Abnormal PsychologyA.K.A. Psychological Disorders

A “harmful dysfunction” in which behavior is judged to be atypical,

disturbing, maladaptive and unjustifiable.

Psychological Disorder

A “harmful dysfunction” in which behavior is judged to be: atypical--be unusual to the vast majority of

people in that culture disturbing--varies with time and culture maladaptive--harmful unjustifiable--be irrational; not make sense to

the average person

Early Theories of Psychological Disorders

• Afflicted people were possessed by evil spirits.

• Movements of sun or moon*lunacy = full moon

Early Theories

• Music or singing was often used to chase away spirits.

•In some cases trephening was used:

Cutting a hole in the head of the afflicted to let out the evil spirit

Ancient Treatments• Another theory was to make the body extremely

uncomfortable• Ancient treatments included: exorcism, caged like

animals, beaten, burned, castrated, mutilated, blood replaced with animal’s blood

History of Mental Disorders

• In the 1800’s, disturbed people were no longer thought of as madmen, but as mentally ill.

Did this mean better treatment?

They were first put in hospitals.

Early Mental Hospitals• They were nothing more than barbaric

prisons.

•The patients were chained and locked away.

•Some hospitals even charged admission for the public to see the “crazies”, just like a zoo.

Philippe Pinel

• French doctor who was the first to take the chains off and declare that these people are sick and “a cure must be found!!!”

Perspectives and DisordersPsychological

School/PerspectiveCause of the Disorder

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Internal, unconscious drives

Humanistic Failure to strive to one’s potential or being out of touch with one’s feelings.

Behavioral Reinforcement history, the environment.

Cognitive Irrational, dysfunctional thoughts or ways of thinking.

Sociocultural Dysfunctional Society

Biomedical/Neuroscience Organic problems, biochemical imbalances, genetic predispositions.

***Most psychologists do not pick just one perspective for their practice but pick a combination of them; this is called being eclectic.

Current Perspectives

• Medical Perspective: psychological disorders are sicknesses and can be diagnosed, treated and cured. concept that diseases have physical causes assumes that these “mental” illnesses can be

diagnosed on the basis of their symptoms and cured through therapy, which may include treatment in a psychiatric hospital

Current Perspectives

• Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective: assumes biological, psychological and sociocultural factors combine and interact causing psychological disorders

Used to be called Diathesis-Stress Model: diathesis meaning predisposition; stress meaning environment

Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective:

Sane or Insane?

• Insane is a legal term to benchmark whether or not a person is capable of committing a crime.  Psychologists almost never use that term (unless they are getting paid a lot of money to testify in court).

DSM IV• Diagnostic

Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: the big book of disorders.

• DSM will classify disorders and describe the symptoms.

• DSM will NOT explain the causes or possible cures.

Two Major Classifications in the DSM

Neurotic Disorders• Distressing but one

can still function in society and act rationally.

Psychotic Disorders• Person loses contact

with reality, experiences distorted perceptions.

John Wayne Gacy

Anxiety Disorders• a group of conditions

where the primary symptoms are anxiety or defenses against anxiety.

• the patient fears something awful will happen to them.

• They are in a state of intense apprehension, uneasiness, uncertainty, or fear.

What is anxiety?• is a state of

intense apprehension, uneasiness, uncertainty, or fear.

Generalized Anxiety DisorderGAD

• An anxiety disorder in which a person is continuously tense, apprehensive and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal.

• The patient is constantly tense and worried, feels inadequate, is oversensitive, can’t concentrate and suffers from insomnia.

Panic Disorder• An anxiety disorder marked by a

minutes-long episode of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking and other frightening sensations.

Can cause secondary disorders, such as agoraphobia.

Phobias• A person experiences sudden episodes of

intense dread• Persistent, irrational fear of a specific

object or situation

Phobias Common and uncommon fears

Some Unusual Phobias

• Ailurophobia - fear of cats

• Algobphobia - fear of pain

• Anthropophobia - fear of men

• Monophobia - fear of being alone

• Pyrophobia - fear of fire

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

• An anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions (compulsions).

