Psychological Disorders

PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS Normal VS. Abnormal - Used to define the disorder  DEFINITIONS OF ABNORMALITY The criteria of "Abnormal" may vary across: 1) STATISTICAL DEFINITION  Frequently occurring is normal  Behavior that is rare would be abnormal 2) SOCIAL NORM DEVIANCE  Something that goes against the norms/standards of the society  Deviance (Statistical Norm referenced)  Based upon averages and variance  E.g., intelligence scores  DEVIANCE IS NOT ALWAYS NEGATIVE!  Ex. Wearing beach clothes to the beach is normal, but in formal occasion, it would be deviance.  Situational context  Social/environmental setting of a person’s behavior makes a difference in how behavior is labelled 3) SUBJECTIVE DISCOMFORT  When a person experiences emotional distress  Emotional distress  Pain/psychological suffering and enduring discomfort  ALL BEHAVIOR THAT MIGHT BE CONSIDERED ABNORMAL DOES NOT NESCESSARILY CREATE SUBJECTIVE DISCOMFORT IN THE PERSON COMITTING THE ACT!  Ex. Killers/criminals 4) INABILITY TO FUNCTION NORMALLY  Behavior that does not allow a person to function normally  Maladaptive behavior  Causes harm or injury to the person or other persons. 5) THE SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE  Abnormal and normal is the product of behavioral shaping within the context of family influences, social group, culture.  Caused by society and culture, rather than the individual  Cultural relativity  Need to consider the unique characteristics of the culture to be able to diagnose and treat the disorder  What is judged to be normal or abnormal may vary from one culture to another  Culture-Bound Syndrome  Disorders which are only found in specific cultured

 PROS & CONS OF LABELS o Pros:  Helps psychological professionals diagnose patients  Provide explanations  Effective treatments o Cons:  Overly prejudicial  Bias, affect our judgements  Give preconceived notions that might turn out to be false  DIAGNOSIS: THE DEVELOPMENT OF DSM-IV  AXIS I – GENERAL DISORDERS 1. Infancy, childhood, adolescent onset (mental retardation) 2. Organic mental disorders (delirium, dementia, amnesia) 3. Substance related disorders (maladaptive) (e.g., alcohol, cocaine, prozac, ...) 4. Schizophrenia & psychotic disorders (over 6 months or longer + lesser forms) 5. Mood disorders - emotional disturbance 6. Anxiety disorders - tension, heart palpitations & fear - continuous or diffuse 7. Somatoform disorders - psychological cause 8. Dissociative disorders - memory, identity & consciousness 9. Sexual and gender-identity disorders - focus on discomfort, paraphilias & dysfunction

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ANXIETY DISORDERS - Excessive apprehension and anxiety or fear - Everyone have anxiety - Free-floating – occur w/o anything triggering it. The medical term is GAD. A) Phobic Disorder - persistent and irrational fear of an object or situation that is unrealistic. (Claustrophobia, Brontophobia, ….) 1. Social Phobias ( aka. Social Anxiety Disorder)  Fear of interacting w/ others  Self-conscious  History of shyness  Ex. Stage fright, public speaking, urinating in public 2. Specific Phobias  Irrational fear of objects/situations  Claustrophobia: enclosed spaces  Trypanophobia: injections  Odontophobia: dental work  Hematophobia: blood  Acrophobia: heights 3. Agoraphobia  Greek name – “fear of marketplace”  Fear of being in a place/situation from which escape is difficult/impossible  Afraid of crowds, crossing bridges, travelling by car/plane, eating in restaurants, leaving the house  Can lead to feelings of anxiety and panic attacks  People w/ this phobia can’t avoid their phobia’s source because it is simply being outside in the real world

B) Panic Disorder - recurring severe panic attacks  Panic attack (anxiety attack): Intense anxiety that causes the physical sensations of fear  Panic disorder w/ Agoraphobia: fear of having panic attacks in public places C) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - persistent and uncontrollable thoughts (obsessions) and urges to carry out ritualistic behaviors (compulsions)  Obsession: Recurring images or thoughts that a person cannot prevent  Compulsions: (1) Irrational acts that a person feels compelled to repeat against his/her will. (2) Meant to lower the anxiety caused by the thought  Defining feature: distress caused by failure/inability to successfully complete the compulsive behavior D) Acute Stress Disorder & Posttraumatic Stress Disorder  Exposure to significant and traumatic stress  ASD symptoms (occur within 4 weeks): anxiety, emotional numbness/lack of responsiveness, recurring nightmares, sleep disturbances, problems with concentration  PSD: if one has suffered the symptoms for more the 1 month  Women have twice the risk of developing PTSD than men. The likelihood increases if the traumatic experience took place before 15 yrs. Old.  Severe PTSD has been linked to a decrease in the size of the hippocampus [formation of LTM] E) Generalized Anxiety Disorder – chronic (long term) high level of anxiety that does not have a specific cause or stimulus (muscle tension, diarrhea, dizziness…)  Worrying excessively for no apparent reason  Occurring more days than not for at least 6 months; persists 6 months or more  Often found occurring w/ other other anxiety disorders & depression II. MOOD DISORDERS - Involve emotional disturbances that affect physical, cognitive and social processes - Referred to as affective disorders - Tends to be episodic - Affect: “emotion” or “mood” - Mild to moderate - Dysthymia - mild to moderate chronic depression - Cyclothymic - chronic but mild bi-polar [severe mood swings] A) Major Depression  Referred to as unipolar disorder  Persistent feelings of sadness and despair  Deeply depressed mood comes on fairly easily  Can exists w/o any external cause Alterations  Have low self esteem, feeling worthless  Falls into feelings of hopelessness, guilt, social withdrawal  May have thoughts of death/suicide  Most common among all mood disorders  Twice as common in woman because of hormonal structure of females  Some suffer from delusional thinking [false beliefs] ex. One believes somebody is following them

