Abnormal Psychology: Anxiety, Trauma, & Mood Disorders, Summaries of Psychology

Download Abnormal Psychology: Anxiety, Trauma, & Mood Disorders and more Summaries Psychology in PDF only on Docsity!

J. N. Butcher,

Abnormal psychology

I. ANXIETY, OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE, & RELATED DISORDERS

a. Anxiety i. The role of the amygdala in anxiety is to take in sensory information and send impulses to the body. ii. Some of the physiological signs of anxiety are sense of dread, shaking, feeling faint, wobbly legs, rapid heartbeat, choking (short of breath), etc. These signs can be measured by looking at skin conductance, heart rate, and startle response (measure blink when startled, usually long > habituating causes shorter blink). iii. The tripartite model of anxiety looks at the similarities and differences between depression and anxiety:

1. Positive Affectivity: Low levels of happy, joy, optimism for Depression.
2. Negative Affectivity: High levels of negative thinking about self, others, future in both Depression and Anxiety.
3. Physiological Hyper-arousal: Hyperactive amygdala causing increased ‘fight or flight’ & bodily function response in Anxiety. iv. Anxiety is learned through conditioned responses, in which one begins to associate this stress response to a specific stimulus, like Little Albert. v. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
4. GAD is characterized by worries.
5. The diagnostic criteria for GAD is to have at least 3 of the following symptoms > restlessness, fatigue, poor concentration, irritability, muscle tension, sleep disturbance. It must also cause distress and impair daily functioning.
6. The diathesis-stress model of GAD is that certain people have a biological vulnerability toward developing GAD that is caused by a trigger that leads to the symptoms above. b. Phobias i. Phobias are persistent and unreasonable fear towards a specific object, causing an interruption with daily life. ii. Avoidance reinforces phobias by influencing someone to continue to avoid the object because it makes them feel good after doing so. iii. Phobias are treated through:
7. Exposures: exposure to fear-causing stimulus, slowly.
8. Systematic Desensitization (w/relaxation training): desensitized to stimulus, not to fear. Deep breaths, addressing fear with logic.
9. Flooding: go straight to the scary stimulus, no exposure. c. Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) i. SAD is fear/anxiety about social situations where there may be scrutiny from others. Engaging in avoidance and safety behaviors to decrease chance of social disaster.

v. Treatments for trauma include drug therapy (to reduce arousal), behavioral exposure therapy (flood & relaxation), insight therapy (process reaction), family/group therapy (help normalize event), debriefing (can be bad). d. Dissociative Disorders i. Dissociative amnesia is inability to recall personal autobiographical memory associated with a traumatic event (no physiological explanation). There are 5 types:

1. Localized – before/after event, specific to a time around event
2. Selective – remember different parts but not whole thing
3. Generalize – significant block of memory lost
4. Continuous – memory loss continues after event
5. Dissociative fugue occurs when one forgets their life and takes on a new identity. ii. Amnesia can be treated by:
6. Psychodynamic therapy (recover repressed memories)
7. Hypnotic therapy (guided recall of forgotten memories)
8. Drug therapy (truth serums) iii. Dissociative identity disorder is 2 or more different personalities in someone, AKA multiple personalities. (Each with own memories, talents) iv. Dissociative identity disorder treatment is:
9. Recognizing the disorder
10. Recovering memories
11. Fusion of subpersonalities v. Depersonalization/derealization disorder is persistent and recurrent episodes of depersonalization (sense of out of body experience) and derealization (something isn’t right). III. MOOD DISORDERS a. Unipolar Depression i. The five symptom domains of unipolar depression are:
12. Emotional – feeling hopeless, sad, lonely
13. Motivational – not motivated to eat or be with partner
14. Behavioral – in room, in bed, isolation, no socialization
15. Cognitive – thoughts of “what’s the point”, guilt of past, failure
16. Physical – headaches, stomach aches, dizzy, moving slow, tired ii. The criteria for major depressive disorder is 5 of the symptoms below:
17. Depressed mood, diminished interest, significant weight loss, insomnia/hypersomnia, fatigue, feeling worthless, can’t concentrate, thoughts of death/suicidal.
18. • happening for 2 weeks with NO mania. iii. The criteria for a ‘depressive episode’ is symptoms above plus:
19. 2+ years = Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD)
20. Not as disabling but persistent = Dysthymia

iv. The biological model of depression explains it may be due to genetics or low levels of norepinephrine/serotonin. The psychological model of depression explains it may be due to real/imagined loss. The behavioral model of depression explains it may be due to decrease of positive rewards in life over time. The cognitive model of depression explains it may be due to maladaptive attitudes that are not working like automatic thoughts with little or no evidence. v. Treatment approaches to depression are antidepressants (to increase serotonin), ECT (if severe), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT – changing primary attitudes to new way of thinking by acknowledging maladaptive thinking. vi. The multicultural perspective of depression is we may not know how other cultures perceive depression, as others may have physical symptoms instead of emotional. b. Bipolar Depression i. A manic episode is abnormally and persistently elevated or irritable mood. Increased activity most of the day, everyday for at least 1 week, with at least 3 of these: inflated self-esteem, decreased need for sleep, talkative, racing ideas, activities w/painful consequences. ii. Differences in the disorders:

1. Bipolar I Disorder: 1 manic episode in someone’s life + MDD coming before/after.
2. Bipolar II Disorder: 1 depressive episode + 1 hypomanic episode (not a whole week of mania, less days)
3. Cyclothymic Disorder: At least 2 years of episodes of hypomania + dysthymia episodes not meeting full criteria for mania or MDD, just lasts longer.