🧜🏼‍♀️Intro Psyc Ch 8 Behavioral Disorders🧜🏼‍♀️

Behavioral explanation for dissociative reactions

Behavior reduces anxiety

Gets reinforced (avoidance learning)

Jamie withdraws from friends, gains weight, feels constant sadness, and thinks about suicide

Major depressive disorder — persistent sadness, loss, worthlessness, possible suicidal thoughts.

What increases risk of relapse in Major Depression Disorder?

🔺Early onset (before age twenty) major depression

🔺Marital distress

🔺Critical/Hostile family environment

🔹high energy & mood

🔹increased psychomotor agitation/activity (pacing, constant irritation, high anxiety, verbal outbursts

🔹fast speech / pressure of speech

🔹risky behavior

🔹reduced need for sleep

🔹grand flight of ideas

🔹spending sprees, big unrealistic plans

🔹Inflated self-esteem

🔹distractibility

Mania

Psychomotor agitation in Mania

Increased activity level and restless movement

A rigid/strong, exaggerated belief with no basis in reality

Delusion

Perceiving things that are not there

(hearing voices)

Hallucination

When do delusions, hallucinations & disorganized thinking occur?

🔹Advanced stages of Mania

🔹Severe Mania

Who offered the first detailed interpretation of depression

Karl Abraham (1877–1925)

a German psychoanalyst and student of Freud

How does Abraham’s psychoanalytic theory explain the origin of mood disorders?

🔹originate from an oral fixation

🔹Where Frustration during the oral stage leads to ambivalent (love/hate) feelings toward the mother

🔹Which are later transferred to loved ones → then to the self

How does Freud’s psychoanalytic theory explain the origin of depression?

🔹Originates from overdependence & ambivalent (love/hate) relationships

🔹Combined with the Loss or threat of loss of a loved one

🔹Anger turned Inward

🔹Leading to unconscious hostility (anger) toward the lost person which is turned inward

After losing her spouse, Maria withdraws because her main source of reinforcement is gone. This supports ____

Behavioral view of depression- loss of positive reinforcement in a person’s life

🔺Death

🔺job loss

🔺Moving

🔺illness.

Another Behavioral perspective on depression is Seligman’s theory of ____

Learned Helplessness become depressed you have no control over the 

reinforcers & punishers in their lives

Schizophrenia

Severe and disabling mental disorder characterized by extreme disruptions of perceptions, thoughts, emotions, & behavior, and Hallucinations

🔹One of the most serious & debilitating psychological disorders

How prevalent is schizophrenia?

🔹About 1% of people worldwide

🔹Up to 3 out of 100 may experience it at some time in their lives

🔹In the U.S., 600,000 people receive treatment annually

What is delusion of nihilism

🔹The belief that nothing exists, that all things are shadows

🔹idea that one has been dead for many years & is observing the world from afar 

What is a delusion of grandeur?

Belief that one is a great historical or famous figure; Napoleon, Queen Victoria, president of the United States

Positive symptoms of schizophrenia

🔺Excess distorted behaviors

🔺Hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech,

excessive verbal behavior

Anhedonia

Inability to experience pleasure

Dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia

Suggests that schizophrenia is caused either by 

abnormally high levels of dopamine or by above-normal activity due to an increased number of 

receptors for dopamine

Important note about abnormal criteria

Not all 4 criteria must be present in every disorder

Key to diagnosis

Persistent cluster of symptoms, not temporary ones

ADHD symptoms

🔹Inattention

🔹impulse control

🔹interrupting

🔹Fidgeting

Anxiety disorder definition

Produce pervasive (widespread) feelings of anxiety

Panic disorder criteria

🔹Anxiety disorder in which an individual experiences numerous panic attacks (4 or more in a 1 month)

🔹Feelings of overwhelming terror & often feelings of unreality or depersonalization

🔹“I’m going crazy”

“I’m dying” (heart attack)

Panic Disorder Symptoms

🔹erratic or pounding heartbeats

🔹labored breathing, dizziness

🔹chest pain

🔹sweating &trembling

🔹feelings of choking & suffocating.

Agoraphobia

intense fear of being in places or situations where escape might be difficult or help may not be available.

