Professional Documents
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Learning Objectives
8.1 List four disorders included in the DSM-5 category of somatic symptom and related
disorders.
8.2 Explain the causes of and treatments for somatic symptom disorder.
8.3 Identify the key difference between illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom disorder.
8.4 Summarize the clinical features of conversion disorder, also noting its prevalence, causes,
and treatment.
8.5 Explain the difference between factitious disorder and malingering.
8.6 List three DSM-5 dissociative disorders.
8.7 Summarize the clinical features of depersonalization/derealization disorder.
8.8 Describe the clinical features of dissociative amnesia.
8.9 Describe the clinical features of dissociative identity disorder and explain why this disorder
is so controversial.
8.10 Describe the cultural factors, treatments, and outcomes in dissociative disorders.
Chapter Overview/Summary
Somatic symptom disorder and related disorders lie at the interface of abnormal psychology and
medicine. These are disorders in which psychological problems are manifested in physical
symptoms. In response to the symptoms the person also experiences abnormal thoughts, feelings,
and behaviors. Included in the category of somatic symptom and related disorders are somatic
symptom disorder, illness anxiety disorder, conversion disorder, and factitious disorder. Somatic
symptom disorder occurs in individuals who have multiple somatic complaints lasting at least 6
months. Even if the symptoms do not seem to have a medical explanation, the person’s suffering
is regarded as authentic.
The psychoanalytic perspective on somatic symptom disorder views physical symptoms as
resulting from unresolved or unacceptable unconscious conflicts. Instead of being expressed
directly, psychic energy is channeled into physical problems, which are more socially acceptable.
A more current perspective is cognitive-behavioral. According to this formulation, people with
somatic symptom disorder are hypervigilant, focusing a great deal of attention on their bodies
and on bodily changes. They also have a tendency to label bodily sensations as somatic
symptoms, attributing physical sensations to illness. This is combined with excessive worry about
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what the symptoms mean, leading to catastrophizing cognitions. Because of their worries, people
become very distressed and seek medical attention for their perceived physical problems.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is helpful for patients with somatic symptom disorder and
related disorders. Cognitive aspects of the treatment focus on assessing beliefs about illness and
modifying misinterpretations of bodily sensations. Behavioral techniques might include having
the patient induce innocuous symptoms by intentionally focusing on parts of the body to learn
the role that selective perception and hypervigilance play. Patients might also be directed to
engage in response prevention and told not to check their bodies as they usually do. In addition
to CBT, medical management may provide some further benefits. Having one physician who
integrates the patient’s care, sees the patient regularly, and accepts all symptoms as valid, but
who also avoids unnecessary diagnostic testing can be helpful in some cases. For somatic
symptom disorder that involves pain, treatment generally includes relaxation training, support
and validation that the pain is real, scheduling of daily activities, cognitive restructuring, and
reinforcement of “no-pain” behaviors. Antidepressant medications are also sometimes used.
Illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom disorder are similar in many ways. However,
in somatic symptom disorder symptoms must be present. In contrast, illness anxiety disorder is a
diagnosis that can be used for individuals who are very anxious about having an illness even
though they may have no symptoms.
Conversion disorder involves patterns of symptoms or deficits (such as loss of vision or
paralysis) that affect sensory or voluntary motor functions. Although the clinical problem
suggests a medical or neurological condition, medical examination reveals no physical basis for
the symptoms. Approximately 20 percent of patients with conversion disorder show very little of
the anxiety or concern that might be expected given their symptoms. This is known as la belle
indifférence. Conversion disorders are found in approximately 5 percent of people treated at
neurology clinics. The prevalence in the general population is thought to be very low (no more
than 0.005 percent), although the exact prevalence is unknown. Conversion disorders are thought
to develop in response to extreme stress that the person is unable to cope with. They are more
prevalent in women, and most commonly occur between early adolescence and early adulthood.
The physical problems often resolve if the stressor is removed and the person receives support
and encouragement, although recurrence is quite typical.
Individuals with factitious disorder intentionally produce medical or psychological symptoms
(or both). They do this in the absence of external rewards in order to take on an illness role.
Malingering involves the intentional production of symptoms or the exaggeration of symptoms.
This is motivated by external factors such as a wish to claim insurance money, avoid work or
military service, or to get leniency in a criminal prosecution.
