PSYC1102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Mental Disorder, Syphilis, Personality Disorder
Psychological Disorders:
Abnormal behaviour: behavior that is personally distressing, personally dysfunctional and/orculturally
deviant that other people judge it to be inappropriate or maladaptive.
- Diagnosed via. DSM (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders) – manual of
symptoms associated with, and how to diagnose disorders.
Mental disorders originally thought to be the work of the devil, and were treated as such by society.
Brain deterioration due to the STI – syphilis, showed for the first time that there was a physical reason
for a mental disorder
Vulnerability-stress model – each of us has a degree of vulnerability to developing a psychological
disorder, given sufficient stress.
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- Vulnerability can be due to biology (i.e.
genotype, underactivity of neurotransmitters,
hormones, or highly sensitive autonomic
nervous system).
- Or due to personality factors (i.e. low self
esteem, pessimism)
- Or environmental factors (i.e. poverty or severe
trauma)
Stressors (such as economic activity, environment,
interpersonal stresses or losses etc.) combine with
vulnerability to create disorder.
Anxiety and related disorders:
Anxiety – a natural response to perceived threat
4 components:
- Subjective-emotional (feelings of fear and apprehensions)
- Cognitive (worrisome thoughts such as inability to cope)
- Physiological responses (SNS)
- Behavioural responses (avoidance of situations, impaired performance in tasks)
In anxiety and related disorders – the frequency and intensity of anxiety responses are disproportional
to the situations that trigger them.
Examples include: generalized anxiety disorder, phobic disorder, OCD and PTSD.
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Phobic disorders:
Phobia: strong and irrational fears of certain objects or situations.
- Do’t alas ealize the fea is out of popotio to the dage ioled, ad feel helpless to
deal with their fears.
Agoraphobia – excessive fear of situations such as using public transport, being in a crowd or being out
of the home.
- Fear these situations because they believe that escape would be difficult, or help unavailable if
panic like symptoms or other distressing, embarrassing or incapacitating events were to occur.
Social phobia – fear of social situations in which they may be negatively evaluate by others (e.g. meeting
new people, or public speaking).
Specific phobias are characterized by an intense fear of a specific object or situation (e.g. dogs, snakes,
spiders etc.).
- Animal fears more common among women
- Fears of heights among men
Phobias can develop at any point in life but often arise in childhood
- Many social phobias evolve out of extreme shyness.
- May begin in adolescence or early adulthood – once developed, seldom go away on their own,
and may broaden or intensity over time.
Generalized anxiety disorder: chronic state of diffuse, or free-floatig aiet o o that is’t
attached to specific situations or objects.
- Lasts at least 6 months with signs continually present
Panic disorder – symptoms occur suddenly and unpredictably, and they are much more intense.
- Not unusual for people to think that people having panic attacks are dying
-
Obsessive compulsive disorder: no longer really classified as anxiety disorder.
- Have obsessions – repetitive and unwelcome thoughts, images, or impulses that invade
consciousness, often abhorrent to the person and difficult to dismiss or control
- Have compulsions – repetitive behavioural response, can only be resisted with great difficulty.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD):
- Moved to own group away from anxiety disorders now grouped with other trauma and stress
disorders.
- severe disorder that can occur in people who have been exposed to traumatic life events
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Document Summary
Abnormal behaviour: behavior that is personally distressing, personally dysfunctional and/orculturally deviant that other people judge it to be inappropriate or maladaptive. Dsm (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders) manual of symptoms associated with, and how to diagnose disorders. Mental disorders originally thought to be the work of the devil, and were treated as such by society. Brain deterioration due to the sti syphilis, showed for the first time that there was a physical reason for a mental disorder. Vulnerability-stress model each of us has a degree of vulnerability to developing a psychological disorder, given sufficient stress. Vulnerability can be due to biology (i. e. genotype, underactivity of neurotransmitters, hormones, or highly sensitive autonomic nervous system). Or due to personality factors (i. e. low self esteem, pessimism) Or environmental factors (i. e. poverty or severe trauma) Stressors (such as economic activity, environment, interpersonal stresses or losses etc. ) combine with vulnerability to create disorder. Anxiety a natural response to perceived threat.
