PSYC 1101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 15: Frontal Lobe, Antibody, Thalamus
6 Jun 2018
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Notes on Psychological Disorders
Introduction to Psychological Disorders
● How should we…
○ Define
○ Understand
○ Classify
● ...Psych disorders?
● How many people have them?
Defining Psychological Disorders
● Psychological disorder → a syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an
individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior
● Dysfunctional thoughts are maladaptive - interfere with daily life
● Distress
● Shifting societal beliefs cause changes in definitions of psych. Disorders
Understanding Psychological Disorders
● Evidence of ‘strange forces’
The Medical Model
● Reformers opposed brutal treatment saying that madness is not demon possession but
sickness of the mind (Philippe Pinel)
● Medical Model → the concept that diseases, in this case, psychological disorders, have
physical causes that can be diagnoses, treats, and, in most cases, cured, often through
treatment in a hospital
The Biopsychological Approach
● Interaction of behaviors, surroundings, responses to stress, culture, biological factors,
psychological factors, etc.
● Some disorders same across cultures, others differ
● Epigenetics → the study of environmental influences on a gene that occur without a DNA
change
● Identical twins more likely but not predestined to develop same disorders
Classifying Disorders -- and Labeling People
● Classification - predicts disorders outcome, suggests treatment, prompts research into
causes
● DSM-5 → the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; a widely used system for classifying psychological
disorders
● Some labels have changed
● Some agree with DSM-5, others don’t
● Some say labels are subjective
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● People can fake disorders
● Mentally ill can be thought of as potentially violent
Rates of Psychological Disorders
● More people than most would think have psychological disorders
● Vulnerability increases with poverty
● Traumas that lead to mental illness usually come in early adulthood
Anxiety Disorders, OCD, and PTSD
● Some people are more prone to notice and remember threats
Anxiety Disorders
● Anxiety disorders → psychological disorders characterized by distressing persistent
anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
● Generalized anxiety disorder → an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually
tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal
● Symptoms are common but their persistence is not
● May not be able to identify tension’s cause
● Can lead to physical problems
● Women more likely
● Some were mistreated as children
● Generally mellows over time
Panic Disorder
● Panic disorder → an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of
intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain,
choking, or other frightening sensations. Often followed by worry over a possible next
attack
● Worrying about anxiety can worsen anxiety
● Can develop agoraphobia - fear of situations in which escape might be difficult
● Smokers at greater risk
Phobias
● Phobias → and anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a
specific object, activity, or situation
● Many people avoid triggers
● Social anxiety
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
● Obsessive-compulsive disorder → a disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive
thoughts (obsessions), actions (compulsions), or both
● All people have compulsion
● Disorders happen when the compulsive behavior causes normal functioning to be
impossible
● More common in teens and young adults
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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
● Posttraumatic stress disorder → a disorder characterized by haunting memories,
nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that
lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience
● Survivors of any traumatic event can experience PTSD
● Some people have more sensitive emotion-processing limbic systems than others and
thus flood their bodies with stress hormones and so are more likely to get PTSD
● Post people have good survivor resiliency and can bounce back after a trauma
Understanding Anxiety Disorders, OCD, and PTSD
● Freud thought repression caused anxiety
Conditioning
● Unpredicted bad events can cause anxiety
● People prone to anxiety associate fear and anxiousness with certain events or places
● Conditioning can magnify one fearful event into a phobia
● Reinforcement helps maintain fears
Cognition
● Observation of others can teach us to fear what they fear
● Past experiences and interpretations shape reactions
● People with anxiety disorders tend to be hypervigilant
Biology
● Some are more vulnerable to anxiety disorders
Genes
● A traumatic event being experienced by a high-strung temperament can lead to a phobia
● Identical twins tend to have the same anxiety and sometimes the same phobias
● 17 gene variations associated with anxiety disorders
● ‘Anxiety gene’ affects levels of serotonin in brain
● History of child abuse can cause epigenetic marks leading to PTSD
The Brain
● Traumatic experiences create fear circuits in the amygdala
● Amygdala more active in response to traumatic images in people with PTSD
● OCD creates mental hiccup when something is amiss
● Anterior cingulate cortex - monitors and checks for errors - hyperactive with OCD
Natural Selection
● Biologically prepared to fear threats faced by ancestors
Depressive Disorders and Bipolar Disorder
● Depressive responses to stress can become maladaptive
● Major depressive disorder - persistent state of hopelessness and lethargy
● Persistent depressive disorder - milder depressive feelings
● Bipolar disorder - alternates between depression and overexcited hyperactivity
Major Depressive Disorder
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Psychological disorder a syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual"s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior. Dysfunctional thoughts are maladaptive - interfere with daily life. Shifting societal beliefs cause changes in definitions of psych. Reformers opposed brutal treatment saying that madness is not demon possession but sickness of the mind (philippe pinel) Medical model the concept that diseases, in this case, psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnoses, treats, and, in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital. Interaction of behaviors, surroundings, responses to stress, culture, biological factors, psychological factors, etc. Some disorders same across cultures, others differ. Epigenetics the study of environmental influences on a gene that occur without a dna change. Identical twins more likely but not predestined to develop same disorders. Classification - predicts disorders outcome, suggests treatment, prompts research into causes. Dsm-5 the american psychiatric association"s diagnostic and statistical manual of.