Dissociative disorders occur when the processes that normally regulate awareness and the
multichannel capacities of the mind apparently become disorganized, leading to various
anomalies of consciousness and personal identity. Three dissociative disorders included in DSM-
5 are depersonalization/derealization, dissociative amnesia, and dissociative identity disorder.
Depersonalization/derealization disorder occurs in people who experience persistent and
recurrent episodes of derealization (losing one’s sense of reality of the outside world) and/or
depersonalization (losing one’s sense of oneself and one’s own reality). Despite this, reality
testing overall remains intact and the person has good awareness of what is happening to her or
him. In DSM-IV, derealization and depersonalization were treated as two distinct conditions. In
DSM-5 they have been combined. The lifetime prevalence of depersonalization/derealization
disorder is 1 to 2 percent. Equal numbers of males and females are affected. The disorder can
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Abnormal Psychology 18e, Hooley/Butcher
start in childhood. However, the typical age of onset is around age 16 with only a minority of
people over age 25 developing the disorder. There are no established and effective treatments for
depersonalization/derealization disorder. The disorder usually has a fairly chronic course with
little or no fluctuation in intensity. Comorbid conditions include mood or anxiety disorders.
Rates of avoidant, borderline, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders are also higher in
people with depersonalization and derealization experiences.
Dissociative amnesia involves an inability to recall previously stored information that cannot
be accounted for by ordinary forgetting. It is thought to be a reaction to extremely stressful
circumstances. The memory loss is primarily for episodic or autobiographical memory. Other
aspects of memory generally remain intact. In rare cases a person may retreat from real-life
problems by going into an amnesic state called a dissociative fugue, in which a person is not only
amnesic for some or all aspects of his or her past but also departs from home surroundings.
Dissociative fugue is a subtype of dissociative amnesia.
In dissociative identity disorder, the person manifests at least two or more distinct identities
that alternate in some way in taking control of behavior. Alter identities may differ in many ways
from the host identity. DID is controversial for many reasons. Not everyone believes it is a real
disorder. Some famous cases of DID have been faked and the disorder has been used as a
defense by people accused of serious crimes. Currently, there is no way of detecting “true” DID
from simulated DID. Of course, this does not mean we can conclude that genuine cases of DID
do not exist. There is also controversy about how DID develops. According to posttraumatic
theory, DID develops as a result of severe childhood trauma. Sociocultural theory, in contrast,
maintains that the disorder gets shaped by clinicians who inadvertently encourage patients to
adopt multiple different roles. These then become reinforced with increased attention.
By adding pathological possession to the diagnostic criteria for DID, DSM-5 now
acknowledges the role of cultural factors more explicitly. It is recognized that culture may shape
how DID presents clinically. Including possession and nonpossession forms of DID makes the
diagnosis more culturally inclusive. Other culturally influenced conditions, such as amok, also
have a dissociative component.
The treatment for DID is typically psychodynamic and insight oriented. Hypnosis is also
often used. The focus is on uncovering and working through the trauma and other conflicts that
are thought to have led to the disorder. Little is known about how to treat
derealization/depersonalization disorders. In the case of dissociative amnesia, removing the
person from what he or she perceives as a threatening situation sometimes allows for
spontaneous recovery of memory.
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1. When concern about somatic symptoms is severe and leads to significant distress
or impairment, a somatic symptom disorder may be diagnosed.
2. When feelings of “being out of it” become so persistent and recurrent that the
person has profound and unusual memory deficits, the diagnosis of dissociative
disorder may be warranted.
Learning Objective 8.1: List four disorders included in the DSM-5 category of somatic
symptom and related disorders.
2. Soma means body. People with somatic symptom disorders experience bodily
symptoms that cause them significant psychological distress and impairment.
3. The four most important disorders in the somatic symptom and related
disorders category are (1) somatic symptom disorder, (2) illness anxiety disorder,
(3) conversion disorder, and (4) factitious disorder.
Learning Objective 8.2: Explain the causes of and treatments for somatic symptom
disorder.
1. Somatic symptom disorder is regarded as the most major diagnosis in its category.
2. The new diagnosis includes several disorders that were previously considered to
be separate in DSM-IV. The old disorders of hypochondriasis, somatization
disorder, and pain disorder are gone. Most people who would have previously
been diagnosed with one of these disorders will now be diagnosed with somatic
symptom disorder.
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4. Estimates are that the prevalence of somatic symptom disorder in the general
population will be around 5 to 7 percent.
