Abnormal Psychology

1. Abnormal Psychology Chapter 10 The scientific study of mental disorders and their treatment Prepared byJ. W. Taylor V

2. Abnormal Psychology • College reading: • 363 – 365 general info about disorders and DSM 5 – • 375 – 380 schizophrenia • READING QUIZ SOON….

3. This unit is about… • The Diagnosis and Classification of Mental Disorders • Three Major Categories of Mental Disorders • The Treatment of Mental Disorders

4. What is abnormal behavior? • Write 3 characteristics

5. Criteria for a Behavior/Thought Process to be a “Disorder” 1. Is the behavior/thought process atypical? 2. Is the behavior/thought process maladaptive? 3. Is the behavior/thought process personally distressing? 4. Is the behavior/though process irrational?

7. Perceptual Bias of Labeling Problem: when we classify mental disorders we label people, and this biases our perception of these people in terms of the labels • Ex: the word “crazy” has strong connotations

8. Mental disorders fall into 4 major categories • Anxiety disorders:highly anxious or fearful behaviorEx: • Mood disorders:emotional extremes Ex: • Schizophrenic disorders:disorganized thinking, disturbed perceptions, inappropriate actions/emotionsEx: • personality disorders: inflexible, long-standing personality traits, impaired social functioning, deviate from cultural norms • Ex:

9. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual: Official book of mental disorders • The DSM-IV, published in 1994 by the American Psychiatric Association, is the most widely used diagnostic system for disorders • First appeared in 1952. At that time, 60 disorders. • Now contains more than 300 disorders • DSM-IV classification required by health insurance companiesbefore they will pay for therapy

10. Three Major Categories of Clinical Disorders

11. By the way… • Be wary of the medical school syndrome: the tendency to think that you have a disorder when you read about its symptoms • It’s normal to feel depressed, spazz out, have occasional OCD etc… • Remember, to be abnormal your behavior must be: • Atypical • Maladaptive • Personally distressing • Irrational

12. Schizophrenic disorder • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QJMWk4bnMo • What are 3 of Jani’s symptoms/behaviors? • Describe how her behavior fits the definition of “abnormal”. • Do you feel her parents are responding appropriately? Why/not? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuBps0Fnawg

13. Schizophrenic disorder • Is NOT multiple personality disorder • Schizophrenics have one personality, but it is disorganized and irrational • They typically • Have hallucinations (hear voices) • Are delusional (irrational beliefs, ex: “I am a messenger of God”) • Are paranoid (“the government is spying on me”) • Have erratic emotional responses/violent outbursts

14. Many homeless people are schizophrenic

15. How does the prevalence of schizophrenia compare to other disorders?

16. Create a profile • http://www.schizophrenia.com/szfacts.htm

17. Pair assignment – profile of a schizophrenic • Make a detailed profile of a person who is schizophrenic • Include their name, age, living conditions, personality and other personal identifying information • Describe their schizophrenic symptoms. Be descriptive, and realistic (base on research) • Describe any treatment, relapses, family response etc

18. Grading criteria • BEST poster: all members get 11 points! • Second best: all members get 10 • Third: 9 • And so on • It’s a competition!!

19. Schizophrenic Disorders • More people are institutionalized with schizophrenia than any other disorder • About 1% of the population suffers from schizophrenia • The onset tends to be in late adolescence or early adulthood • Tends to strike men earlier and more severely, though both sexes are equally vulnerable • Higher incidence in lower socioeconomic groups and for people who are single, separated or divorced rather than married

20. What does this graph tell us about schizophrenia?

21. Schizophrenia • Is a psychotic disorder because it is characterized by a loss of contact with reality • Schizophrenia means “split mind,” as mental functions do indeed become split from each other and detached from reality

22. Symptoms of Schizophrenia • Positive symptoms are abnormal behaviors that exist, but should not. Added symptoms. • Hallucinations(false sensory perceptions) • Hallucinations tend to be auditory, such as hearing voices that are not real • Delusions (false beliefs) • Delusions of persecutions involve thoughts of conspiracy against you • Delusions of grandeur involve believing that you are a person of great importance, such as Jesus Christ

23. Symptoms of Schizophrenia • Negative symptoms refer to things that have been removed • Loss of emotion, energy, social activity, even drives like hunger • Disorganized symptoms include disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and inappropriate emotion • When the person’s speech is disorganized, it might be like a “word salad,” with unconnected words incoherently spoken together

24. Technical Definition • According to the DSM-IV, schizophrenia is defined as the presence, most of the time during a one-month period, of at least two of the following symptoms • Hallucinations • Delusions • Disorganized speech • Disorganized or catatonic behavior • Any negative symptoms (such as loss of emotion)

25. Catatonic schizophrenia • This person might sit frozen in this position for hours • Is this a positive, negative or disorganized symptom?

