5 characteristics we look at when determining Psychological Disorders
- Atypical- not typical (statistically)
- Deviant- goes against social norms
- Significant discomfort- person with disorder or people around the person with disorder
- Maladaptive- not a good way to cope with life’s demands
- Dangerous- to oneself or other people
*Big issue: we’re working overall at a pattern of behavior that causes significant distress and effects ability to function in daily life
Biological (medical) model
- Doctor/specialist look for ORIGIN
- COURSE- where this will lead
- PROGNOSIS- (psychopathology)
Psychological models
behavioral persepctive
Sociocultural perspective
How we think about social roles and family unit
Biopsychosocial model
Combines multiple influences which mean multiple ways to get help- therapy
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5)
Gives a “common language” to all psychologists
- bible of psychology
- most comprehensive when diagnosing
- creates reliabilities with therapies and correct diagnoses
- All disorders in one big list
- Some disorder expressed in dimension
Criticisms of DSM labels
- “Crazy” behavior different from “normal” behavior
- Degrees of difference
- Changing context within culture (ex: time)
- Powerful, long lasting effects
- Promoting social stigmas (bias)
- Consider media images
- older images
- newer portrayals
Disorders of anxiety, trauma, and stress
Features distinguishing pathological anxiety ( dominant, intrusive, unrealistic, irrational)
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
- Free-floating anxiety:
1. can seem like this thing has no cause
2. can jump from topic to topic
4% of US
Panic Attacks and Panic Disorder
Attacks:
- brief of 10 minutes of high sympathetic arousal, blood pressure high
- peaks at about 10 minutes
- Can have panic attacks but doesn’t mean you have panic disorders
- Frequent panic attacks
- Panic disorder about 3%
Phobias
Fear of something
Agoraphobia
Fear of inescapable situation , enclosed place (elevator, bus)
- panic disorder with Agoraphobia
- can have Agoraphobia without history of panic disorder
Social Anxiety Disorder (social phobia)
Fear of being evaluated
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
All things you do to reduce anxiety
-Intruding thoughts occur again and again and are followed by some repetitive, ritualistic behavior or mental acts
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
- Recurrent, involuntary, and distressing memories.
- Recurrent distressing dreams
- dissociative reaction such as flashbacks
- significant distress at exposure to cues of the events, marked physiological reminder/ reactions to events
ex: hearing a loud noise and remembering prior events
Explaining Anxiety Disorders
-Learning Perspective
Classical conditioning (fear) -Biological preparedness, stimulus generalization
Operant conditioning (negative reinforcement)
Observational learning
Explaining Anxiety Disorders
-Biological Perspective
Genetics
-heritability, biological predispositions
Physiology
- CNS structures (frontal lobes, amygdala)
- Neurotransmitters (serotonin, GABA)
- PNS- autonomic nervous system
- Cognitive issues (biases)
Disorders of Mood
Think of disturbance in emotion of affect
Major Depressive Disorder
-most common disorder
-Clusters of symptoms (emotional, behavioral, cognitive, physical)
Dysthymia- long lasting, low grade depression
- When a deeply depressed mood comes on fairly suddenly and either seems to be too severe for the circumstances or exits without any external cues for sadness.
Bipolar I
- Cycles into extreme mania
- Cycle from manic episodes into depressive episodes
- manic episode first, is short
- Grandias ideas- delusional, crazy ideas
Causes
- Biological- genetics, neurotransmitters
- 80% concordance for bipolar
- 40-50% concordance rate for depression
- neurotransmitter- seratonin with depression, Glutemate for bipolar
Social-cognitive- maladaptive thought patterns, influence of mood on cognition
Cognitive biases associated with depression
Selective thinking (selective abstraction) -Focusing on a single negative detail
Overgeneralization
Sweeping global conclusions based on isolated incident (bad things happen, thats why I’m not smart, etc.)
Magnification
Overestimate impact of negative events
ex: supervisor gives criticism and person thinks they’re gonna get fired
