psychological disorders

defining

• maladaptive: harmful and/or disturbing to individual

• disturbing to others

• unusual, not shared by many members of population

• irrational, doesn’t make sense

• insanity: in legal setting difference between those who are held accountable for crimes (sane) and the ones who aren’t because of psych disorders (insanity)

• insane: describes psychological disorders in general, not medical

categories of disoders

anxiety disorders

phobias

• specific phobia: intense unwarranted fear of situation or an object

• claustrophobia: fear of enclosed spaces

• arachnophobia: fear of spiders

• agoraphobia: fear of open, public spaces

• anxiety disorders: common symptoms of anxiety

• generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): constant, low-level anxiety

• panic disorder: acute episodes of intense anxiety without any apparent reflex

• social anxiety disorder: intense fear and avoidance of social situations

somatic symptom and related disorders

• somatic symptom disorder: person manifests a psychological problem through a physiological (body) symptom

• conversion disorder: reported severe physical problems but no biological reason can be identified.

• illness anxiety disorder: in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease. (Formerly called hypochondriasis.)

dissociative disorders

• dissociative disorders: conscious awareness becomes separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings

• dissociative amnesia: person can’t remember things and no physiological basis for the disruption in memory can be identified

• organic amnesia: biologically induced (i.e. brain damage) amnesia (a person can’t remember things)

• dissociative identity disorder (did): when a person has several personalities rather than one integrated personality. often victims of sexual abuse or childhood trauma

theoretical causes

• psychoanalytic: trauma = repression = split of consciousness

• behaviorist: not rwardful event = produces amnesia

• critics question if DID is real. this disorder led to “role-play” it with questions from therapists and media portrayals. DID is basically in the US, which brings some concerns if its actually real.

mood disorders

depressive disorders

• major depressive disorder: known as unipolar depression too. the “common cold” of all psychological disorders.

  • symptoms: loss of appetite, fatigue, change in sleeping patterns, lack of interest in normally enjoyable activities, feelings of worthlessness for more than two weeks in the absence of a clear reason

• mood or affective disorder: experiences extreme or inappropriate emotions

• seasonal affective disorder (sad): seasonal depression. treated with light therapy

• rumination: overthinking. compulsive fretting, overthinking our problems and their causes

theoretical causes

• psychoanalytic: internal anser, loss during early psychosexual stages, overly punishing superego

• behavioristic: reinforcement for sympathy

aaron beck: cognitive psychologist

• depression is caused by unreasonable negative ideas abt themselves, world, and their futures

• cognitive triad: themselves, world, their futures

• cogntive: attributions (explanation of cause) of experiences

  • internal/external: because of me/because of them

  • global/specific: because I’m bad at everything/because I'm bad at this class

  • unstabe/stable: “I will always be bad at this/this was a bad day”

• caused by internal, stable, and global for bad events and external, stable, and specific for good days

  • ex. bad events happened: “I am the worst (internal), I’ll always be the worst (stable), and “I’m the worst at everything (global).”

  • ex. good events happened: “The park made me happy (external), This vanilla ice cream only made me happy (specific), This was just a good day (unstable)”

martin sligman’s learned helplessness

• Group A of dogs had ability to stop shock w/ button. Group B didn’t, so they had shocks no matter what they did. Next phase, both groups could move to escape shocks. Group A did, Group B didn’t. They accepted to be shocked

• learned helplessness: learned perspective that they are unable to control aspects that are controllable, unhopeful.