26. Five Subtypes of Schizophrenic Disorder

27. Schizophrenics • What type of schizophrenic are these people? What are their symptoms? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWaFqw8XnpA

28. Type I and Type II • Another distinction is between Type I and Type II schizophrenia • Type I schizophrenia is characterized by positive symptoms • Type II schizophrenia is characterized by negative symptoms • Type I is more acute, as the person functioned normally before the disorder strikes and has a better chance of recovery because Type I can usually be alleviated with drugs, whereas Type II tends to stem from more permanent brain abnormalities

29. Causes of Schizophrenia • Concordance rate is about 50%, although no particular genes have been identified, and it is possible different genes might be involved in the different types of schizophrenia • One hypothesis involves prenatal viral infections • People are at increased risk if there was a flu epidemic during the middle of their fetal development • In the northern hemisphere, people born in the winter/spring months, January through April, following the fall/winter flu season, are more at risk than people born other months of the year

30. Causes of Schizophrenia • A second hypothesis involves neurotransmitters • Schizophrenics have elevated levels of dopamine activities in certain areas of their brains • A third hypothesis involves various brain abnormalities, especially among those with Type II schizophrenia • Shrunken cerebral tissue and enlarged fluid filled areas • The thalamus seems to be smaller and the frontal lobes less active in many schizophrenic brains

31. Causes of Schizophrenia • A popular bio-psycho-social explanation is the vulnerability-stress-modelthat contends that genetic, prenatal, and postnatal biological factors render a person vulnerable to schizophrenia, but environmental stress determines whether it develops • A person’s level of vulnerability interacts with the stressful social-cognitive events in their live to determine the likelihood of schizophrenia • The disorder does tend to strike in late adolescence and early adulthood, periods of unusually high stress levels

33. Perspectives • The causes of abnormal behavior and thinking can be found in the four major research perspectives • Biological • Behavioral • Cognitive • Sociocultural • However, no one perspective adequately explains even one disorder • The biopsychosocial approachto explaining abnormality examines the interaction between biological, behavioral, cognitive, and social/cultural factors

34. Treatment • Fortunately, schizophrenia can be successfully treated with antipsychotic medications • If the patient continues to take them, the disorders stays away • If they stop, the symptoms return • Problem: many schizophrenics don’t identify as such, or are too paranoid to swallow pills

35. Create a profile • http://www.schizophrenia.com/szfacts.htm

36. Look up: • What is a personality disorder? Use your ipads. Share out.

37. Personality disorders • Borderline personality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdPuSnP8YY8 • Sociopath/Antisocial personality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfHo-HJObU8 • Narcissistic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFgoGtt7wu4 • Histrionic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loaLO2kSwFY • , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lxk5IRLysI • Schitzoid vs schizotypal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efw7de8NYsg • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8ZjlAR_Nts • Passive aggressive behavior: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQYrTwoakCo

38. Personality disorder party! • Complete worksheet • What disorder does each person have? • Underline the key words in their description • Create a person with the disorder listed who is not present at the party (8 people come, but 9 disorders on back of sheet) • Answer Q3 – are personality disorders easy to diagnose and treat? • Dating – describe the relationship or fist date of two party goers • DUE NEXT CLASS!

39. Anxiety Disorders Disorders in which excessive anxiety leads to personal distress and atypical, maladaptive and irrational behavior Specific Phobia Social Phobia & Agoraphobia Panic Disorder Generalized Anxiety Disorder Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

40. Phobia: irrational fear • A strong and persistent fear of specific objects/situations that is excessive or unreasonable (irrational)

41. Specific Phobia • For example, there was woman with a specific phobia of birds. • She became housebound because of her fear of encountering a bird. Any noises she heard within the house she thought were birds that had broken in to get her. • When she did leave the house, she was careful not drive near any birds, because if she hit a bird, they would take revenge on her. • She knew her fears were irrational, but she could not control their effects on her behavior and thinking.

42. Causes of Specific Phobias • Classical conditioning • In Little Albert study, the infant was conditioned to fear white rats by pairing together a loud startling noise (an unconditioned stimulus) with a white rat (a conditioned stimulus) • CREATE ANOTHER EXAMPLE:Biological predispositions • Some people are naturally more nervous and scared • Certain associations (such as taste and sickness) are easy to learn, while others (such as taste and electric shock) are much more difficult to learn

43. Phobia treatment • Systematic desensitization • Slow, progressive exposure to the stimulus that causes fear • Gradual exposure leads to lessening of fear • Start with “safe” stimulus and build up

44. Social Anxiety/Phobia • Fear or anxiety of social interaction • Hard time making eye contact • Nervous at parties, social events • Feels extremely self conscious, awkward • AVOIDS social interaction because too difficult to deal with • Much stronger than introverted personality

46. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmEJEfy5f50 Start at 5.55

47. Agoraphobia • A fear of being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult or embarrassing • Includes crowds, standing in line, traveling in a crowded bus, stuck in heavy traffic • People avoid such situations, won’t leave home

48. Panic Disorder • A condition in which a person experiences recurrent panic attacks • Sudden onsets of intense fear • Can be triggered by stressful event (giving a speech) or NO apparent reason • Symptoms: • Difficulty breathing • Chest pain • Feel like going to faint • FEAR!! And PANIC!

49. Generalized Anxiety Disorder • Excessive, global anxiety and worry • General sense of dread, fear, anxiety • Cannot control • Period of at least 6 months • Anxiety not tied to any specific object or situation (not a phobic disorder) • May be related to low GABA, a calming neurotransmitter • People with generalized anxiety disorder may have problems with activation of GABA, allowing more and more neurons to get excited

50. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder • recurrent obsessions (thoughts) and/or compulsions (behaviors) • cause significant distress and disruption in the person’s daily life • An obsession is a persistent intrusive thought, idea, impulse, or image that causes anxiety • A compulsion is a repetitive and rigid behavior that a person feels compelled to perform to reduce anxiety