Psychological Disorders and Therapies

Psychological disorder

a syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior

Epigenetics

the study of environmental influences on general expression that occur without a DNA change

Anxiety disorders

-psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety

-influenced by conditioning

Social anxiety disorder

intense fear and avoidance of social situations

Generalized anxiety disorder

-an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal

-can have many affects on physiological health

Panic disorder

-an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person may experience terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations

-often followed by worry over a possible next attack

-can lead to agoraphobia

Agoraphobia

fear or avoidance of situations, such as crowds or wide open places, where one has felt loss of control and panic

Phobia

an anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation

Obesessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

a disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts and/or actions

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

-a disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience

-influenced by generalization of a conditioned stimulus in classical conditioning

Major depressive disorder

A disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or another medical condition, two or more weeks with five or more symptoms, at least one of which must be either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure

Bipolar disorder

A disorder in which a person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania

Mania

A hyperactive, wildly optimistic state in which dangerously poor judgement is common.

Schizophrenia

-A disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or diminished, inappropriate emotional expression

-is a spectrum

Psychotic disorders

-A group of psychological disorders marked by irrational ideas, distorted perceptions, and a loss of contact with reality

-Schizophrenia is a prime example

Chronic schizophrenia

-A form of schizophrenia in which symptoms usually appear by late adolescence or early adulthood.

-As people age, psychotic episodes last longer and recovery periods shorten

Acute schizophrenia

A form of schizophrenia that can begin at any age, frequently occurs in response to an emotionally traumatic event, and has extended recovery periods

Somatic symptom disorder

A psychological disorder in which the symptoms take a bodily form without apparent physical cause

Conversion disorder

A disorder related to somatic symptom disorder in which a person experiences very specific physical symptoms that are not compatible with recognized medical or neurological conditions

Illness anxiety disorder

A disorder related to somatic symptom disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease

Dissociatve disorders

Controversial, rare disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

A rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities

Personality disorders

-inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning

-come in 3 clusters: odd/eccentric, dramatic/impulsive, and anxious/avoidant

Antisocial personality disorder

-a personality disorder in which a person exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members

-may be aggressive and ruthless

-50% of violent crimes are committed by people with this disorder

Psychotherapy

-treatment involving psychological techniques

-consists of interactions b/t a trained therapist & someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth

Biomedical therapy

prescribed medications or procedures that act directly on the person’s physiology

Psychoanalysis

-Sigmund Freud’s technique

-Freud believed the patient’s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences—and the therapist’s interpretations of them—released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to fain self-insight

Resistance

in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material

Interpretation

in psychoanalysis, the analyst’s nothing supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight

Transference

in psychoanalysis, the patient’s transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships

Psychodynamic therapy

therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition; views individuals as responding to forces and childhood experiences, and seeks to enhance self-insight

Insight therapies

therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing a person’s awareness of underlying motives and defenses

Behavior therapy

therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors

Counterconditioning

-behavior therapy procedures that use classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors

-includes exposure therapies and aversive conditioning

Exposure therapies

behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization, that treat anxieties by exposing people to the things they fear and avoid

Systematic desensitization

-a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli

-commonly used to treat phobias

Aversive conditioning

a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior

Cognitive therapy

therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways to thinking based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions

Rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT)

a confrontational cognitive therapy developed by Albert Ellis that vigorously challenges people’s illogical, self-defeating attitudes and assumptions.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

-A popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior)

-effective for treating anxiety and phobias

Meta-analysis

A procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies

Evidence-based practice

Clinical decision making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences

Therapeutic alliance

A bond of trust and mutual understanding between a therapist and client, who work together constructively to overcome the client's problem

Psychopharmacology

The study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior

Antipsychotic drugs

Drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder

Ex: Thorazine

Antianxiety drugs

Drugs used to control anxiety and agitation

Ex: Xanax & Ativan

Antidepressant drugs

-Drugs used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, OCD, & PTSD

-Several widely used ones are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

Ex: Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

a biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient

Repetitive magnetic stimulation (rTMS)

-the application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain

-used to stimulate or suppress brain activity

Psychosurgery

surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior

Ex: Lobotomy

Mary Cover Jones

-A behavior psychologist

-Helped "Peter" overcome fear of rabbits by exposing him to rabbits while he was eating a snack, thereby couterconditioning him

Joseph Wolpe

-Psychaitraist

-Refined Mary Cover Jones’ counterconditioning technique into the exposure therapies used today

Albert Ellis

-The creator of "rational emotive behavior therapy" (REBT)

-Said that many problems arise from irrational thinking and described how therapy might challenge one’s illogical, self-defeating assumptions

-believed that challenging illogical beliefs and their absurdity will help change self-defeating beliefs and feelings and enable healthier behaviors

Aaron Beck

-therapist

-realized that challenging negative thoughts could be therapeutic. This lead him to pioneer Cognitive Therapy.

-Suggested negative beliefs cause depression, and found that depressed individuals have dreams with negative themes

-sought to reverse people's negativity about themselves, through gentle questioning and persuading individuals