Abnormal Psych Final Exam Review (ChP 10-16)

Define tolerance and list possible symptoms

• Need for increasing doses of substances to produce desired effect 

Symptoms: 

• Increased substance use

• Reduced effectiveness of the substance

• Frequent prescription refills 

• Obsession with the substance

• Mood swings and increased anxie

Define withdrawal and list possible symptoms

• Unpleasant and sometimes dangerous symptoms occurring with drug stopping or cutting back

Symptoms:

• Flu-like symptoms and fatigue

• Nausea and vomiting

• Anxiety (rapid heart rate, shaky hands)

• Irritability and mood swings 

• Intense cravings for the substance

• Depressed mood 

Define Korsakoff’s syndrome and possible symptoms

• A chronic memory disorder resulting from severe thiamine deficiency (vitamin B1) caused by excessive drinking/ alcohol abuse 

• Symptoms:

  • Severe amnesia ( past and new memories)

  • Confabulation (making up stories to fill in memory gaps)

  • Neurological symptoms: poor coordination, eye movement abnormalities, and muscle weakness 

Define Fetal alcohol syndrome and possible symptoms

• A developmental disorder that occurs when a fetus is exposed to alcohol during pregnancy resulting in physical, behavioral, and cognitive impairments

• Symptoms:

  • Physical features: smooth philtrum, thin upper lip

  • Heart defects and joint deformities

  • Cognitive impairments, learning disabilities

  • Problems with attention and hyperactivity

  • Behavioral problems

What are possible treatments for substance abuse in terms of psychodynamic therapy? 

• Clients helped to become aware of an correct needs and conflicts related to drug use

• Most useful when combined in multidimensional treatment program 

What are possible treatments for substance abuse in terms of cognitive behavioral techniques? 

• Clients are helped to identify and change behaviors and cognitions that contribute to patterns of substance misuse 

What are the interventions for cognitive behavioral?

• Aversion therapy

• Contingency management

• Relapse-prevention training

• Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

Aversion Therapy

• Individuals are repeatedly presented with an unpleasant stimulus the moment they taking a drug

• They are expected to react negatively to the substances and lose their craving for it after repeated pairings 

Contingency management

• Behavioral therapy that utilizes rewards to reinforce positive behaviors in treating substance use disorders and promotes treatment adherence 

Relapse-prevention training

• Goal: for clients to gain control over their substance-related behaviors

• Clients are taught to identify and plan ahead for high-risk situations and to learn from mistakes and lapses 

• Used to treat alcohol use, along with cocaine and marijuana abuse 

Acceptance and commitment therpay (ACT):

• Mindfulness-based approach to help clients become aware of their thoughts as they are occurring and to accept these thoughts as mere events of the mind 

What are some biological treatments for substance abuse?

• Help people withdraw, abstain, or maintain level of use without further increases 

  • Detoxification:

    • Medically supervised outpatient or inpatient gradual, induced withdrawal

  • Antagonist drugs:

    • Block or change the effects of a drug to help the person resist falling back into a pattern of substance abuse or dependence

  • Drug maintenance therapy:

    • Methadone maintenance programs designed to provide a safe, legal, and medically supervised substitute for heroin

    • Buprenorhine is less potent, produces less tolerance and fewer withdrawal reactions 

What do sociocultural therapists believe?

• Believe psychological problems emerge in a social setting and best treated in a social context 

What are the different sociocultural therapies for substance abuse

• Self-help and residential treatment programs

• Culture and gender sensitive programs 

• Community prevention programs 

Self-help and residential treatment programs

• People formerly dependent on drugs live, work, and socialize in a drug-free environment while undergoing individual, group, and family therapies 

Culture and gender sensitive programs

• Aim to be sensitive to the special sociocultural pressures and problems faced by drug abusers who are poor, homeless, or members of minority groups. 

Community prevention programs

• Some prevention programs argue for total abstinence from drugs, while others teach responsible use

• Focus on the individual, the family, the peer group, the school, or the community at large 

• Most effective programs focus on multiple areas to provide a consistent  message about drug use in all areas of life 

Male hypoactive sexual drive disorder

• A male dysfunction marked by a persistent reduction or lack of interest in sex and hence a low level of sexual activity 

Female sexual interest/ arousal disorder

• A female dysfunction marked by persistent reduction or lack of interest in sex and low sexual activity, in some cases, limited excitement and few sexual sensations during sexual activity 

What are some biological causes of low sexual desire?

