Psychopathology Final new

OCD

Mental illness marked by recurrent, intrusive, unwanted thoughts and repetitive behavior.

OCPD

A personality disorder in which someone always wants to b in control. Strict orderliness, perfectionism

What is needed in order to have OCD?

The presence of wither obsessions OR compulsions, or BOTH that are time consuming

What are OCD obsessions?

Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, images, or experiences that are experienced at some point as intrusive and unwanted and that cause marked anxiety or distress. They attempt to ignore or suppress the thoughts, images, or urges

What are some examples of OCD obsessions?

Germs, COVID, cancer, locks, appliances, written work, stabbing children, accidentally harming others

What are OCD compulsions?

Repetitive behaviors or mental acts that a person feels driven to perform in response to an obsessions or according to rules that must be applied rigidly. Behaviors or mental acts are aimed at preventing or reducing anxiety or distress

What are some examples of compulsions?

Washing and cleaning, checking, counting, repeating actions, symmetry

What is magical thinking?

Belief that your thoughts or actions can cause real life consequences, defy logic, or scientific explanation

What is the cognitive model of OCD?

Everyone has intrusive thoughts, but OCD arises from how these thoughts are interpreted.

What is thought action fusion?

Belief that thinking something is morally equivalent to doing it

What is stress?

Physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to events that are appraised as threatening or challenging.

What are stressors?

Events that cause a stress reaction:

Distress- the effect of unpleasant and undesirable stressors

Eustress- effect of positive events or the optimal amount of stress that people need to promote health and well being

What is the Homeostatic Mechanism?

Allows internal adaptation; helps prepare an organism for manipulation of behavior and environment to maintain homeostasis

What is Allostasis?

Ability of the body to achieve and maintain stability through change. Represents adaptive coping mechanisms in which various stress response processes are engaged during stress.

What is homeostasis?

The maintenance of processes that are essential for survival, and large divergences in these processes lead to death.

What is cognitive appraisal?

States how people will think about a stressor, determines, how stressful that stressor will become.

Primary- (1st step) in assessing a stress. estimating the sensitivity of a stressor and classifying it as either a threat or a challenge

Secondary- (2nd step) assessing a threat. Estimating the resources available to the person for coping with the stressor

(Lazarus 2 step approach)

What are the 2 forms of stress?

Acute: Short lived, triggers a flight or fight response, can be helpful

Chronic: Long lasting, occurs during situations

Who were the 2 notable researchers of stress?

Elster Cannon: Develop the concept of homeostasis and stress

Hans Selye: General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) represents a reliable patterns of physiological reactions that correspond to the body’s attempt to mediate resistance to a threat

| Cannon viewed stress in terms of the stressor, Selye viewed stress in terms of the components of the stress response |

What is GAS and the steps?

•  It represents a reliable pattern of physiological reactions that correspond to the body's attempt to mediate resistance to a threat. GAS hypothesis consists of 3 stages:

  • 1) Alarm Stage: physiological activation of the HPA axis and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) → preparation to deal with threat

  • 2) Resistance Stage: period following initial reaction to threat - body mediates ongoing stress and attempts to return to steady-state levels

  • 3) Exhaustion Stage: When a prolonged stress response overexerts the body's defense systems, draining it of its reserve resources and leading to illness

What is an adjustment disorder?

Excessive and atypical reactions to normal life stressors

When do adjustment disorders occur?

Following an identifiable stressor that happened within the past 3 months. Stressors can be any single event like loss of a job, death in the family, or a series of multiple stressors like divorce, chronic abuse.

Symptoms of adjustment disorders?

Does not have a set of specific symptoms that an individual must meet for diagnosis but they must be related to the stressor, significant enough to impair social or occupational functioning, caused marked distress, the symptoms do not represent normal bereavement

When can Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) be diagnosed?

2 days to up to 1 month after the event

When can PTSD be diagnosed?

One months to several years after the trauma

What is a traumatic event?

Life threatening when it occurs, results in the same kind of intense fear, horror, and helplessness that objectively life threatening events arouse. Typically the trauma is sudden, threat to your life or physical integrity, or outside the range of normal human experience.

What are the symptoms for ASD?

Intrusion, dissociation, negative mood, avoidance, elevated arousal. Clinically significant distress or impairment

Diagnosis of ASD?

