chapter 12: abnormal psychology

overview

• abnormal psychology - the study of people who suffer from psychological disorders

defining abnormality

• common characteristics of abnormality include:

  • it is maladaptive (harmful) to the individual

  • it is disturbing to others

  • it is unusual, which means not shared by many members of the population

  • it is irrational which means it doesn’t make sense to the average person

• people can be diagnosed even if they don’t have all of the above symptoms

• the term insane is not a medical term, but the term insanity is

• insanity - is used to differentiate people who can be held entirely responsible for their crimes (the sane) and those who cannot be held fully responsible for their actions due to a psychological disorder

• psychologists determine whether someone has a psychological disorder or not using the book called Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

• the DSM contains symptoms for everything currently considered a psychological disorder

• the DSM doesn’t include the causes or treatments of the disorders because psychological perspectives can disagree with that

  • psychoanalysts locate the cause of psychological disturbances in unconscious conflicts often caused by traumatic events that occurred during the psychosexual stages

  • behaviorists asset that psychological problems result from the person’s history of reinforcement

  • humanistic psychologists view the root of such disorders in a person’s feelings, self-esteem, and self-concept

  • the sociocultural perspective holds that social issues like racism, sexism, and poverty are the cause of psychological disorders

  • the biomedical model sees psychological disorders caused by biological factors such as hormonal or neurotransmitter imbalances or differences in brain structure
    

  most psychologists aren’t devoted to just one perspective but are eclectic, which means they accept and use ideas from a number of perspectives

• the DSM is revised periodically

anxiety disorders

• anxiety disorders share a common symptom of anxiety

• a simple or specific phobia is an intense unwarranted fear of a situation or object such as claustrophobia, the fear of enclosed spaces, or arachnophobia, the fear of spiders

• another common phobia is agoraphobia which is the fear of open, public spaces

• phobias are classified as anxiety because contact with the feared topic results in anxiety

• social anxiety disorder is the fear of a situation in which one could embarrass oneself in public

• a person that suffers from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) experiences constant, low-level anxiety

• someone with GAD could constantly feel nervous and out of sorts

• someone with panic disorder suffers from episodes of intense anxiety without anything starting it

• these panic attacks increase in frequency and people often suffer additional anxiety just from anticipating panic attacks

theories about the cause of anxiety disorders

• psychoanalytic theorists see psychological disorders as caused by unresolved, unconscious conflicts

• they see anxiety as the result of conflicts among the desires of the id, ego, and superego

• behaviorists believe all behaviors are learned, so they think anxiety disorders are learned

• an example could be acrophobia, which is the fear of heights. behavior would say that someone with acrophobia learned the fear response.

• cognitive theorists would think that disorders result from dysfunctional ways of thinking so they would attribute an anxiety disorder to an unhealthy and irrational way of thinking and/or specific irrational thoughts

somatic symptom and related disorders

• somatic symptom and related disorders are called somatoform disorders

• somatic symptom disorders occur when a person manifests a psychological problem through a physiological symptom

• such a person experiences a physical problem in the absence of any identifiable physical cause

  • example: conversion disorder - reports the existence of severe physical problems such as paralysis or blindness, and they will be unable to move their arms or see, but there will be no biological reason for such problems can be identified

• hypochondriasis, which is complaining frequently about physical problems for which doctors are unable to find a cause, was diagnosed as a type of somatoform disorder, and these symptoms are diagnosed as somatic symptom disorder.

• hypochondriasis fits under somatic symptom disorder if the person reports concern with symptoms

• if the person is very focused on fears of disease and no symptoms, the diagnosis would be an illness anxiety disorder

theories about the cause of somatic symptom disorders

• psychodynamic theorists would asset that somatic symptom disorders are merely outward manifestations of unresolved unconscious conflicts

• behaviorists would say that people with somatic symptom disorders are being reinforced for their behavior

dissociative disorders

• dissociative disorders involve a disruption in conscious processes

• dissociative amnesia is when a person cannot remember things and no physiological basis for the disruption in memory can be identified

• biologically induced amnesia is called organic amnesia

• dissociative identity disorder, formerly called multiple personality disorder, is when someone has several personalities rather than one integrated personality

theories about the cause of dissociative disorders

• psychoanalytic theorists believe that dissociative disorders result from an extremely traumatic event that has been so repressed that a split in consciousness occurs

• behaviorists think that people will have experienced trauma simply find not thinking about it to be rewarding, producing amnesia or DID

depressive disorders

• someone with a mood or affective disorder experiences extreme or inappropriate emotions

• major depressive disorder is the most common mood disorder

• while we all can feel unhappy, most of us do not suffer from major depressive disorder

• the DSM states that one key factor is the length of the depressive episode

• people who are clinically depressed remain unhappy for more than two weeks in the absence of a clear reason

• other symptoms include loss of appetite, fatigue, change in sleeping patterns, lack of interest, and feeling worthless

• some people experience depression during certain times of the year which is called seasonal affective disorder

theories about the cause of depressive disorders

• psychoanalysts commonly view depression as the product of anger directed inward, loss during the psychosexual stages, or an overly punitive superego

• learning theorists view the mood disorder as bringing about t some kind of reinforcement such as attention or sympathy

• Aaron Beck, a cognitive theorist, believes that depression results from unreasonably negative ideas that people have about themselves, their world, and their futures

• he calls these three components the cognitive triad

• another way cognitive psychologists look at the cause of depression is by exploring the kind of attributions people make about their experiences

• an attribution is an explanation of the cause

• many theories about the cause of depression combine a cognitive and a behavioral component

• an example of this is Martin Seligman’s idea of learned helplessness, which is when one’s prior experiences have caused that person to view themselves as unable to control aspects of the future that is controllable

