1. Unit 12
Abnormal Psychology

2. Perspectives on Psychological Disorders
Societal: Does the behavior conform to existing social norms?
Individual: The individual’s primary concern is his or her sense of well-being.
Mental-health professional looks at:
Personality characteristics
Personal discomfort (the person’s inner distress)
Life functioning (how successful the person is in personal and professional life).

3. What is abnormal behavior?
Behavior that is personally disturbing or disabling, or so deviant that others judge it as maladaptive, inappropriate, or unjustifiable. Atypical or deviant means that the behavior is rare and has a very low probability of occurring.
Insanity is defined as the inability to determine right from wrong.

4. Historical Views of Psychological Disorders
Supernatural view, where mysterious behavior was attributed to supernatural powers, likely dominated early societies.
Mental hospitals and asylums were used more like prisons to keep the afflicted away from society.

5. Early Theories
Afflicted people were possessed by evil spirits.

6. Early Theories In some cases trephening was used:
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.

7. Trephening

8. Early Theories
Another theory was to make the body extremely uncomfortable.

9. History of Mental Disorders
In the 1800’s, disturbed people were no longer thought of as madmen, but as mentally ill.
They were first put in hospitals.
Did this mean better treatment?

10. 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.

11. Early Mental Hospitals – Psych Files

12. 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!!!”

13. Models of the Causes of Psychological Disorders (Theories of the nature, causes, and treatments)
Biological model – causes are physiological malfunctions of the nervous system or endocrine glands. Heredity plays a role.
Psychoanalytic model – suggests that disorders are the result of unconscious internal conflicts (Freud), which can generally be traced to early years of life.
Cognitive-Behavioral model – suggests that disorders are the result of learning maladaptive ways of behaving and thinking
Diathesis-Stress model – suggests that some people have a biological predisposition (diathesis) to disorder which is triggered by stress.
Systems theory (biopsychosocial model) – suggests that emotional problems are “lifestyle diseases” that are caused by a combination of biological risks, psychological stresses, and societal pressures.

14. Classifying Psychological Disorders
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR)
Focuses on significant behavioral patterns
Lists symptoms
Criticisms
Disorders classified as diseases
*DSM will classify disorders and describe the symptoms.
*DSM will NOT explain the causes or possible cures.

15. DSM-IV-TR (2000)
The DSM-IV classifies psychological disorders by their symptoms.
There are five dimensions (axes):
Axis 1: Clinical syndromes – contains all the major disorders, except personality disorders.
Axis 2: Personality disorders and mental retardation
Axis 3: includes physical disorders that affect a person psychologically.
Axis 4: consists of problems in a person’s environment that may affect a person’s psychological functioning.
Axis 5: is an assessment of a person’s overall functioning.

16. The Prevalence of Psychological Disorders
In a 2001 survey (20,000 people), 14.9% of respondents reported experiencing some type of clinically significant mental disorder
Six percent were suffering from substance abuse
Most common disorders were anxiety, phobias, and mood disorders

17. Mental Illness and the Law
Insanity - Legal term for mentally disturbed people who are not considered responsible for their criminal actions.
Those found insane often spend more time in mental institutions than they would have in prison.

18. Categories of Psychological Disorders
Mood disorders
Anxiety disorders
Psychosomatic and Somatoform disorders
Dissociative disorders
Personality disorders
Schizophrenic disorders
Childhood (developmental) disorders

19. Mood Disorders
Depression
Mania
Bipolar

20. Depression
Symptoms:
Overwhelming feelings of sadness
Lack of interest in activities
Excessive guilt or feelings of worthlessness
Major depressive disorder – an episode of intense sadness that may last for several months
Dysthymia – less intense sadness, but may last for periods of two years or more.
In very small children, symptoms differ. Depression comes out as a failure to thrive, or gain weight, or as a delay in speech or motor development.

21. Mania Not as common as depression. Symptoms
Feelings of euphoria
Extreme physical activity
Excessive talkativeness
Grandiosity
Mania rarely appears alone, but usually as part of bipolar disorder.
People in a manic state can sometimes become aggressive and/or hostile.

22. Bipolar Disorder
Characterized by alternating between depression and mania (each lasting a few days to a few months).
Periods of normal mood may come between bouts of depression and mania.
Much less common than depression.
Stronger biological component than depression.
It is equally prevalent in men and women.
Most often treated by drugs.