Extreme agoraphobia

Person may stay confined to home

Which disorder often accompanies agoraphobia?

Panic disorder

Phobia

(anxiety disorder)

Persistent fear and avoidance of specific object/situation

🔹A person fears specific situations, avoids giving presentations & public speaking, but otherwise socializes normally.

What type of anxiety is this?

Performance anxiety

🔹A person avoids social events, struggles to interact with coworkers, and fears meeting new people.

What disorder is this?

Severe social anxiety

🔹A person constantly worries about finances, health, work even when nothing is seriously wrong & experiences anxiety that is much stronger than the actual situation requires.

What disorder is most likely?

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

🔹A person’s anxiety shifts from one concern to another, without a clear focus.

What does this suggest?

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

What is acrophobia?

Fear of high places

What is agoraphobia?

Fear of open places

What is ailurophobia?

Fear of cats

What is anthropophobia?

Fear of men

What is hematophobia?

Fear of blood

What is monophobia?

Fear of being alone

What is mysophobia?

Fear of contamination

What is nyctophobia?

Fear of darkness

What is pyrophobia?

Fear of fire

What is syphilophobia?

Fear of syphilis

What is zoophobia?

Fear of animals or a single animal

PTSD symptom pattern

🔹Reliving event

🔹avoidance

🔹emotional distress

Psychoanalytic view of when anxiety appears

When defenses are overused, rigid, or fail

Avoidance learning

Reducing fear by avoiding the anxiety-producing stimulus

Biological predisposition to anxiety disorders

🔹Some individuals have sensitive, highly responsive nervous systems that are more easily triggered

🔹Makes them more likely to develop panic, phobic, & generalized anxiety disorders

Prefrontal cortex role

Responsible for extinguishing fear

Basal ganglia

🔹“Way stations” linking sensory input to behavior

🔹Connects incoming sensory messages with resulting behavior and mental actions

🔹Stores hardwired behavioral patterns

Dopamine dysfunction in the basal ganglia is linked to____

OCD

GABA function

Inhibitory neurotransmitter Reduces/Regulates Anxiety- Reduces neural activity

Common symptoms of somatic symptom disorders

🔹dizziness

🔹stomach pain

🔹vomiting

🔹breathing difficulty

🔹swallowing difficulty

🔹impaired vision

🔹inability to move legs

🔹numbness

🔹sexual dysfunction

Bomber pilots developing night blindness under stress with no physical cause

Conversion disorder

Conversion disorder trigger

Often follows stress or conflict

fear of elevators after being trapped

Conditioned phobia

What maintains compulsive behavior?

Negative reinforcement (anxiety reduction)

What explains phobias in behavioral theory?

Classical conditioning

How do maladaptive behaviors in personality disorders change over time?

They become more deeply ingrained over the years

Most Studied & Most Prevalent Personality Disorder

Antisocial personality disorder

Considered the most disruptive personality disorder from society’s point of view

Antisocial personality disorder

Antisocial Personality Disorder

▪️Disregard for others' rights

▪️Lack of remorse or guilt for antisocial acts

▪️Irresponsibility in job or marital roles

▪️Failure to learn from experience

▪️Lack of deep & Lasting emotions

Antisocial Personality Disorder - Prevalence

🔺2-4% of men

🔺0.5-1% of women

Behaviors consistent with Antisocial Personality Disorder 

🔺unlawful behavior

🔺aggressiveness & physical fighting

🔺consistent irresponsibility

🔺impulsivity

🔺failure to plan

🔺deceitfulness

🔺disregard for the safety of self & others

🔺no remorse

When can psychopathic (antisocial) traits & behaviors first be identified?

Early in life; may be identifiable as early as 5–6 years of age

What is the role of the Superego?

Develops in childhood & Provides moral & ethical restraints

What David Lykken’s experiment discovered about antisocial personality disorder

🔸Low emotional responsiveness to threatened pain

🔸have less anxiety about punishment

🔸they do Not learn to avoid shocks that lead to negative consequences

What do antisocial individuals show in response to threatened pain?

low emotional response to punishment, so they

do Not learn to avoid harmful behaviors

What percentage of Antisocial individuals show abnormal brain waves & What percent of Normal Population show abnormal brain waves?