• learned helplessness leads to depression

biological factors

• low levels of serotonin

• genetic component

bipolar disorder

• bipolar disorder: called before manic depression. involves oth depressed and manic episodes

• mania: a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state in which dangerously poor judgment is common

  • manic episodes: feelings of high energy

  • manic episodes can look different; heightened sense of confidence or anxious and irritable

• small number of people appear to experience mania

psychotic disorders

• psychotic disorders: disorders marked by irrational ideas, distorted perceptions, and a loss of contact with reality

• schizophrenia: disorders that include disordered distorted thinking demonstrated through delusions, hallucinations, unorganized language, and/or usual affect and motor behavior

• hallucinations: perceptions in the absence of any sensory stimulation

• delusion: beliefs that have no basis in reality

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

  • ex. John Nash thinking the Russians were him

• delusions of grandeur: belief that you have lots of power when in reality you don’t

• chronic schizophrenia: (process schizophrenia) symptoms usually appear by late adolescece or early adulthood. as people age, psychotic episodes last longer and recovery periods shorten

• acute schizophrenia: (reactive schizophrenia) can begin at any age, frequently occurs in response to a traumatic event

theoretical causes

• dopamine hypothesis: excessive amount of dopamine causes positive symptoms

• negative symptoms caused by genetic factors

• tardive diskinsea: muscle tremors and stiffness

• parkinson’s disease caused by low levels of dopamine, l-dopa used to increase levels. excess amt of this will create positive schizphrenic symptoms.

biological causes

• enlarged brain ventricles

• brain asymmetry

• genetically predisposed

double blinds: contradictory messages

• ex. Sally’s parents expect her to not date until she finishes her school. Yet, her parents ask her “why doesn’t she have a boyfriend” when she’s in her 20s pursuing her career

• may develop distorted ways of thinking due to impossibility of rationally resolving experiences

disathesis-stress model: environmental stressors can provide the genetic predisposition circumstances to express itself

• env. stressors + genetic predisposition allows and accelerates development of illness

• can be applied to many disorders

personality disorders

• personality disorders: inflexible and enduring behavior that impair social functioning

• antisocial personality disorder: lack of consciousness of wrongdoing. little regard for other people’s feelings. believes the world is a hostile place where people need to look out for themselves. they’re insensitive to others and act in ways that bring pain, aggressive

• dependent personality disorder: rely to much on attention and help of others

• paranoid personality disorder: feel persecuted

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

• histrionic personality disorder: overly dramatic behavior (histronics)

• obsessive compulsive personality disorder: overly concerned with certain thoughts and performing certain behaviors. not to the extent of OCD

obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd)

• obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd): persistent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) cause someone to feel the need (compulsion) to engage in a particular action

• anxiety is reduced when person performs compulsive behavio

• separate classfication of OCD and related disorders

• hoarding

• body dysmorphic disorder: obsession with perceived defects in one’s appearance

post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd)

• post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd): flashbacks or nightmares following a person’s traumatic event. hypervigilance, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience

• ex. memories of event cause anxiety

• grouped trauma and stressor-related disorders

• ex. a former soldier getting flashbacks of a war years after and getting very aggressive and scared

paraphilias or psychosexual disorders

• paraphilias or psychosexual disorders: marked by sexual attraction to something that’s not usually seen as sexual

• pedophilia: attraction to children

• zoophilia: attraction to animals

• fetishism: attraction to objects

• voyeur: sexually aroused by watching others engage in some kind of sexual behavior

• masochist: aroused by having pain inflicted upon themself

• sadist: aroused by inflicting pain on someone else

eating disorders

• anorexia nervosa: symptoms being unhealthy low weight, intense fear of fat and food, distorted body image. form of self starvation

• bulimia nervosa: involves binge-purge cycles which they eat large quantities and then attempt to purge food from their bodies by throwing up or using laxatives. has intense fear of fat and food and distorted body image.

• binge-eating disorder: eating very large quantities of food in a short time while experiencing feelings of loss of control. episodes follwed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without compensatory behavior that marks bulimia nervosa

substance-related and addictive disorders

• substance-related and addictive disorders: use of such substances or behaviors regulary negatively affects a person’s life

• includes gambling

neurodevelopmental disorders

• autism spectrum disorder: less social and emotional contact than other children do, less likely to seek out parental support when distressed, intense interest in objects not viewed as interesting by most people, engages in simple repetitive behaviors

• attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: difficulty of paying attention or sitting still.