Common Examples of OCD

Common Obsessions:Common

Compulsions:Contamination fears of germs,

dirt, etc. Washing

Imagining having harmed self or others

Repeating

Imagining losing control of aggressive urges

Checking

Intrusive sexual thoughts or urges

Touching

Excessive religious or moral doubt

Counting

Forbidden thoughts

Ordering/arranging

A need to have things "just so" Hoarding or

saving

A need to tell, ask, confess Praying

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Post-traumatic Stress Disordera.k.a. PTSD

• Flashbacks or nightmares following a person’s involvement in or observation of an extremely stressful event

• Memories of the even cause anxiety

Explanations for Anxiety Disorders

• You learn them through conditioning

•Evolution

•Genes

•Physiology (the brain)

Somatoform Disorders

• Occur when a person manifests a psychological problem through a physiological symptom.

• Two types……

Hypochondriasis

• Has frequent physical complaints for which medical doctors are unable to locate the cause.

• They usually believe that the minor issues (headache, upset stomach) are indicative of more severe illnesses.

Conversion Disorder• Report the existence

of severe physical problems with no biological reason

• Many people that suffer from conversion disorder become blind after witnessing a horrible tragedy or paralyzed from the waist down after the death of a loved one. 

Pol Pot

Mood DisordersExperience extreme or inappropriate

emotion

Mood Disorders• Psychological Disorders

characterized by emotional extremes

1) Major Depressive Disorder *

4) Bipolar Disorder *

3) Seasonal Affective Disorder

2) Dysthymic Disorder

Depression

• The common cold of psychological disorders

It is like a warning that something is wrong

Major Depressive Disorder

• A person, for no apparent reason, experiences two or more weeks of depressive moods.

Includes feelings of worthlessness and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities.

Dysthymic Disorder

• Suffering from mild depression every day for at least two years This is one mildly

depressed sheep!!!  I guess we should try to shear her up (get it?) 

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

• People that suffer from SAD only experience depression during the winter months. 

• It is believed that the lack of sunlight (not temperature) in the winter brings about the depression.

• Therapist recommend something called light therapy; using a light that mimics the sun (it is pricey so my advice would be just to move to Florida!)

Bipolar Disorder

• Formally manic depression.

• Involves periods of depression and manic episodes.

• Manic episodes involve feelings of high energy (but they tend to differ a lot…some get confident and some get irritable).

• Engage in risky behavior during the manic episode.

Famous People with Bipolar

Bipolar Brain

Norepinephrine – Increases arousal and boosts mood

Dissociative Disorders

• Disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts and feelings.

• Three types….

Psychogenic Amnesia

• A person cannot remember things with no physiological basis for the disruption in memory.

• Retrograde Amnesia• NOT organic amnesia.• Organic amnesia can

be retrograde or antrograde.

Dissociative Amnesia• This disorder is characterized by a blocking out

of critical personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature

• Dissociative amnesia, unlike other types of amnesia, does NOT result from other medical trauma (e.g. a blow to the head)

Dissociative Amnesia• Localized amnesia is present in an individual who has no

memory of specific events that took place, usually traumatic. The loss of memory is localized with a specific window of time. For example, a survivor of a car wreck who has no memory of the experience until two days later is experiencing localized amnesia.

• Selective amnesia happens when a person can recall only small parts of events that took place in a defined period of time. For example, an abuse victim may recall only some parts of the series of events around the abuse.

• Generalized amnesia is diagnosed when a person's amnesia encompasses his or her entire life.

• Systematized amnesia is characterized by a loss of memory for a specific category of information. A person with this disorder might, for example, be missing all memories about one specific family member.

Dissociative Fugue• An individual with dissociative fugue

suddenly and unexpectedly takes physical leave of his or her surroundings and sets off on a journey of some kind

•These journeys can last hours, or even several days or months

Dissociative Fugue• Individuals experiencing a dissociative

fugue have traveled over thousands of miles

An individual in a fugue state is unaware of or confused about his identity, and in some cases will assume a new identity (although this is the exception)

Depersonalization Disorder

• is marked by a feeling of detachment or distance from one's own experience, body, or self.

One can easily relate to feeling as they in a dream, or being "spaced out."

A person's experience with depersonalization can be so severe that he or she believes the external world is unreal or distorted.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

• A rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities.

• Also known as Multiple Personality Disorder

Schizophrenic Disorders

• About 1 in every 100 people are diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

1.Disorganized thinking.