• Prolactin: High level

• Testosterone: Low level

• Estrogen: High or low level 

Paraphilia

• For at least 6 months, individuals experience repeated and intense sexual urges or fantasies in response to objects or situations that society deems inappropriately 

What are some objects or situations outside usual sexual norms?

• Nonhumans

• Children 

• Non-consenting adults

• Experience or suffering or humiliation 

Pedophilic disorder

• Repeated and intense sexual urges or fantasies about watching, touching, or engaging in sexual acts with children 

• Individuals either act on these urges or experience clinically significant distress and impairment

• Two-thirds of child victims are girls 

Fetishism

• Recurrent intense sexual urges or fantasies involving use of a nonliving object or non-genital body part, often to the exclusion of all other stimuli 

• More common in men than women and usually begins during adolescence 

What are possible treatments for pedophilia?

• Aversion therapy, masturbatory satiation, and anti-androgen drugs

• Cognitive-behavioral treatment:

  • Involves relapse-prevention training, modeled after programs used for substance dependence 

Define schizophrenia

• A psychotic disorder where personal, social, and occupational functioning deteriorates as a result of unusual perceptions, odd thoughts, disturbed emotions, and motor irregularities 

Positive symptoms of schizophrenia

• Delusions:

  • Persecution, reference, grandeur, control

• Disorganized thinking and speech:

  • Loose associations or derailment, neologisms (made up words), perseveration (repeat words and statements again and again), clang or rhythms 

• Heightened perceptions and hallucinations:

  • Problems of perception and attention 

• Inappropriate affect:

  • Situationally unsuitable

  • Sometimes be an emotional response to other disorder features 

Negative symptoms of schizophrenia

• Poverty of speech:

  • Reduction of quantity of speech; say quite a bit but convey little meaning

• Restricted affect:

  • Show less emotion than most people

  • Avoidance of eye contact

  • Immobile, expressionless face (blunted or flat affect) 

• Loss of volition:

  • Feeling drained of energy and interest in normal goals 

  • Inability to start or follow through on a course of action 

• Social withdrawal: 

  • withdrawal from social environment and attention only to own ideas and fantasies

  • Leading to social breakdown, like the ability to accurately recognize needs and emotions of others 

Diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia

• Dysfunctional brain circuit may adversely affect functioning of people who later become schizophrenic through the circuit’s impact on hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) stress pathway

• Leads to the development of a dysfunctional immune system, characterized by heightened inflammation throughout the brain 

Causes of schizophrenia

• Inheritance and brain activity play key roles in development of schizophrenia that is triggered by later exposure to extreme stress 

  • Genetic factors:

    • Relatives of people with schizophrenia, twins with schizophrenia, people with schizophrenia who are adopted 

  • Biochemical irregularities:

    • Certain neurons using dopamine fire too often, producing symptoms of schizophrenia

  • Biological views:

    • Exposure to viruses before birth triggers a passed on immune response that interrupts fetal brain development 

    • Dysfunctional brain structures and circuitry:

      • Schizophrenia-related circuit may be caused by overlapping structure

      • Irregular neurotransmitter activity as part of a broader circuit dysfunction can propel people towards schizophrenia

Side effects of antipsychotic medications:

• Parkinsonian and related symptoms

• Neuroleptic malignant syndrome

• Tardive dyskinesia 

• Risk of life threatening drop in white blood cells (agranulocytosis) 

• Weight gain, dizziness, and elevation in blood sugar 

Milieu therapy 

• Social climate that promotes productive activity, self-respect, and individual responsibility which resembles daily life outside the hospital that often combines other community programs.

Define personality disorder and common characteristics

• An enduring rigid pattern of inner experience and outward behavior that leads to significant problems and psychological pain for self and others 

• Characteristics:

  • Distorted thinking patterns

  • Problematic emotional responses

  • Issues with impulse control

  • Interpersonal difficulties 

What are the categories of odd personality disorders?