5. It is very likely that the diagnostic criteria for somatic symptom disorder will be
modified over time.
2. Several different models exist, but their core features tend to be quite similar: (1)
There is a focus of attention on the body. In other words, the person is
hypervigilant and has an increased awareness of bodily changes. (2) The person
tends to see bodily sensations as somatic symptoms, meaning that physical
sensations are attributed to illness. (3) The person tends to worry excessively
about what the symptoms mean and has catastrophizing cognitions. (4) Because
of this worry, the person is very distressed and seeks medical attention for their
perceived physical problems.
3. Experimental studies show that these individuals have an attentional bias for
illness-related information. In other words, top-down (cognitive) processes, rather
than bottom-up processes (such as differences in bodily sensations), seem to
account for the problems that they have
6. Research shows that when people who report a lot of physical problems are put
into a negative mood, their reporting of physical symptoms increases.
7. Patients are more likely to be female and to have high levels of comorbid
depression and anxiety.
9. People with somatic symptom disorders are not malingering (consciously faking
symptoms to achieve a specific goal such as winning a personal injury lawsuit).
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2. Treatment would focus on assessing the patient’s beliefs about illness and
modifying misinterpretations of bodily sensations.
Learning Objective 8.3: Identify the key difference between illness anxiety disorder and
somatic symptom disorder.
1. Illness anxiety disorder is new to DSM-5. People with this disorder have high
anxiety about having or developing a serious illness.
2. This anxiety is distressing or disruptive, but there are very few (or very mild)
somatic symptoms.
3. The main difference between illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom
disorder is the severity. People with somatic symptom disorder have more
comorbid conditions and visit doctors more frequently.
Learning Objective 8.4: Summarize the clinical features of conversion disorder, also
noting its prevalence, causes, and treatment.
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a. Historically, it was one of the disorders grouped under the term hysteria.
2. Patients have symptoms or deficits affecting the senses or motor behavior that
strongly suggest a medical or neurological condition.
1. There are four categories of symptoms: sensory, motor, seizures, and mixed
presentation of the first three categories.
a. Deficits are most common in the visual system (especially blindness and
tunnel vision), the auditory system (especially deafness), and in sensitivity to
feeling (especially the anesthesias).
i. In anesthesias, the person loses feeling in a part of the body. One of the
most common is glove anesthesia, where the person cannot feel anything
on the hand in the area where gloves are worn, although the loss of
sensation usually makes no anatomical sense.
ii. With conversion blindness, the person reports being unable to see.
However, it is not uncommon for the person to be able to navigate around
a room without bumping into furniture or other objects.
iii. With conversion deafness, the person reports not being able to hear and
yet orients appropriately upon “hearing” his or her own name.
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4. Seizures
a. These resemble epileptic seizures, but they are not true seizures. For example,
patients show no EEG abnormalities and no confusion or memory loss
afterwards.
2. The criteria used for distinguishing between conversion disorders and true
neurological disturbances include:
3. The prevalence in the general population is unknown, but even the highest
estimates are around only 0.005 percent. Decreased prevalence may be closely
related to our growing sophistication about medical and psychological disorders.
5. It generally has a rapid onset after a significant stressor, and often resolves within
two weeks if the stressor is removed.
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2. Freud used the term conversion hysteria for these disorders because he believed
that the symptoms were an expression of repressed sexual energy—that is, the
unconscious conflict that a person felt about his or her repressed sexual desires.
b. Freud also thought that the reduction in anxiety and intrapsychic conflict was
the primary gain that maintained the condition; but he noted that patients
often had many sources of secondary gain as well, such as receiving
sympathy and attention from loved ones.
3. The greater the negative impact of preceding life events, the greater the severity
of the conversion disorder symptoms.
3. Some studies have used hypnosis combined with other problem-solving therapies,
and it has been suggested that hypnosis, or adding hypnosis to other therapeutic
techniques, can be useful.
V. FACTITIOUS DISORDER
Learning Objective 8.5: Explain the difference between factitious disorder and
malingering.
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a. The person’s goal is to obtain and maintain the benefits that playing the “sick
role” may provide, including the attention and concern of family and medical
personnel.
b. These disorders have a history of being stigmatized, and many doctors do not
take them very seriously.
3. Patients may surreptitiously alter their own physiology in order to simulate real
illnesses.
