Psychological Disorders/
Abnormal Psychology
Mods 45 thru 49
Pgs. 623 – 665
What is normal?
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If someone is too depressed to get out of bed for
weeks, do they have a disorder?
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What if they just experienced a severe loss?
How long is okay?
What if, the day after experiencing a severe loss, they
went out partying? Is that wrong too?
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Most “abnormals” depicted on TV with
severe problems are usually inaccurate.
Only a handful of the disturbed are
dangerous.
The average mental patient is confused,
withdrawn and will bother no one.
Statistically, mental patients are less
violent than the general public.
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If you choose an emotionally disturbed
person at random, odds are that they
won’t be much different from you or your
friends in most areas except for an
exaggeration in certain areas.
Medical Students Syndrome: there are
many instances when reading about lung
collapses that med students get pains in
their chest. Don’t let this happen to you
here.
How can we define psychological
disorders?
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Does being different from everybody else
make one have a disorder?
Not necessarily but, being atypical is part
of the definition of a disorder.
To be considered disordered, other
people must find the atypical
behavior disturbing.
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These standards vary depending on
cultural and historical context.
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Killing during wartime vs. peace.
Burping at the end of a meal is a compliment
in some countries.
200 years ago, everyone walked around
England and America with white wigs on.
If you’re afraid of a tiny mouse and jump on
tables screaming, it’s ok; if you have
agoraphobia (fear of public places) you have
a disorder.
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Would you agree that there is something
abnormal in all of us? There must be
something you’ve done that you would
rather not have others know about.
Winning!
Historically, madness = supernatural
forces
Disorders are behaviors that are
maladaptive. Like when a
smoker’s nicotine dependence
produces physical damage.
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Abnormal behavior is most likely to be
considered disordered when others find it
rationally unjustifiable.
If you can justify it or no one is
disturbed by it, it’s acceptable.
“she’s an entertainer”
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So, mental health workers label behavior psychologically
disordered when they judge it 1. atypical, 2. disturbing,
3. maladaptive and 4. unjustifiable.
Manson Clip - Saved
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2oZWpqtNi4&safety
_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
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The current authoritative scheme for classifying
psychological disorders is the American
Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -DSM IV-R
Most health insurance companies require a DSM
IV diagnosis before paying for therapy.
Anxiety Disorders
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We all feel it at one time or another:
Before the game, match, show or event.
Looking down from a ledge.
Speaking in front of people, etc.
But, for some people, two thirds of whom are
women, anxiety becomes so distressing and
persistent that they suffer an anxiety disorder.
3 Types
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Generalized Anxiety Disorder – in which a
person feels unexplainably tense and
uneasy.
Phobic Disorder – in which a person feels
irrationally afraid of a specific object of
situation
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – in which
a person is troubled by repetitive thoughts
and/or actions.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
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Sufferers are continually tense and jittery,
apprehensive about bad things that might
happen, and experiencing all the
symptoms of autonomic nervous system
arousal (racing heart, clammy hands,
stomach butterflies).
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One of the worst characteristics of GAD is
that the person cannot identify, and
therefore cannot avoid, it’s cause.
Panic Attack
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For no apparent reason, the anxiety may at times
suddenly escalate into a terrifying panic attack – an
episode of intense dread, usually lasting several minutes.
Chest pain, choking or smothering sensations, trembling,
dizziness, or fainting typically accompany the panic.
The experience is unpredictable and so frightening that
the sufferer may then avoid situations where the attacks
have occurred.
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Anxiety attack on plane
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_JjUER_r08&playnext=1&list
=PLA1ADBF0A6333DAA6&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode
=1
How not to help a person having an anxiety attack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0GW0Vnr9Yc&feature
=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
Phobic Disorders
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Phobic anxiety focuses on some specific object, activity
or situation. Phobias are irrational fears.
List of phobias -http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/phobias.html
Deliberately forcing a person to overcome their fears can
be very dangerous. Throwing a person in the ocean who
has thalassophobia can be harmful.
Phobia clip – 3:32 Saved
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rl7Lr6eDLc&
safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
Pop up phobia book
Agoraphobia
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Fear of open places and/or public situations.
How can it start?
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Perhaps suffering a panic attack in a specific place
will trigger a fear of being in that situation again.