• Paranoid

• Schizoid

• Schizotypal 

Paranoid

• Deep distrust and suspicion of motives of others

• Limited close relationships; cold and distant affect

• Excessive trust in own ideas and abilities, critical of weakness and fault in others

• More common in men than in women

Schizoid

• Persistent avoidance of and removal from social relationships and little demonstration of emotion 

• Prefer to be alone and keep to themselves

• Limited expression of feelings

• Slightly more common in men than in women

Schizotypal

• A range of interpersonal problems, marked by extreme discomfort in close relationships, odd ways of thinking, and behavioral eccentricities 

• Believe unrelated events pertain to them in important ways; bodily illusions

• Difficulty keeping attention focused; vague conversations and loose associations 

What are the dramatic types of personality disorder?

• Antisocial personality disorder

• Borderline personality disorder

• Histrionic personality disorder

• Narcissistic personality disorder 

Antisocial personality disorder and symptoms

• People who persistently disregard and violate others’ rights

• Person at least 18 years of age to receive this diagnosis 

• Symptoms:

  • Lie repeatedly, reckless, and impulsive 

  • Little regard for other individuals, cruel, aggressive violent 

  • Higher rate of alcoholism, substance use disorder, or childhood conduct disorder 

Borderline personality disorder

• Instability, including major shifts in mood, unstable self-image, and impulsivity

• Symptoms:

  • Unstable intense, conflict-ridden interpersonal relationships

  • Prone to bouts of anger, resulting in physical aggression and violence 

  • Direct impulsive anger inward and harm themselves 

Histrionic personality disorder

• Individuals are extremely emotional and continually seek to be the center of attention

• Symptoms:

  • Engagement in attention-getting behaviors and always on stage

  • Approval and praise are lifeblood

  • Vain, self-centered, and demanding 

  • Some make attempts to die by suicide, often to manipulate others 

Narcissistic personality disorder

• Generally grandiose, need much admiration, and feel no empathy with others

• Symptoms:

  • Exaggeration of achievements and talents, often arrogance

  • Selective about friend, favorable first impressions

  • Some make attempt to die by suicide to manipulate others

  • Common among normal teenagers and does not usually lead to adult narcissism 

Dialectical Behavior therapy (CBT)

• Type of talk therapy that teaches skills to manage intense emotions and reduce harmful behaviors

• Four core kills modules: mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness

• Effective for conditions like borderline personality disorder, depression, and self-harm

Group therapy for personality disorder

• Provides a supportive environment where individuals can learn from peers with similar struggles

• Practice new social and coping skills and gain a better understanding of their own emotions and behaviors 

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

• Intense focus on orderliness, perfectionism, and control and resulting loss of flexibility, openness, and efficiency

• Symptoms:

  • Difficulty expressing affection; relationships often stiff and superficial

  • Closely related to obsessive-compulsive disorder

Big Five Personality

• Agreeableness

• Conscientiousness

• Extraversion

• Openness

• Stress tolerance 

Define separation anxiety disorder and possible treatments

• Extreme anxiety, often panic, whenever children are separated from home or a parent (ex. school refusal)

• Treatment:

  • Psychodynamic therapy:

    • play therapy

  • Humanistic therapy:

    • Child-centered therapy

Define Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and possible symptoms

• Great difficulty attending to tasks or behave overactive and impulsively, or both; symptoms often feed into one another

• Symptoms:

  • Learning or communication problems

  • Poor school performance

  • Difficulty interacting with other children

  • Misbehavior, often serious

  • Mood or anxiety problems

Define autism spectrum disorder

• Children extremely unresponsive to other, uncommunicative, repetitive, and rigid

• Symptoms appear in early life before age 3 

What are some causes of autism spectrum disorder

• Sociocultural:

  • Family dysfunction; parent personality characteristics

  • Refrigerator parents: 

    • Parents who were blamed for causing autism in their children due to emotional coldness or lack of warmth 

• Psychological:

  • Central perceptual or cognitive disturbance

  • Theory of mind disorder, mind blindness

• Biological:

  • Genetic factors, prenatal difficulties or birth complications

  • Irregular cerebellum structure; brain circuit dysfunction 

Define theory of mind and what role it plays in abnormal psychology

• Ability to attribute mental states— beliefs, desires, intentions— to oneself and others; crucial for social interactions and empathy 

• Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), ADHD, schizophrenia, and severe depression all struggle to understand that others have different beliefs, desires, and intentions (theory of mind deficit) 

Dyslexia in autisms 

• Individuals with autism can have dyslexia due to shared neurodevelopmental origins,such as challenges with social communication and cognitive processing

Down Syndrome

• Type of neurodevelopmental disorder 

• Distinct facial characteristics and range of personality characteristics 

• IQ range around 30-70 (between mild and moderate)

Program for intellectual disability

• Intervention programs aim to provide comfortable residence, social and economic opportunities, and proper education 

  • Proper residence:

    • Majority of children with intellectual disability live at home or community residence matched to disability, preference, and available resources 

  • Educational programs:

    • Free, appropriate educational program mandated by federal law (IEP)

      • Special education:

        • children with intellectual disability are grouped together in a separate, specially designed educational program

      • Mainstream: 

        • Places children with intellectual disability in regular classes

Alzheimer’s disease

• Most common form of neurocognitive disorder where the gradual progressive disease sometimes appears in middle age but mostly after age 65 

Patterns of Alzheimer’s disease for the patient

• Early vs late stages:

  • Early:

    • Anxiety, agitation, and irritability more prominent 

  • Late:

    • Psychosis and hallucinations more common 

• Severity and progression:

  • Severity of these symptoms correlate with the progression of cognitive decline 

• Other symptoms:

  • Behavioral abnormalities are not isolated, but often linked with other symptoms of this disease, like executive dysfunction and mood changes

Memory and Alzheimer’s disease:

• Initial symptoms:

  • Difficulty remembering recent events, forgetting important dates or events, and problems with new information or recalling old information 

• Progressive decline:

  • As disease advances, it causes a broader range of deficits like language problems, difficulty with familiar tasks, and confusion about time and place

• Specific memory issues:

  • Disease interferes with different types of memory, like working and semantic memory, leading to trouble remembering instructions and completing tasks 

Pick’s disease and symptoms 

• A neurodegenerative disorder that causes the gradual deterioration of nerve cells in the brain’s frontal and temporal lobes

• Symptoms:

  • Socially inappropriate behavior

  • Impulsivity 

  • lack of motivation

  • Muscle weakness

  • Mood swings/ emotional changes 

  • Stuttering, poor grammar/ speaking slowly 

Huntington’s disease and symptoms

• Fatal genetic neurodegenerative disorder that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain

• Symptoms:

  • Involuntary, irregular muscle movements in the face, arms, and legs 

  • Problems with walking, balance, and posture

  • Difficulty planning, decision-amking, and problem solving

  • Trouble with focus, organization, and learning new things

  • Loss of awareness of one’s own behaviors and abilities 

Parkinson’s disease and symptoms

• Progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects movement, caused by a loss of nerve cells that produce dopamine 

• Symptoms:

  • Motor:

    • Tremors, slowness of movement, rigidity, balance problems, and small handwriting 

  • Non-motor:

    • Loss of smell, sleep problems, constipation, mood or cognitive changes 

  • Other physical:

    • Dizziness when standing, excessive sweating, speech changes, and swallowing difficulties 

Durham test for insanity defense

• People were not criminally responsible if their “unlawful act was the product of mental disease or defect”

M’Naghten rule:

• Experiencing a mental disorder at the time of a crime did not by itself mean that the person was insane; the defendant also had to be unable to know right from wrong 

Protection and Advocacy for Mentally ill individuals Act 

• Purpose:

  • To protect and advocate for the rights of adults with serious mental illness (SMI) and children with significant emotional disturbances (SED)

• Authority:

  • Authorized to investigate incidents of abuse and neglect in facilities that provide care or treatment, including hospitals, schools, and community residences 

• Goal: 

  • To ensure the enforcement of constitutional, federal, and state statutes that protect the rights of individuals with mental illness 

Tarasoff v Regents of the University of California court case

• A student,, who had been seeing a university psychologist, killed his former girlfriend after confiding his intention to harm her 

• Duty to protect was passed as a result 

Duty to protect rule

• Therapists have a duty to protect individuals who are foreseeable victims of their patients’ serious threats of violence 

• Duties:

  • Warning intended victim, notifying the police, and hospitalizing the patient