4. The prevalence is not well established, but it is probably in the region of 0.5 to 0.8
percent of patients in general hospital settings.
2. Those engaged in malingering and those who have factitious disorder are
consciously perpetrating frauds by faking the symptoms of diseases or disabilities,
and this is often reflected in their demeanor.
3. Individuals with conversion disorders (and other somatic symptom disorders) are
not consciously producing their symptoms; they feel themselves to be “victims of
their symptoms” and are very willing to discuss them. They are usually
unperturbed when inconsistencies in their behavior are pointed out, whereas
individuals feigning symptoms are inclined to be defensive, evasive, and
suspicious when asked about them.
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2. Included here are some dramatic clinical presentations: people who cannot recall
who they are or where they may have come from, and people who have two or
more distinct identities or personality states that alternately take control of the
individual’s behavior.
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6. The mean age of onset is around 16, with a minority developing the disorder after
age 25.
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4. Dissociative fugue is a defense by actual flight: The person is not only amnesic
for some or all aspects of their past but they also depart from home surroundings.
b. Individuals are unaware of the memory loss for prior stages of their life.
b. Individuals show reduced activation in their right frontal and temporal brain
areas relative to normal controls during the same kinds of tasks.
d. Some memory deficits in dissociative amnesia and fugue have been compared
to related deficits in explicit perception that occur in conversion disorders.
Learning Objective 8.9: Describe the clinical features of dissociative identity disorder
and explain why this disorder is so controversial.
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3. In the prototypical case, there are different personalities that emerge and are
apparent to an outside observer.
4. The one identity that is most frequently encountered and who carries the person’s
real name is known as the host identity.
5. Alter identities represent fragments of a single person; some alters may have
more knowledge than others.
a. Alter identities take control at different points in time, and switches typically
occur very quickly, although gradual switches can also occur.
7. It usually starts in childhood, although most patients are in their teens, 20s, or 30s
at the time of diagnosis.
8. Approximately three to nine times as many females as males are diagnosed with
the disorder. Females also tend to have more alters than males.
9. The number of alter identities varies tremendously and has increased over time.
Recent estimates are that about 50 percent now show over 10 identities, with
some respondents claiming as many as 100.
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ii. This theory is consistent with evidence of no clear DID symptoms prior to
entering therapy and the fact that the number of alters increases as therapy
progresses.
iii. The theory is also consistent with increased DID as therapists became
more aware of the condition.
b. It is difficult to determine which memories of abuse are real and which are
false.
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Abnormal Psychology 18e, Hooley/Butcher
b. It may be that people with DID who have experienced childhood abuse are
more likely than those who did not experience childhood abuse to seek
treatment.
B. Current Perspectives
2. There are now around 20 studies that have compared the behavior of people
diagnosed with DID with the behavior of people who are asked to simulate DID.
The findings suggest more support for the sociocognitive model than for the
trauma model.
4. Theorists on both sides acknowledge that multiple different causal pathways are
likely to be involved.
a. The sociocognitive model has evolved into the diathesis-stress model, where
some people are more predisposed than others to develop DID when exposed
to sociocultural influences such as media portrayal, therapist cuing, and the
like.
Learning Objective 8.10: Describe the cultural factors, treatments, and outcomes in
dissociative disorders.
2. Many related phenomena, such as spirit possession and dissociative trances, occur
frequently in many different parts of the world, where the local cultures sanction
them.
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Abnormal Psychology 18e, Hooley/Butcher
3. The inclusion of pathological possession in the diagnostic criteria for DID has
made the diagnoses more applicable to people from a wide range of cultural
backgrounds.
4. Treatment outcome data for large groups of patients with DID are seldom
reported, and control groups are lacking.
5. For people diagnosed with DID, most current therapeutic approaches are based on
the assumption of trauma theory that the disorder was caused by abuse.
a. Most therapists set integration of the previously separate alters, together with
their collective merging into the host personality, as the ultimate goal of
treatment.
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Abnormal Psychology 18e, Hooley/Butcher
Key Terms
alter identities hysteria
conversion disorder illness anxiety disorder
depersonalization implicit memory
depersonalization/derealization disorder implicit perception
derealization malingering
dissociation primary gain
dissociative amnesia secondary gain
dissociative disorder sociocognitive theory (of DID)
dissociative fugue soma
dissociative identity disorder (DID) somatic symptom disorder
factitious disorder somatoform disorders
factitious disorder imposed on another trauma theory
host identity
LECTURE SUGGESTION
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Abnormal Psychology 18e, Hooley/Butcher
Learning Objective 8.2: Explain the causes of and treatments for somatic symptom
disorder.
