and genetic influences in schizophrenia. o Stress-vulnerability model: Explanation of disorder that assumes a biological sensitivity, or vulnerability, to a certain disorder will develop under the right conditions of environmental or emotional stress.  Figure 14.3 Genetics and Schizophrenia This graph shows a definite pattern: The greater the degree of genetic relatedness, the higher the risk of schizophrenia in individuals related to each other. The only individual to carry a risk even close to that of identical twins (who share 100 percent of their genes) is a person who is the child of two parents with schizophrenia. Source: Gottesman (1991). I. Types and causes of personality disorders Personality disorders: Disorders in which a person adopts a persistent, rigid, and maladaptive pattern of behavior that interferes with normal social interactions. Antisocial personality disorder: Disorder in which a person has no morals or conscience and often behaves in an impulsive manner without regard for the consequences of that behavior. Borderline personality disorder: Maladaptive personality pattern in which the person is moody, unstable, lacks a clear sense of identity, and often clings to others Causes of Personality Disorders Cognitive-learning theorists see personality disorders as a set of learned behavior that has become maladaptive—bad habits learned early on in life. Belief systems of the personality disordered person are seen as illogical. Biological explanations look at genetic factors. Other possible causes of personality disorders may include disturbances in family communications and relationships, childhood abuse, neglect, overly strict parenting, overprotective parenting, and parental rejection. J. Future directions in psychopathology The DSM-5 is currently in development and will likely include a variety of updates associated with current research and changes in perspectives over the years.