Slide 1
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Abnormal Behavior
•
Definition
– Actions, thoughts, and feelings harmful to a person or others; experiencing discomfort enough to not function
– Continuity hypothesis
• Insanity and mental illness terms should not be used
–
Discontinuity hypothesis
• Only strong terms can accurately portray true nature of abnormal behavior
Slide 2
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Abnormal Behavior
•
Supernatural theories
– Resulted in more harmful treatments like exorcism, drinking foul concoctions, witches put to death (mostly women)
•
Biological theories
– Ancient Greece: four humors of body
– 1800s: bacteria, syphilis, and penicillin
– Made effective drug therapies possible
Slide 3
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Abnormal Behavior
•
Psychological theories
– Pythagoras: psychological factors like stress caused problems
– Freud revived the theory; able to compete with supernatural and biological approaches
• Model of unconscious conflicts
Slide 4
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Abnormal Behavior
•
The DSM-IV
– American Psychiatric Association’s manual
– Multi-axial system of classifications
• Axis I: Clinical disorders
• Axis II: Personality disorders and mental retardation
• Axis III: General medical conditions
• Axis IV: Psychosocial and environmental problems
• Axis V: Global assessment of functioning
Slide 5
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Abnormal Behavior
• Abnormal behavior stigmatized – negative perceptions associated with it (frightening, uncomfortable, or viewed as dangerous)
– Can make mental health problems worse
– Can prevent afflicted persons from seeking treatment
– Why stigmatize? Unwillingness to let others see one’s flaws and weaknesses?
Slide 6
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Abnormal Behavior
•
Not guilty by reason of insanity
– Hinckley trial in 1982
– Insane: at time of conduct, person had disease or defect, lacked substantial capacity to know act was wrong or broke a law
•
Competence to stand trial
– Insanity: cannot understand trial proceedings
•
Involuntary commitment
– Person poses danger to self or others
Slide 7
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Abnormal Behavior
•
Anxiety Disorders
– Excessive levels of kinds of negative emotions
– Uncomfortable and disruptive levels of anxiety
– Affects women more than men
•
Phobias
– Intense, unrealistic or irrational fear
–
Specific phobia (least disruptive), social phobia, agoraphobia (most impairing)
Slide 8
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Abnormal Behavior
•
Generalized anxiety disorder
– Free-floating anxiety (usually relatively mild)
– No periods of calm experienced
– Vague, uneasy sense of tension
•
Panic anxiety disorder
– Intensely uncomfortable attacks of anxiety
– Extremely sensitive to small bodily changes
– Attack causes exaggerated bodily reactions
Slide 9
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Slide 10
Heart Rate
24
22
20
18
16
14
Sweating (GSR)

V
20
10
0
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
30
Muscle tension (EMG)
1 2 3 4
Minutes
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5 6
Changes in three measures of sympathetic autonomic arousal when subject experienced panic attack

Abnormal Behavior
•
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
– Affects soldiers from Vietnam, Operation
Desert Storm, and Iraqi wars; also Nazi death camp and prison camp survivors)
– Suffering severe reactions years after traumatic event (some recover, some get worse over time)
– Experiences include:
• Dreams with horror
• Intense emotional bodily reactions
• Difficulty concentrating or sleeping
Slide 11
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Abnormal Behavior
• Combat-related events
• Sudden death of loved one
• Involved in or witnessing accidents
• Physical assault, rape, sexual molestation experienced by women
• Terrorism experiences
Slide 12
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Slide 13 Abnormal Behavior
•
• Four factors involved
– Severity of stress
• Risk increased when physical injury occurs
– Person’s characteristics before event
• Affects those with higher anxiety levels, lower intelligence, previous mental health problems
–
Social support
• More support lessens risk
– Sex of the victim
• Women more at risk
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Abnormal Behavior
• Definitions
–
Obsessions
– continuous anxiety-provoking thoughts
–
Compulsions
– irresistible urges to engage in behaviors
– Two separate disorders; often found together in same person
Slide 14
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Abnormal Behavior
– Experiencing symptoms of physical health problems with psychological causes
• Four types
– Somatization disorders – intensely and chronically uncomfortable conditions
– Hypochondriasis – preoccupation with health
–
Conversion disorders – symptoms not medically possible
–
Somatoform pain disorders
– primary symptom is pain with no physical cause
Slide 15
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Abnormal Behavior
• Broad category of loosely related conditions
• Four kinds
–
Depersonalization
– distorted, unreal feelings
–
Dissociative amnesia
– psychological cause
–
Dissociative fugue
– complete loss of memory
–
Dissociative identity disorder
– once known as multiple personality disorder; very controversial issue
Slide 16
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Abnormal Behavior
• Two forms
– Depression
• Major depression - episodic disorder, quite common, often mild but takes its toll
– Rare to have psychotic distortion of reality
• Bipolar disorder (depression and mania)
• Caused by high levels of anxiety; genetic influences
• Cognitive factors – negative views of self
Slide 17
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Abnormal Behavior
• Two forms
– Depression
• Major depression - episodic disorder, quite common, often mild but takes its toll
– Rare to have psychotic distortion of reality
• Caused by high levels of anxiety; genetic influences
• Cognitive factors – negative views of self
Slide 18
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Probability of developing major depression for the first time in a given year
.025
Females
Males
.020
Slide 19
.015
.010
.005
.000
0 7 17 27 37 47 57 67 77 87
Years
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Abnormal Behavior
•
Ethnic and gender differences in depression and suicide
– Women more at risk for depression
– Depressed persons more at risk for suicide
– American Indians have highest rate of suicide
– African Americans have lowest rate and
Hispanic groups have second lowest rate
(rates vary among Hispanic subgroups)
– White women have highest rate of females
Slide 20
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved

