Abnormal Psychology
Overview
Abnormal Psychology – the study of people who suffer from psychological disorders
Defining Abnormality
Common characteristic – harmful/disturbing to the individual, disturbing to others, not
shared by many members of the population, does not make sense to the average person.
Insanity
A legal term the purpose is to differentiate between people who can be help responsible
and those with psychological disorders
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
 Provides a way for psychologist to diagnose patients
 Contains symptoms of all psychological disorders
 Doesn’t contain causes because different perspectives disagree
Categories of Disorders
Intern’s Syndrome – the tendency to see in oneself the characteristics of disorders about
which one is learning. Not a psychological disorder
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Anxiety disorders
o Phobias – contact with feared object/situation results in anxiety. Examples
are an intense fear of an unwanted situation, agoraphobia – open space,
arachnophobia – spiders, social phobia – public embarrassment)
o Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) – constant, low level anxiety
o Panic disorder – acute episodes of intense anxiety without any apparent
provocation, increase in frequency, additional anxiety due to anticipating
the anxiety attacks
o OCD – persistent, unwanted thoughts cause you to feel the need to engage
in a particular action
o PTSD – flashbacks/nightmares following your involvement in or
observation of an extremely troubling event
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Theoretical causes for anxiety disorders
o Psychoanalytic – unresolved, unconscious conflicts between the id, ego
and superego
o Behaviorist – conditioning, cognitive learning
o Cognitive – dysfunctional ways of thinking
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Mood or Affective Disorders – extremely/inappropriate emotions
o Major depression – most common, symptoms (sad more than 2 weeks
without clear reason, change in sleep and appetite, worthlessness, lack of
interest in enjoyed activities)
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o Bipolar disorders – manic episodes (high energy, feel confident and
powerful, sense of well-being), depressed episodes
Theoretical causes for mood disorders
o Learned helplessness, biology, pessimistic attribution styles
Schizophrenic Disorders
o Schizophrenia – disordered, distorted thinking, delusion and hallucinations
(perceptions in the absence of sensory stimulation)
o Disorganized schizophrenia – make up their own words, string together a
series of nonsense words that rhyme, unappreciated emotions for a
situation, no emotional response
Theoretical causes of schizophrenic disorders
o Dopamine hypothesis – high levels of dopamine are associated with
schizophrenia, if the drugs lower the level too much, tardive dyskinesia
(muscle tremors and stiffness)
o Abnormality on 5th chromosome
o Enlarged brain ventricles
o Brain asymmetry
Personality Disorders (less serious)
o Antisocial – don’t have regard to other’s feeling, view the world as a
hostile place
o Narcissistic
o Histrionic
o Obsessive-compulsive
Other disorders
o Paraphilia – sexual attraction to that which is not usually seen as sexual
o Eating disorders
o Addition disorders – use of alcohol/drugs, substance use disorders (use of
such substances regularly affecting your life negatively
o Autism – seek less social and emotional contact, slow to develop language
skills, seek less parental support when distressed
o ADHD – attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, difficulty paying
attention or sitting still, over diagnosed because of typical boy behavior