PSY 101      Psychological Disorders I: Abnormality, Diagnosis, Anxiety Disorders (Outline)

Psychological Disorders
(Abnormal or Clinical Psychology)

 Bellevue: Inside Out

• Connie (The "neuropsychiatrist" and "computer programmer")
• Jamie ("I'm manic-depressive, have HIV, am an alcoholic and a drug addict")
• Brian ("The medications don't work")

Consider the following questions about these three people:

What did you see/hear which was "abnormal"?

How did the people at the hospital treat them?

Abnormal Behavior: Are they Diseases?

DSM-IV-TR (2000) "Medical Model" Abnormal behavior    disease

Demonic Possession   Abnormal behavior    devil's work

Thomas Szasz, MD Deficient Problem Solving Abnormal behavior    socially unacceptable

Abnormal Behavior: What Does "Abnormal" Mean?

Psychology uses the term "abnormal" in at least three different ways:

1. Deviance

2. Maladaptive

3. Personal Distress

 

Psychodiagnosis: Classifying Disorders

• 1952 First DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) by the American Psychiatric Association.
  

• Latest: DSM-IV-TR, that is, the 4th Edition, Text Revision (2000)
  

Five Diagnosic "Axes" in the DSM (from DSM-III until today) Axis I. Clinical Syndromes Axis II. Personality Disorders or Mental Retardation Axis III. Medical Conditions Axis IV. Psychosocial & Environmental Problems Axis V. Global Assessment of Function (GAF) Scale

Anxiety Disorders

Central Issue in All Anxiety Disorders    Fear - Apprehension - Anxiety

Types

1. Generalized Anxiety Disorder

2. Phobic Disorder

Some Common Phobias

Animals = Zoophobia Closed spaces = Claustrophobia Crossing bridges = Gephyrophobia Death or dying = Thantaophobia Heights = Acrophobia Snakes = Ophidiophobia Spiders = Arachnophobia Storms = Brontophobia Number 13 = Triskaidecaphobia

3. Panic Disorder & Agoraphobia

4. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Etiology (= Causes)

1. Biological

2. Conditioning & Learning: Fears come from experiences in life

• Martin Seligman's Preparedness Theory

3. Cognitive Factors

• thinking style:
  • Mininterpreting nonthreatening situations as threatening
  • Overemphasizing threat
  • Selectively recalling threat information

4. Personality Factors

• High levels of neuroticism

5. Stress

 

This page was originally posted on 11/17/03 and last updated on 11/18/08