Psychology: Abnormal Psychology Edited by Ali Hameed Khan

 Overview
A. Abnormal Psychology
a. The study of people who suffer from psychological disorders
 Defining Abnormality
A. Common Characteristics
a. Harmful/disturbing to the individual
b. Disturbing to others
c. Not shared by many members of the population
d. Does not make sense to the average person
B. Insanity
a. A legal term
1. purpose
i. to differentiate between people who can be held responsible for their crimes
(the sane) and those with psychological disorders (the insane)
C. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
a. Provides a way for psychologists to diagnose patients
b. Contains symptoms of all psychological disorders
c. Doesn’t contain causes because different perspectives disagree
1. most psychologists are eclectic
i. accept/use ideas from many perspectives
 Categories of Disorders
A. Intern’s Syndrome
a. The tendency to see in oneself the characteristics of disorders about which one is learning
b. Not a psychological disorder
B. Anxiety Disorders
a. Phobias
1. contact with feared object/situation results in anxiety
2. specific phobia
i. an intense fear of an unwanted situation
ii. ex. agoraphobia- open spaces
iii. arachnophobia- spiders
iv. social phobia- public embarrassment
b. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
1. constant, low level anxiety
c. Panic disorder
1. acute episodes of intense anxiety without any apparent provocation
2. increase in frequency
3. additional anxiety due to anticipating the anxiety attacks
d. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
1. persistent, unwanted thoughts cause you to feel the need to engage in a particular
action
e. Post-traumatic stress disorder
1. flashbacks/nightmares following your involvement in or observation of an extremely
troubling event
f. Theoretical causes
1. psychoanalytic
i. unresolved, unconscious conflicts between the id, ego, and superego
2. behaviorist
i. conditioning
ii. cognitive learning
3. cognitive
i. dysfunctional ways of thinking
C. Somatoform Disorders
a. A person manifests a psychological problem through a physiological problem
b. Hypochondriasis
1. frequent physical complaints for which doctors can’t locate the cause
2. may believe that minor problems are indicative of severe
physical illness
c. Conversion
1. severe physical issue with no biological reason
i. paralysis
Psychology: Abnormal Psychology Edited by Ali Hameed Khan

ii. blindness
D. Dissociative Disorders
a. Involve a disruption in conscious processes
b. Psychogenic amnesia
1. can’t remember things
2. no biological basis can be identified
3. fugue
i. find themselves in an unfamiliar environment
c. Organic amnesia
1. biologically induced
d. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
1. formerly called multiple personality disorder
2. several distinct personalities
3. results from childhood trauma
e. Theoretical causes
1. psychoanalytic
i. traumatic events have been so repressed that a split in consciousness results
E. Mood or Affective Disorders
a. Extreme/inappropriate emotions
b. Major depression
1. most common
2. symptoms
i. sad more than 2 weeks without clear reason
ii. change in sleep and appetite
iii. worthlessness
iv. lack of interest in enjoyed activities
3. Seasonal Affective Disorder
i. depression only at certain times of year
c. Bipolar disorder
1. manic episodes
i. high energy
ii. feel confident and powerful
iii. sense of well-being
2. depressed episodes
d. Theoretical causes
1. Aaron Beck
i. cognitive theorist
ii. unreasonably negative ideas people have about the cognitive triad (yourself,
your world, your future)
2. pessimistic attributional styles
i. attribution- an explanation of a cause
ii. internal, global, and stable attributions for bad events
3. learned helplessness
i. Martin Seligman- dog shock experiment
ii. when your prior experiences have caused you to view yourself as unable to
control controllable aspects of the future
4. biology
i. the disorders run in families
ii. depression- low serotonin or norepinephrine
iii. bipolar- more acetylcholine receptors
F. Schizophrenic Disorders
a. Schizophrenia
1. disordered, distorted thinking
2. delusions and hallucinations
i. delusion- belief that has no basis in reality
3. common delusions
i. persecution- paranoia
ii. grandeur- power and influence
4. hallucinations
i. perceptions in the absence of sensory stimulation
b. Disorganized schizophrenia
Psychology: Abnormal Psychology Edited by Ali Hameed Khan

1. make up neologisms
i. their own words
2. string together a series of nonsense words that rhyme (clang associations)
3. inappropriate affect
i. inappropriate emotions for the situation
4. flat affect
i. no emotional response
c. Paranoid schizophrenia
1. delusions of persecution
d. Catatonic schizophrenia
1. motionless in strange postures
i. waxy flexibility- they will allow their body to be moved into any new pose and
will hold it
2. move jerkily and quickly for no apparent reason
3. can alternate between them
e. Undifferentiated schizophrenia
1. distorted thinking, but no other symptoms
f. Symptoms
1. positive symptoms
i. excesses in behavior, thought, or mood
ii. ex: neologisms, hallucinations
2. negative symptoms
i. deficits
ii. ex. flat effect, catatonia
G. Schizophrenic Disorders: Theoretical Causes
a. Dopamine hypothesis
1. high levels of dopamine are associated with schizophrenia
2. if the drugs lower the level too much, tardive dyskinesia results
i. muscle tremors and stiffness
th
b. Abnormality on 5 chromosome
c. Enlarged brain ventricles
d. Brain asymmetry
e. Negative symptoms- genetic factors
f. Positive symptoms- too much dopamine
g. Double blinds
1. when a person is given contradictory messages
h. Diathesis-stress model
1. environmental stressors can provide the circumstances under which a biological
predisposition for illness can express itself
H. Personality Disorders
a. Less serious
b. Types
1. antisocial
i. don’t have regard for other’s feelings
ii. view the world as a hostile place
2. dependent
3. paranoid
4. narcissistic
5. histrionic
6. obsessive-compulsive
I. Other Disorders
a. Paraphilias (psychosexual disorders)
1. sexual attraction to that which is not usually seen as sexual
2. pedophilia, zoophilia, fetishism, masochism, sadism
3. voyeur
i. aroused by watching others engage in sexual behavior
b. Eating disorders
c. Addiction disorders
1. use of alcohol/drugs
2. substance use disorder
i. use of such substances regularly affecting your life negatively
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3. substance dependence
i. addiction
d. Developmental disorders
1. autism
i. seek less social and emotional contact
ii. slow to develop language skills
iii. seek less parental support when distressed
e. ADHD
1. attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
2. difficulty paying attention or sitting still
3. overdiagnosed because of typical boy behavior
 The Rosehan Study: The Influence of Labels
A. David Rosehan
a. 1978- he and associates sought admission to mental hospitals
1. claimed to hear voices
2. reported no other symptoms
3. once admitted, behaved as they usually did
4. their every behavior was interpreted as a sign of their schizophrenia
B. Issues Raised
a. Should patients carry their diagnosis for life?
b. Are disorders the product of a particular environment?
c. What level of care could undetected imposters receive?