More agoraphobics are women. Society?
Most have a specific boundary they cannot cross,
whether it be the doorway, a certain street, the town
border etc.
Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder/OCD
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At times, we may all be obsessed with
senseless or offensive thoughts that will
not go away.
We sometimes engage in rigid behavior
like rechecking the locked door, stepping
over cracks in the sidewalk, lining up our
books and pencils “just right” before
studying or whatever…..
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Obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors
cross the fine line between normality and
disorder when they become so persistent that
they interfere with the way we live or when they
cause distress.
Obsession – an endless preoccupation with an
urge or thought.
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Ex. What happens when you hear a song just as
you’re leaving your house or car.
Multiply that 100x – when thoughts will not leave the
person alone.
Compulsion
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A ritualized behavior that a person must act out.
Each time he/she does so, anxiety is decreased.
A compulsive handwasher is obsessed with
cleanliness.
The compulsion is the action, the obsession is
the thought.
Howie Manel clip
2:18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg14F72pY4&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
As Good As It Gets clip – 1:07
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44DCWslbsN
M&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_
safety_mode=1
Explaining Anxiety Disorders
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Don’t write, just read.
Psychoanalytic perspective – assumes that,
beginning in childhood, intolerable impulses,
ideas and feelings get repressed.
Repetitive hand washing, for instance, may help
suppress anxiety over one’s “dirty” urges.
Learning perspective – links general anxiety with
learned helplessness. Some fears arise from stimulus
generalization. Fear of heights may lead to a fear of
airplaines without ever being on a plane.
Biological perspective – explains our anxiety-proness in
evolutionary, genetic and physiological terms. Maybe
a lack of serotonin?
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Brain scans of people with obsessive
compulsive disorder reveal unusually high
activity in an area of the frontal lobes just
above the eyes. Antidepressant drugs
control OC behavior by dampening this
activity
Somatoform Disorders
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Psychological issues are expressed in bodily symptoms,
but there is no actual physical problem.
We all feel a little worse when life isn’t going so well, but
this is dramatic.
2 types
1. Conversion Disorder: another name is hysterical
blindness. (More common in Freud’s day than now)
Ex. A person who has witnessed a terrible human
torture or slaughter (the Holocaust) may have their
visual system shut down.
Or, a person who was in a car accident was unable to
help others because of fear – may develop a sort of
paralysis.
These people are not faking it. Doctors would stick
them with needles and they have no reaction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2NbEV8cFzs&safety_mode=tru
e&persist_safety_mode=1
Band Brothers 3:00
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2. Hypochondriasis: Less unusual. Overly
concerned about their health.
A slight headache is interpreted as brain
cancer, or the sniffles as pneumonia.
Often, when children only got attention
and support from other people when they
were sick.
Dissociative Disorders (rare)
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When a person experiences a sudden loss
of memory or change in identity.
Part of one’s life become disconnected
with other parts.
Only when these experiences are severe
and prolonged do they suggest a
dissociative disorder.
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1. Amnesia:
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The failure to recall events, can be caused by head
injury or alcoholic intoxication. But psychogenic
amnesia usually begins as a response to intolerable
psychological stress.
The memories are still inside of the person, but they
are cut off from consciousness.
Patients usually exhibit Selective Forgetting:
remembering how to drive, talk, type etc.
Combat soldiers blot out certain parts of the horror,
but still remember childhood memories.
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2. Psychogenic Fugue (complicated)
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Also involves forgetting, but it also involves
fleeing one’s home and identity for days,
months or years.
When “awakening” from a fugue state, people
remember their old identities but typically
deny remembering what occurred during the
fugue.
Can also be caused by severe stress. Maybe
conflict with spouse.
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3. Multiple Personality Disorder
Controversial. Massive dissociation of self from
ordinary consciousness.
Instead of forgetting events, they forget a
portion of themselves. That portion begins to
live a life of their own.
Usually a good and bad person. Possibly caused
by a history of escaping from problems.
Perhaps a history of severe child abuse or
traumatic experience.
There have been cases where the different
personality would write with the opposite hand,
be able to play an instrument or speak a
different language.
Sybil
Mood Disorders
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The mood of an individual is his/her emotional
state – angry, depressed, happy etc.
