Abnormal Psychology

When emotions hamper a person’s ability to function effectively, cause the person to lose touch with reality, or seriously threaten his or her health or life, the person is said to suffer from a mood disorder. The three most common mood disorders are major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and seasonal affective disorder.

Mood Disorders

Individuals suffering form this disorder spend at least two weeks feeling depressed, sad, anxious, fatigued, and agitated, experiencing a reduced ability to function and interact with others. The depression rages from mild feelings of uneasiness, sadness, and apathy to intense suicidal despair, not caused by bereavement.

Major Depressive Disorder

What is the link, if any, between suicide and depression?

Not all people who commit suicide are depressed and not all people who are depressed commit suicide. many depressives, however, do you think about suicide, and some go through with it. Some reasons people commit suicide are to escape pain, end torment of unacceptable feelings, or punish themselves or someone else.

A disorder in which victims suffer severe bouts of depression during the winter or summer months when it’s too cold or hot to be outdoors. People suffering from this tend to sleep and eat excessively during their depressed periods. Researchers have proposed a possible link between this disorder and blood melatonin levels.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

A mood disorder in which individuals are excessively and inappropriately happy or unhappy is called a(n) ________.

bipolar disorder Sufferers alternate back and forth from the manic phase, experiencing elation, extreme confusion, distractibility, and racing thoughts, to the depressive phase, overcome by feelings of failure, sinfulness, and worthlessness, becoming lethargic and depressed (i.e.- manic depression)

Define schizophrenia and list five symptoms of the disorder.

Schizophrenia is a group of disorders characterized by confusion and disconnected thoughts, emotions, and perceptions. Symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, incoherence, disturbances of affect, deterioration in normal movement, decline in previous levels of functioning, and diverted attention.

Explain the types and causes of schizophrenia.

the types of schizophrenia are paranoid type, disorganized type, remission type, undifferentiated type, and catatonic type. Possible causes include inherited predisposition, chemical imbalance in the brain, and a long-term exposure to an unhealthy family life.

How are addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal related to drug abuse?

Addiction is a psychological dependence on drugs. Tolerance is a physical adaptation to the drug. Withdrawal is the experience of psychological and physical symptoms that result when drug use is discontinued.

How do we define Deviation from normality?

One approach to defining abnormality is to say what whatever most people do is normal, and abnormality is deviation, from the majority, but there are limitations to this definition. Different cultural norms and values must be considered, and because the majority is not always right, the deviance approach is not valid alone.

A(n) _____ is viewed as an inability to adjust to getting along in the world physically, emotionally, and socially.

Abnormality. There are a number of ways to define abnormality. Psychologists look at the lines between normal and abnormal in terms of deviance from the average or majority, ability to adjust to the changing environment, and one’s psychological health.

What is the DSM-IV and how do psychologists use it?

The DSM-IV is the fourth version of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is use to classify abnormal symptoms as a part of diagnosing psychological disorders.

What descriptions are included under each axis of the DSM-IV?

Axis 1: essential features of disorder: characteristics that define disorder. Axis 2- Is a personality disorder or mental retardation present? Axis 3- General medical condition, such as diabetes, hypertension, or arthritis. Axis 4- Psychosocial or environmental problems. Axis 5 – Global Assessment on a 100 pt. scale.

What is anxiety? when it is normal vs. abnormal?

Anxiety is vague, generalized apprehension of feeling that one is in danger. It is normal when it does not prevent someone form leading a normal life and abnormal when it inhibits the ability to maintain good social relationships or manifests itself with physical symptoms.

List five symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder.

A vague feeling of danger, a fear of the unknown that prevents one from making decisions, difficulty with social relationships, physically symptoms, and sleep disturbances

Phobic and Panic Disorders

Phobic disorder occurs when severe anxiety is focused on a fear that seems out of proportion to the real dangers involved, such as the fear of spiders. Panic disorder occurs when a victim experiences sudden and unexplainable attacks of intense, almost paralyzing anxiety.

A psychological disorder in which there is no apparent physical cause for certain physical symptoms is known as a(n) ______.

Somatoform disorder. The term hysteria was commonly used in Freud’s time to refer to unexplainable fainting, paralysis, or deafness. Two of the major types of somatoform disorders that psychologists identify are conversion disorders and hpochondriasis.

What is the difference between conversion disorder and hypochondriasis?

In a conversion disorder, physiological symptoms such as partial paralysis are caused by emotional difficulties. Hpochondriasis is a disorder in which a healthy person imagines various illnesses.

A person who experiences severe and long lasting after effects of an emotion event is suffering from _____.

Post-traumatic stress disorder. This disorder is common among veterans of military combat, survivors of natural disasters such as floods and tornadoes, victims of human aggression such as rape and assault, and survivors of unnatural catastrophes such s car or plane crashes. The event that triggers the disorder overwhelms a person’s normal sense of reality and ability to cope.

Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder

uncontrollable thought patterns that play repeatedly in a person’s mind are called obsessions. Repeated performance of irrational actions is called compulsion. When a person experiences these actions together to the point where normal life is interrupted, he or she has obsessive- compulsive disorder.

What are the three stages of alcoholism, and how can alcohol lead to psychological dependence?

The stages are 1- drinking makes the person feel better, 2- drinking becomes a drug to the point that person believes he or she must hide the habit, and 3- drinking becomes compulsive. Alcohol leads to psychological dependence when the person has to have it to get through tough situations.

How do personality disorders differ form other psychological disorders?

People with personality disorders do not suffer anxiety or bizarre behavior. Their problems involve the inability to establish and maintain meaningful social relationships or adapt to their social environment. Personality disorders include antisocial, dependent, histrionic, obsessive-compulsive, paranoid, and schizotypal disorder.

List the characteristics of an antisocial personality.

A pattern of disregard and violation of others’ rights with no feelings of remorse, treating other people as objects, intolerance of everyday frustrations, and living for the moment.

Define and describe three dissociative disorders.

dissociative amnesia is the inability to recall important personal events and information. In dissociative fugue, the person unexpectedly leaves his or her home or work and is unable to recall the past. Dissociative identity disorder causes a person to exhibit two or more separate personalities (i.e.- multiple-personality disorder)