AP Psychology

Notes: Psychological Disorders

1. Overview
1. Abnormal Psychology
1. The study of people who suffer from psychological disorders
2. ​Defining Abnormality
1. ​Common Characteristics
1. ​Harmful/disturbing to the individual
2. Disturbing to others
3. Not shared by many members of the population
4. Does not make sense to the average person
2. ​Insanity
1. ​A legal term
1. ​purpose
1. to differentiate between people who can be
held responsible for their crimes (the sane)
and those with psychological disorders
(the insane)
3. ​Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
1. ​Provides a way for psychologists to diagnose patients
2. Contains symptoms of all psychological disorders
3. Doesn’t contain causes because different perspectives disagree
1. ​most psychologists are eclectic
1. ​accept/use ideas from many perspectives
3. Categories of Disorders
1. ​Intern’s Syndrome
1. The tendency to see in oneself the characteristics of disorders about
which one is learning
2. Not a psychological disorder
2. ​Anxiety Disorders
1. ​Phobias
1. ​contact with feared object/situation results in anxiety
2. specific phobia
1. ​an intense fear of an unwanted situation
2. ex. agoraphobia- open spaces
3. arachnophobia- spiders
4. social phobia- public embarrassment
2. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
1. ​constant, low level anxiety
3. ​Panic disorder
1. ​acute episodes of intense anxiety without any apparent
provocation
2. increase in frequency
 3. additional anxiety due to anticipating the anxiety attacks
4. ​Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
1. persistent, unwanted thoughts cause you to feel the need
to engage in a particular action
5. ​Post-traumatic stress disorder
1. flashbacks/nightmares following your involvement in or
observation of an extremely troubling event
6. ​Theoretical causes
1. ​psychoanalytic
1. unresolved, unconscious conflicts between
the id, ego, and superego
2. ​behaviorist
1. ​conditioning
2. cognitive learning
3. ​cognitive
1. ​dysfunctional ways of thinking
3. ​Somatoform Disorders
1. ​A person manifests a psychological problem through a physiological
problem
2. Hypochondriasis
1. ​frequent physical complaints for which doctors can’t
locate the cause
2. may believe that minor problems are indicative of severe
physical illness
3. ​Conversion
1. ​severe physical issue with no biological reason
1. ​paralysis
2. blindness
4. ​Dissociative Disorders
1. ​Involve a disruption in conscious processes
2. Psychogenic amnesia
1. ​can’t remember things
2. no biological basis can be identified
3. fugue
1. ​find themselves in an unfamiliar
environment
3. ​Organic amnesia
1. ​biologically induced
4. ​Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
1. ​formerly called multiple personality disorder
2. several distinct personalities
3. results from childhood trauma
5. ​Theoretical causes
 1. ​psychoanalytic
1. traumatic events have been so repressed
that a split in consciousness results
5. ​Mood or Affective Disorders
1. ​Extreme/inappropriate emotions
2. Major depression
1. ​most common
2. symptoms
1. ​sad more than 2 weeks without clear
reason
2. change in sleep and appetite
3. worthlessness
4. lack of interest in enjoyed activities
3. ​Seasonal Affective Disorder
1. ​depression only at certain times of year
3. ​Bipolar disorder
1. ​manic episodes
1. ​high energy
2. feel confident and powerful
3. sense of well-being
2. ​depressed episodes
4. ​Theoretical causes
1. ​Aaron Beck
1. ​cognitive theorist
2. unreasonably negative ideas people have
about the cognitive triad (yourself, your
world, your future)
2. pessimistic attributional styles
1. ​attribution- an explanation of a cause
2. internal, global, and stable attributions for
bad events
3. ​learned helplessness
1. ​Martin Seligman- dog shock experiment
2. when your prior experiences have caused
you to view yourself as unable to control
controllable aspects of the future
4. biology
1. ​the disorders run in families
2. depression- low serotonin or
norepinephrine
3. bipolar- more acetylcholine receptors
6. Schizophrenic Disorders
1. ​Schizophrenia
 1. ​disordered, distorted thinking
2. delusions and hallucinations
1. delusion- belief that has no basis in reality
3. ​common delusions
1. ​persecution- paranoia
2. grandeur- power and influence
4. ​hallucinations
1. ​perceptions in the absence of sensory
stimulation
2. ​Disorganized schizophrenia
1. ​make up neologisms
1. ​their own words
2. string together a series of nonsense words that rhyme
(clang associations)
3. inappropriate affect
1. inappropriate emotions for the situation
4. ​flat affect
1. ​no emotional response
3. ​Paranoid schizophrenia
1. ​delusions of persecution
4. ​Catatonic schizophrenia
1. ​motionless in strange postures
1. waxy flexibility- they will allow their body
to be moved into any new pose and will
hold it
2. ​move jerkily and quickly for no apparent reason
3. can alternate between them
5. ​Undifferentiated schizophrenia
1. ​distorted thinking, but no other symptoms
6. ​Symptoms
1. ​positive symptoms
1. ​excesses in behavior, thought, or mood
2. ex: neologisms, hallucinations
2. ​negative symptoms
1. ​deficits
2. ex. flat effect, catatonia
7. ​Schizophrenic Disorders: Theoretical Causes
1. ​Dopamine hypothesis
1. ​high levels of dopamine are associated with
schizophrenia
2. if the drugs lower the level too much, tardive dyskinesia
results
1. ​muscle tremors and stiffness
 2. ​Abnormality on 5th chromosome
3. ​Enlarged brain ventricles
4. Brain asymmetry
5. Negative symptoms- genetic factors
6. Positive symptoms- too much dopamine
7. Double blinds
1. ​when a person is given contradictory messages
8. ​Diathesis-stress model
1. environmental stressors can provide the circumstances
under which a biological predisposition for illness can
express itself
8. ​Personality Disorders
1. ​Less serious
2. Types
1. ​antisocial
1. ​don’t have regard for other’s feelings
2. view the world as a hostile place
2. ​dependent
3. paranoid
4. narcissistic
5. histrionic
6. obsessive-compulsive
9. ​Other Disorders
1. ​Paraphilias (psychosexual disorders)
1. ​sexual attraction to that which is not usually seen as
sexual
2. pedophilia, zoophilia, fetishism, masochism, sadism
3. voyeur
1. ​aroused by watching others engage in
sexual behavior
2. ​Eating disorders
3. ​Addiction disorders
1. ​use of alcohol/drugs
2. substance use disorder
1. ​use of such substances regularly affecting
your life negatively
3. ​substance dependence
1. ​addiction
4. ​Developmental disorders
1. ​autism
1. ​seek less social and emotional contact
2. slow to develop language skills
3. seek less parental support when distressed
 5. ​ADHD
1. ​attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
2. difficulty paying attention or sitting still
3. overdiagnosed because of typical boy behavior
4. The Rosehan Study: The Influence of Labels
1. ​David Rosehan
1. ​1978- he and associates sought admission to mental hospitals
1. ​claimed to hear voices
2. reported no other symptoms
3. once admitted, behaved as they usually did
4. their every behavior was interpreted as a sign of their
schizophrenia
2. ​Issues Raised
1. ​Should patients carry their diagnosis for life?
2. Are disorders the product of a particular environment?
3. What level of care could undetected imposters receive?