• A diagnosis of Acute Stress Disorder requires an antecedent event in which the person: 

  • A. experienced an event or events that involved a threat of death, actual or threatened serious injury, or actual or threatened physical or sexual violation 

  • B. Witnessed an event or events that involved the actual or threatened death, serious injury, or physical or sexual violation of others

  • C. Learned of such harm coming to a close relative or friend 

    • Caveat: In cases of actual or threatened death of a family member or friend, the event(s) must have been violent or accidental 

  • D. Experiencing repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event(s), i.e., first responders, collecting human remains, police officers repeatedly exposed to details of child abuse

What is the assessment measure for ASD?

The Stanford acute stress reaction questionnaire

What is the fear conditioning model of trauma and PTSD?

Fear experienced during a traumatic event becomes associated with the trauma itself. Later, reminders of the trauma can trigger anxiety and panic responses, even when there is no real danger. Biologically, this is supported by extreme sympathetic arousal during trauma, which causes a surge in stress hormones like norepinephrine and epinephrine. This "stamps in" the trauma memories, making them especially strong and vivid. Importantly, most trauma survivors engage in extinction learning in the days and weeks after the trauma, gradually learning that these reminders do not signal further threat. When this extinction learning fails, persistent fear responses may lead to PTSD.

Definition of trauma?

Objectively- situations that are life-threatening or carry a risk of serious injury, such as being shot at.

Subjectively- experiences that evoke the same intense feelings of fear, horror, or helplessness, even if the event isn't objectively life-threatening.

What is the PTSD criteria?

PTSD includes 20 symptoms grouped into 4 clusters: intrusion, avoidance, negative mood/cognition, and arousal/reactivity. Key features are emotional numbing, hyperarousal (like irritability or hypervigilance), and reexperiencing the trauma through flashbacks or intrusive thoughts.

What is C-PTSD?

Condition developed from experiencing prolonged or repeated traumatic events. People with CPTSD show 3 additional symptoms:

• Excessive sensitivity with anger and aggressive behavior to negative emotional stimuli

• A negative sense of self involving persistent feelings of shame, guilt, failure, and worthlessness

• Severe difficulty in forming and maintaining meaningful relationships 

PTSD in Children – Key Differences

PTSD diagnosis in young children requires developmentally sensitive criteria due to limited verbal and abstract thinking skills. Traditional adult symptoms like distressing intrusive thoughts were modified, since children may not show distress or may appear excited. Signs in youth include trauma re-experiencing, avoidance, play reenactment, nightmares, regression (e.g., toileting), and emotional numbing.

What is resilience?

The ability to withstand, adapt to , and recover from adversity. Maintaining or returning to their original state of mental health or well being through the use of effective coping mechanisms

What is a normal personality?

Contains sufficiently diverse traits that allow the individual to be flexible and adaptive and to adjust their response.

What is a disordered personality?

The individual doing the same thing over and over, irrespective of the appropriateness of the behavior, the contingencies of the situation, or the negative consequences created. Lacks self monitoring and self corrective capacity, resulting in the individual being unable to alter their responses fro better consequences and being unable to realize that their own behavior is the cause of their distress.

What is a personality disorder?

A characteristic condition rather than a symptomatic condition; must be thought of differently and dealt differently than a symptomatic condition.

What are the general features of a personality disorder?

• Chronic interpersonal difficulties 

• Problems with one's identity or sense of self

• Difficulties functioning adequately in society

What are the Cluster A personality disorders?

• Cluster A (odd, eccentric)

  • Paranoid PD 

  • Schizoid 

  • Schizotypal 

What are the Cluster B Personality Disorders?

• Cluster B (dramatic, emotionally erratic)

  • Antisocial 

  • Borderline

  • Histrionic 

  • Narcissistic

What are the Cluster C Personality Disorders?

• Cluster C (anxious, fearful)

  • Avoident 

  • Dependnet

  • Obbseesive-compulsive

Cluster A personality disorders

• Parinoed: mistrustful; suspicious 

• Schizoid: detached from social relationships; restricted emotions

• Schizotypal: odd beliefs; discomfort interacting socially

What is Paranoid PD?

Paranoid PD is marked by pervasive suspiciousness, with trust being the central deficiency. Individuals often see themselves as mistreated and view others as malevolent. They see the world as dangerous and tend to deal with it through secretiveness. Behaviorally, they may come across as angry loners and often appear bitter. Their major life themes revolve around betrayal, vigilance, and self-protection. CLUSTER A

What is Schizotypal PD?