  • regular child behavior (in young boys) often make adhd overdiagnosed for their hyperactivity and inabililty to stay focused and still

neurocognitive disorders

• alzheimer’s disease: form of dementia, deterioration of cognitive abilities. memory loss.

rosehan study

• him & associates told mental hospitals they were hearing voices. they diidn’t act differently, yet they were still diagnosed with schizophrenia.

• findings showed evidence against accuracy & validity of psychiatric diagnosis

• shows that it’s hard to distinguish sane & insane in hospital setting

raised questions

1. should people once diagnosed are diagnosed for life?

2. to what extend are disorder a product of particular environment and to what extet they are permanently by the individual?

3. what is the level of institutional care available if imposters could go undetected for a period of time?

treatment of psychological disorders

history

• trephining: making holes in skull for harmful spirits to escape

• hippocrates said mental illness was biological, but middle aged europeans returned to the idea that mental illness was bec. of spirits and demons.

  • led to persecution instead of treatement

• the enlightenment made drastic changes and created humane institutions

  • philippe pinel & dorthea dix

• development of drugs → deinstitutionalization

• deinstitutionalization: released people from mental institutions. intended to save money and benefit former inpatients.

  • wasn’t as effective as what they wanted. former patients’ needs weren’t met; they ended up homeless and unable to secure phsylogical or financial care they needed

• preventive efforts: efforts made to prevent the development of a disorder

• primary prevention: tries to reduce societal problems that can lead to disorders, like homelessness and unemployment

• secondary prevention: tries to help at-risk people of a disorder.

  • ex. counseling people who experienced trauma of a natural disaster or terrorist attack

• tertiary prevention: tries to keep people’s mental health issues from become more severe

  • ex. people that already have an anxiety disorder are trying to be helped after an earthquake in hopes of the disorder to not become more severe

types of therapy

• psychotherapy: therapies that treat the mind and not the body

• somatic treatements: therapies that treat the body; drugs

• behaviorists: treats by changing reinforcements

• humanistic therapies refer to patients as clients

psychoanalytic therapy

• psychoanalysis: therpeutic technique by freud. focuses on finding the root of the problem

• symptom substitution: a person gets successfully treated on a psychological problem, then gets another one

  • psychoanalytics believe other methods result in this

• hypnosis: an altered state of consciousness where there are less repressed thoughts

• free associate: say whatever is on someone’s mind out loud (yapping) doesn’t hide/censor thoughts

• manifest content: actual content of dream described

• latent content: interpretation of dream

• patients disagreeing = resistance of truth

• resistance: in psychoanalytic therapy, the tendency to protect ones deeply repressed and troubling thoughts

• transference: in psychoanalytic therapy, patients having strong feelings toward their therapists because of past hurt relationships

• psychodynamic theories: modified Freud’s ideas & uses ideas from other perspectives. still emphasizes on the unconscious

• insight therapies: highlights importance of patients understanding of their problems

humanistic therapies

• humanistic therapy: helps people understand and accept themselves and to reach their full potential

• self-actualization: to reach one’s highest potential

• believes that people are innately good

• free will: you can control your own destiny

• determinism: you can’t control your own destiny; it’s outside of you

• carl rogers: made client-centered/person-centered therapy.

• unconditioned positive regard: acceptance no matter what client says

• nondirective: wouldn’t tell what a client should do, but would help clients to choose a course of action. they often say very little, and listen more

• active listening: mirror back feelings and clarify them. makes client feel heard

• gestalt therapy: type of humanistic therapy. encourages to get in touch with whole self

  • emphasizes on being in the present, importance of syncing all body and feelings together, etc.

