Learning goals

1. Learning goals • Understand the main classifications of psychological disorders and common diagnoses • Identify the various origins of psychological disorders • Identify characteristics or criteria that may indicate a psychological disorder

2. Discussion questions: • Look at the definition of a psychological disorder. Do you think this definition is adequate? Explain. • What are the advantages and disadvantages to labeling people with various psychological disorders?

3. General Categories of Disorders • There are numerous types of psychological disorders and thousands of specific diagnosis • Common categories: • Anxiety Disorders • Somatoform Disorders • Dissociative Disorders • Mood Disorders • Schizophrenia Disorders • Personality Disorders

4. Psychological Disorders • behavior is atypical, disturbing, maladaptive and unjustifiable • origins of psychological disorders: • medical model (biological perspective) • social-cultural perspective • behavioral (learning) perspective • cognitive perspective • psychoanalytic perspective

5. Anxiety Disorders • intense, distressing, persistent anxiety -or- maladaptive behaviors to reduce anxiety • types: • generalized anxiety disorder • phobic disorders • obsessive-compulsive disorder

6. Generalized anxiety disorder • continual apprehension, tension and arousal • constant autonomic nervous system arousal • person has difficulty identifying causes of the tension/fear and thus cannot avoid it • may experience panic attacks • short episodes of intense fear/terror • person often responds by isolating self

7. Phobic Disorders • persistent, irrational, maladaptive fear of a specific object, activity or situation • develop coping mechanisms to avoid/deal with feared object • examples: • agoraphobia xenophobia • claustrophobia mikrophobia • uxoriphobia phonophobia • phobophobia triskaidekaphobia

8. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder • persistent, maladaptive, unwanted repetitive thoughts or actions • repetitive thoughts/actions that interfere with daily life or cause distress • obsessions • repetitive thoughts • compulsions • repetitive behaviors

9. Explaining anxiety disorders • psychoanalytic perspective • childhood repression of intolerable ideas, events or feelings • learning (behavioral) perspective • learn fears through conditioning or past experiences • biological perspective • innate disposition to fear certain objects (things deemed dangerous to survival) • overarousal of certain brain areas (impulse control and habits)

10. Somatoform Disorders • distressing physical symptoms with no apparent physical cause • factors: • physical functioning must be lost or altered • symptoms cannot be explained by a know physical condition • indication that psychological factors have produced the symptom • victims frequently indifferent to the physical loss • symptoms not under voluntary control

11. Somatoform Disorders • conversion disorder • specific, genuine physical problem with no physiological explanation • example- paralysis from the waist down may be due to history of sexual abuse • hypochondriasis • misinterpretation of normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease • example- think that a headache is an indication of a brain tumor

12. Dissociative Disorders • Have you ever walked in your sleep? • Did you have imaginary playmates as a child? • Were you physically abused as a child? • Were you sexually abused as a child? • Have you ever noticed that things are missing from your personal possessions? • Have you ever noticed that things appear where you live, but you don’t know how?

13. Dissociative Disorders • Do people ever talk to you as if they know you but you don’t’ know them? • Do you ever speak about yourself as “we” or “us”? • Do you ever feel that there is another person or persons inside you? • If there is another person inside you, does he or she ever come out and take control of your body?

14. Dissociative Disorders • conscious awareness is separated from previous memories/thoughts/feelings • sudden loss of memory or change in identity • believed to be caused by severe, extended trauma • types: • amnesia • fugue • dissociative identity disorder

15. Dissociative Disorders • amnesia • failure to recall past events or information • usually caused by extreme, intolerable stress • selectively forget painful or stressful information • fugue • in addition to amnesia, leave home and identity • very abrupt beginning and ending • duration varies

16. Dissociative Disorders • dissociative identity disorder • formerly called multiple personality disorder • multiple, distinct personalities • result of severe trauma (physical, emotional, sexual) • may be a relationship to “role-playing”

17. Mood Disorders • emotional extremes (extremely high or low) • main types: • major depressive disorder • prolonged hopelessness, lack of energy, despair, or lack of interest in regular activities • bipolar disorder • alternate between being very high (mania) and very low (depression) • formerly called manic-depressive disorder • mania- wildly optimistic state

18. Explaining mood disorders • psychoanalytic perspective • moods caused by associations to unconscious childhood impulses • biological perspective • genetic influence (may be inherited) • chemical imbalances in the brain • social-cultural perspective • moods are shaped and influenced by our surroundings

19. Schizophrenia Disorders • disorganized/deluded thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions/actions • often suffer from delusions (false beliefs) and hallucinations (sensory experience without any actual sensory stimulation) • believed to be caused by brain abnormalities, genetic predisposition, and psychological/environmental factors

20. Personality Disorders • inflexible and enduring patterns of behavior that impair regular social functioning • can coexist with other psychological disorders • examples: • antisocial • histrionic • narcissistic • borderline