Chapter 14: Psychological Disorders
Psychopathology
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Problematic patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that disrupt an individual’s life
What “society” find atypical
Different across cultures
Psychopathology
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Every culture has a concept of “madness”
Changes over time
Zhun/twa of Zambia: killing a twin is common practice
India: widows often burn themselves on their deceased husband’s funeral pyre
Within Cultures:
Amish consider someone who races a horse too hard or buys or consumes in excess to
have an emotional disorder
Cultural Construction?
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Thomas Szasz proposed mental illness was a myth to make others conform to society’s
standards of normality
Labeling Theory
diagnosis is simply a way of labeling individuals whom society considers deviant
Rosenhan (1973)
demonstrated that psychiatric illness is in the eye of the beholder.
critics argue behavior is only meaningful when it is understood in context
Labeling Theory fell from grace when empirical investigations failed to support it
Many disorders occur cross-culturally
Biological basis for certain mental illness
Descriptive Approach to Diagnosis
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Diagnostic & Statistical Manual-IV
Publication of the American Psychiatric Association that classifies over 230
psychological disorders into 16 categories
Most widely used classification of psychological disorders
Mental disorders classified in terms of clinical syndromes
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Depressive Syndrome:
loss of interest in pleasurable activities, insomnia, loss of appetite, poor concentration,
decreased self-esteem
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Recipe of mental disorders
Psychological disorders tend to fall into discrete categories like medical disorders.
Mood Disorders
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Intense and prolonged mood shifts
DEPRESSION
1. Experience truly profound
unhappiness
2. Lost interest in life’s usual pleasures
3. Experience major loss of energy
Most Frequent
Bipolar Disorder: depression/mania
Manic Episodes:
people require less sleep
feel a constant need to talk
a grandiose sense of self
develop delusions and hallucinations
Anxiety Disorders
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Increased arousal accompanied by generalized feelings of fear or apprehension
Panic Attack Disorder: unbearable intense anxiety over a short period
Specific situations
Phobias: persistent irrational fear
Claustrophobia
closed spaces
Acrophobia
height
Arachnophobia
spiders
Ophidiophobia
spiders
Brontophobia
storms
Nyctophobia
darkness
Cynophobia
dogs
Allurophobia
cats
Mysophobia
dirt
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Thanatophobia
death
Panophobia
everything
Scopophobia
being stared at
Athruaphobia
Fear of Dr. Whatley’s Last Exam!!
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
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An anxiety disorder in which a person feels driven to think disturbing thoughts
(obsessions) and/or to perform senseless rituals (compulsions)
Psychosomatic vs. Somatoform
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psychosomatic: Disorders in which there is REAL physical illness that is largely
caused by psychological factors such as stress and anxiety
somatoform: Disorders in which there is an APPARENT physical illness for which
there is no organic basis
Somatoform Disorders
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Hypochondriasis: Anxiety converted into chronic preoccupations with your health
Conversion Disorder: Individuals experience real motor or sensory symptoms for
which there is no organic cause
Dissociative Disorders
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Lengthy losses of memory
Dissociative amnesia: no organic cause
Localized Amnesia: all events
Selective Amnesia: some events
Generalized Amnesia: prior to specific date
Dissociative Fugue: Person wanders off, adopts a new identity, and is unable to recall
their own past
Personality Disorders
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SCHIZOID PERSONALITY
A personality disorder in which a person is withdrawn and lacks feelings for others
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The classic “loner”
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PARANOID PERSONALITY
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Personality disorder in which the person is inappropriately suspicious and mistrustful
of others
Paranoid personality disorder is NOT the same as paranoid schizophrenia
NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY
Personality disorder in which the person has an exaggerated sense of self-importance
and needs constant admiration
ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY
Personality disorder that involves a pattern of violent, criminal, or unethical and
exploitative behavior and an inability to feel affection for others
Gender Differences
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Gender differences tend to be found for those disorders without a strong biological
component
marital status and incidence of psychological disorders: divorced/separated men >
married women > married men
Sexual Disorders
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sexual dysfunctions
paraphilias
gender-identity disorders
Sexual Dysfunctions
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A loss or impairment of the ordinary physical responses of sexual function
erectile disorder: The inability of a man to achieve or maintain an erection
female sexual arousal disorder: The inability of a woman to become sexually
aroused or to reach orgasm
sexual desire disorders: Disorders in which the person lacks sexual interest or has an
active distaste for sex
sexual arousal disorder: Inability to achieve or sustain arousal until the end of
intercourse in a person who is capable of experiencing sexual desire
orgasmic disorders: Inability to reach orgasm in a person able to experience sexual
desire and maintain arousal
premature ejaculation: In ability of a man to inhibit orgasm as long as desired
vaginismus: Involuntary muscle spasms in the outer part of the vagina that make
intercourse impossible
Paraphilias
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Sexual disorders in which unconventional objects or situations cause sexual arousal
fetishism: A paraphilia in which a nonhuman object is the preferred or exclusive
method of achieving sexual excitement
voyeurism: Desire to watch others having sexual relations or to spy on nude people
exhibitionism: Compulsion to expose one’s genitals in public to achieve sexual
arousal
frotteurism: Compulsion to achieve sexual arousal by touching or rubbing against a
nonconsenting person in public situations
transvestic fetishism: Wearing the clothes of the opposite sex to achieve sexual
gratification
sexual sadism: Obtaining sexual gratification from humiliating or physically harming
a sex partner
sexual masochism: Inability to enjoy sex without accompanying emotional or
physical pain
pedophilia: Desire to have sexual relations with children as the preferred or
exclusive method of achieving sexual excitement