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© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Lecture Overview
- Issues in Identifying Psychological
Disorders
- Anxiety Disorders
- Mood Disorders
- Schizophrenia
- Other Disorders
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Abnormal Behavior
- Behavior is abnormal with regard to
- Statistical infrequency: how does the frequency of the behavior compare to others in the culture?
- Disability or dysfunction: behavior is abnormal it interferes with daily life
- Personal distress: Is the person unhappy about their behavior?
- Violation of norms: A behavior is abnormal if it differs from social norms
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Statistical Issues in
Abnormality
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Culture-Bound Disorders
- An issue is the extent to which mental disorders are similar across cultures
- In some instances, there are culture-specific disorders
- Examples include:
- Running Amok: syndrome evident in Thai culture in which a person becomes wildly aggressive, thereby injuring others
- Brain Fog: syndrome evident in West Africa in which schooling produces excessive mental and physical tiredness
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Culture-General Issues
- Other issues are found across cultures:
- Nervous Weak all over
- Feel apart, alone Worry all the time
- Trouble sleeping Personal worries
- Can’t get along Low spirits
- Can’t do anything Restless
- Nothing turns out right Hot all over
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Explanations of Abnormality
- Demonology assumes that evil spirits reside within a person - Trephining: open the skull to let the spirit out
- Medical Model assumes that abnormal behaviors reflect mental or physical illness - Treatment of abnormality would take place in a hospital setting (e.g. mental hospital) - Treatments would be administered by a physician (psychiatrist) - Medical model looks for symptoms and signs of disorder; leads to development of a classification system (DSM system) - Treatments often involve drugs
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Diagnoses
- Mental illness, like physical illness, will
have different causes, have different
symptoms, and should lead to different
treatments
- The medical model requires a diagnostic
system to sort symptoms, so as to arrive
at a differential diagnosis
- Psychiatry has devised the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Anxiety Disorders
- Symptoms of anxiety include rapid
breathing, dry mouth, and increased heart
rate
- Anxiety disorders include:
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder refers to long- lasting anxiety that is not focused on an object or situation (unspecific or free-floating)
- Panic Disorder refers to brief but intense bouts of anxiety
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Anxiety Disorders
- Phobias are strong irrational fears of objects or of situations - Specific phobias are tied to objects (knives) - Social phobias are tied to situations (stage fright)
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is characterized by diffuse anxiety related to recurring thoughts and images (obsessions). - Compulsions are impulses to exert some action (e.g. hand-washing)
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Causes of Anxiety Disorders
- Learning perspective argues that phobias
are the result of learning/conditioning
- Classical conditioning
- Specific objects are paired with a frightening event
- The object can then elicit fear
- Phobias endure because the person avoids the feared stimulus and thus cannot extinguish the fear
- Operant conditioning: the person reduces their anxiety by avoiding the feared object
- Social learning (observation and modeling)
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Phobia Conditioning
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Anxiety Disorders
- Biological perspectives on anxiety
disorders:
- Evolutionary argument that we are predisposed to fear what our ancestors feared
- Altered biochemistry in brain contributes to anxiety disorder
- Cognitive processes: focus is on distortions of thinking
- Sociocultural processes: fast-paced life, decreased job security
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Schizophrenia Symptoms
- Emotional Disturbance
- Emotional affect in schizophrenia can be enhanced or flattened (no affect)
- Behavioral Disturbance
- Unusual actions that have meaning to the person - Shaking their head to clear out bad thoughts…
- Catalepsy refers to an immobile stance that can be held for hours (like a statue)
- Refusal to communicate with others
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Classification of Schizophrenia
- Positive symptoms involve distorted or excessive mental activity - Delusions, hallucinations,altered emotions, erratic behaviors - Positive symptoms occur during acute episodes
- Negative symptoms involve behavioral and mental deficits - Flattened emotions, social withdrawal - Negative symptoms are chronic (long-term) and may not respond well to drug treatment
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Biological Views of Schizophrenia
- Genetics: identical twins are more similar in regard to schizophrenia than are fraternal twins (43 to 83 % concordance) - Much higher than siblings (9% concordance)
- Neurotransmitters: Dopamine activity is excessive in the schizophrenic brain - Drugs that relieve schizophrenia block dopamine receptors
- Brain damage: enlarged ventricles are evident in schizophrenia
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Heritability of Schizophrenia
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Schizophrenia Issues
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Dissociative Disorders
- In dissociative disorders, critical elements
of personality split apart from significant
aspects of experience, memory or
consciousness.
- Dissociative amnesia: failing to recall or identify past experiences
- Dissociative fugue: leaving home and wandering off
- Dissociative identity disorder: developing separate personalities
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Personality Disorders
- Personality disorders involve inflexible,
maladaptive personality traits.
- Antisocial personality disorder:
egocentrism, lack of guilt, impulsivity, and
superficial charm
- Borderline personality disorder: impulsivity
and instability in mood, relationships and
self-image.