Abnormal Psych Unit 2 Anxiety, OCD, Somatoform, and Dissociative Disorders

What are the symptoms of phobias?

Unreasonable anxiety in the presence of the phobic object

Avoidance of phobic object

Social Phobia

Afraid people will have negative evaluations of them

E.g., worst fear is giving a lecture in front of a bunch of people

What is the psychoanalytic theory of anxiety?

Hans and his mom were walking on the street and every once in a while the horses would go crazy and they start to come after Hans and they move out of the way. From that moment on Hans is afraid of horses and he will not leave the house because there are horses everywhere. He exchanged his fear of his father for the horses

Explanation for phobias - displaced anxiety for something deeper

What is the behavioral theory for anxiety?

Conditioning

Avoidance

What do psychoanalytic and behavioral theory share in common?

secondary gain

What is secondary gain?

Consequence of the symptom that is a positive that helps them gain this over time

E.g., Hans - now that he has a phobia he get more attention from his mother and more empathy from his father (improves their life)

What is cognitive schema theory for anxiety?

Way of understanding the world that anticipates harm/ expects bad things to happen

If you have this you may be more likely to develop a phobia

What are the treatments for phobias?

Psychoanalytic

Behavioral (for Simple Phobias)

Cognitive Behavioral (for Social Phobia and for Agoraphobia via Panic treatment)

Physiological Treatments

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

fostering insight regarding the unconscious motives that presumably lie at the heart of the patient's symptoms

Situational Exposure

the person repeatedly confronts the situations that have previously been avoided

Interoceptive Exposure

aimed at reducing the person’s fear of internal, bodily sensations that are frequently associated with the onset of a panic attack, such as increased heart and respiration rate and dizziness

Cognitive Therapy for Anxiety

Therapists help clients identify cognitions that are relevant to their problem, recognize the relation between these thoughts and maladaptive emotional responses (such as prolonged anxiety), and examine the evidence that supports or contradicts these beliefs, and they teach clients more useful ways of interpreting events in their environment

What is OCD?

Phobia of your potential behaviors

What are the symptoms of OCD

Obsessions - intrusive, and unwanted thoughts, images, or urges that cause distress

Compulsions - repetitive, ritualistic behaviors or mental acts that individuals feel driven to perform in response to intrusive thoughts or obsessions

What main treatments were used for OCD?

Exposure and Response Prevention

Reuptake Inhibitors

How effective are reuptake inhibitors for OCD treatment?

E.g., prozac

Obsessions do not completely go away, but patients will say their obsessions bother them less

Somatoform Disorders

a group of mental health conditions characterized by physical symptoms that are not fully explained by a medical condition

Psychophysiological

real physiological disorders that are inspired by psychology

Conversion Disorder

Psychological conflict got converted to physical symptoms

Dissociative (Psychogenic) Amnesia

Selective loss of memories of personal identities

Can tell you general info like today’s date, president of US but could not remember their sibling

Dissociative (Psychogenic) Fugue

Loses their identity and starts to assemble a new identity

Multiple Personality (Dissociative Identity Disorder)

Loss of important aspects of personal identity, the person develops multiple partial identities and the coexist with one another