A mood disorder is an exaggerated “up mood”,
depressed state, or an alternation between up
and down.
There is a mild disorder called dysthymic
disorder which is the “common cold” of mental
health.
A moderate depression and can clear up without
treatment. Lack of energy, unhappiness, loss of
interest in activities, no sense of humor etc.
In many cases, as in the loss of a loved one, it
serves a purpose. If it appears out of nowhere,
there may be a problem.
Mood disorders come in two
principal forms:
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1. Major Depression: the person experiences the
hopelessness and lethargy of prolonged depression
until eventually rebounding to normalcy.
Feelings of worthlessness, slow speech, thoughts of
death or suicide.
Many patients have trouble with everyday tasks.
Some can lie motionless for hours.
Usually there is a great deal of anger inside
(sometimes directed at the self)
Affects many more women than men.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeZCmqePLzM&saf
ety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
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Mania is the opposite of depression.
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Extreme up moods. Doesn’t seem so bad. But this is
restlessness, no concentration, very rapid speech.
Thoughts are moving so quickly, they get out of control
and get confused.
Ex. “I went to the store where I kept the containers of
milk which all babies should have in order to survive
which not everyone can do because of the threat of
nuclear war between countries which are divisions of
various parts of the land which is filled normally with
rock and dirt.”
Grandiose optimism and self esteem.
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2. Bipolar Disorders: swings between ups and
downs -- mania and depression.
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Used to be called manic depression.
Causes: 80-90% of the time, they disappear by
themselves within six months. However, they usually
reoccur.
Maybe a lifetime of loss, setbacks, poor self image.
Chemical imbalance – serotonin, norepinephrine.
Possibly inherited. Depression is also contagious.
Constantly being around people that are down or
depressed will affect you. Vicious cycle.
Combination of psychological factors, physical factors
and chemical factors.
Schizophrenic Disorders
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A major/serious disorganization of the thought process.
Distorted perceptions of the world. Roses are red
4 Major Symptoms – all four need not be present, but at least
two.
1. Thought disorder: distortion of the thinking process.
2. Hallucinating: seeing or hearing things that are not there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=0vvU-Ajwbok
(oral hallucinations link)
3. Delusions: inaccurate beliefs. “Prophets” or avenging
angels etc.
4. Inappropriate emotional response: no rsponse to
something interesting. Then laugh at tragic events. They don’t
really think it’s funny, they are confused, a malfunction of the
brain.
Affects 1% of the population.
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It almost never appears earlier than
adolescence or early adulthood. So it is
probably caused by a chemical imbalance.
It may not be psychologically caused
because psychological problems occur at
any age.
They speak in what is called word salad.
Incoherent, no sense and often try to
rhyme words.
Types of Schizophrenia
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Catatonic schizophrenia – disturbance of movement. Usually say
very little. Won’t move for hours.
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Paranoid Schizophrenia – feelings of suspiciousness or the opposite
– grandiose beliefs.
In and out of Psychotic Episodes – schizophrenics are not out of touch
with reality all of the time. They go in and out of “episodes.”
 One chemical key to schizophrenia is the neurotransmitter
dopamine. Too much of it.
 May be genetic.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJOT45wXEr
k&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
Personality Disorders
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Originally called psychopaths or sociopaths.
Inflexible and enduring patterns of behavior that
impair one’s social functioning – sometimes coexist
with one of the other psychological disorders, but
need not involve anxiety, depression or loss of
contact with reality.
Typically a male whose lack of conscience becomes
plain before the age 15, as he begins to lie, steal,
fight or display unrestrained sexual behavior
In adulthood, he may be unable to keep a job, be
irresponsible as a spouse and parent, and be
assaultive or otherwise criminal.
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They may be intellectual and charming.
Most criminals show responsible concern for their
family and friends; antisocial personalities feel
little and fear little.
Clip 10:00 Mind of a Psychopath – saved.
No concern, guilt or anxiety.
Drugs and/or psychological treatment do not help.
They will want to help and cooperate, but as soon
as they’re out, they repeat behavior.
Manson :12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XREnvJRkif0&feature=related&safety_mo
de=true&persist_safety_mode=1
Many have a history of rough family treatment,
abuse or neglect.