Psychological Disorders Chapter 14

Early explanations of mental illness

• In ancient times holes were cut in an ill person’s head to let out evil spirits in a process called trepanning. 

• Hippocrates believed that mental illness came from an imbalance in the body’s four humors.

• In the Middle Ages, the mentally ill were labeled as witches.

Trepanning (Early explanations of mental illness)

holes were cut in an ill person’s head to let out evil spirits

Psychopathology

the study of abnormal behavior.

Psychological disorders are defined as

“any pattern of behavior that causes people significant distress, causes them to harm others, or harms their ability to function in daily life.”

Abnormality is statistically…

rare

Capgras syndrome

a rare condition in which someone believes that their loved ones have been replaced by imposters.

Abnormality is characterized by

• Bizarreness of behavior

• Persistence of behavior

• Deviant from social norms

• Subjective discomfort

• Maladaptive

Situational context

the social or environmental setting of a person’s behavior.

Subjective judgments in relation to Trichotillomania

refer to the personal feelings and experiences of individuals with the disorder, such as their awareness of the urge to pull hair, the emotional states associated with pulling, and their reactions to the consequences of their behavior.

Subjective discomfort (Abnormality)

emotional distress or emotional pain.

Maladaptive (Abnormality)

anything that does not allow a person to function within or adapt to the stresses and everyday demands of life.

Biological model

model of explaining behavior as caused by biological changes in the chemical, structural, or genetic systems of the body.

Psychoanalytic theorists assume that abnormal behavior stems from..

repressed conflicts and urges that are fighting to become conscious.

Behaviorists see abnormal behavior as…

learned

Cognitive theorists see abnormal behavior as…

coming from irrational beliefs and illogical patterns of thought.

Cultural relativity

the need to consider the unique characteristics of the culture in which behavior takes place.

Culture-bound syndromes

disorders found only in particular cultures.

Koro

fear that one’s genitals are shrinking (China, SE Asia)

Anorexia nervosa

an eating disorder (U.S. and Great Britain)

DSM-V

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Version V, is a manual of psychological disorders and their symptoms.

“Being Sane in Insane Places”

a 1973 study by David Rosenhan that explored the validity of psychiatric diagnosis and the experiences of pseudopatients in psychiatric institutions.

Anxiety disorders

disorders in which the main symptom is excessive or unrealistic anxiety and fearfulness.

Free-floating anxiety

anxiety that is unrelated to any realistic, known source

Phobia

an irrational, persistent fear of an object, situation, or social activity.

Social phobia

fear of interacting with others or being in social situations that might lead to a negative evaluation.

Specific phobia (Anxiety disorders)

fear of objects or specific situations or events.

Claustrophobia (Anxiety disorders)

fear of being in a small, enclosed space.

Acrophobia (Anxiety disorders)

fear of heights

Agoraphobia (Anxiety disorders)

fear of being in a place or situation from which escape is difficult or impossible if something should go wrong.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

disorder in which intruding, recurring thoughts or obsessions create anxiety that is relieved by performing a repetitive, ritualistic behavior (compulsion).

Panic attack

sudden onset of intense panic in which multiple physical symptoms of stress occur, often with feelings that one is dying.

Panic disorder (Anxiety disorders)

disorder in which panic attacks occur frequently enough to cause the person difficulty in adjusting to daily life.

Agoraphobia (Anxiety disorders)

fear of leaving one’s familiar surroundings because one might have a panic attack in public. (Often associated with panic disorder.)

Generalized anxiety disorder

disorder in which a person has feelings of dread and impending doom along with physical symptoms of stress, which lasts six months or more.

(Causes of Anxiety disorders) Psychoanalytic explanations point to

repressed urges and desires that are trying to come into conscious, creating anxiety that is controlled by the abnormal behavior.

(Causes of Anxiety disorders) Behaviorists state that disordered behavior…

is learned through both positive and negative reinforcement.

(Causes of anxiety disorders) Cognitive psychologists believe that…

excessive anxiety comes from illogical, irrational thought processes. 

(Causes of anxiety disorders) Magnification

the tendency to interpret situations as far more dangerous, harmful, or important than they actually are.

(Causes of anxiety disorders) All-or-nothing thinking

the tendency to believe that one’s performance must be perfect or the result will be a total failure.

