Psychological Disorders

• Psychological..Disorders is a  persistent, dysfunctional pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior that causes significant distress and is considered abnormal within a person’s culture
• • Causes of psychological disorders are influenced by biological and environmental factors
• Abnormal..Psychology refers to the application of psychological science to understanding and treating mental disorders
• Six disorders measured by the canadian mental health survey

  1. Alcohol Abuse or dependence
  2. Cannabis Abuse or dependence
  3. Other drug Abuse or dependence
  4. Generalized..Anxiety..Disorder
  5. Bipolar..Disorder
  6. Major..Depressive..Episode
• Bio-Psycho-Social..Model..of..illness - psychological disorders have both biological (nature) as well as environmental (nurture) influences
• Biological..Influences - genetic makeup of the individual. Brain structure and neurotransmitters
• Psychological..Influences - responses to stress. Patterns of negative thinking.
• Social-cultural..Influences - cultural expectations. Definitions of normality and disorder. Stigma and prejudice, homelessness and abuse
• Psychological disorders might  frequently occur together
• Anxiety is the nervousness or agitation that we sometimes experience, often about something that is going to happen.
• Generalized..Anxiety..Disorder (GAD) - a psychological disorder diagnosed in situations in which a person has been excessively worrying about for at least 6 months
• Panic..Disorder is characterized by sudden attacks of anxiety and terror that have led to significant behavioral changes in the person’s life
• Phobia is a specific fear of a certain object, situation or activity.
• The fear experience can range from a sense of unease to a full-blown panic attack. Phobias are one of the most..common anxiety disorders
• Most common phobias:

  • Acrophobia - fear of heights
  • Agrophobia - fear of situations in which difficult to escape
  • Arachnophobia - fear of spiders
  • Astraphobia - fear of thunder and lightning
  • Claustrophobia - fear of closed-in space
  • Cynophobia - fear of dogs
  • Mysophobia - fear of germs
  • Ophidiophobia - fear of snakes
  • Pteromerhanophobia - fear of flying
  • Social Phobia - fear of social situations
  • Trypanophobia - fear of injections
  • Zoophobia - fear of small animals
• Obsessive-Compulsive..Disorder (OCD) is diagnosed when an individual continuously experience distressing thoughts, and engages in obsessions (repetitive thought) or compulsions (repetitive behaviors) in an attempt to calm these thoughts
• Post-Traumatic..Stress..Disorder (PTSD) - people who have survived a terrible ordeal, such as combat, torture, sexual assault, imprisonment, abuse, natural disasters, or the death of someone close to them may develop.
• Dissociative..Disorder is a condition that involves disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, and identity. The dissociation is used as a defense against the trauma
• Dissociative..Amnesia is a psychological disorder that involves extensive but selective memory loss, but in which there is no psychological explanation for the forgetting
• Dissociative..Fugue is a psychological disorder in which an individual loses complete memory of his or her identity and may even assume a new one often far from home
• Dissociative..Identity..Disorder is a psychological disorder in which two or more distinct and individual personalities exist in the same person, and there is an extreme memory disruption regarding personal information about the other personalities
• People who suffer from mood disorders tend to experience more intense and particularly more intense negative moods
• Dysthymia is characterized by mild, but chronic, depressive symptoms that last for at least 2 years
• Major..Depressive..Disorder - characterized by an all encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities
• Bipolar..Disorder - characterized by mood swings from overly high to sad and hopeless and back again, with periods of near normal mood in between
• Schizophrenia is a serious psychological disorder marked by delusions, hallucinations, loss of contact with reality, inappropriate affect, disorganized speech, social withdrawal, and deterioration of adaptive behavior
• (Schizophrenia)

  Positive..Symptoms - presence of abnormal behaviors or experiences that are not observed in normal people

  1. Hallucinations
  2. Delusions
  3. Disorganized speech and thoughts
• (Schizophrenia)

  Negative..Symptoms - refer to loss or deterioration of thoughts and behaviors that are typical of normal functioning 

  1. Anhedonia 
  2. Avolition
  3. Blunted Affect
• (Schizophrenia)

  Cognitive..Symptoms - changes in cognitive processes that accompany schizophrenia 

  1. Memory..Issues
  2. Inability to process social cues
  3. Impaired sensory perception
• Psychosis is a psychological condition characterized by a loss of contact with reality
• Types of Schizophrenia

  • Hebephrenic Schizophrenia (Disorganized Schizophrenia)
  • Catatonic Schizophrenia
  • Paranoid Schizophrenia
  • Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
  • Residual Schizophrenia
• Hebephrenic Schizophrenia (Disorganized Schizophrenia) - characterized by disorganized behaviors and nonsensical speech in the absence of delusions and hallucinations.
• Catatonic Schizophrenia - rarest type of Schizophrenia, characterized by excitement or decreased movement (catatonic stupor).
• Paranoid Schizophrenia - characterized by frequent visual and auditory hallucinations, preoccupations with one or more delusions, disorganized speech, trouble concentrating, and significant behavioral impairment.
• Undifferentiated Schizophrenia - used to describe those with symptoms fit into more than one subtype of Schizophrenia.
• Residual Schizophrenia - person had previously been diagnosed and had no longer experienced prominent symptoms, yet still exhibited symptoms including flattened affect, psychomotor difficulties, and distributed speech.
• Biological Factors Influencing Schizophrenia

  • Genetics
  • Difference in Brain..Structure
  • Excess..Secretion of Hormones
• Social Factors Influencing Schizophrenia

  • Poverty
  • Stress
  • Highly..Expressing..Emotions
• Personality...Disorders is a disorder characterized by inflexible patterns of thinking, feeling or relating to others that cause problems in personal, social, and work situations which tend to emerge during late childhood or adolescence and usually continue throughout adulthood
• Descriptions of the Personality Disorders:

  • Odd/Eccentric
  • Dramatic/Erratic
  • Anxious/Inhibited