Psychological Disorders

1. Dissociative disorders

2. Mood disorders

3. Schizophrenia

4. Anxiety Disorders

DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS

--Amnesia

--Fugue

--Multiple Personality Disorder (i.e., dissociative identity disorder)

1. Emerges in childhood before 10 yrs.

2. Traumatic sexual abuse

3. Not all with childhood trauma develop MPD

4. Real vs. Fake cases

5. Treatment

MOOD DISORDERS

3 kinds of mood disorders

1. Major depression

2. Dysthymia

3. Manic-depressive or Bipolar disorder

MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER

SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION:

Mood – sadness, anxiety, lack of positive affect

Behavioral – lack of energy, poor appetite, too much or too little sleep

Psychological – feelings of hopelessness, meaninglessness, & worthlessness

Aaron Beck – negative beliefs about the self, the world, and the future

CHARACTERISTICS OF DEPRESSION:

Length – 6-12 weeks

Relapse rate – 50% in 2 yrs.

Gender – 2/3 of reported cases are women

Endogenous vs. Exogenous

EXPLANATIONS OF DEPRESSION:

Biological:

1. Role of neurotransmitters

2. Twin studies

Psychological:

Seligman & Abramson’s learned helplessness/hopelessness model

Beck’s Cognitive Theory

overgeneralization

selective abstraction

inexact labeling

Pyszczynski & Greenberg’s self-regulatory perseveration theory

Precipitating circumstances

1. Fragile, narrow basis of SE (e.g., relationship)

2. Stressful event (e.g., loss)

3. Extreme state of self-focus

Actual state-----------------------> Desired state

If actual = desired, then leave SF state

If actual NOT= desired, then experience negative affect. Negative affect motivates action (flee SF or get lost person back). If can’t do this then repeat the comparison process & stay SF.

HOW DOES THE PERSON GET OUT OF SELF-FOCUSED STATE?

1. Existential consideration of one’s situation.

2. Slow weaning and Disengagement from previous source of SE to a new source.

MANIC DEPRESSION (BIPOLAR DISORDER)

e.g., hyperactive, wildly happy, overly confident, high risk taking, impulsive, irritable, paranoid, shopping sprees

Highly creative people: Artists, playwrights, poets e.g., Abraham Lincoln & Vincent Van Gogh

1% of population

both males & females

Before 1970’s 20% committed suicide

Lithium & prozac are the treatment

Concordance rates w/Twins

Identical = 79%

Fraternal= 24%

SCHIZOPHRENIA

GENERAL INFO:

1% of population

onset is usually late adolescence or early adulthood

30% never improve

GENERAL SYMPTOMS

1. Disorganized thinking (e.g., word salads & overinclusions)

“I wish you a happy, joyful, healthy, blessed, and fruitful year and many good wine-years to come as well as a healthy and good apple year, and sauerkraut, and cabbage and squash and seed year”

2. No Selective attention

3. Distorted perceptions & hallucinations

4. Emotional disturbances

e.g., flat affect/extremely intense, inappropriate affect

5. Loss of drive or motivation

6. Social withdrawal

COURSE OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

Acute vs. Insidious

1. Prodromal Phase

2. Active Phase

3. Residual Phase

THREE TYPES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

1. Paranoid Schizophrenia

2. Catatonic Schizophrenia

3. Disorganized (Hebephrenic) Schizophrenia

BRAIN STRUCTURE OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

--Excessive amount of dopamine receptors

--Enlarged ventricles

--Less frontal lobe activity

CAUSES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

1. Prenatal trauma & viral infections

Twin studies

2. Environmental stressors + genetic component

TREATMENT

Drug therapy--phenothiazines

(side effect: tardive dyskinesia)

DEVELOPED VS. UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES

THE PROBLEM WITH LABELING

(e.g., DSM IV—medical model)

ROSENHAN (1973)

“On Being Sane in Insane Places”

-- 1 symptom – heard voice: “an empty hollow thud”

-- all diagnosed as schizophrenic

-- it took between 7-52 days to get released (M = 19 days)

-- upon released were diagnosed as schizophrenic in remission

-- In 3 of the hospitals 40% of the patients could tell that the researchers were not patients, whereas the staff did not.

-- average contact with a psychiatrist was 7 minutes per day

-- One nurse undid her blouse and adjusted her bra in front of the patients

-- the pseudo-patients were given a total of 2,100 pills

-- if the pseudo patients tried to talk with the staff, they got no response 80% of the time

FOLLOW-UP STUDY

-- Told one hospital they were going to send 1 pseudo patient in over the next 3 months

20% of patients were classified as pseudo patients over the 3 months

IMPLICATION

LANGER & ABELSON (1974)