• existential therapies: humanistic therapies that focus on making clients have subjective meaningful perceptions of their life; that their lives have meaning

behavioral therapies

• exposure therapy: behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization and VR exposure therapy, that treat anxieties by exposing people to things they fear and avoid

counterconditioning

• counterconditioning: undesired conditioned response replaced with desired one

• mary cover jones: made counterconditioning

systematic desensitization

• systematic desensitization: helps w/ phobias. replaces fear with relaxation

• anxiety hierarcy: patient says what give the least anxiety and works their way up to the most anxiety of a phobia. this allows the therapist to test first the least anxious thing of their phobia, and once they can face it with relaxation, they go up until they face their full fears

• joseph wolpe: made systematic desensitization

• in vivo desensitization: confronts actual feared objects or situations

• covert desensitization: confronts fears by imagining

flooding

• implosive therapy: imagining intensely feared situation

• flooding: in behavior therapies, the technique to just make patient face their most anxious fear.

• ex. if your afraid of spiders, they would put a dozen of spiders on your body 😄

• shows that their fears are irrational

modeling

• modeling: obserbing someone else interact calmy with the patients phobia and the phobia doing that too in the context of behavioral therapies

aversive conditioning

• aversive conditioning: associating bad stimuli with the habit

• ex. smoking and vomit

operant conditionging

• operant conditioning: reinforcement and punishment for a person’s behavior

• b.f. skinner: created operant conditioning. also token economy

• token economy: behaviors are identified and rewarded with tokens. these tokens can then be exchanged for objects or privileges

  • ex. to tease someone that i really don’t care about their accomplishment, you say, “aww you want a cookie for that?” that’s reverse token economy 😎

cognitive therapies

• cognitive therapies: focuses on challenging irrational thinking patterns

• uses attributional style and cognitive triad. challenges to change pessimistic and unhealthy to optimistic and healthy attributional style

• aaron beck created cognitive therapy

• aims to make beliefs more positive

cognitive behavioral therapies

• cognitive behavioral therapy (cbt): cognitive + behavioral therapies

• rational emotive behavioral therapy (rebt): sheds reality on how fear aren’t a big deal

  • albert ellis: created REBT

• challenges patient’s perception and acts on behaviors they fear

group therapy

• family therapy: meeting with whole family is helpful for revealing patterns of interaction between family members and altering behavior of whole family rather than an individual

• self-help groups: doesn’t involve a therapist at all. form of group therapy

• group therapy provides insight and feedback from peers and therapist

somatic therapies

• chemotherapy: drugs

• barbiturates: anti-anxious drugs

• biomedical therapy: prescribed medications or procedures to help the body of psychological disorders

electroconvulsive therapy (ect)

• electroconvulsive therapy (ect): currents passed through hemispheres of brain

• bilateral ect: currents passed through both hemispheres of brain

  • effects: loss of memory

• unilateral ect: currents passed through one hemisphere of brain

• ect involves a seizure, then loss of consciousness

• for severe depression

• one theory says it changes blood flow patterns

repetitive rtanscranial magnetic stimulation (rtMS)

• repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS): repeated pulses of magnetic energy to brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity

• possible explanation: stimulates frontal lobe (not as active in depression) or that it can cause nerve cells to form new functioning circuits by long-term potentiation, LTP (increase of synaptic firing)

psychosurgery

• psychosurgery: purposeful destruction of brain

• prefrontal lobotomy: involves cutting meain neurons leading to frontal love of te brain

  • this does calm behavior of patients

  • negative affects: reduces level of functioning and awareness

• only a last resort

kinds of therapists

• psychiatrists: will lean on more to biomedical because they only perscribe medicine

• clinical: deals with severe problems that people face. not day to day problems

• counseling: less severe than clinical; school, family, etc. therapy. day to day problems

evaluating therapies

• meta analysis: combining results of many different research studies statistically

  • meta analyses made researchers found that psychotherapy quickens improvement of disorder

• evidence-based practice: clinical decision of integrating best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences

• therapeutic alliance: bond of mutual trust and understanding between therapist and client who work together to overcome client’s problem