Dissociative Disorders
Psychology
Ms. Currey
?s about Dissociative Disorder
1. What are these disorders characterized
with? What is “dissociation”?
2. Describe the symptoms for each of the
following disorders: Dissociative
Amnesia, Dissociateive Fugue,
Dissociative Identity Disorder.
3. How are dissociate disorders explained
using biology AND psychology?
I. Dissociation
• Separation of personality parts or mental
processes from conscious thought.
• In English: Zoning out
• Example: You may be so involved in
listening to a Psychology lesson you can’t
hear when someone calls your name.
A. When is Dissociation a
disorder?
• When it is used as a way to avoid stressful
events or feelings.
Examples:
• Someone loses their memory of a painful
experience (rape, child abuse etc)
• Lose memory of identity!
3.Types of Dissociative Disorders
• A. Dissociative
Amnesia- Sudden
loss of memory,
usually right after a
stressful or traumatic
event.
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A. Dissociative Amnesia• Usually people with
Dissociative Amnesia
forget events during a
period of time around the
trauma but sometimes a
person may forget ALL prior
experience and may be
unable to remember his/her
name, recognize friends
and family or recall
personal information.
How does it get “fixed”?
• Memory is likely to
return just as
suddenly as it is lost.
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B. Dissociative Fugue
• (fugue-same as root of
“fugitive”)
• Form of dissociative
amnesia.
• Loss of identity and travel to
a new location.
• Can last hours, months,
even years!
• New personality may not
even be aware of the history
behind the transformation
C. Dissociative Identity
Disorder
• Another type of Dissociative Disorder
• 1. Multiple personalities
• Different personalities may or may not be
aware of the others and each personality
takes turns controlling the person.
B. Dissociative Identity
Disorder
• 2. Each personality is likely to be different
from the others in ways like:
• - voice
• - facial expression
• - perceived age
• - gender
• - physical characteristics
B. Dissociative Identity
Disorder
• 3. Why do people get
Dissociative Identity
Disorder?
• Usually severely
abused as children
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Cases becoming more common
• 1970s < 100 cases
• 1980s > 20,000
cases
• # of recorded
personalities from
3-12, sometimes
dozens!
Sybil Dorsett
• Famous case.
• Problems:
• After the death of
her psychiatrist,
people think
maybe her multiple
personalities were
a result of her
therapist’s
suggestions.
Explaining Dissociative Disorders
• 2 different views
• 1. Psychoanalytical- people dissociate to
repress unacceptable urges
• 2. Learning- Learn to not thing about disturbing
events to avoid feelings of guilt, shame or pain
• Dissociate by forgetting painful events! It works!
Anxiety is reduced when a trauma is forgotten
but……..
Review
1. What are these disorders characterized
with? What is “dissociation”?
2. Describe the symptoms for each of the
following disorders: Dissociative
Amnesia, Dissociateive Fugue,
Dissociative Identity Disorder.
3. How are dissociate disorders explained
using biology AND psychology?
Schizophrenia
?’s about Schizophrenia
• 1. What are the 3 main symptoms of Schizophrenia?
• 2. Describe the delusions:
• 3. What are Hallucinations and how can they cause a cycle of
schizophrenic symptoms?
• 4. What are some examples of Inappropriate Emotions or
Behaviors?
• 5. What are the 4 major types of schizophrenia?
• 6. How do biological and psychological factors combine to cause
schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia
• The MOST serious of all psychological
disorders.
• Loss of contact with reality
• Can make it impossible for a person to
function alone.
• 1% of population of world diagnosed
NOT split personality!
• “Schiz” means “split” but it represents a
break from reality, not a division of
personality.
Schizophrenic Disorder Symptoms
(Not everyone exhibits ALL of these)
• Delusions (Ex: believing they
are being followed all the time)
• Hallucinations
• Disorganized speech
• Inappropriate Emotions or
Behaviors
• No longer able to adapt to
situations
Types of Delusions
• Delusions of Grandeur: false beliefs that
you are more important than you really are.
• Delusions of Perception: false beliefs that
people are out to get you.
• Delusions of sin or guilt: false beliefs of
being responsible for a misfortune (ex plane
crash)
• Delusions of Influence: false beliefs of being
controlled by outside forces ie: the devil
Hallucinations
• False Perception
• Visual, auditory OR Tactile
Cycle of Symptoms
• Hallucinations provide evidence for
delusions.
• Ex: Taste poison in food, think: someone
is trying to kill me!
• People w/Schizophrenia can’t trust their
own senses!
Inappropriate Emotions or
Behaviors
•
•
•
•
•
•
Emotional flatness
Speaking too loudly
Nonsense talk
Odd mannerisms
Complete inactivity or moldability
Dressing strangely
Onset
• Early Adolescence / Early
Adulthood
• Rarely over 35
• Emergence sudden or gradualsudden easier to recover from
Causes
• Psychological
• Biological
Psychological Causes
• Stress and disturbed family
communication patterns (could be a result
NOT cause!)