(Causes of anxiety disorders) Overgeneralization

the tendency to interpret a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat and failure.

(Causes of anxiety disorders) Minimization

the tendency to give little or no importance to one’s successes or positive events and traits.  

(Causes of anxiety disorders) Biological explanations of anxiety disorders include…

chemical imbalances in the nervous system, in particular the GABA system.

Somatoform Disorders

disorders that take the form of bodily illnesses and symptoms but for which there are no real physical disorders.

(Somatoform Disorders) Psychosomatic disorder

disorder in which psychological stress causes a real physical disorder or illness.

(Somatoform Disorders) Psychophysiological disorder

modern term for psychosomatic disorder.

Somatization disorder (Somatoform Disorders)

somatoform disorder in which the person dramatically complains of a specific symptom such as nausea, difficulty swallowing, or pain for which there is no real physical cause. 

Conversion disorder (Somatoform Disorders)

somatoform disorder in which the person experiences a specific symptom in the somatic nervous system’s functioning, such as paralysis, numbness, or blindness, for which there is no physical cause.

Glove anaesthestia

a disorder in which the person experiences numbness from the wrist down, due to nerve damange. Often a sign of conversion disorder

Hypochondriasis (Somatoform Disorders)

somatoform disorder in which the person is terrified of being sick and worries constantly, going to doctors repeatedly, and becoming preoccupied with every sensation of the body. (Histrionic personality)

Dissociative disorders

disorders in which there is a break in conscious awareness, memory, the sense of identity, or some combination.Dissociative disorders – disorders in which there is a break in conscious awareness, memory, the sense of identity, or some combination.

Dissociative amnesia (Dissociative Disorders)

loss of memory for personal information, either partial or complete.

Dissociative fugue (Dissociative Disorders)

traveling away from familiar surroundings with amnesia for the trip and possible amnesia for personal information.

Dissociative identity disorder (Dissociative Disorders)

disorder occurring when a person seems to have two or more distinct personalities within one body. (MPD)

Depersonalization disorder (Dissociative Disorders)

• dissociative disorder in which a person feels detached and disconnected from themselves, their bodies, and their surroundings.

  • Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID)

Affect

in psychology, an emotional reaction.

Mood disorders

disorders in which mood is severely disturbed.

Major depression (Mood disorders)

severe depression that comes on suddenly and seems to have no external cause.

Manic (Mood disorders)

having the quality of excessive excitement, energy, and elation or irritability.

Bipolar disorder (Mood disorders)

severe mood swings between major depressive episodes and manic episodes.

Personality disorder

“a disorder in which a person adopts a persistent, rigid, and maladaptive pattern of behavior that interferes with normal social interactions”

Schizophrenia

“severe disorder in which the person suffers from disordered thinking, bizarre behavior, hallucinations, and is unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality.”

Psychotic (Schizophrenia)

the break away from an ability to perceive what is real and what is fantasy.

Delusions (Schizophrenia)

false beliefs held by a person who refuses to accept evidence of their falseness.

Delusional disorder (Schizophrenia)

a psychotic disorder in which the primary symptom is one or more delusions (may or may not be schizophrenia).

Hallucinations (Schizophrenia)

false sensory perceptions, such as hearing voices that do not really exist.

Flat affect (Schizophrenia)

a lack of emotional responsiveness.

Paranoid (Schizophrenia)

type of … in which the person suffers from delusions of persecution, grandeur, and jealousy, together with hallucinations.

Catatonic (Schizophrenia)

type of … in which the person experiences periods of statue-like immobility mixed with occasional bursts of energetic, frantic movement and talking

Disorganized (Schizophrenia)

type of … in which behavior is bizarre and childish and thinking, speech, and motor actions are very disordered.

Undifferentiated (Schizophrenia)

type of schizophrenia in which the person shows no particular pattern, shifting from one pattern to another, and cannot be neatly classified as disorganized, paranoid, or catatonic.

Residual (Schizophrenia)

type of schizophrenia in which there are no delusions and hallucinations, but the person still experiences negative thoughts, poor language skills, and odd behavior.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

a mood disorder caused by the body’s reaction to low levels of sunlight in the winter months.

Phototherapy (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

the use of lights to treat seasonal affective disorder or other disorders.