Schizotypal PD is defined by eccentricity in behavior, thinking, and appearance, with a major deficiency in conformity. These individuals often see themselves as gifted or special, while viewing others as inferior. They find the world fascinating and engage with it through odd beliefs or magical thinking. They typically come across as strange or socially awkward.

What is Schizoid PD?

Schizoid PD is characterized by emotional indifference and a lack of interest in social relationships, with a primary deficiency in forming attachments. These individuals see themselves as self-sufficient and view others as impersonal. They perceive the world as uninteresting and prefer to deal with it through solitude. They typically come across as aloof, detached loners.

Cluster B personality disorders

• Histrionic PD: attention-seeking; excessive emotions

• Narcissistic PD: grandiose; lacking empathy + Borderline PD: instability in affect, fractured identity, and problematic relationships.

• Antisocial PD: exploitative; disregard for the rights of others

What is Histrionic PD?

Histrionic PD is marked by excessive emotional expressiveness and a strong need for attention, with a core deficiency in managing shame. Individuals see themselves as attractive or fetching and believe others want to like them. They view the world in an impressionistic, often superficial way and engage with it by performing or dramatizing. They typically come across as provocative or overly theatrical.

What is Narcissistic PD?

Narcissistic PD is defined by grandiosity and a deep need for admiration, with a major deficiency in recognizing equality. These individuals see themselves as entitled and view others as inferior. They perceive the world as their kingdom and interact with it by devaluing others. They typically come across as arrogant and self-important.

What is narcissm?

Narcissism exists on a spectrum. Positive self-esteem reflects a generally healthy self-view. Healthy narcissism includes recognizing one’s strengths without flaunting them. Group narcissism depends on feeling special through group membership, not personal traits. Helpful narcissism involves guiding or correcting others, often without realizing it’s unwelcome. Real narcissism occurs when someone believes they are superior, and this view is often validated—unlike healthy narcissism, they openly highlight their abilities.

What is Borderline PD?

Borderline PD is defined by emotional instability and intense, rapidly shifting relationships, with a core deficiency in emotional proportionality. Individuals see themselves as vulnerable and others as either all good or all bad. They view the world as hurtful and engage with it through emotional escalations. They often come across as unstable, swinging between love and hate in relationships.

What is Antisocial PD?

Antisocial PD is characterized by exploitation and a lack of honor, with a fundamental pattern of violating societal rules and rights. Individuals view themselves as superior and see others as "suckers." They perceive the world as a dog-eat-dog place and navigate it through opportunism, often coming across as callous and unemotional.

ASPD vs. Psychopathy – Key Differences & Similarities

ASPD (DSM-5-TR) is marked by a pervasive disregard for others’ rights, with traits like deceitfulness, impulsivity, aggression, and lack of remorse. Psychopathy, the "charismatic cousin" of ASPD, involves superficial charm, grandiosity, pathological lying, and manipulative behavior. Both share rule-breaking, lack of empathy, impulsivity, and a disregard for others’ feelings, but key differences include:

• ASPD: impulsive, acts in the heat of the moment, often lacking forethought.

• Psychopaths: plan actions carefully, manipulating situations for personal gain.

• Environmental factors such as poverty, neglect, and harsh discipline can contribute to the development of ASPD.

What is Avoidant PD?

Avoidant PD is defined by extreme timidity and a lack of resilience, with a fundamental behavioral pattern of being skittish or easily frightened. Individuals view themselves as inferior and others as dangerous. They see the world as a scary place and often deal with it through avoidance. They typically come across as fragile, fearing criticism or rejection.

What is dependent PD?

Dependent PD is characterized by excessive submissiveness and a lack of independent thinking, with a behavioral pattern of seeking help and being clingy. Individuals view themselves as insufficient and others as competent or capable. They see the world as overwhelming and often deal with it by being overly agreeable. They typically come across as needy, relying heavily on others for support and decision-making.

What is Obsessive-Compulsive PD?

OCPD is characterized by rigidity and a lack of flexibility, with a fundamental behavioral pattern of being demanding and controlling. Individuals see themselves as righteous and others as lax or irresponsible. They view the world as contaminated and deal with it through a need for control. They typically come across as insensitive, focused on perfection and order at the expense of relationships and flexibility.