Psychological Disorders Overview: Anxiety, Dissociative, Personality, & Mood Disorders - P, Study notes of Psychology

Download Psychological Disorders Overview: Anxiety, Dissociative, Personality, & Mood Disorders - P and more Study notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Module 48: Introduction to Psychological Disorders Defining Psychological Disorders  Psychological disorders: patterns of thoughts, feeling, or behaviors that are deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional.  “deviant” behavior varies by context, culture, and time  Deviant behavior typically causes distress  Dysfunction is key to defining a disorder Thinking Critically about ADHD  Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a psychological disorder marked by the appearance by age 7 of one of more of three key symptoms:  Extreme inattention  Hyperactivity  Impulsivity Normal High Energy or Genuine Disorder?  Skeptics:  ADHD is diagnosed two to three times more often in boys than in girls  Rates depend on teacher referrals  Vs. Proponents:  Increased awareness of disorder today  Neuroimaging and genetic evidence Understanding Psychological Disorders  Reform against brutal treatments led by Phillipe Pinel (1745-1826)  Medical model: the concept that diseases, in this case psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital Understanding Psychological Disorders  Biopsychosocial approach: current approach of psychology which studies how biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors interact to produce specific psychological disorders Classifying Psychological Disorders  Diagnostic classification aims not only to describe a disorder but also to predict its future course, imply appropriate treatment, and stimulate research into its causes  DSM-IV-TR is a widely used classification system for psychological disorders Labeling Psychological Disorders  Some psychologists criticize the use of diagnostic labels  Biasing power of labels (Rosenhan study, 1973)  Stereotypes linger in media portrayals of psychological disorders  Labels can change reality à self-fulfilling prophecy Rates of Psychological Disorders  Mental health surveys in many countries provide varying estimates of rates of psychological disorders  Poverty is a predictor of mental illness  Among Americans, the three most common psychological disorders are phobias, alcohol dependency, and mood disorder Module 49: Anxiety Disorders Anxiety Disorders  Anxiety disorders: psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety  Five disorders that we will focus on:  generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)  panic disorder  phobias  DID: a rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and altering personalities  Formerly known as multiple personality disorder The Controversy about DID  Skeptics:  Is DID a genuine disorder or an extension of our normal capacity for personality shifts?  Most DID patients are highly hypnotizable  DID is highly localized in time and space  Supporters:  Distinct brain and body states associated with different personalities Personality Disorders  Personality disorders: disruptive, inflexible, and enduring behavior patterns that impair one’s social functioning Antisocial Personality Disorder  Antisocial personality disorder: a personality in which the person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscientious of wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members; may be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist Causes of Antisocial Personality Disorder  Biological influences  Genes  The brain  Study of “biosocial” factors Somatoform Disorders  Somatoform disorders: psychological disorders in which the symptoms take a somatic (bodily) form without apparent physical cause Somatoform Disorders  Conversion disorder: a rare somatoform disorder in which a person experiences very specific genuine physical symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found  Hypochondriasis: a somatoform disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease Module 51: Mood Disorders Mood Disorders  Mood disorders: psychological disorders characterized by emotional extremes  Two main types:  Major depressive disorder  Bipolar disorder Major Depressive Disorder  Major Depressive Disorder: a mood disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or a medical condition, two or more weeks of significantly depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities Bipolar Disorder  Bipolar Disorder: a mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania Characteristics of Depression  Many behavioral and cognitive changes accompany depression  Depression is widespread  Compared with men, women are nearly twice as vulnerable to major depression  Most major depressive episodes self-terminate  Stressful events related to work, marriage, and close relationships often precede depression  With each new generation, depression is striking earlier and affecting more people The Biological Perspective  Three main areas of interest:  Genetic predispositions  Sibling/twin studies  Brain activity  Frontal lobe/hippocampal activity  Biochemical imbalances  Neurotransmitter systems The Social-Cognitive Perspective  Self-defeating beliefs  Learned helplessness  Rumination  Negative explanatory style  Stable, global, and internal explanations (vs. temporary, specific, and external explanations) Cycle of depression Suicide  National differences  Racial differences  Gender differences  Age differences  Other group differences Module 52: Schizophrenia Schizophrenia  Schizophrenia: a group a sever disorders characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions and inappropriate emotions and actions  Interpretation: the analyst’s noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight  Transference: the patient’s transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships Psychodynamic Therapy  Psychodynamic therapy: therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition that views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and that seeks to enhance  Interpersonal psychotherapy: a brief (12-16 session) form of psychodynamic therapy Humanistic Therapy  Aim: to boost self-fulfillment by helping people grow in self-awareness and self-acceptance  Insight therapies: a variety of therapies which aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing the client’s awareness of underlying motives and defenses Methods of Humanistic Therapy  Client-centered therapy: developed by Carl Rogers; the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients’ growth  Active listening: empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies  Unconditional positive regard: a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Rogers believed to be conductive to developing self-awareness and self-acceptance Behavior Therapies  Behavior therapy: therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors  Counterconditioning: procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behavior  Exposure therapies  Aversive conditioning Counterconditioning  Exposure therapy: techniques that treats anxiety by exposing people (in imagination or actuality) to the things they fear and avoid  Systematic desensitization: associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli  Virtual reality exposure therapy: progressively exposes people to simulations of their greatest fears Counterconditioning  Aversive conditioning: associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior Operant Conditioning  Behavior modification: reinforced desired behavior and withhold reinforcement for undesired behavior  Token economy: procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange the tokens for various privileges Cognitive Therapies  Cognitive therapy: therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions Cognitive-Behavior Therapy  Cognitive-behavior therapy: a popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior) Group and Family Therapies  Group therapy  Family therapy: therapy that treats family as a system; views an individuals unwanted behavior as an influence by, or directed at, other family members  Self-help and support groups Module 54: Evaluating Psychotherapies Is Psychotherapy Effective?  Difficulty in figuring out how to assess effectiveness  Client’s perceptions  Clinicians’ perceptions  Outcome research Client’s Perceptions  Client testimonials affirm the effectiveness of psychotherapy  BUT…  People often enter therapy in crisis  Clients may need to believe the therapy was worth the effort  Clients generally speak kindly of their therapists Clinicians’ Perceptions  Most therapists, like most clients, testify to therapy’s success, regardless of the treatment  If a client seeks another clinician, the former therapist is more likely to argue that the client has developed another psychological problem  Clinicians are likely to testify to the efficacy of their therapy regardless of the outcome of treatment Outcome Research  Meta-analysis: a procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies  Average therapy client ends up better off than about 80% of the untreated individuals  Those not undergoing therapy often improve, but those undergoing therapy are more likely to improve  Placebo effect  Regression toward the mean: the tendency for extreme or unusual scores to fall back (regress) toward their average Relative Effectiveness of Therapies