🔺50-60% Antisocial

🔺10-15% Normal population

How do Limbic System & Frontal Lobe dysfunctions affect behavior in antisocial personality disorder?

🔹less sensitive to behavioral consequences

🔹less able to control impulsive behaviors

🔹A person repeatedly acts impulsively & ignores consequences—

What Biological factor may explain this?

Possible dysfunction in the

🔹Limbic system

🔹Frontal lobes

reducing sensitivity to consequences

(antisocial personality disorder)

What theory links depression to lack of control?

Learned Helplessness become depressed you have no control over the reinforcers & punishers in their lives

Which statement is MOST accurate about schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia develops when:

🔺genetic (biological) predisposition

interacts w/

🔺environmental stressors

What model explains schizophrenia as the result of biological factors & environmental stress?

Interactional Hypothesis (model)

What does the Biological perspective say are the main causes of schizophrenia?

🔹genetics

🔹biochemical abnormalities (dopamine- too high or not working correctly)

What is the MOST important conclusion about the causes of schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia develops when:

🔺genetic (biological) predisposition

interacts w/

🔺environmental stressors

Which perspective provides the strongest explanation for schizophrenia?

The Biological perspective, explains schizophrenia in terms of:

🔺genetic factors

🔺biochemical abnormalities (dopamine)

🔺brain structural abnormalities (Enlarged ventricles,

Reduced temporal lobe volume

Reduced hippocampus size

Smaller corpus callosum)

What is the approximate concordance rate for dichorionic identical twins in schizophrenia?

Approx. 10%, indicating that environmental factors play a significant role

Dissociative disorders

Separation of anxiety-producing thoughts from conscious awareness through memory loss or identity change.

Why dissociative disorders occur according to Psychoanalytic view

Excessive repression blocks unacceptable impulses and anxiety from awareness.

Memory loss after trauma or stress that removes a specific time period, but remembers skills like speaking or playing piano

Dissociative amnesia

After a traumatic accident, someone cannot remember anything about the event or the surrounding time period

Dissociative amnesia

Depersonalization-derealization disorder

Feeling detached from your own body or like you’re watching yourself, along with a out-of-body, dreamlike sense of surroundings

Primary personality unaware of others but others may know primary

Dissociative identity disorder.

🔹Switching between a primary personality and one or more (multiple) secondary personalities not caused by disease or brain injury

🔹Subordinate personalities are usually aware of the primary personality, but the primary is not aware of them

🔺9x more women affected than men

Dissociative identity disorder

🔹An interesting case of dissociative identity disorder that  appeared in early childhood, around age 2

🔹Followed a long history of sexual  abuse, which original personality was “asleep” while other personalities emerged

🔺Displayed 92 separate personalities, called ____

🔺____ Case

🔺Troops

🔺Truddi Chase

Truddi Chase Personality that acted as the perfect woman

Miss Wonderful

Truddi Chase Personality character who played a vulgar woman

Sewer Mouth

Truddi Chase Personality Mean Joe

11-foot protector of the troops

Truddi Chase Personality Carefree & irresponsible

Elvira

Truddi Chase Personality that communicated only through howls of pain

Rabbit

Truddi Chase Personality responsible for tracking other personalities (Troops)

The Front Runner

Truddi Chase Personality Sensitive & artistic child

Twelve

How does Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory explain dissociative disorders?

excessive use of defense mechanisms to cope with anxiety & internal conflict.

Psychoanalytic perspective on Dissociative Disorders

Excessive repression

Defense mechanisms BLOCK (sexual) impulses from awareness

According to Behavioral theory, Dissociative behaviors (operant avoidance responses) continue because ____

🔹They are Reinforced because they Reduce Anxiety (avoidance learning)

Bipolar disorder

Extreme mood swings from Immobilizing Depression to Euphoria & Frantic activity

🔹A patient shows high energy, little sleep, & distractibility.

🔺What additional symptom would BEST confirm mania

🔹Which DSM-5 Manic symptom involves increased activity & restlessness

Psychomotor agitation

Bipolar I Disorder

At least 1 Manic episode occurs w/ Major depression