Abnormal Psychology (Chapter 18)

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Abnormal Psychology (Chapter 18)

• Lecture Outline
• Abnormality
• Diagnosis
• Anxiety Disorders

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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
  ergot, LSD derivative

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Salem witch trial
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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

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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 (1low to 100high)

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Anxiety Disorders
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Symptoms of Anxiety

• 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)

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Case example Social phobia
"I couldn't go on dates or to parties. For a
while, I couldn't even go to class. My sophomore
year of college I had to come home for a
semester." "My fear would happen in any
social situation. I would be anxious before I
even left the house, and it would escalate as I
got closer to class, a party, or whatever. I
would feel sick to my stomach--it almost felt
like I had the flu. My heart would pound, my
palms would get sweaty, and I would get this
feeling of being removed from myself and from
everybody else." "When I would walk into a room
full of people, I'd turn red and it would feel
like everybody's eyes were on me. Iwas too
embarrassed to stand off in a corner by myself,
but I couldn't think of anything to say to
anybody. I felt so clumsy, I couldn't wait to get
out."
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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

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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