LECTURE SUGGESTION
ACTIVITY
Learning Objective 8.3: Identify the key difference between illness anxiety disorder and
somatic symptom disorder.
LECTURE SUGGESTION
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Abnormal Psychology 18e, Hooley/Butcher
Learning Objective 8.4: Summarize the clinical features of conversion disorder, also noting
its prevalence, causes, and treatment.
LECTURE SUGGESTION
ACTIVITY
Learning Objective 8.5: Explain the difference between factitious disorder and
malingering.
LECTURE SUGGESTION
ACTIVITY
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Abnormal Psychology 18e, Hooley/Butcher
LECTURE SUGGESTION
ACTIVITY
Dissociative Amnesia
Ask students to do a search for online news articles on cases of individuals with dissociative
amnesia and bring them to class. Although many will have duplicates, you should be able to get
possibly ten cases. Ask students what they think about these cases. Do they think they are real?
LECTURE SUGGESTION
LECTURE SUGGESTION
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Abnormal Psychology 18e, Hooley/Butcher
ACTIVITIES
Cultivating Dissociation
Many people can report dissociative experiences, such as walking into another room but
forgetting why, dialing the phone number of one friend when intending to call another, “reading”
a paragraph only to realize the words weren’t processed, reaching for the stick shift in an
automatic transmission car, being able to dial a phone number without being able to state it, and
so on. Ask students to describe their own dissociative experiences. Then talk about the
dissociative continuum and how dissociative disorders are at the extreme end of that continuum.
Some artists are described as being capable of cultivating dissociative experiences for artistic
purposes. Students can try this through automatic writing, in which they try to let the words
come automatically rather than deliberately, or through drawing, letting their hands move with
minimal guidance from their conscious mind. Students who succeed in cultivating dissociation
will gain a greater appreciation for its potential use as a way to cope with severe trauma,
particularly for young children.
Is Repression Real?
Elizabeth Loftus is one of the key researchers in the area of false memory creation. Her now
influential Lost at the Mall studies has changed the way the field views memory systems and has
shaped the way the legal world views eyewitness testimony. Have students read the following
article: Loftus, E. (1997). Creating False Memories. Scientific American, vol. 277(3), 70–75.
Have students read the article and then find a criminal court case involving false memories (for
example the McMartin trial). Then have them write two paragraphs on the Loftus article, one
paragraph describing the case they found and another applying Loftus’s work to the criminal
case. If your university has a law school and you get students who are prelaw as well as psych
majors, you may want to modify the assignment and have them read the following article instead
of the Loftus article. Piper, A., Lillevick, L., Kritzer, R (2008). What's wrong with believing in
repression?: A review for legal professionals. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, vol. 14(3),
223–242.
Learning Objective 8.9: Describe the clinical features of dissociative identity disorder and
explain why this disorder is so controversial.
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
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Abnormal Psychology 18e, Hooley/Butcher
unusual for a student to ask “Well, then, what IS schizophrenia?” revealing the depth of the
confusion on this point. Schizophrenia will be described in detail later in the course, but for now
it is reasonable to offer that the “split” in schizophrenia is between reality, perceptions, emotions,
ideas, and behaviors—not between separate personalities. You might also tell students that if
they would like to show off their erudition, they should henceforth describe contradictory actions
of single entities as “dissociative identity disordered” not “schizophrenic”!
Learning Objective 8.10: Describe the cultural factors, treatments, and outcomes in
dissociative disorders.
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
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Solution Manual for Abnormal Psychology, 18th Edition, Jill M Hooley, Matthew Nock, James Bu
Clive Waring
You may want to discuss the case of Clive Waring. If you Google the name, you can usually find
the video clips on YouTube. Clive lost his hippocampus and suffered other traumatic brain injury
in the mid-1980s after a severe case of encephalitis. Although he lost his episodic memories and
suffers from both anterograde and retrograde amnesia, he still retains much semantic knowledge
about his life. His memory is about two minutes long and students often find it fascinating that
this exists not just in movies like “50 First Dates.” It is good to point out that there are well-
documented cases of these types of severe memory deficits.
ACTIVITY
Revel Videos
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