May experience hallucinations [false perspectives] ex. One may think that they hear many voices in their head telling them what to do. B) Bipolar Disorder (manic depression)  Characterized by one or more bouts (contest) of mania and depression  Manic episode: period of time during which a person exhibits an elevated mood  No external cause for extreme ups and downs (usually) C) Seasonal Affective Disorder  Minor mood disturbance that affects people usually during the winter months o ADHD unable to concentrate, constantly moves around, and has poor school performance compared with intelligence. Their behavior at home and at school is disruptive. Different from Bipolar because this disorder does not have the elated mood, grandiose behaviors and is usually associated with difficulty in school settings. o The difference between unipolar and bipolar can be seen by a person's mood swings. While unipolar depression is characterized only by depressed mood, bipolar disorder is characterized by alternating moods of mania and depression. III. DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS - Loss of memory and division of consciousness from personal identity A) Dissociative Amnesia: Who Am I?  Loss of memory of a traumatic event B) Dissociative fugue: Who am I & how did I get there?  Latin word fugere: “flight”  Loss of identity when a person travel to a new location (amnesia + flight)  Sometimes, involves the complete loss of identity and memory of the past, starting new life under a new identity  Usually take place after an emotional trauma & more common in times of disaster/war C) Dissociative Identity Disorder: How many Am I?  2 or more distinct personalities  Formerly known as multiple personality disorder SCHIZOPHRENIC DISORDERS - Once known as dementia praecox: “out of one’s mind before one’s time” - Named by Eugen Bleuler (Swiss psychiatrist) - “schizo”: division; “phren”: brain - Literally "split mind" fragmented thought and emotional disturbance; break from reality - Often been confused with dissociative identity disorder - Long-lasting psychotic disorder - Inability to distinguish reality from fantasy - Disturbance in thinking, emotions, behavior, and perception - Key feature: emotional disturbances - Attention is also a problem for people with Schizophrenia - Symptoms:  Delusions (not prominent in all forms of Schizophrenia) 1. Delusions of persecution – belief that others are trying to hurt them in some way

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2. Delusions of reference – belief that other people (tv characters/books) are talking to them 3. Delusions of influence – believe that they are being controlled by external forces [devil, aliens, cosmic forces] 4. Delusions of grandeur (grandiose delusions) – believe that they are powerful people who can save the world  Hallucinations – hearing voices (one of the keys in making a diagnosis of schizophrenia) /see things which are not really there  Disturbed speech: clanging – string words together with same sounds  Disturbed emotions & behavior Flat effect – condition in which person shows little emotion Delusional disorder: primary symptom is delusion SUBTYPES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA: 1. Disorganized: bizarre behavior, delusions and hallucinations “word salad” 2. Catatonic: excitement and stupor phrases, waxy flexibility 3. Paranoid: suffer from hallucinations and delusions  Positive symptoms  Appear to reflect an excess or distortion of normal functions  Ex. Hallucinations, delusions  Positive because they are undesirable additions to mental processing  Negative symptoms  Decrease of normal functions  Behavioral deficits or deterioration of adaptive behavior  Ex. Absence of pleasure, poor attention, inappropriate emotional expressions, social withdrawal, apathy  Negative because they subtract elements from normal life

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There is NO standard definition for behavior and abnormality Objective goal of Psychology: to be a hard science Difference of social norm deviance and sociocultural perspective? o The difference between social norm and sociocultural perspective is that, social norm deviance see abnormality as something that goes against the norms or standards of the society in which the individual lives. While the socioculutural perspective focuses on societal and cultural factors that may influence behavior. Before DSM-IV-TR, homosexual is considered abnormal You cannot explain a psychological disorder by using only one AXIS because there is such thing as biopsychosocial perspective. In this perspective, it assumes that biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors combine and interact to produce psychological disorders. Use of defense mechanisms is considered abnormal Anxiety is not the same as fear. Fear is when you are scared of something, someone, or some place. Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease Fear = a feeling of apprehensiveness in response to imminent danger. Anxiety =a feeling apprehensiveness when no danger is imminently present. What’s the similarity and differences between avoidant & dependent? o Avoidant- isolate self, fear of rejection, no relationship o Dependent – anxious of rejection but needs a relationship  BOTH HAVE FEARS OF REJECTION! Similarity and between paranoid and OCPD – obessession to details Abnormality o Intentional & unintentional o Outliers Subjective discomfort – conscience(layman’s term) Personality - individual's enduring pattern of behaviors, thoughts, and emotions (stable) Persoality traits - a characteristic that describes a person's personality Culture -> morality -> conscience Difficult to treat personality because it is from within. (inner) Difference between OCD &OCPD o OCD is an anxiety disorder in which individuals experience obsessive, often intrusive thoughts and often perform rituals (compulsive behaviors) in order to reduce the anxiety related to these thoughts. o OCPD is a personality disorder characterized by a need for order and perfectionism.