Abnormal Behavior
DSM – 5 Version
Abnormal Behavior
 Abnormal
 Behavior that is personally disturbing or disabling, or culturally so
deviant that others just judge it as maladaptive, inappropriate, or
unjustifiable.
 Atypical/deviant
 statistically, the behavior is rear and has a very low probability of
occurring
 Legally Insane
 Inability to determine right from wrong
Causes for Abnormal Behavior
 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic – Childhood trauma,
unconscious
 Behavioral – learned from reinforcement
 Humanist – poor self-concept
 Cognitive – irrational thought
 Evolutionary – genes change (Darwin)
 Biological – Neurochemical, hormonal
 Biopsychosocial – biological influences such as evolution,
genes etc, psychological influences such as stress, trauma,
learned helplessness, social cultural influences such as
roles, expectations.
The Medical Model
 Medical model looks at abnormal behavior as a disease,
using terms such as psychopathology, which is the study of
the origin, development, and manifestations of mental or
behavioral disorders.
 Etiology – cause and development of illness
 Prognosis – forecasts the probable course of an illness
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)
 Published 2013
 Guidebook for mental health professionals
 22 Major Categories of mental disorders subdivided into
hundreds of disorders
Insurance and DSM-5
 Health care providers are required to use diagnosis code set
from the World Health Organization’s International
Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems
(ICD-10).
 DSM-5 and ICD-10 guide medical diagnoses and define who
is eligible for coverage of meds, treatment, and special
services
Anxiety
 Anxiety – impeding doom or disaster from a specific or unknown
source that is characterized by mood symptoms of tension.
 Anxiety disorders include:
 Panic Disorder – repeated attacks of intense anxiety along with sever chest
pain, tightness of muscles, choking, sweating, or other acute symptoms
 Few minutes – hours
 No apparent trigger
 Generalized Anxiety Disorder – chronic anxiety not associated with any
specific situation or object. Has trouble sleeping hyper vigilant and tense
(Free floating – always there)
 Phobias – intense, irrational fear responses to specific stimuli, irrational wish
to avoid dreaded situation or object which disrupts daily life
 Common phobias:
 Agoraphobia
 Acrophobia
 Claustrophobia
 Zoophobia
Obsessive-Compulsive and
Related Disorders
 OCD – thought and behavior
 Obsessions – unwanted thoughts (worries . . . dirt)
 Compulsions – ritualistic behaviors (hand washing)
 OCD Related Disorders
 Hoarding – difficulty discarding or parting with possessions
Trauma and Stressor-Related
Disorders
 Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – some trauma
experienced where victim re-experience the event in
nightmares or flashbacks
 Natural disaster
 War
 Violent crime
Somatic Symptom & Related
Disorders
 Somatic symptom disorders – psychiatric symptoms
associated with physical complaints
 i.e.; patient complain of physical problem (paralysis), and
experience anxiety or maladaptive thoughts, feelings and
behavior (used to be referred to as hypochondriasis – no longer)
 Somatic symptom disorder (SSD) – physical symptoms including pain,
and high anxiety in these individuals about having a disease.
 Illness anxiety disorder (IAD) – preoccupation with a serious medical or
health condition no or mild physical (somatic) symptoms such as
dizziness or nausea
 Conversion Disorder – loss of some bodily function without physical
damage
Dissociative Disorders
 Dissociative Disorders – sudden loss of memory (amnesia)
or change in identity. Possible separation of conscious
awareness from previous memories/thought.
 Dissociative Amnesia – loss of memory for a traumatic event or
period of time that is too painful for an individual to remember
 Dissociative Fugue – amnesia with flight
 Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) – multiple personality
disorder
Depressive Disorders
 Depressive Disorders – extremely sad mood and lack of
energy. Affects twice as many women than men.
 Common cold of psychology – diagnosed so often
 Major Depressive Disorder – single and recurrent episodes (2
weeks)
 Depression with Season Pattern (Seasonal Affective Disorder) – is a
subtype of depression that recurs, usually during the winter months
 Premenstrual dysphoric disorder – women between menarche &
menopause “Premenstrual.”
 Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia)
 Martin Seligman (cognitive) – Learned helplessness
 Aaron Beck (cognitive) – negative view of themselves
Bipolar and Related Disorders
 Bipolar Disorder – mania and depression
 Rapid cycling – short periods of mania followed by immediate
deep depression usually longer in duration
 Drug to help: Lithium carbonate
 I – more severe
 II – Less severe with less mania
Schizophrenia Spectrum & other
Psychotic Disorders
 Psychosis – reality is highly disordered in thought process
 Schizophrenia Causes:
 Positive – hallucinations and delusions are from excessive
neurotransmitter levels of dopamine
 Negative – lack of emotion, social withdrawal are from lack of
neurotransmitter levels of glutamate
 Brain scans show abnormalities in numerous brain regions of
individuals with Schizophrenia. These abnormalities may result
from teratogens such as viruses or genetic predispositions
 Diathesis-stress model people predisposed to schizophrenia are
more vulnerable to stressors than other people. Therefore, those
predisposed and also stressed are likely to develop
schizophrenia.
DSM-V: Schizophrenic Spectrum
Disorders
Criterion A lists the five key symptoms
of schizophrenic spectrum disorders:
1.
2.
3.
4.
delusions,
hallucinations,
disorganized speech
disorganized or catatonic
behavior
•

Echolalia – repeat sounds
5.
negative symptoms
Must present 2 of the 5 and one must
be from the first three presented above.
Personality Disorders
 Personality Disorders – longstanding, maladaptive thought
and behavior patterns that are troublesome to others,
harmful, or illegal.
 3 Clusters:
 Odd/eccentric (including paranoid, schoizoid, schizotypal)
 Dramatic/emotionally problematic (including histrionic, narcissistic,
borderline, and antisocial)
 Chronic fearfulness/avoidant (including avoidant, dependent, and
obsessive-compulsive)
Personality Disorders:
Odd/Eccentrict
 Paranoid – pervasive, unwarranted suspiciousness and
mistrust; overly sensitive; often envious (common in males)
 Schizoid – Poor capacity for forming social relationships; shy,
withdrawn behavior; considered “cold” (common in males)
 Schizotypal – Odd thinking; often suspicious and hostile
Personality Disorders:
Dramatic/emotionally problematic
 Histrionic – Excessively dramatic; seeking attention and
tending to overreact; egocentric (common in females)
 Narcissistic – Unrealistically self-important; manipulative;
lacking empathy; expects special treatment; can’t take
criticism (common in males)
 Borderline – Emotionally unstable; impulsive; unpredictable;
irritable; prone to boredom (common in females)
 Antisocial – (sociopaths/psychopaths) Violate others rights
with out guilt or remorse. Manipulative, exploitive, selfindulgent, irresponsible; can be charming. (common in
males)
Personality Disorders: Chronic
fearfulness/avoidant
 Avoidant – excessively sensitive to potential rejection,
humiliation, desires acceptance but is socially withdrawn
 Dependent – Excessively lacking in self-confidence;
subordinates own needs; allows other to make all decisions
(more common in females)
 Obsessive-compulsive – Usually preoccupied with rules,
schedules, details; extremely conventional; serious;
emotionally insensitive
Neurodevelopmental Disorders
 Neurodevelopmental Disorders – disorders of infancy,
childhood, adolescence including intellectual disability,
ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder
 Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
 Symptoms: difficulty paying attention, and stay focus, difficulty
controlling behavior
 Subtypes: predominantly hyperactive-impulsive, predominantly inattentive, and
combined hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive
 Most children with ADHD have combined, while the inattentive/
inappropriate lead to inappropriate behavior to more personal, social, and
academic/work problems
 More common in boys (4x) than girls
 Autism Spectrum Disorder
 Neurological disorder first diagnosed in childhood
 3 primary symptoms: lack of responsiveness to others, both verbal and
non-verbal communication impairment, limited activities/interests
 Others: hand flapping, repeating sounds/phrases
 More common in boys than girls
Organic/Neurocognitive Disorders
 Neurocognitive Disorders – decline from previous levels of
neurocognitive function
 ICD-10 labels them as organic disorders – loss of function may
involve complex attention, executive function, learning and
memory, language, motor skills
 DSM-5 categorizes disorders as major to mild
 May be linked to specific disease or brain damage such as Alzheimer,
traumatic brain injury, HIV infection, and Parkinson’s disease. All of
these can result in dementia, the loss of mental ability
 Alzheimer’s Disease – degenerative disease in which the brain
neurons progressively die
 Loss of memory, reasoning, emotion, bodily functions
 Delirium – impaired attention and lack of awareness of the
environment.
 Loss of recent memory or orientation, language issues (ramble,
mumble), perceptual disturbances