REMINDER: PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR PHONES

PSYCHOLOGY OF EMOTION: EMOTIONS AND MENTAL HEALTH

Wesley G. Moons, Ph.D. University of California, Davis Department of Psychology

DIAGNOSTICS
!!

Some form of emotional disturbance in nearly all psychiatric diagnostic categories One framework for considering emotion disturbances
!!

!!

Excess of emotion
!!

Phobias

!!

Deficits of emotion
!!

Psychopathy

!!

Social emotion problems

!!

Narcisism

!!

Regulation problems
!!

Borderline personality

!!

Imperfect system because of overlap between categories

MOOD DISORDERS
!!

If you are always, mad at the world... and you lack enthusiasm

Major depressive disorder

!! !!
!!

Often thought of as increased negative affect Often actually characterized by anhedonia

Anhedonia: the loss of feelings of pleasure
lack of hedonism: pleasure, they are depressed. You can have one episode... and be bipolar.

!!

Bipolar Disorder
!! !!
!!

Sometimes referred to as manic-depressive Vacillate between depressive and manic periods

Mania = Increases in both joy/euphoria and irritability

!!

Dysthymia
!!

Low-level persistent depression

!!

Cyclothymia
!!

Low-level persistent bipolar disorder

ANXIETY DISORDERS
!!

Phobias
!!

Extreme and irrational fear of some stimulus

!! !!

Extreme avoidance of stimulus Can often trigger panic attacks and subsequent syncope

!!

Specific phobias (8.7% of US population has one or more)

!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

Acrophobia Fear of heights Claustrophobia Fear of enclosed spaces Nyctophobia Fear of the dark Ophidiophobia Fear of snakes Arachnophobia Fear of spiders Trypanophobia Fear of injection or medical needles Astraphobia Fear of thunder and lightning Nosophobia Fear of having a disease Mysophobia Fear of germs Triskaidekaphobia Fear of the number 13
this are the people that do not want to leave their house...

!!

Social phobia
!! !!

Extreme/excessive fear of social evaluation Can lead to agoraphobia !! Fear of being in panic-inducing situation with little means of escape

PHOBIA TREATMENTS
!!

Flooding
!!

Sudden overwhelming exposure to source of phobia

Idea: People will see that nothing bad happens !! Problem: Can (re)traumatize people
!!

!!

Systematic Desensitization
!!

Gradual exposure to stimulus in safe environment Can include:

Mental visualization with therapist !! Virtual reality exposure to stimulus !! Actual, safe exposure to stimulus
!!

!!

OTHER ANXIETY DISORDERS

!!

Generalized anxiety disorder

high level of anxiety... pretty difficult to tolerate. !! Pattern of frequent, constant worry and anxiety over not pleasant...

many different activities and events

!!

Panic disorder
!! !!

Repeated attacks of intense fear that something bad will occur when not expected The person lives in fear that another attack will occur.

!!

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

!! !!

Occurs after experiencing a traumatic event that involved the threat of injury or death. They re-experience the event again and again

!!

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

!! !!

Obsession Intrusive recurring thoughts Compulsion Repetitive behaviors

!!

Eating disorders
!! !!

Anorexia nervosa Bulemia nervosa

EMOTIONS IN PERSONALITY DISORDERS

!!

Personality disorders
!!

An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the culture of the individual who exhibits it. ~APA

!!

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

!! !!

Excessive focus on ones own power, status, and vanity Lacking empathy for others (i.e., extreme self-centeredness)

!!

Histrionic Personality Disorder

!! !!

Excessive emotionality, attention-seeking, need for approval, inappropriate seductiveness Excessively rapid shifts in expressions of emotion
khurshid. manipulative... threaten with suicide.

!!

Borderline Personality Disorder

!! !! !! !!

Persistent unstable and volatile emotions about themselves and others Leads to impulsive actions and chaotic relationships Difficulty regulating anger All good or all bad emotional reactions to things

DISRUPTION IN EMOTION COMMUNICATION

!! Alexithymia !!

Difficulty in understanding, processing, or verbalizing emotions Measured with two subscales that assess:
Difficulty identifying emotion !! Difficult describing emotion
!!

!!

!!

Dimensional characteristic
Everyone falls somewhere on the dimension !! Not a clinical disorder, but has implications !! People high in alexythymia are: !! More likely to develop a clinical mental disorder !! Be less likely to benefit from interventions
!!

SCHIZOPHRENIA
!!

Schizophrenia
!!

Difficulty determining real vs. unreal and thinking logically

!!

Show distinct pattern of emotion

!! !!

Seemingly experience emotion similarly to normative population But often show muted expression of emotion

!!

Schizophrenia may be detectable early

!!

Reflected in emotional expressivity

!!

Study Method
!! !!

Examined group of diagnozed schizophrenics and a control group Coded old home movies for emotion expressions of all subjects
!!

Subjects were adolescents or young adults

!!

Result
!!

Schizophrenics showed more negative emotional expressions

PSYCHOPATHY
!!

Psychopathy
!!

An abnormal lack of empathy combined with strongly amoral conduct but masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal.
!! !!

Distinct from antisocial personality disorder Understanding but not feeling emotions normally

!!

Study Method
!! !! !!

Examined groups of psychopaths (P) and nonpsychopaths (NP) Self-reported affect to positive and negative pictures Also an emotion-modulated startle paradigm was used
!!

Reflexive eye shutting to loud sound while seeing pictures

!!

Results
!!
!! !!

When viewing positive pictures:

P and NP reported similar affective reactions P and NP showed similar reflexive startle response

!!

When viewing negative pictures:

!! !!

P and NP reported similar affective reactions P showed less of a started response than NP

THE END!