23. Causes of Mood Disorders
Three causes: biological factors, psychological factors, and social factors.
1. Biological factors
Twin studies demonstrate that genetic factors play a role in development of depression
Mood disorders may be linked to chemical imbalances in the brain

24. Causes of Mood Disorders
Psychological factors
Cognitive distortions
Maladaptive response to early negative life events that leads to feelings of incompetence and unworthiness
These responses are reactivated whenever a new situation arises that resembles the original events
Social factors
Depression is linked to troubled close relationships
May explain greater incidence of depression in women, who tend to be more relationship-oriented
Depressed people can evoke anxiety and hostility in others, who then withdraw, which in turn can intensify feelings of depression

25. Suicide
19,000 people commit suicide in the U.S. every year, the 11th leading cause of death
More women than men attempt suicide, but more men succeed

26. Anxiety Disorders
Any disorder in which anxiety is a characteristic feature or avoidance of anxiety motivates abnormal behavior.
Anxiety disorders are more common than any other form of mental disorder.
Specific Phobias
Panic disorder
GAD
OCD

27. Specific Phobias
An intense, paralyzing fear of specific situations or objects, something that should be feared, but the fear is unreasonable or excessive. It can interfere with functioning normally.
1 in 10 people in the U.S. have specific phobias.
Common phobias include animals, heights, closed places, needles.
Social phobias - Excessive fear of social situations.
Agoraphobia - Intense fear of crowds and public places or other situations that require separation from source of security, such as the home.
Phobia list -

28. Panic Disorder
A panic attack is a sudden, unpredictable, and overwhelming experience of intense fear or terror without any reasonable cause. It can include a feeling of doom, chest pain, dizziness, fainting, sweating, and difficulty breathing. Usually only lasts a few minutes.
Person is often left with fear of having another panic attack
Can lead to agoraphobia.

29. Other Anxiety Disorders
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
Prolonged vague but intense fears not attached to any particular object or circumstance. Most closely associated with the word neurotic. Symptoms include: inability to relax, restlessness, muscle tension, rapid heart beat, apprehensiveness, inability to sleep.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Driven to disturbing thoughts (obsessions – involuntary thoughts or ideas that keep recurring) and/or performing senseless rituals (compulsions – repetitive behaviors)

30. OCD

31. OCD

32. Causes of Anxiety Disorders
Conditioning
For example, phobias can be learned through classical conditioning.
Feelings of not being in control can lead to anxiety.
Predisposition to anxiety disorders may be inherited. Belief that phobias are prepared responses – responses that evolution has made us biologically predisposed to acquire through learning so we come “hardwired” to associate certain things with intense fears.
Displacement or repression of unacceptable thoughts or impulses can lead to anxiety (Freudian perspective).

33. Psychosomatic and Somatoform Disorders
Psychosomatic disorder
Somatoform disorder
Somatization disorder
Conversion disorder
Hypochondriasis disorder
Body dysmorphic disorder

34. Psychosomatic Disorders
Real physical illness with psychological causes such as stress or anxiety.
Tension headaches, for example.
Research indicates that most, if not all, illnesses may have a psychosomatic component.
Psyche (mind) and soma (body)

35. Somatoform Disorders
Physical symptoms without any identifiable physical cause. They believe they are physically ill and describe symptoms, yet there is no evidence of physical illness.
Person experiences symptoms as real
Somatization disorder - Vague, recurrent physical complaints without physical cause. Common complaints are back pain, dizziness, abdominal pains.
Conversion disorder - Dramatic, specific disability without physical cause. For example: paralysis, blindness, deafness.
Hypochondriasis - Minor symptoms are interpreted as sign of serious illness.
Body dysmorphic disorder - Person becomes preoccupied with imagined ugliness and cannot function normally.

36. Causes of Somatoform Disorders
Freud
Symptoms related to traumatic experience in the past. He felt people gain two things: 1. primary gain – it prevents them from acting out forbidden desires or behavior and 2. secondary gain – allows person to avoid something unpleasant.
Cognitive behavioral
Examines ways in which the behavior is being rewarded. Concentrate on Freud’s secondary gain.
Biological perspective
May be real physical illnesses that are misdiagnosed or overlooked

37. Dissociative Disorders
Disorders in which some part of the personality seems separated from the rest.
Often involves memory loss and change in identity.
Dissociative amnesia
DID
Depersonalization disorder

38. Dissociative Disorders
Dissociative amnesia - Loss of memory without a physical cause.
Dissociative fugue - Involves flight from home and adoption of a new identity and amnesia for past events. This is rare.
Dissociative identity disorder:
Person has several distinct personalities that emerge at different times
Previously called multiple personality disorder
Depersonalization disorder - Person suddenly feels strangely changed or different.

