Psychological Disorders

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Psychological Disorders

• Psychological Disorder a harmful dysfunction in
  which behavior is judged to be (text discussion)
• Atypical
• not enough in itself
• Disturbing
• varies with time and culture
• Maladaptive
• harmful
• Unjustifiable
• By what standard?

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Defined as Function

• Individual is not functioning adequately based on
  either his/her standards or according to
  significant others in the persons life.
• Almost all the disorders we discuss have symptoms
  that everyone experiences. Diagnosis of disorder
  depends of intensity, length of time and how much
  its impacting on the person.
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Psychosis?

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Psychological Disorders

• Medical Model
• concept that diseases have physical causes
• can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases,
  cured
• assumes that these mental illnesses can be
  diagnosed on the basis of their symptoms and
  cured through therapy, which may include
  treatment in a psychiatric hospital

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Problems with medical model

• Effects of labeling person, especially if based
  on limited number of symptoms
• May limit true understanding of behavior in favor
  of listed symptoms and assumptions about
  outcome
• Confirmation bias future information
  interpreted in a biased way based on label
• Similar problems can exist with diagnosis
  physical ailments

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Psychological Disorders

• Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective
• assumes that biological, sociocultural, and
  psychological factors combine and interact to
  produce psychological disorders

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Bio-Psycho-Social Approach
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Bio-Psycho-Social Approach

• These factors change over time. Hence, its
  harmful to place a constant label on a person
• Normal behavior changes over cultures,
  sub-cultures and time.
• E.g., is gang behavior or violence abnormal?
• Its more important to understand behavior (and
  symptoms) then worry about labels.

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Classifying Psychological Disorders (medical
approach dominates)

• DSM-IV
• American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and
  Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth
  Edition)
• a widely used system for classifying
  psychological disorders
• presently distributed as DSM-IV-TR (text revision)

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Classifying Psychological Disorders

• Neurotic Disorder usually distressing but that
  allows one to think rationally and function
  socially
• Psychotic Disorder
• person loses contact with reality
• experiences irrational ideas and distorted
  perceptions

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Rates of Psychological Disorders
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Anxiety Disorders

• Anxiety Disorders
• distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive
  behaviors that reduce anxiety
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• person is tense, apprehensive, and in a state of
  autonomic nervous system arousal
• Persistence (out of control)
• Problem in identifying source

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Anxiety Disorders

• Panic Disorder
• marked by a minutes-long episode of intense dread
  in which a person experiences terror and
  accompanying chest pain, choking, or other
  frightening sensation
• Person comes to fear the panic attack itself and
  start to avoid any situations or places that
  might provoke an attack

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Anxiety Disorders

• Phobia
• persistent, irrational fear of a specific object
  or situation
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or
  actions (compulsions)

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Anxiety Disorders

• Common and uncommon fears

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Anxiety Disorders
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Causes Learning Perspective

• Fears are learned thought classical conditioning
• Stimulus generalization often occurs
• Development of behaviors to avoid the anxiety
• Perhaps also through observational learning

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Causes Biological Influence

• Research with identical twins and non-human
  primates suggest a genetic aspect

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Anxiety Disorders

• PET Scan of brain of person with Obsessive/
  Compulsive disorder
• High metabolic activity (red) in frontal lobe
  areas involved with directing attention (impulse
  control and executive function)
• Effectiveness of drug therapy

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Dissociative Disorders

• Dissociative Disorders
• conscious awareness becomes separated
  (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts,
  and feelings
• Not uncommon when in a highly traumatic situation
  to feel removed from the situation. Problem is
  when this becomes more then a brief situation

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Dissociative Disorder

• Dissociative Identity Disorder
• rare dissociative disorder in which a person
  exhibits two or more distinct and alternating
  personalities
• formerly called multiple personality disorder
• At Issue Is it a real phenomena
• Skeptics Everyone has difference aspects of
  their personality. These get exaggerated by
  person and perhaps encourage by therapist
• Believers Personality differences are dramatic
  (even handedness might be effected) and person
  may have many personalities (e.g., 3 faces of
  eve 28)
• Origins from sever trauma especially in childhood
• Both may be right

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Personality Disorders

• Personality Disorders (vs. mood disorder)
• disorders characterized by inflexible and
  enduring behavior patterns that impair social
  functioning

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Types of Personality Disorders

• Fearful, afraid of rejection, withdrawn
• Extreme eccentrics The Character
• Narcissistic Over exaggerates self importance
• Borderline Unstable identity, emotions,
  relationships, etc.

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Personality Disorders

• Antisocial Personality Disorder
• disorder in which the person (usually man)
  exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing,
  even toward friends and family members
• may be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con
  artist
• Most criminals do not have this they show
  concern for family and friends

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Mood Disorders

• Boys who were later convicted of a crime showed
  relatively low arousal

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Personality Disorders

• PET scans illustrate reduced activation in a
  murderers frontal cortex

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Personality Disorders
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Mood Disorders

• Mood Disorders
• characterized by emotional extremes
• Major Depressive Disorder
• a mood disorder in which a person, for no
  apparent reason, experiences two or more weeks of
  depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and
  diminished interest or pleasure in most activities

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Mood Disorders

• Manic Episode
• a mood disorder marked by a hyperactive, wildly
  optimistic state
• Bipolar Disorder
• a mood disorder in which the person alternates
  between the hopelessness and lethargy of
  depression and the overexcited state of mania
• formerly called manic-depressive disorder

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Mood Disorders-Depression

• Canadian depression rates

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Mood Disorders- Suicide
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Mood Disorders-Bipolar

• PET scans show that brain energy consumption
  rises and falls with emotional switches

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Mood Disorders-Depression

• Altering any one component of the
  chemistry-cognition-mood circuit can alter the
  others

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Mood Disorders-Depression

• The vicious cycle of depression can be broken at
  any point

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Schizophrenia

• Schizophrenia
• literal translation split mind
• a group of severe disorders characterized by
• disorganized and delusional thinking
• disturbed perceptions
• inappropriate emotions and actions

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Schizophrenia

• Delusions
• false beliefs, often of persecution or grandeur,
  that may accompany psychotic disorders
• Hallucinations
• sensory experiences without sensory stimulation

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Schizophrenia
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Causes of Schizophrenia

• Evidence of both chemical and anatomical
  differences in the brain
• There are clear genetic predispositions

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Schizophrenia
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Causes of Schizophrenia

• Viral infections during pregnancy?
• Role of environment is unclear

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The End

• Is Psychology a Science?
• Future Courses