Disorders + Clinical Treatments

• maladaptation = biological traits or behavior traits that are detrimental, counterproductive, or interfere with daily functioning
• insight therapy = looking into the deep root cause of the problem to resolve a problem
• psychoanalysis

  • freud
  • repression and rationalization
  • reveal the contents of the unconscious
  • free association
  • verbalizing without censorship and saying whatever comes to mind
  • takes time
  • transference = patient displacing their thoughts and feelings onto the therapist
  • countertransference = therapist pushing their feelings onto the patient
• Humanistic Therapy:

  • carl rogers
  • "client"
  • focuses on present reality (not the past)
  • conscious
  • person-centered therapy
  • individuals must be understood purely
  • realideal seld
  • unconditional positive regard
  • genuine ... authenticity
  • empathic understanding
• Gestalt Therapy:

  • self-awareness + self-acceptance = keys to personal growth
  • looking at the whole person
• Behavioral Therapy:

  • short term
  • reinforcement / shaping to change the frequency of voluntary behavior
  • treats symptoms
  • disorders are learned
  • action based
  • old learning created the problem and new learning can correct it
  • clear-cut techniques to evaluate effectiveness
• counterconditioning = replacing a response to a stimulus with a different response to condition the patient against positive expectation of the stimulus
• aversion therapy = repeatedly pairing the aversive stimulus with the maladaptive behavior
• systematic desensitization = gradually exposing an individual to a hierarchy of levels of exposure
• flooding = relies on immersion, immediate encounter with problematic stimulus
• implosion = client imagining an encounter with the problematic stimulus rather than having an actually physical encounter
• behavioral contracting = client and therapist collaborate on the design of an agreement upon both agreeing to abide wherein the client agrees not to display certain behavior
• modeling:

  • Bandura's social learning theory
  • clients observe an individual comporting themselves in a particular way, they they're rewarded
  • a person with specific fears or who needs to develop social skills can learn to do so by watching someone else
  • participant modeling = the model demonstrates the desired behavior in a gradual process, then the client is encouraged to imitate the model
• rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT) :

  • Albert Ellis
  • during life's challenges, ppl tell themselves thoughts that express maladaptive thoughts
  • directly confronts maladaptive thoughts
• cognitive therapy:

  • Aaron Beck
  • maladaptive schemas ~ role they play in forming the basis for cognitive distortion in ppls thinking
  • ppl pay attention to negative stimuli (biased attention) and have a dominant perception of that negative stimuli (biased processing)... tendancy to recall primarily negative experiences (biased memory) and express negative internal representations towards themselves (dysfunctional attitudes / negative schemas)
  • cognitive triad = negative sense of self, world, and future
• Lobotomy = surgeon severs the nerve fibers running between the frontal lobe and the thalamus
• ECT: passing electrical current through brain, producing brief seizure...carried out with anesthesia (NOT DRUGS) for depression and catatonia
• EMDR = eye movement desentizitation and reprocessing

  • 84-90% lose PTSD
  • 3 x 90 min sessions
• abnormal psychology = the study of individuals with psychological disorders
• weird behaviors...

  1. unusual
  2. maladaptive
  3. abnormal
  4. perceptual / cognitive irregularity
• DSM = classification of behavioral / mental disorders (symptoms + definitions but NOT treatments)
• ICD = gives in-depth explanation of causes of disorders
• rule out facitious disorder = when a patient falsifies medical symptoms bc they feel they need to be sick/injured
• malingering = someone fakes illness for a concrete gain (faking the flu to get out of work)
• neurodevelopmental disorders = develops early in life, includes trauma, genetic disorders, + brain damage

  • "global" (broadscale) impact or specific impairments
• intellectual disability = delayed development in an individual's overall mental capacity ~ judgment, academic learning, problem-solving, reasoning, etc.
• autism spectrum disorder (ASD) = neurodevelopmental disorder affecting individuals in childhood

  • verbal and nonverbal
  • 80% more likely in identical twins
  • difficulty perceiving social cues + diminished capability engaging with others
  • repetitive behaviors
  • restricitive outlook
  • don't like change
  • vaccines don't cause autism
  • is caused by immune-meditated disease bc of ingestion of wheat gliadin
• schizophrenia:

  • altered perception of reality / inability to distinguish reality from fiction
  • PSYCHOSIS!
  • paranoia ~ mistrust + belief in persecution
  • may exhibit cataonia = poorly managed muscle movement
  • hallucinations = perceptin that has no basis in reality (they think they're sensing it)
  • delusions = beliefs that are not based in reality (tell themselves something to the point that they belive it)
  • disorganized speech and thought = moving abruptly from topic to topic in dusjointed fashion while producing nonsensical speech "word salad" that has little relevance
• positive symptom = the prescence of a behavior that's not normal (like hallucinations and delusions)
• negative symptoms = absence of a regular behavior (like flat affect)

  • not having emotional regard or expressing emotions
• depressive disorders:

  • mood disorder = long-term feeling of doom, isolated/empty and patterns of thinking that disrupt daily life
  • CBT + meds
  • SSRI, zoloft, ect.
  • manage levels of serotonin (keeps it in the synapse for longer which makes it more effective)
  • MDD = most severe, have suicidal ideation + have low levels of serotonin / metabolites
  • persistent depressive disorder = "chronic depression" of 2yr+
  • anxiety + suicidal idealation
• Anxiety disorders


  • Too much sympathetic nervous system activation (stress)
  • Elevated heart rate
  • Elevated respiratory rate
  • Gastrointestinal symptoms
  • Feeling overwhelmed
  • Dizziness
  • Moodiness (fear/anger)
  • General uncomfortable feeling
• Treatments for anxiety disorders


  • Behavioral modification
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
  • Psychotherapy
  • Pharmacological treatment using anxiolytics
• Traditional treatments for anxiety


  • Martial arts
  • Yoga
  • Breathing
  • Attitude adjustment
• Panic disorder


  Recurring panic attacks (only minutes at a time), with sympathetic nervous system activation, sweating, increased heart rate, etc.
• • OCD = marked by persistent and automatic thoughts with repetitive behaviors that are intrusive
  • obsessions = unwanted thoughts/desires that beset an individual
  • compulsions = repetitive behaviors that na individual feels driven to perform
  • body dysmorphic disorder = obsessive thoughts about bodily defects
  • hoarding disorder =. the need to save possesions
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)


  Perpetual state of sympathetic nervous system arousal with impending sense of doom
• Phobias


  Irrational and unwanted fears of objects or scenarios
• Social/Anxiety Phobia


  Overwhelming stress of social situations, avoidance of eye contact and routine interactions
• Bipolar disorder


  Alternating between depression and mania