PSYC 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Dorothea Dix, Bipolar Disorder, Deinstitutionalisation
Chapter 15: Psychological Disorders
What Are Psychological Disorders?
●Psychological Disorder- a condition characterized by abnormal thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors
●Psychopathology- the study of psychological disorders, including their symptoms,
causes, and treatment
●Many different conceptions of mental illness, each with pros and cons
○Statistical rarity-uncommon in population
■Limitation: not all uncommon conditions are pathological
●i.e. extreme creativity
■Limitation: some disorders are rather common
●i.e. depression
○Subjective distress- produces emotional pain for person with disorder
■Limitation: not all disorders generate distress
●i.e. manic phase of bipolar disorder, or conduct disorder
○Impairment- interferes with daily functioning
■Limitation: impairment does not always indicate a disorder
●i.e. laziness
○Societal disapproval- societal attitudes shape views of abnormality
■Limitation: not all disproved conditions are mental disorder
●i.e. racism, rudenesss
○Biological dysfunction- many result from breakdown/failures of physiological
systems
■ie. Schizophrenia- underactivity in frontal lobes, low dopamine
■Limitation: not all ential thos
●i.e some phobias learned
●Mental illnesses also involves:
○Need for treatment
○Irrationally
○Loss of control of one’s behavior
APA Definition of Psychological Disorders
1. There are significant disturbances in thoughts, feelings, behaviors
2. The disturbances reflect some kind of biological, psychological or developmental
dysfunction
3. The disturbances lead to significant distress or disability in one’s life
4. The disturbances do not reflect expected or culturally appropriate responses to certain
events
Diagnosing and Classifying Psychological Disorders
●Diagnosis- appropriately labeling and identifying a set of defined symptoms
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●A proper diagnosis is a guide to proper and successful treatment
●Practitioners use established classification systems that organize psychological disorders
systematically
The DSM
●Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)- a system that contains
the criteria for mental orders
●Currently in the fifth edition, as of May 2013
●Fifth edition has 18 different classes of disorders
●Provides a list of diagnostic criteria and a set of decision rules for each condition
●Warns to “think organic” (rule of physical causes of symptoms first)
●Provides descriptions of specific symptoms required for diagnosis, prevalence
information, and risk factors associated with the disorder
Diagnosis across Cultures
●Certain conditions are culture-bound
●Koro- involves believing your genitals are shrinking and receding into your abdomen
●Amok- marked by episodes of intense sadness and brooding followed by uncontrolled
and violence
●Taijin kyofushu- fear of offending others by saying something offensive or body odor
●However, many severe mental disorders (schizophrenia, alcoholism, psychopathy) appear
to be universal across cultures
Misconceptions
1. Psychiatric diagnosis is nothing more than putting people in “boxes”
2. Psychiatric diagnoses are unreliable
3. Psychiatric diagnoses are invalid
4. Psychiatric diagnoses stigmatize people
Historical Perspectives of Mental Illness
●Supernatural Perspective
○During the Middle Ages, mental illnesses were often viewed through a demonic
model
○Odd behaviors were the result of evil spirits inhabiting the body
○Exorcisms and witch hunts were common during this time
●Biological Perspective
○During Renaissance, the medical model saw mental illness as a physical disorder
needing medical treatment
○Began housing people in asylums- but they were often overcrowded and
understaffed
○Treatments were no better than before (bloodletting and snake pits)
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●Reformers like Phillippe Pinel and Dorothea Dix pushed for moral treatment
●Treated patients with dignity, respect, and kindness
●Still no effective treatments, though, so many continued to suffer with no relief
●Modern Era
○In early 1950s, a drug was developed called chlorpromazine (Thorazine)
○Moderately decreased symptoms of schizophrenia and similar problems
○With development of other medications, policy of deinstitutionalization was
enacted
○Deinstitutionalization had mixed results
○Some patients returned to almost normal lives but tens of thousands had no
follow-up care and went off medications
○Community mental health centers and halfway houses attempt to help this
problem
●Modern Biological Perspectives
○Psychological phenomena are linked to biological phenomena, such as genetic
factors, chemical imbalances, and brain abnormalities
●Psychosocial Perspective
○Emphasizes the importance of learning, stress, faulty thinking patterns, and
environmental factors
●Diathesis-Stress Model
○Integrates biological and psychosocial factors to predict the likelihood of a
disorder
○Suggests that people with an underlying predisposition for a disorder will be more
likely to develop a disorder when faced with adverse environmental or
psychological events
○Predisposition could be biological or psychological
Anxiety Disorders
●Most anxieties are transient and can be adaptive
●They can, though, spin out of control and become excessive and inappropriate
●Characterized by excessive and persistent fear and anxiety and by related disturbances in
behavior
○Cause considerable distress
●25-35% of the populations has one type of anxiety disorder at some point
●More common in women
●One of the most prevalent and earliest onset of all classes of disorders
●Often comorbid with other disorders, including more than one anxiety disorder
●Can also see inappropriate anxiety in other disorders and problems
●Somatoform disorders- physical symptoms with psychological origins
●Hypochondriasis- a preoccupations that you have a serious disease despite no evidence
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Document Summary
Psychological disorder- a condition characterized by abnormal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Psychopathology- the study of psychological disorders, including their symptoms, causes, and treatment. Many different conceptions of mental illness, each with pros and cons. Limitation: not all uncommon conditions are pathological. Subjective distress- produces emotional pain for person with disorder. I. e. manic phase of bipolar disorder, or conduct disorder. Limitation: impairment does not always indicate a disorder. Societal disapproval- societal attitudes shape views of abnormality. Limitation: not all disproved conditions are mental disorder. Biological dysfunction- many result from breakdown/failures of physiological systems. Ie. schizophrenia- underactivity in frontal lobes, low dopamine. Diagnosis- appropriately labeling and identifying a set of defined symptoms. A proper diagnosis is a guide to proper and successful treatment. Practitioners use established classification systems that organize psychological disorders systematically. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm)- a system that contains the criteria for mental orders. Currently in the fifth edition, as of may 2013.