39. Causes of Dissociative Disorders
Seems to involve unconscious processes
Memory impairments may also include biological factors such as normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease
Dissociation is common with use of some drugs such as LSD
Trauma may also be psychological factor in amnesia and fugue and appears to play a role in dissociative identity disorder.

40. Personality Disorders
Disorders in which inflexible thinking and maladaptive ways of thinking and behaving learned early in life cause distress in the person and/or conflicts with others.
Approximately 3% of men and 1% of women have a personality disorder.
Rate among prisoners is close to 50%.

41. Personality Disorders
Schizoid
Withdrawn and lacks feelings for others. “Loners”
Paranoid
Very suspicious of others
Dependent
Inability to make decisions or act independently and cannot tolerate being alone
Avoidant
Social anxiety leading to isolation. Unlike schizoid, this person wants to have relationships.
Narcissistic
Grandiose sense of self-importance
Borderline
Instability in self-image, mood, and interpersonal relationships. Tend to act impulsively and is self-destructive.
Antisocial
Pattern of violent, criminal, or unethical behavior with no sense of remorse. Common among prison inmates.

42. Causes of Antisocial Personality Disorder
Combination of biological predisposition, adverse psychological experiences, and an unhealthy social environment.
Also possible link to damaged frontal lobe during infancy.
Emotional deprivation during childhood may lead to antisocial tendencies.

43. Schizophrenic Disorders
Severe disorders characterized by disturbances of thought, communication, and emotions
Hallucinations
Sensory experiences without external stimulation
Delusions
False beliefs about reality
-Disorganized schizophrenia
-Catatonic schizophrenia
-Paranoid schizophrenia
-Undifferentiated schizophrenia

44. Types of Schizophrenic Disorders
Disorganized schizophrenia
Bizarre and childlike behavior
May engage in incoherent conversations
Catatonic schizophrenia
Can alternate between a catatonic state (mute and immobile) and an overly active state (overly excited and shouting)
Paranoid schizophrenia
Marked by extreme suspiciousness and complex delusions
Undifferentiated schizophrenia
Clear symptoms of schizophrenia that do not meet criteria for other subtypes

45. Causes of Schizophrenia
Biological predisposition to schizophrenia may be inherited
Twin studies show genetic link
Excessive levels of dopamine lead to psychotic symptoms
Abnormalities of brain structures
Abnormal patterns of connections between brain cells
May involve family relationships and social class

46. Schizophrenic simulation

47. Jani

48. Jani – part 2

49. Jani – part 3

50. Jani – part 4

51. Childhood Disorders Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD)
Characterized by inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity
Causes not fully understood
Psychostimulants
Drugs that increase the ability of children with AD/HD to focus

52. Childhood Disorders Autistic Disorder
Characterized by lack of social instincts and strange motor behavior
Fail to form normal attachments to parents
May withdraw into their own world
Causes are not known

53. Gender and Cultural Differences in Psychological Disorders

54. Gender Differences
More women are in treatment for psychological disorders.
Men who are divorced or separated, or who never married, have a higher rate of mental disorders.
Married women have higher rates than married men.
Women have higher rates of anxiety disorders and depression.

55. Cultural Differences
Many disorders occur only in particular cultural groups.
Prevalence of some disorders among males/females/children differs by culture.

56. Projects Can be on PowerPoint or poster.
Must be saved to the dropfolder (if doing a PP) **Note: if working on PP on a Mac at home, there might be issues with converting the project. An extension will not be granted.**
You will have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to work on projects AND the Psych sims for this chapter. Be prepared to present on Tuesday when we return from spring break.
Must include:
Full names
Title
specifically mention all subtopics with definition
Some type of visual, chart, or graph

57. Projects
People going to the computer lab must be absolutely QUIET. There are other classes working there that need it to be quiet. Mrs. Signorelli will send you back if you are not quiet.