African American
Non-Hispanic white
Asian/Pacific Islanders
American Indian
1.5
1
0.5
0
3
2.5
2
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Percent of deaths due to suicide among different raceethnic groups in the U.S.
Slide 21

Abnormal Behavior
• Alternating irregular periods of severe depression and mania
–
Mania
– mood disturbance in which person experiences a high, intense euphoria
• High self-esteem, unrealistic optimism
• Psychotic distortion during episodes; damaging or extreme behavior
• Occurs in multiple episodes; cause unknown
Slide 22
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Abnormal Behavior
• Uncommon disorder affecting more men than women
– Can appear gradually or with sudden break
– Characterized by 3 types of serious problems
•
Delusions and hallucinations
•
Disorganized thinking, emotions, behavior
•
Reduced enjoyment and interests
–
Causes : genetic and environment
Slide 23
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Abnormal Behavior
•
Subtypes
–
Paranoid schizophrenia
• False beliefs, delusions (grandeur, paranoia, persecution), hallucinations
– Disorganized schizophrenia
• Delusions, hallucinations, cognitive processes highly disorganized or fragmented
• Extreme social withdrawal
Slide 24
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Abnormal Behavior
•
Subtypes
–
Catatonic schizophrenia
• May have delusions and hallucinations; most abnormalities in social interaction, body posture and movement (waxy flexibility in stupors)
Slide 25
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Abnormal Behavior
• Characterized by paranoid delusions of grandeur and persecution
– Dangerous because of believability of delusions
– Reverand Jim Jones and Jonestown deaths
– David Koresh and Waco (TX) deaths
Slide 26
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Abnormal Behavior
•
Inattention symptoms
– Cannot focus
– Fails to see details
– Careless mistakes
– Highly distractible
– Incomplete tasks
– Often loses items
– Does not listen
– Dislikes/avoids focused tasks
– Often forgetful
– Disorganized
Slide 27
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– Often fidgets or squirms when seated
– Often leaves seat when should remain seated
– Runs/climbs excessively
– Difficulty engaging in play/leisure quietly
– Often interrupts/intrudes
Slide 28 Abnormal Behavior
• Hyperactivity-impulsivity
– Often on-the-go; driven like a motor
– Talks excessively
– Blurts out answers before question is finished
– Can’t wait for turn
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Abnormal Behavior
•
Schizoid personality disorder
– Blunted emotions, social withdrawal, but no serious cognitive disturbances
•
Antisocial personality disorder
– Feel little guilt, exploit others, frequent violation of social rules and laws
– Difficulty with personal relationships
– Low tolerance for frustration, lie easily/skillfully
Slide 29
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Abnormal Behavior
Schizotypal personality disorder
Paranoid personality disorder
Histrionic personality disorder
Narcissistic personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder
Avoidant personality disorder
Dependent personality disorder
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
Slide 30
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Abnormal Behavior
Slide 31
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