2.Disturbed Perceptions3.Inappropriate

Emotions and Actions

Disorganized Thinking• The thinking of a person with

Schizophrenia is fragmented and bizarre and distorted with false beliefs

•Disorganized thinking comes from a breakdown in selective attention.- they cannot filter out information Often causes………

Delusions (false beliefs)

•Delusions of Persecution

•Delusions of Grandeur

Disturbed Perceptions

• hallucinations- sensory experiences without sensory stimulation

Inappropriate Emotions and Actions

•Laugh at inappropriate times

•Flat Effect •Senseless,

compulsive acts•Catatonia-

motionless Waxy Flexibility

Positive v. Negative Symptoms

Positive Symptoms• Presence of

inappropriate symptoms

Negative Symptoms

• Absence of appropriate ones

Types of Schizophreni

a

Paranoid Schizophrenia

• preoccupation with delusions or hallucinations

• Somebody is out to get me!!!!

Disorganized Schizophrenia

• disorganized speech or behavior, or flat or inappropriate emotion

Catatonic Schizophrenia

• parrot like repeating of another’s speech and movements

Undifferentiated Schizophrenia

• Many and varied symptoms

• These schizophrenics exhibit disorganized thinking, but does not seem to fit in any of the other three types

Personality Disorders

• Well-established, maladaptive ways of behaving that negatively affect people’s ability to function.

• Dominates their personality.

Paranoid Personality Disorder

• Paranoid personality disorder is characterized by a distrust of others and a constant suspicion that people around you have sinister motives.

Paranoid Personality Disorder

• They search for hidden meanings in everything and read hostile intentions

into the actions of others. •They are quick to challenge the loyalties of friends and loved ones and often appear cold and distant to others. They usually shift blame to others and tend to carry long grudges.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

• Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a lack of conscience

• Lack of empathy• Little regard for other’s

feelings• View the world as

hostile and look out for themselves

Antisocial Personality Disorder

• People with this disorder are prone to criminal behavior, believing that their victims are weak and deserving of being taken advantage of. They tend to lie and steal.

• They are careless with money and take action without thinking about consequences.

• They are often aggressive and are much more concerned with their own needs than the needs of others.

Borderline Personality Disorder

• Characterized by mood instability and poor self-image

People with this disorder are prone to constant mood swings and bouts of anger.

Borderline Personality Disorder

• They will take their anger out on themselves, causing themselves injury

Suicidal threats and actions are not uncommon

They are quick to anger when their expectations are not met.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

• They need to be the center of attention all the time, often interrupting others in order to dominate the conversation.

• Whether acting silly, dressing provocatively, or exaggerating illnesses

Histrionic Personality Disorder

• They also tend to exaggerate friendships and relationships, believing that everyone loves them.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

• Having an unwarranted sense of self-importance.

• Thinking that you are the center of the universe.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

*They tend to be choosy about picking friends, since they believe that not just anyone is worthy of being their friend.

*They are generally

uninterested in the feelings of others and may take advantage of them.

They exaggerate their achievements, expecting others to recognize them as being superior

Schizoid Personality Disorder

• People with schizoid personality disorder avoid relationships and do not show much emotion

They genuinely prefer to be alone and do not secretly wish for popularity.

Schizoid Personality Disorder

• They tend to seek jobs that require little social contact

• Their social skills are often weak and they do not show a need for attention or acceptance.

• They are perceived as humorless and distant and often termed “loners.”

• Low sexual drive

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

• characterized by a need for social isolation, odd behavior and thinking, and often unconventional beliefs such as being convinced of having extra sensory abilities.

• Some people believe that schizotypal personality disorder is a mild form of schizophrenia.

Avoidant Personality Disorder

• characterized by a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation.

• consider themselves to be socially inept or personally unappealing, and avoid social interaction for fear of being ridiculed or humiliated.

Dependent Personality Disorder

• Characterized by a pervasive psychological dependence on other people.

• Has difficulty making everyday decisions without an excessive amount of advice and reassurance from others

Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder

• Characterized by a general psychological inflexibility, rigid conformity to rules and procedures, perfectionism, and excessive orderliness.

• People with OCPD tend to stress perfectionism above all else, and feel anxious when they perceive that things aren't "right".

Other Disorders

• Paraphilias (pedophilia, zoophilia, hybristophilia)

• Fetishism • Sadist, Masochist• Sex addictions• Eating Disorders• Substance use

disorders

Rates of Psychological Disorders