1. Chapter 15: Psychological Disorders
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2. © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Defining Abnormality
Abnormality
Deviation from the average
Deviation from the ideal
A sense of personal discomfort
The inability to function effectively
A legal concept
Abnormal behavior
Causes people to experience distress and prevents them from functioning in their daily lives
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3. Terrorist Suicide Bombers: Normal or Abnormal?
Suicide bombers are not psychologically disordered
Motivated by commitment to a particular group or cause
Political
Religious
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4. Perspectives on Abnormality
Medical perspective
Suggests symptoms of abnormal behavior are rooted in physiological causes
Psychoanalytic perspective
Views abnormal behavior as stemming from childhood conflicts over opposing wishes regarding sex and aggression
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5. Perspectives on Abnormality
Behavioral perspective
View abnormal behavior as a learned response
Humanistic perspective
Emphasize the responsibility that people have for their own behavior, even when such behavior is seen as abnormal
Sociocultural perspective
Makes the assumption that people’s behavior – both normal and abnormal – is shaped by the kind of family group, society, and culture
Cognitive perspective
Assumes that cognitions (people’s thoughts and beliefs) are central to a person’s abnormal behavior
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6. Perspectives on Abnormality
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7. Classifying Abnormal Behavior
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR)
System devised by the American Psychiatric Association, used by most professionals to diagnose and classify abnormal behavior
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8. Major Psychological Disorders
Anxiety Disorders
Phobic disorder
Intense, irrational fears of specific objects or situations
Panic disorder
Anxiety that is not triggered by any identifiable stimulus and last from a few seconds to several hours
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
Experience long term persistent anxiety
Anxiety disorder
Anxiety occurs without external justification and begins to affect a person’s daily functioning
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9. Major Psychological Disorders
Phobic disorders
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10. Major Psychological Disorders
Frequency of symptoms in GAD
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11. Major Psychological Disorders
Obsessive-Compulsive disorder
Obsession
A persistent, unwanted thought or idea that keeps recurring
Compulsion
Urge to repeatedly carry out some act that seems strange and unreasonable, even to the individual who experiences them
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12. Major Psychological Disorders
Somatoform Disorders
Psychological difficulties that take on a physical (somatic) form, but for which there is no medical cause
Hypochondriasis
Constant fear of illness and a preoccupation with their health
Conversion disorder
Involves an actual physical disturbance, such as the inability to see or hear, or to move an arm or leg whose cause is purely psychological
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13. Major Psychological Disorders
Conversion disorders sometimes cause numbness in particular isolated areas of the body
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14. Major Psychological Disorders
Dissociative disorders
Psychological dysfunctions characterized by the separation of critical personality facets that are normally integrated, allowing stress avoidance through escape
Dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality)
Individual displays characteristics of two or more distinct personalities
Amnesia
Disorder in which a significant selective memory loss occurs
Fugue
An amnesiac condition where people take sudden, impulsive trips, sometimes assuming a new identity
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15. Major Psychological Disorders
Emotional disturbance that is strong enough to intrude on everyday living
Major depression
Severe form of depression that may last months or years in which the person experiences characteristic symptoms
Worthless feelings
Loneliness
Crying
Sleep disturbance
Suicide
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16. Major Psychological Disorders
Across different places and cultures, women are diagnosed more frequently with depression than men
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17. Major Psychological Disorders
Bipolar disorder
Condition in which a person sequentially experiences periods of mania and depression
Mania
Extended state of intense, wild elation
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18. Major Psychological Disorders
Schizophrenia
Class of disorders in which severe distortion of reality occurs
Decline from a previous level of functioning
Disturbances of thought and language
Delusions
Hallucinations and perceptual disorders
Emotional disturbances
Withdrawal
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19. Major Psychological Disorders
Schizophrenia
Process schizophrenia
Symptoms develop relatively early in life, slowly and subtly
Reactive schizophrenia
Onset of symptoms is sudden and conspicuous
Positive-symptom schizophrenia
Negative-symptom schizophrenia
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20. Major Psychological Disorders
Schizophrenia
Type I schizophrenia
Positive symptoms are dominant
Type II schizophrenia
Negative symptoms are more prominent
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21. Major Psychological Disorders
Causes of schizophrenia
Biological
Heredity
Dopamine hypothesis
Glutamate hypothesis
Schizophrenia occurs when there is excess activity in those areas of the brain that use dopamine as a neurotransmitter
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22. Major Psychological Disorders
Causes of schizophrenia
Environmental perspectives
Expressed emotion
Interaction style characterized by criticism, hostility, and emotional intrusiveness by family members
Cognitive perspective
Overattention
Underattention
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23. Major Types of Schizophrenia
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24. Personality Disorders
Disorders characterized by a set of inflexible, maladaptive behavior patterns that keep a person from functioning appropriately in society
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25. Personality Disorders
Narcissistic personality disorder
Exaggerated sense of self-importance
Antisocial personality disorder (sociopath)
Characterized by no regard for the moral and ethical rules of society or the rights of others
Borderline personality disorder
Characterized by their difficulty in developing a secure sense of who they are
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26. © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Childhood Disorders
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Marked by inattention, impulsiveness, a low tolerance fro frustration, and generally a great deal of inappropriate activity
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27. © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Other Disorders
Psychoactive substance-use disorder
Eating disorders
Sexual disorders
Organic mental disorders
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28. Prevalence of Psychological Disorders
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