Psychopathology Psychopathology – Any pattern of emotions, behaviors, or thoughts inappropriate to the situation and leading to personal distress or the inability to achieve important goals. AKA – Mental Illness, Mental Disorders

Psychopathology 300+ forms of psychopathology have been identified 3 classic symptoms of severe psychopathology: Hallucinations – False sensory experiences. (Different than illusions) Delusions – Extreme Disorders of thinking, involving persistent false beliefs. They are the hallmark of paranoid disorders. Affective Disturbances – Refers to mood or emotion. Depression, anxiety, or mania

Psychopathology More subtle indicators of psychopathology: Distress Maladaptiveness Irrationality Unpredictability Unconventionality and undesirable behavior

Changing Concepts of Psychological Disorders Historical Roots The Greeks and the Humors (Bile, Blood, etc.) The medical model – The view that mental disorders are diseases that, like ordinary physical diseases, have objective physical causes and require specific treatments. Social-cognitive-behavioral approach – A psychological alternative to the medical model that views psychological disorder through a combination of the social, cognitive, and behavioral perspectives. Biopsychology View – Biology plays a part in mental disorders.

Perspectives on Psychological Disorders Medical Model – The concept that diseases, in this case psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured often through treatment in a hospital. Biopsychosocial approach – The idea that all behavior, regular or abnormal, is a result of the interaction of nature and nurture.

How Are Psychological Disorders Classified? DSM-IV-TR – The classification system most widely accepted for classifying psychological disorders. Neurosis – Before the DSM-IV, this term was used as a label for subjective distress or self-defeating behavior that did not show sigs of brain abnormalities or grossly irrational thinking. Psychosis – A disorder involving profound disturbances in perception, rational thinking, or affect.

Anxiety Disorders Anxiety Disorders – Psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety. Generalized Anxiety Disorder Panic Disorder Phobias Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder

Anxiety Disorders Generalized Anxiety Disorders – A psychological problem characterized by persistent and pervasive feelings of anxiety, without any external cause.

Anxiety Disorders Panic disorder – A disturbance marked by panic attacks that have no obvious connection with events in the person’s present experience. Unlike generalized anxiety disorder, the victim is usually free of anxiety between panic attacks.

Anxiety Disorders Phobias – A group of anxiety disorders involving a pathological fear of a specific object or situation. Agoraphobia – A fear of public places and open spaces, commonly accompanied by panic disorder.

Anxiety Disorders Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – A condition characterized by patterns of persistent, unwanted thoughts and behaviors.

Anxiety Disorders Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – An anxiety disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience. Post-Traumatic Growth – Positive psychological changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenges circumstances and life crises.

Factors that Influence Anxiety Disorders Fear Conditioning Observational Learning Genetics The Brain Involves overarousal of brain areas involved in impulse control and habitual behaviors. Anterior cingulate cortex. Monitors our actions and checks for errors. Is hyperactive in people with OCD. Amygdala P. 575

Somatoform Disorders Somatoform disorders – Psychological disorder in which the symptoms take a somatic (bodily) form without apparent physical cause.

Somatoform Disorders Conversion Disorder – A rare somatoform disorder in which a person experiences very specific genuine physical for which no physiological basis can be found. Unexplained paralysis Unexplained blindness Inability to swallow

Somatoform Disorder Hypochondriasis – A somatoform disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease.

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

Dissociative Disorders Dissociative Amnesia – A psychologically induced loss of memory for personal information, such as one’s identity or residence.

Dissociative Disorders Dissociative Fugue – Essentially the same as dissociative amnesia, but with the addition of “flight” from one’s home, family, and job.

Dissociative Disorders Depersonalization Disorder – An abnormality involving the sensation that mind and body have separated, as in an “out-of-body” experience.

Dissociative Disorders Dissociative Identity Disorder – A rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities. AKA – Multiple Personality Disorder.

Mood Disorders Mood Disorders – Psychological disorders characterized by emotional extremes.

Mood Disorders Major Depressive Disorder – A mood disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or a medical condition, two or more weeks of significant depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities.

Mood Disorders Seasonal Affective Disorder – Mood disorder that is believed to be a form of depression caused by deprivation of sunlight.

Mood Disorders Mania – A mood disorder marked by a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state.

Mood Disorders Bipolar Disorder – A mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania. AKA – Manic – Depressive Disorder

Understanding Mood Disorders Many behavioral and cognitive changes accompany depression. Depression is widespread. Compared with men, women are nearly twice as vulnerable to major depression. Most major depressive episodes self-terminate. Stressful events related to work, marriage, and close relationships often precede depression. With each new generation, depression is striking earlier, now often in the late teens, and affecting more people.

Eating Disorders Anorexia Nervosa – An eating disorder involves persistent loss of appetite that endangers an individual’s health and stems from emotional or psychological reasons rather than from organic causes. Bulimia Nervosa – An eating disorder characterized by eating binges followed by “purges” induced by vomiting or laxatives; typically initiated as a weight control measure.

Schizophrenia Schizophrenia – “Split mind.” Refers not to a multiple-personality split but rather to a split from reality that shows itself in disorganized thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions. The thinking of a person with schizophrenia is fragmented, bizarre, and often distorted by false beliefs called delusions.

Schizophrenia Paranoid – Preoccupation with delusions or hallucinations, often with themes of persecution or grandiosity.

Schizophrenia Disorganized – Disorganized speech or behavior, or flat or inappropriate emotion.

Schizophrenia Catatonic – Immobility, extreme negativism, and / or parrotlike repeating of another’s speech or movements.

Schizophrenia Undifferentiated – Many and varied symptoms.

Schizophrenia Residual – Withdrawal, after hallucinations and delusions disappeared.

Personality Disorders Personality Disorders – Conditions involving a chronic, pervasive, inflexible, and maladaptive pattern of thinking, emotion, social relationships, or impulse control.

Personality Disorders Narcissistic Personality Disorder – Characterized by a grandiose sense of self-importance, a preoccupation with fantasies of success or power, and a need for constant attention or admiration.

Personality Disorders Borderline Personality Disorder – An unstable personality given to impulsive behavior.

Personality Disorders Antisocial Personality Disorders – A personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist.

Developmental Disorders Autism – A developmental disorder marked by disabilities in language, social interaction, and the ability to understand another person’s state of mind.

Developmental Disorders Dyslexia – A reading disability, thought by experts to involve a brain disorder.

Developmental Disorders Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder – A psychological disorder marked by the appearance by age 7 of one or more of three key symptoms: extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

Insanity Insanity – A legal term, not a psychological or psychiatric one, referring to a person who is unable, because of a mental disorder or defect, to conform his or her behavior to the law.

Jail or Hospital? Andrea Yates Drowned her five children shortly after being taken off antipsychotic medication. Children were ages 7, 5, 3, 2, and 6 months. One jury found her guilty 2 nd jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity. What do you think?