Unit 8 AP Psych

psychological disorders

a syndrome (collection of symptoms) marked by a “clinically” significant disturbance in an individuals cognition, emotion, or behaviors.” are deviant, distressful, dysfunctional, psychiatric, psychologist label them as disordered

3 criteria used to label behavior as disordered

Dysfunction, distress (or impairment), and deviance from normality.

medical model

the concept that diseases have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases, cured. when applied to psychological disorders, the medical model 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

DSM-V

diagnostic and manual of mental disorders, a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders

What critics of DSM-V argue

argue that diagnostic labels can stigmatize a person by biasing others interpretations and perceptions of past and present behaviors and by affecting the ways people react to the labeled person

generalized anxiety

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

panic disorder

an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable minutes - long episodes (panic attacks) of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or frightening sensations - often worried about possible next attack

agoraphobia

fear or avoidance of situation in which escape can be difficult or one has felt loss of control and panic

phobias

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

social anxiety disorder

intense fear of social situations leading to avoidance of such. having an intense fear of being scrutinized by others.

OCD (symptoms and characteristics)

a disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsession) and/or repetitive ritual actions (compulsive) often involving checking, organizing, counting, or cleaning something that reduced the anxiety that one’s obsessions' produced.

PTSD

a disorder characterized by haunting memories/nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and/or amnesia that lingers for 4 weeks or more after a traumatic experience

learning perspective for explaining anxiety disorders

classical & operant conditioning - researcher have linked general anxiety with classical conditioning of fear

observational learning - we might learn fear by observing others fear

cognition - our interpretation and irrational beliefs can also cause feeling of anxiety

somatic symptom disorders - conversion disorder and illness anxiety disorder

people experience a change in or loss of physical function in a major part of the body for which there is no known medical cause

dissociative disorders

disorders in which conscious awareness become separated from pervious memories, thoughts, and feelings

Dissociate Identity disorder

a rare dissociate disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities. Also called “multiple personality disorder”

explanation for dissociative disorder

1. each personality is different from each other

2. people diagnosed with this were abused in some way in childhood

3. they dissociate as a way to dealing with anxiety

major depressive disorder

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

mania

a mood disorder marked by hyperactive, wildly optimistic state

bipolar disorder

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

social cognitive perspective

people's personalities are influenced by observing others' behavior.

schizophrenia (symptoms and characteristics)

a psychological disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or diminished or inappropriate emotional expressions

* lost of contact with reality, irrational ideas, and distributed perception

understanding schizophrenia (brain abnormalities and different aspects)

Hallucinations which are usually auditory and take forms of insulting voices. excess receptors for DOPAMINE. abnormal activity in multiple brain areas, some have abnormally low brain activity in the frontal lobes which are reasoning, planning, and problem solving

positive symptom - presence of inappropriate behavior

negative symptom - absence of inappropriate behaviors

understanding schizophrenia - genetic factors

1% chance of being diagnosed becomes 10% if parents or siblings has disorders. Children adopted by someone with schizophrenia can “catch” the disorder.

schizoid personality disorder

emotionally disengaged. have no interest in relationships with others bc they have normal emotional response

antisocial personality disorder

personality disorder in which the person exhibits a lack of conscience for wrong doing, even toward friends and family. may be aggressive and ruthless.

* 3% men and 1% women. Many are con artist and feel no guilt or remorse for their actions

psychotherapy

treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a therapist and someone speaking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth

biomedical therapy

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

eclectic approach to therapy

an approach to psychotherapy that depends on the client’s problems, use techniques from various forms of therapy

aims of psychoanalysis, free association, resistance, and transference

psychoanalysis - freud’s therapeutic technique, freud believed the patients free association, resistance, dreams, and transference

free association - say aloud whatever comes to mind

resistance - blocking from consciousness of anxiety laden material

client-centered therapy & active listening

a humanistic therapy developed by carl rogers in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine accepting, empathetic environment to facilitate client’s growth

counterconditioning & techniques (exposure therapies, systematic desensitization, virtual reality exposure therapy) & aversion conditioning

behavior therapy procedure that pairs the trigger stimulus with a new response that’s incompatible with fear

• exposure therapies - treat anxiety by exposing people to the things they fear

• systematic desensitization - associates pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli

• virtual reality - expose people to stimulation of their fear

operant conditioning therapies

based on principle that voluntary behaviors are strongly influenced by consequences.

* token economy - operant conditioning in which person earns token for exhibiting desired behavior

cognitive therapy

attempt to teach people to think more adaptive ways on the assumption that thoughts intervene between an event and our emotional reactions to it.

cognitive-behavior therapy

popular integrated therapy that combines cognitive therapy with behavior therapy

family therapy

views a family as an interactive system and attempts to help members discover the roles they play and to learn to communicate more openly and directly

regression toward mean

one sample of a random variable is extreme, the next sampling of the same random variable is likely to be closer to its mean

meta-analysis

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

which therapies are good at treating specific disorders

cognitive and cognitive-behavior therapies

• anxiety, ptsd, insomnia, depression

behavior conditioning therapies

• bed wetting, phobias, compulsion, mania problems, and sexual dysfunctions

non directive (client-centered)

• mild to moderate depression

light exposure therapy

spending time exposed to intense lights that mimic natural outdoor lights. effective in treating depression.

psychopharmacology

study of drug effect on mind and behavior

double-blind technique

both employees and patients don’t know whether they’re getting the placebo or actual drug.

antipsychotic drugs

such as thorazine, lessen responsiveness to irrelevant stimuli. it provides most help to schizophrenia patients experiencing positive symptoms

antianxiety drugs

like xanax or activan, depresses central nervous system activity

antidepressants (what they are and what they do, examples, SSRI)

sometimes lift people up from state of depression

* increasingly being used to treat anxiety disorders since it’s not addicting

lithium

a mood stabilizing medicine used to treat certain mental illnesses, such as: mania

electroconvulsive therapy

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

psychosurgery and lobotomy

surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior (irreversible, drastic, least used)

* lobotomy - cut nerves that connect the frontal lobes to emotion-controlling centers of inner brain. produced a lethargic, uncreative, immature person.

preventative mental health

seeks to prevent psychological casualties by identifying and alleviating the conditions that cause them.