• a biological component could also exist since low levels of serotonin have been linked with major depressive disorder

• this suggests that these disorders are caused partially by biological factors

bipolar and related disorders

• bipolar disorder involves both depressed and manic episodes

• the depressed episodes involve all of the symptoms

• manic episodes usually involve feelings of high energy

• some sufferers can feel a sense of confidence, while others can feel anxious

• people in the manic period usually engage in risky and poorly thought-out behavior

• a small number of people experience mania without depression

schizophrenic disorders

• schizophrenia tends to strike people as they enter young adulthood

• the fundamental symptoms of schizophrenia are delusions, hallucinations, disorganized language, and/or unusual effects and motor behavior

• delusions are beliefs that have no basis in reality

• common delusions are:

  • delusions of persecution: the belief that people are out to get you

  • delusions of grandeur: the belief that you enjoy greater power and influence than you do

• hallucinations are perceptions in the absence of any sensory stimulation

• schizophrenics often evidence odd uses of language. they could make up their own words (neologisms) or could string together nonsense words that rhyme (clang associations)

• people with schizophrenia could also suffer through inappropriate effect, which is when they have an inappropriate response to a certain event, or flat affect, which is having no response to a certain event

• some schizophrenics suffer from catatonia, which is a motor problem

• they can remain motionless in strange postures, move jerkily and quickly, or alternate between them

• when motionless, catatonic schizophrenics usually have waxy flexibility, which is when they allow their bodies to be moved into any alternative shape and will hold that pose

• schizophrenic symptoms are divided into two types: positive and negative

  • positive symptoms: refer to excesses in behavior, thought, or mood such as neologisms and hallucinations

  • negative symptoms: correspond to deficits such as flat affect or catatonia

theories about the cause of schizophrenic disorders

• one of the most popular ideas about the cause of schizophrenic disorders is biological and is called the dopamine hypothesis

• the basic idea is that high levels of dopamine are associated with schizophrenia

  • antipsychotic drugs used to treat schizophrenia result in lower dopamine levels and a decrease in the disordered thought and behavior that is the hallmark of schizophrenia. excessive use of these drugs can be negative and can cause muscle tremors and stiffness, which is called tardive dyskinesia

  • Parkinson’s disease is treated with a drug that acts to increase dopamine levels. when it’s given excessively, it causes schizophrenic-like symptoms and behavior

• not all psychologists think that schizophrenia has a biological basis

• some think that certain kinds of environments can cause or increase the likelihood of developing schizophrenia

• one suggested cause is the existence of double binds, which is when a person is given contradictory messages

• another possible cause comes from the diathesis-stress model, which is often applied to schizophrenia but can be applied to various psychological. nd physical disorders

• this model states that environmental stressors can provide the circumstances under which a biological predisposition for illness can express itself

personality disorders

• personality disorders are maladaptive ways of behaving that negatively affect people’s ability to function

• the most important personality disorder is antisocial personality disorder, which is when you have little regard for other people’s feelings and view the world as a hostile place where people need to look out for themselves

• the characteristics of other personality disorders and deducible from the names of the disorders

  • people with dependent personality disorder rely too much on the attention and help of others

  • those with paranoid personality disorder feel persecuted

  • narcissistic personality disorder involves seeing oneself as the center of the universe

  • histrionic personality disorder connotes overly dramatic behavior

  • people with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder are overly concerned with certain thoughts and performing certain behaviors

other examples of psychological disorders

• OCD - when persistent, unwanted thoughts cause someone to feel the need to engage in a particular action

• obsessions result in anxiety, and this anxiety is reduced when the person performs the compulsive behavior, which is why OCD used to be classified as an anxiety disorder

• body dysmorphic disorder is an obsession with perceived defects related to one’s appearance

• PTSD - usually involves flashbacks or nightmares following a person’s involvement in or observation of an extremely troubling event such as a war or natural disaster

• paraphilias or psychosexual disorders are the sexual attraction to an object, person, or activity that isn’t normally seen as sexual

  • attraction to children is pedophilia

  • attraction to animals is zoophilia

  • attraction to objects is fetishism

  • someone who is sexually aroused by others engaging in sexual behavior is a voyeur

  • someone who is aroused by having pain inflicted upon themselves is a masochist

  • someone who is aroused by inflicting pain on someone else is a sadist

• feeding and eating disorders are also psychological problems classified in the DSM

• the most common are anorexia and bulimia

• the basic symptoms of anorexia being at a very low weight for one’s size and age, an intense fear of fat and food, and a distorted body image

• anorexia is essentially a form of self-starvation

• bulimia has similar features to anorexia, such as a fear of food and fat and a distorted body image

• however, bulimics do not lose much of their body weight but eat large quantities of food and then attempt to purge the food by throwing up or using laxatives

• substance-related and addictive disorders is a diagnosis made when the use of such substances or behaviors regularly negatively affects a person’s life

• autism spectrum disorder is when people seek out less social and emotional contact than other children and are less likely to speak out for parental support when distressed

• people with this disorder tend to be hypersensitive to sensory stimulation and often exhibit intense interest in objects not viewed as interesting by most people and often engage in simple behaviors

• attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is when someone has difficulty paying attention or sitting still

• Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia, which is a deterioration of cognitive abilities, seen mostly in memory

the rosenhan study: the influence of labels

• David Rosenhan conducted a study in 1978 in which he and a number of associates sought admission to a number of mental hospitals

• from this study, he raised several different issues

  1. should people who were once diagnosed with a psychological problem carry that diagnosis for the rest of their lives?

  2. to what extent are disorders the product of a particular environment, and to what extent do they inhere in the individual?

  3. what is the level of institutional care available if the imposters could do undetected for a period of dates, and in some cases, weeks?