Psychological Disorders

Mariah Jennings

Marquita Johnson

Tierra Morris

Tywon Pinkney

Perspectives on Psychological Disorders

Psychological disorders fascinate us, partly because most of us will at some time experience or witness them close at hand.

Defining, Understanding,

Classifying, & Labeling

Psychological Disorders

Defining:Between normality and abnormality there is an arbitrary line. Where we draw this line depends on how atypical, disturbing, maladaptive, and unjustifiable a person’s behavior is.

Understanding:The medical model’s assumption displaced earlier views that demons and evil spirits were to blame. Most mental health workers today adapt a biopsychosocial perspective.

Classifying:Many psychiatrists and psychologists use the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) for naming and describing psychological disorders in treatment and research.

Labeling:Critics point out the price we pay for these benefits of classifying disorders: Labels also can create preconceptions that unfairly stigmatize people and bias our perceptions of their past and present behavior.

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety is part of our everyday experience. It is classified as a psychological disorder only when it becomes distressing or persistent or is characterized by maladaptive behaviors intended to reduce it.

Generalized Anxiety & Panic Disorder

Those who suffer generalized anxiety disorder may for no clear reason feel persistently and uncontrollably tense and uneasy. Anxiety escalates into periodic episodes of intense dread for those suffering panic disorder.

Phobia

Those with a phobia disorder may be irrationally afraid of a specific object or situation. The fear can disrupt behavior and lead to incapacitating efforts to avoid the situation or object.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Persistent and repetitive thoughts and actions characterize obsessive-compulsive disorder. The thoughts and behaviors are so persistent that they interfere with daily living and cause the person distress.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Experiencing a traumatic event can lead to this disorder. The symptoms are four or more weeks of memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and sleep problems.

Explaining Anxiety Disorders

• Psychologists now tend to consider these disorders from the learning and biological perspectives.

• The learning perspective sees anxiety disorders as a product of fear conditioning, stimulus generalization, reinforcement, and observational learning.

• The biological perspective considers possible evolutionary, genetic, and physiological influences.

Mood Disorders

Mood disorders are characterized by emotional extremes. The two principal forms are major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder.

Major Depressive Disorder

• In major depression, the descends for weeks or months into deep unhappiness, lethargy, and feelings of worthlessness before rebounding to normality.

• Although less disabling, dysthymic disorder is marked by chronic low energy and poor self-esteem.

Cycle of Depression

1.Negative stressful events 2.Interpreted through a pessimistic explanatory style creating a 3.hopeless

depressed state which 4. hampers the way the person thinks and acts, feeling more negative stressful events,

such as rejection.

Bipolar Disorder

In the less common bipolar disorder, the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the hyperactive, wildly optimistic, impulsive phase of mania.

Explaining Mood Disorders

Current research on depression is vigorously exploring two sets of influences.

• The first focuses on genetic predispositions and neurotransmitter abnormalities.

• The second views the cycle of depression from a social-cognitive perspective, in light of cyclic self-defeating beliefs, learned helplessness, negative attributions, and aversive experiences.

Social-Cognitive Perspective

• Some people slide into depression for no obvious reason

• Both dogs and humans act depressed, passive, and withdrawn after experiencing uncontrollable painful

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia typically strikes during late adolescence. It affects men and women about equally, and it seems to occur in all cultures.

Symptoms of

SchizophreniaSchizophrenia shows itself in disorganized thinking such as: nonsensical talk and delusions; which may stem from a breakdown of selective attention disturbed perceptions and inappropriate emotions and actions. It is rarely a one-time episode.

Subtypes of

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a set of disorders that emerges either gradually from a chronic history of social inadequacy or suddenly in reaction to stress.

Understanding Schizophrenia

• Multiple factors converge to create schizophrenia. • Researchers have linked certain forms of

schizophrenia with brain abnormalities, in this case, with enlarged, fluid-filled cerebral cavities or increased receptors for the neurotransmitter dopamine.

• Twin and adoption studies also point to a genetic predisposition that, in conjunction with environmental factors, may bring about a schizophrenia disorder.

Personality Disorder

A personality disorder is a type of mental illness in which you have trouble perceiving and relating to situations and to people.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Personality disorders are enduring, maladaptive patterns of behavior that impair social functioning. For society, the most troubling of these is the remorseless and fearless antisocial personality. A person with antisocial personality-typically a male who displays a lack of conscience before age 15-can be violent or a charming con artist.

Understanding Antisocial Personality Disorder

Both genetics and environment influence Antisocial Personality Disorder. People with the disorder have reduced activity in the frontal lobe, an area of the cortex. They may also be more sensitive to maltreatment as children.

Rates of

Psychological Disorders• Recent survey findings revealed that one in seven

Americans have experienced a clinically significant psychological disorder in the prior year.

• Among them, the three most common were phobic disorder; alcohol abuse or dependence-with men outnumbering women five to one- and mood disorder-with women outnumbering men two to one.

• Poverty is a predictor of mental illness but it can also be the result of mental illness due to inability to function effectively in society and thus being driven into poverty.