Psychological disorders
Abnormal/Normal: abnormal behaviour = personally distressing, personally dyfunctional and/or so culturally deviant that other people judge it to be inappropriate or maladaptive
distress
dysfunction
deviance
DSM-5: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric Association
ICD: International Classification of Diseases and Helath-related Problems by WHO
Historic perspectives on abnormal behaviour
1900s Sigmund Freund: psychoanalysis
Nowadays
Vulnerability-stress model/diathesis-stress: each of us has some degree of vulnerability (ranging from very low to very high) for developing a → psychological disorder, given sufficient stress
evil spirits in ancient Chinese, Egyptian and Hebrews
demonological model in medieval Europe
mental illness just like physical diseases: Hippocrates
Vulnerability or predisposition due to...
biological factors (e.g. genotype, neurotransmitter system, highly sensitive autonomic nervous system, hormonal factor)
personality facotors (e.g. low selfesteem, extreme pessimism)
environmental or social factors (e.g. poverty, severe trauma, loss earlier in life)
cultural factors (e.g. overemphasis on ahievement and competitiveness in contemporary Western societies)
+ stressor like recent or current event that requires a person to cope
Major psychological disorders
Anxiety and related disorders
Anxiety: natural response to perceived threat with 4 components...
subjective-emotional component: feelings of fear and apprehension
cognitive component: worrisome thiughts and a sense of inability to cope
physiological responses: increased heart rate and blood pressure, muscle tension, rapid breathing, nausea or dry mouth
behavioural response: avoidance of certain situations, impaired performance on other tasks
... but in anxiety and related disorders: the frequency & intensity of anxiety responses are out of proportion to the situations that trigger them
Phobic disorders: specific phobias, social phobia (social anxiety disorder) and agoraphobia
Phobia = strong & irrational fears of certain objects or situations
Agoraphobia = fear of situations using public transport, being in crowd, outside home; difficulty escaping
Social phobia = fear of social situations in which they be negatively evaluated by others
specific phobias (dogs, spiders, airplanes, lifts, blood, injections, heights)
Panic disorder = symptoms occur suddenly an unpredictable, much more intense compared to GAD, not tied to external stimuli, followed by persistent intense worry and fear about experiencing further panic attacks, and/or behavioural changes aimed at reducing the likelihood of their occurence
Generalised Anxiety disorder: chronic tension ,state of diffuse or free floating and worry; lasts for at least 6 months
Obsessive-compulsive disorder / OCD = compelled to act in rigid, repetitive way to reduce their anxiety or distress
Post-traumatic stress disorder/ OCD = severe disorder that can occur in people who have been exposed to traumatic life events
listed together with hoarding disorder, hair pulling, skin picking and body dysmorphic disorder
2 Components:
Obsession: repetitive & unwelcome thoughts, images or impulses that invade consciousness, are often abhorrent to the person and are very difficult to dismiss or control
Compulsions repetitive behaviours, that can be resisted only with great difficulty; overt or covert, strengthened through negative reinforcement allowing to avoid anxiety
grouped together with trauma & other trauma and stess-related disorders (e.g. adjustment disorder, reactive attachment disorder
4 major symptome clusters
Intrusion symütomes: like intrusive images, memories and dreams, that cuase the person to re-experience the traumatic event as if it were recurring again and again
persistent avoidance of any reminders of the traumatic event
negative changes in cognitin and mood, onvolving e.g. fear, helplessness, self-blame, anger or hopelessness
Changes in arousal and reactivity can manifest in sleep disturbances, poor concentration, hypervigilanc, exaggerated startle responses, and reckless or impulsive behaviour
traumas caused by human actions (like war, rape, torture) are 5 to 10x more likely to precipitate PTSD compared to natural disasters
may increase vulnerability to the subsequent development of other disorders
post-trauma interventions aimed at preventing the development of PTSD important
Causal factors in anciety and related disorders
Biological factors (genetic factors to some extend, GABA/serotonin low, also sex linked predispositon: female get it more often
psychological factors
Psychodynamic theories
the role of learning
cognitive factors
sociocultural factors
culture-bound disorders
Somatic symptom and dissociative disorders = physical complaints or disabilities that suggest a medical problem but which do not always have a known biological cause and are not produced voluntarily by the person; e.g. glove aneasthesia
dissociative disorders: involve a breakdown of normal personality integration, resulting in significant alterations in memory or identity
dissociative amnesia: resoinse to a stressful event with extensive memory loss
dissociative fugue: loss of all ense of personal indentity, person gives up her or his customaty life, wanders to a new faraway location and establishes a new identity
dissociative identity (multiple personality) disorder
trauma-dissociation theory
Depressive and bipolar disorders
comorbidity invovling anciety and mood disorders
Depression
major depression vs. persistent depressive disorder
symptoms
negative mood state
cognitive symptoms
motivational symptoms
somatic symptoms
Bipolar disorder
bipolar I disorder: periods of mania ↔ depressive episodes
bipolar II disorder: hypomanic ↔ depressive episodes
Causal factors
Biological factors
genetic: behavioural inhibition system (neurocism) & behavioural activation system (extraversion)
neurochemical factors: norepinephrin, dopamin, erotonin low
psychological factors
personality-based vulnerability
cognitive processes
early catastrophic lsses increas vulnerability to later dpressive disorders
depressive cognitive triad
negative thoughts concerning
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