Psychological Disorders:

Definition (#f7aeae)

Important (#edcae9)

Extra (#fffe9d)

Key Concepts:

1. Abnormality.

2. Psychopathology: Classification and Causes.

3. Risk Factors.

4. Psychotic Disorders.

5. Mood Disorders.

6. Anxiety Disorders.

7. Personality Disorders

Abnormality:

Psychopathology: Scientific study of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders; abnormal or maladaptive behavior.

1. Statistical Abnormality: Having extreme scores on some dimension, such as intelligence, anxiety, or depression.

2. Social Nonconformity: Disobeying societal standards for normal and acceptable conduct.

3. Situational Context: Social situation, behavioral setting, or general circumstances in which an action takes place.

4. Cultural Relativity: Judgments are made relative to the values of one’s culture.

5. Subjective Discomfort: Private feelings of pain, unhappiness, or emotional distress.

Maladaptive Behavior:

Behaviour arising from dysfunction which makes it difficult to function, adapt to the environment and to meet everyday demands.

Insanity:

Refers to an inability to manage one’s affairs or foresee the consequences of one’s actions.

More of a legal term.

• Those judged insane are not held legally responsible for their actions.

• Can be involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.

• Established through testimony from expert witnesses.

• Not guilty by reason of insanity: The accused, due to a psychological disorder, was unable to realise that what he or she did was wrong.

Classification of Symptoms:

Mental illness is typically diagnosed by establishing the presence or absence of a number of symptoms, assessing duration of symptoms, and extent to which it interfere with life.

• Positive Symptoms: Symptoms in excess, or exaggerations of normal behaviour.

• Negative Symptoms: Deficiencies or absences compared to normal behaviour.

• Comorbidities: Presence of more than 1 disorder at the same time.

General Risk factors:

• Risk factors are classified into the biopsychosocial model by George Engel (70s).

• Some risks that contribute to psychopathology include:

  • Biological factors: Organic vs. Environmental.

  • Psychological factors: Self-esteem, coping skills, personality, stress level, core beliefs, emotional regulation skills.

  • Social factors: Family system/functionality, socioeconomic status (SES), work/school conditions, peers, loneliness.

Neurodevelopmental vs Neurocognitive Disorders:

• Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Nervous system damage that arise prior to adulthood. Ex: Down Syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorder.

• Neurocognitive Disorders: Problems not arising until adulthood. Ex: Parkinson’s disease, or Alzheimer’s disease.

• Neurocognitive disorders are often serious mental impairments in old age caused by deterioration of the brain.

• Disturbances in memory, reasoning, judgment, impulse control.

Psychotic Disorders:

Psychosis: Loss of contact with shared views of reality.

Hallucinations: Imaginary sensations. Such as seeing, hearing, or smelling things that do not exist in the real world.

Delusions: False beliefs that individuals insist are true, regardless of evidence against it.

Types of delusions:

1. Depressive

2. Grandeur

3. Influence

4. Persecution

Risk Factors:

• Individuals may inherit a potential for developing disorders; they are more vulnerable to its development.

• Biochemical Abnormality: Disturbance in brain chemicals or neurotransmitters.

  • Schizophrenic brain may produce substance similar to a psychedelic.

  • Overactivity in brain dopamine system or dopamine receptors.

• Early Psychological Trauma: Psychological injury or shock, often caused by violence, abuse, or neglect.

• Disturbed Family Environment: Stressful or unhealthy family relationships, communication patterns, and emotional atmosphere.

• Deviant Communication Patterns: Cause guilt, anxiety, anger and confusion. Ex: double bind communication.

Mood Disorders:

Characterised by major disturbances in emotion.

2 Major Types:

1. Depressive disorders:

   • Sadness and despondency are exaggerated, prolonged, or unreasonable.

   • Symptoms: Low mood, irritability, lack interest, fatigue, worthlessness.

   • Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Major depressive disorder with seasonal patterns.

2. Bipolar disorders:

   • Mania: Period of abnormally excessive energy and elation.

   • Loud, energetic, require less sleep, hyperactive, grandiosity, invincibility.

   • Bipolar Disorder Type 1 & 2: Both episodes of depression and mania.

   • Cyclothymia Disorder: Relatively moderate, but longer lasting form of bipolar disorder.

Suicide:

A diagnosable mental health issue tend to underlie all suicides.

Many other risk factors:

1. Situational: Events which are intolerable, inescapable.

2. Personal

3. Gender: Men succeed more than women, though women carry out more attempts

4. Marital status: Married individuals have lower suicide rates than divorced, widowed

Anxiety Disorder:

• Feelings of apprehension, dread, uneasiness, worry, or fear.

• Feelings of distress seem out of proportion, constant worrying, extreme anxiety, panic.

Types:

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD):

• At least 6 months

• Psychological: Excessive & constant worry.

• Physical: Restlessness, fatigue, sleep disturbance, muscle tension.

Panic Disorder:

• Presence of panic.

• Psychological: Recurrent panic attacks, anxiousness directed towards next panic attack, sense of impending doom.

• Physical: Trembling, shaking, fear of dying, chest pain, palpitations, nausea.

Social Anxiety Disorder: Fear or anxiety towards social situations, fear of negative evaluation, avoidance of social situations.

Specific Phobias: Intense irrational fears focused on particular objects or activities.

Personality Disorder:

• Long-standing, inflexible ways of behaving that create a variety of problems.

• Relates to thinking, feeling and behaving deviates from the expectations of the culture, causes distress or problems functioning, and lasts over time.

• Typically begin during adolescence or even childhood.

Types:

1. Histrionic Personality Disorders:

   • Constant attention seeking behaviour, through dramatizing their emotions and actions.

2. Borderline Personality Disorder:

   • Pattern of instability in personal relationships, intense emotions, violent mood swings, poor self-image and impulsivity.

   • May go to great lengths to avoid being abandoned.

3. Antisocial Personality Disorder:

   • Pattern of disregarding or violating the rights of others.

   • May not conform to social norms, may repeatedly lie or deceive others, or may act impulsively, lacks conscience.