Download - Disorders
Phobias• Intense, unwarranted fear of a situation or
object• Agoraphobia is the fear of open, public spaces• Social phobias is the fear of a situation in
which one could embarrass oneself in public
• Contact with the feared object of situation results in anxiety
Anxiety Disorders
Panic Disorder
• Intense anxiety for no apparent reason
• Anxiety over anticipation of a panic attack
Anxiety Disorders
Obsessive Compulsive• Obsessive (persistent and unwanted) thoughts
cause the need (compulsion) to engage in a particular action• Even to the extent that no other behavior can take
place• Anxiety is released when the compulsive
behavior is performed
Anxiety Disorders
Post Traumatic Stress• Flashbacks or
nightmares following a trauma
• Memories of the event cause anxiety
Anxiety Disorders
What causes anxiety disorder?
• Psychoanalytic theory: unresolved, unconscious conflicts between the id, ego, superego
• Behaviorist theory: because all behavior is learned, anxiety must be learned through operant or classical conditioning, or cognitive learning
What causes anxiety disorder?
• Cognitive theorists: dysfunctional thinking like irrational thoughts
What causes anxiety disorder?
• What would an evolutionary theorist say?• What about a biological psychologist?
What causes anxiety disorder?
Somatoform Disorders
• Physiological manifestations of psychological problems• Hypochondriasis - physical complaints without
physical cause• Conversion disorder – severe physical disorder like
paralysis or blindness without a physical cause
What causes somatoform disorder?
• Psychodynamic theorists: outward manifestations of unresolved unconscious conflicts
• Behavioral theorists: reinforcement for behavior, like attention one gets being sick
Dissociative Disorder
• Disruption in the conscious processes• Psychogenic amnesia• Fugue• Dissociative identity
disorder
Psychogenic amnesia
• Person cannot remember things, but there is no physiological basis for the disruption in memory
Fugue • rare psychiatric disorder
after a traumatic event when an individual dissociates from his identity and detaches himself from the current surroundings
• often the individual flees to an unfamiliar location, experiences a temporary amnesia affecting his personal identity, and partially or completely adopts a new identity
Dissociative identity disorder
• Multiple personalities
• the presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states that take control of a person's behavior
• Psychoanalytic theory: trauma is repressed causing a split consciousness
• Behavioral theory: to not think about trauma is rewarding and produces amnesia
• Critics question the validity of Dissociative Identity Disorder
Affective (mood) Disorders
• Experience of extreme or inappropriate emotions• Major depressive disorder (unipolar depression)• Seasonal affective disorder• Bipolar disorder (manic depression)• Dysthymic disorder is less intense than major
depression, but lasts years
Major Depressive Disorder
• Unipolar depression• Unhappy for more
than 2 weeks without clear reason
• Loss of appetite, fatigue, changes in sleep, lack of interest, worthlessness
Bipolar Disorder
• Periods of major depression
• Mania, High energy • Risky behavior• Spurts of euphoria• no desire to sleep• racing thoughts• Confidence, power• Irritability, anxiety
Biological component to affective disorders
• Low levels of serotonin (depression)• More receptors for acetylcholine (bipolar)• Low levels of norepinephrine (depression)
• Genetic component because depression and bipolar seem to run in families
• Neurotransmitters: chemical transmitters signal from neurons across synapses; at the axon endings of motor neurons, they stimulate the muscle fibers
• Serotonin: inhibitory neurotransmitter involved in emotion and mood and perception (depression, anger control, obsessive-compulsive disorder, suicide, increased appetite for carbohydrates, trouble sleeping, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, and fibromyalgia)
review
• Acetylcholine: found in sensory neurons, autonomic nervous system, stimulation of muscles (gastro-intestinal system); plays part in REM (dream) sleep; link between loss of acetylcholine and Alzheimer's disease
• Norepinephrine: strongly associated with autonomic, sympathetic nervous system "high alert" increased heart rate and blood pressure, released by adrenal glands into the blood stream (noradrenalin) forming memories; depleted by stress, increased by exercise
review
Psychoanalytic
• Anger directed inward• Loss during the psychosexual stage• Overly punitive superego
Behavior theorists• Mood disorder brings about some
kind of reinforcement like attention or sympathy
Cognitive theorists
• Unreasonably negative ideas about self• Cognitive triad (Aaron Beck) • The self, the world, the future
• Pessimistic attributional style• Internal v. external (I’m bad v. the world is bad) • global v. specific (I’m a bad student v. I have trouble
with math)• stable v. unstable (I will always be a bad student v. I
had a bad day today)
Combination behavioral & cognitive• Martin Seligman – learned helplessness– Some dogs learned to not get shocked– Others believed they lacked the ability to control
their fate
• Depression has a high correlation to feelings of learned helplessness
• Onset in young adulthood• Severe, debilitating• Disordered, distorted
thinking• Delusions– Of persecution– Of grandeur
• Hallucinations (perception in the absence of sensory stimulation)
Schizophrenic Disorders
4 types of schizophrenia
• Disorganized (make up words, rhyming words, inappropriate or flat affect)
• Paranoid (delusions of persecution)
• Catatonic (odd movements, waxy flexibility)
• Undifferentiated (disordered thinking)
Cause of schizophrenia - Biological
• Dopamine hypothesis– High levels of dopamine in frontal lobes associated
with schizophrenia– Low levels of dopamine in motor areas associated
with Parkinson’s – Anti-psychotic drugs lower dopamine levels, but
can cause tremors– L-Dopa, used to treat Parkinson’s increases
dopamine levels and in excess, causes schizophrenic symptoms
• Dopamine: inhibitory neurotransmitter (blocks a neuron from firing at receptor site); Strongly associated with reward mechanisms (nicotine, cocaine, opium, heroin, and alcohol increase level of dopamine)
review
Cause of schizophrenia - Biological
• Enlarged brain ventricles• Brain asymmetries• Genetic predisposition– Identical twins have close to 50% relationship
Cause of schizophrenia - environmental
• Double binds – contradictory messags• Diathesis stress model – environmental
stressors trigger biological predisposition
Personality Disorders
• Well established, maladaptive ways of behaving
• Negatively affect people’s ability to function
Antisocial personality disorder
AvoidantObsessive Compulsive
SchizoidSchizotypal
Borderline Dependent Paranoid
NarcissisticHistrionic
• Little regard for other people’s feelings• World seen as a hostile place• Criminals have a high incidence of antisocial
personality disorder
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Other Psychological Disorders
• Paraphilia or Psychosexual disorder– Pedophilia– Zoophilia– Fetishism– Voyeur– Masochist– sadist
Other Psychological Disorders
• Eating disorder– Anorexia nervosa– bulimia– Obesity
• Substance Use disorder• Substance dependence