Psychoanalytic Causes
• Family Environment: When a parent
expresses intense emotions and is pushy,
critical and mean to children it COULD
increase the likelihood of someone
developing schizophrenia.
Biological View
• It’s a BRAIN
disorder. It could be
caused by:
• Born with different
brain structure.
• As many as 6x
number of receptor
sites for dopamine
(affects emotion,
attention and
perception)
Biological: genetic
• Risk rises 10% if
parent or sibling
has it.
• 50% if identical
twin has it.
• Genain
Quadruplets
Not totally biological
• No single gene or
set of genes
guarantee
schizophrenia will
develop.
Bio: Prenatal Viruses
• A viral infection
during the middle
of a pregnancy
may cause
schizophrenia.
• Flu season? Uh
oh!
BOTH!
• There may be Both psychological AND
biological factors for schizophrenia.
• Genetics may make someone more
susceptible to schizophrenia and other
factors like a bad home environment may
make schizophrenia more likely.
Treatment
• Drug therapy
• Behavior therapy
Schizophrenic Symptoms
Positive Symptoms
• Hallucinations
• Delusions
• Bizarre ideas
Positive easier to
cure than
negative
• Negative
Symptoms
• Lack of emotions
• Social withdrawal
• Apathy
Types of Schizophrenia
• Paranoid
• Catatonic
• Disorganized
• Undifferentiated
Paranoid Schizophrenia
• Has delusions of grandeur and
persecution. Auditory and other
hallucinations often support delusions.
• Example: Someone is convinced that they
the FBI is following them. Everything they
think they see and hear reinforces that
idea. Any car that passes by their house
MUST be working for the FBI!
Disorganized Schizophrenia
• People have thoughts and behaviors that
don’t seem to make sense or connect with
one another.
• Either emotionless or showing
inappropriate emotions (laughing at a
funeral).
• Neglect physical appearance.
• Very disturbed “gone mad”
Catatonic Schizophrenia
• Most obvious symptom: variations in
voluntary movement. Alternates between
2 phases: catatonic excitement: rapid
movements, delusions and hallucinations
and catatonic stupor: little activity or
speech. Flat emotion and waxy flexibility.
Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
• Symptoms that are disturbed but not
clearly consistent with the paranoid,
catatonic, or disorganized types of
schizophrenia.
Recovery
• Full recovery
(rare)
• Partial recovery
• Chronic
?’s about Schizophrenia
• 1. What are the 3 main symptoms of Schizophrenia?
• 2. Describe the delusions:
• 3. What are Hallucinations and how can they cause a cycle of
schizophrenic symptoms?
• 4. What are some examples of Inappropriate Emotions or
Behaviors?
• 5. What are the 4 major types of schizophrenia?
• 6. How do biological and psychological factors combine to cause
schizophrenia?
Personality Disorders
Abnormal Psychology
Ms. Currey
?’s to answer by the end of the
lesson:
• 1. Why are personality disorders difficult to
diagnose?
• 2. Describe the symptoms of each of the
following disorders:
• Avoidant personality disorder
• Dependent personality disorder
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Anti-social personality disorder
Review: What is Personality?
• A person’s traits that don’t change.
What is a personality
disorder?
• When someone has personality traits
that cause pain in themselves or others.
(disrupt social functioning)
Diagnosis difficult
• Because they often overlap.
Types of Personality
Disorders
• Personality Disorders Related to
Anxiety (Avoidant, Dependent)
• Personality Disorders with
Dramatic or Impulsive Behaviors
(Borderline, Anti-social)
Avoidant Personality Disorder
• Sensitive about rejection. Avoids
relationships.
• Clingy, submissive. Strong need for
Dependent
Personality
others to take care
of them. Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder
• Instability of emotions, self-image, behavior and
relationships.
Anti-social Personality Disorder
• Lack of conscience for wrong doing,
lack of respect for the rights of other
people.
• Most dramatic and troubling of all
personality disorders.
• Criminal behavior with on remorse
• More often in males
• Can be charming and clever
• Serial killers
• VERY difficult to treat: prison
Explaining Personality
Disorders
• Psychoanalytic:
• Childhood experiences teach children to
get along with other people. If children are
never reinforced for good behaviorand
only get attention when they behave badly,
they may learn anti-social behavior.
Explaining Personality
Disorders
• Other psychoanalytic ideas:
• Antisocial personality disorder develops
when a child lacks appropriate role models
and when the role models they have are
aggressive or mean.
Biological Views
• There ARE some genetic factors for
personality.
• Ex: antisocial personality disorder tends
to run in families
• Some evidence that people with
antisocial personality diosorder have
fewer neurons in the frontal part of the
brain than other people.
Biological Views
• BUT, it is very unlikely that biological
factors are the ONLY reasons people
develop personality disorders.
Let’s Review!
• 1. Why are personality disorders difficult to
diagnose?
• 2. Describe the symptoms of each of the
following disorders:
• Avoidant personality disorder
• Dependent personality disorder
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Anti-social personality disorder