Psychopathology

• What is a phobia?

  • Anxiety disorder
  • Extreme (+ often irrational) fear of specific objects/organisms, situations or concepts
• What are the emotional characteristics of phobias?

  • Primary feeling = anxiety
  • Extremely emotional responses -> disproportionate to phobic stimulus
  • Person usually knows their reaction is disproportionate but they feel fear regardless
• What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?

  • Irrational thinking + cognitive distortions
  • Fearing unrealistic scenarios resulting from coming into contact with phobic stimulus
  • e.g. "If I drink unfiltered tap water I could contract a prion disease"
  • Selective attention
  • Person becomes fixated on phobic stimulus -> unable to ignore it
• What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?

  • Panic
  • State of stress + increased anxiety
  • Freezing
  • Screaming/crying/shouting
  • Running away
  • Fainting
  • Avoidance
  • Taking extra steps to avoid stimulus, e.g. refusing all invitations to avoid socialising
  • Informing others of phobia to make everyone aware
• What is OCD?

  • Obsessive compulsive disorder
  • Anxiety disorder
  • Persistent intrusive thoughts + repetitive behaviour
  • Obsessions + compulsions
• What are the emotional characteristics of OCD?

  • Severe anxiety, fear + feeling significantly overwhelmed
  • Guilt (towards themselves + towards family/friends for neglecting them)
  • Disgust (towards themselves + outside world)
  • Depression
  • Feeling trapped by obsessive + compulsive thoughts
• What are the cognitive characteristics of OCD?

  • Obsessive thoughts (90% of people)
  • Use of coping mechanism
  • Identifying obsession when obsessive thoughts occur
  • Using grounding object to control fear
  • Awareness of anxiety's irrationality
  • Catastrophising
• What are the behavioural characteristics of OCD?

  • Compulsions = repetitive + time-consuming
  • Adhered to obsessively
  • Compulsions = anxiety-reducing
  • Avoidance
  • Tend to avoid situations that trigger obsessive thoughts
  • Can lead to becoming cut off from friends/family/outside world
• What is depression?

  • Mood disorder/affective disorder
  • Low mood, lack of motivation + no interest in previously enjoyed activities
• What are the emotional characteristics of depression?

  • Sadness + hopelessness
  • Consistently low mood
  • Anger
  • Angry outbursts + mood swings
  • Loss of interest
  • No interest in things they used to enjoy
  • Low self-esteem
  • Self-loathing -> likely to make sadness + hopelessness worse
• What are the cognitive characteristics of OCD?

  • Negative view of the world
  • 'Everything will go wrong' mindset
  • Irrational thoughts
  • Thoughts that are inaccurate to real life -> mirror negative mindset
  • Lack of concentration
  • Inability to focus
  • Indecisiveness
  • Unable to commit to one choice or another
  • Catastrophising
  • Small setbacks = tragedy
• What are the behavioural characteristics of depression?

  • Differed activity levels
  • Restlessness
  • Withdrawal from daily life
  • Affected sleep -> increase or decrease
  • Affected appetite -> increase of decrease
  • Aggression + self-harm
  • Lashing out at others
  • Cutting themselves + suicidal behaviours