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Mood Disorders: Slides & Handouts by Karen Clay Rhines, Ph.D. Northampton Community College
Mood Disorders: Slides & Handouts by Karen Clay Rhines, Ph.D. Northampton Community College
Comer, Abnormal
Slides & Handouts by Karen Clay Rhines, Ph.D.
Psychology, 7e
Northampton Community College
Mood Disorders
• Sad and happy mood are normal part of life they come and go
but not effect the life but when mood changes effect normal
functioning than categorized under mood disorder.
• Two key emotions on a continuum:
– Depression
• Low, sad state in which life seems dark and its challenges overwhelming
– Mania—opposite to depression
• State of breathless euphoria or frenzied energy. They
believe that world is their for taking.
• Biochemical factors
– Endocrine system / hormone release
• People with depression have been found to have abnormal levels
of cortisol
– Released by the adrenal glands during times of stress
• People with depression have been found to have abnormal
melatonin secretion
– “Dracula hormone” because it resealed in dark.
• Other researchers are investigating whether deficiencies of
important proteins within neurons are tied to depression
• Biochemical factors
– Model has produced much enthusiasm but has certain
limitations:
• Relies on analogue studies: depression-like symptoms created in
lab animals
– Do these symptoms correlate with human emotions?
• Measuring brain activity has been difficult an indirect
– Current studies using modern technology are attempting to address
this issue
• Psychodynamic view
– Limitations:
• Early losses and inadequate parenting don’t inevitably
lead to depression and may not be typically responsible
for development of depression
• Many research findings are inconsistent
• Certain features of the model are nearly impossible to
test
• Behavioral view
– Strengths:
• Researchers have compiled significant data to support this theory
– Limitations:
• Research has relied heavily on the self-reports of depressed
subjects
• Behavioral studies are largely correlational and do not establish
that decreases in rewards are the initial cause of depression
• Cognitive views
– Two main theories:
• Negative thinking
• Learned helplessness
• Cognitive views
– Negative thinking
• Beck theorizes four interrelated cognitive components combine to
produce unipolar depression:
1. Maladaptive attitudes—attitudes develop from their experiences,
parental and other people attitude.
» Self-defeating attitudes are developed during childhood. .schemes
against which the child evaluate their experiences.
» Beck suggests that upsetting situations later in life can trigger an
extended round of negative thinking
• Cognitive views
– Learned helplessness (Seligman)
• Theory asserts that people become depressed when
they think that:
– They no longer have control over the reinforcements (rewards
and punishments) in their lives
– They themselves are responsible for this helpless state
• Cognitive views
– Learned helplessness
• Theory is based on Seligman’s work with laboratory dogs
– Dogs subjected to uncontrollable shock were later placed in a shuttle
box
– Even when presented with an opportunity to escape, dogs that had
experienced uncontrollable shocks made no attempt to do so
– Seligman theorized that the dogs had “learned” to be “helpless” to
do anything to change negative situations, and drew parallels to
human depression
• Cognitive views
– Learned helplessness
• There has been significant research support for this model
– Human subjects who undergo helplessness training score higher on
depression scales and demonstrate passivity in laboratory trials
– Animal subjects lose interest in sex and social activities
– In rats, uncontrollable negative events result in lower serotonin and
norepinephrine levels in the brain
• Cognitive views
– Learned helplessness
• Recent versions of the theory focus on attributions
– Internal attributions that are global and stable lead to greater feelings
of helplessness and possibly depression
» Example: “It’s all my fault” [internal]. “I ruin everything I touch”
[global] “and I always will” [stable].
– If people make other kinds of attributions, this reaction is unlikely
» Example: “She had a role in this also” [external], “the way I’ve
behaved the past couple weeks blew this relationship” [specific].
“I don’t know what got into me – I don’t usually act like that”
[unstable].
• Cognitive views
– Learned helplessness
• Some theorists have refined the helplessness model yet
again in recent years; they suggest that attributions are
likely to cause depression only when they further
produce a sense of hopelessness in an individual
• Manic episode
• A period of abnormally and persistently elevated, expensive ,or irritable mood
lasting at least one week.
• Persistent at least three of following.infalted self-esteem or
grandiosity, decreased need for sleep, more talkative,
decreased need for sleep, flight of ideas, increases in
activities, excessive involvement in painful activities that
further lead to pain.
• Significant distress and impairment.