PSYCHOLOGICAL
DISORDERS
MEDICAL MODEL APPLIED TO
ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
Medical model proposes that it is useful to think
of abnormal behavior as a disease
 Critics: Thomas Szasz—mind can’t be sick
 Diagnosis: distinguish one illness from another
 Etiology: causation and developmental history of
an illness
 Prognosis: forecast about probable course of an
illness

CRITERIA OF ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
Deviance: deviating from society’s norms
 Maladaptive behavior: struggling to adapt
 Personal distress: usually depression and/or
anxiety disorders
 Evolutionary psychs believe mental disorders
should be referred to as evolutionary dysfunctions

STEREOTYPES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
DISORDERS
1) Psych disorders are incurable
 2) People w/psych disorders are often violent and
dangerous
 3) People w/psych disorders behave in bizarre
ways and are very different from normal people

PSYCHODIAGNOSIS:
CLASSIFICATION OF DISORDERS
1952: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM) describes 100 disorders
 1980: DSM-III---new classification system
 Axes I and II diagnose disorders
 Axes III-V are supplemental info

PREVALENCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
DISORDERS
Epidemiology: the study of the distribution of
mental or physical disorders
 Prevalence: percentage of population that
exhibits a disorder during a specific time period
 DSM criteria: 1/3 of pop. has some psych disorder

ANXIETY DISORDERS
A class of disorders marked by feelings of
excessive apprehension and anxiety
GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER
DEF: marked by a chronic, high level of anxiety
that is not tied to any specific threat
 Called “free-floating anxiety”
 Worry about minor matters
 Physical symptoms: trembling, muscle tension,
diarrhea, dizziness, faintness, sweating, heart
palpitations

PHOBIC DISORDERS
DEF: marked by a persistent and irrational fear
of an object or situation that presents no realistic
danger
 Even imagining the object can trigger anxiety

PANIC DISORDER AND
AGORAPHOBIA
Panic disorder: characterized by recurrent
attacks of overwhelming anxiety that usually
occur suddenly and unexpectedly
 Agoraphobia: fear of going out to public places
 Majority who suffer from one or both are female

OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE
DISORDER
OCD: marked by persistent, uncontrollable
intrusions of unwanted thoughts and urges to
engage in senseless rituals
 Obsessions are thoughts
 Compulsions are actions

ETIOLOGY OF ANXIETY
DISORDERS
BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
Concordance rate: indicates the percentage of
twin pairs or other pairs of relatives that exhibit
the same disorders
 Anxiety sensitivity
 Neurotransmitters

CONDITIONING AND LEARNING
Anxiety responses are acquired by classical
conditioning
 They are maintained by operant conditioning
 Phobias could be evolutionary
 Observational learning may also play a part

COGNITIVE FACTORS
Some are more likely to have anxiety b/c they
tend to:
 1) misinterpret harmless situations as
threatening
 2) focus excessive attention on perceived threats
 3) selectively recall info that seems threatening

PERSONALITY AND STRESS
Certain personality traits appear to be related to
likelihood of anxiety
 Neuroticism---nervous, jittery, insecure, guiltprone, gloomy

SOMATOFORM DISORDERS
Physical ailments that cannot be fully explained
by organic conditions and are largely due to
psychological factors
SOMATIZATION DISORDER
DEF: marked by a history of diverse physical
complaints that appear to be psychological in
origin
 Usually a very diverse array of symptoms

CONVERSION DISORDER

DEF: characterized by a significant loss of
physical function (w/no apparent organic basis),
usually in a single organ system
HYPOCHONDRIASIS
DEF: characterized by excessive preoccupation
w/health concerns and incessant worry about
developing physical illnesses
 Usually coupled w/ anxiety disorders and
depression

ETIOLOGY OF
SOMATOFORM DISORDERS
PERSONALITY FACTORS
Histrionic personality most prevalent
 Self-centered, suggestible, excitable, highly
emotional, overly dramatic
 Neuroticism also common

THE SICK ROLE
Being sick is a way to avoid life’s challenges
 Creates an excuse for failure
 Gets attention from others

DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS
Class of disorders in which people lose contact
w/portions of their consciousness or memory,
resulting in disruptions in their sense of identity
DISSOCIATIVE AMNESIA AND
FUGUE
Dissociative Amnesia: sudden loss of memory for
important personal info that is too extensive to
be due to normal forgetting
 Dissociative Fugue: loss of memory for entire life
along with sense of identity

DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER
DID: involves the coexistence in one person of 2
or more largely complete, and usually very
different, personalities
 Personalities usually unaware of each other
 Alternate personalities exhibit traits unusual for
original personality

ETIOLOGY OF DISSOCIATIVE
DISORDERS
Nicholas Spanos: DID patients are merely roleplaying to mask personal failure
 Trauma does seem to be the main cause of
development of DID

MOOD DISORDERS
Class of disorders marked by emotional
disturbances of varied kinds that may spill over to
disrupt physical, perceptual, social, and thought
processes
MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER
DEF: show persistent feelings of sadness and
despair and a loss of interest in previous sources
of pleasure
 Depression can occur at any point in life
 Dysthynic disorder: chronic depression that is
insufficient in severity to justify diagnosis of a
major depressive episode

BIPOLAR DISORDER
DEF: characterized by the experience of one or
more manic episodes usually accompanied by
periods of depression
 Cyclothymic disorder: exhibit chronic but
relatively mild symptoms of bipolar disturbance

ETIOLOGY OF MOOD
DISORDERS
GENETIC VULNERABILITY
Heredity can create a predisposition
 Environmental factors may determine if it
becomes an actual disorder

NEUROCHEMICAL FACTORS
Norepinephrine and serotonin thought to be the
main NT’s
 Recent studies are showing that other NT’s may
be involved

COGNITIVE FACTORS
Depression caused by Learned helplessness---a
passive “giving up”
 People with pessimistic explanatory style are
most susceptible to depression
 Hopelessness theory: pessimistic style, high
stress, low self-esteem, etc… create depression
 Basically…negative thoughts and emotions lead
to and maintain depression

INTERPERSONAL ROOTS
Behaviorist approach
 Inadequate social skills lead to depression
 Depressed people are depressing
