PSYCHOLOGICAL

INTRODUCTION TO
DISORDERS
PSYCHOLOGY
 OUTLINE

• Abnormal Behavior (individual, society, mental

health professional)
• Common Models of Psychological disorders
(biological, psychoanalytic, cognitive- behavioral,
diathesis-stress and system models)
• DSM-V
• Categories of Psychological disorders
• Biological, environmental and psychological factors
ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR (DEFINITION)

• Behavior that is deviant, maladaptive or personally

distressful over a relatively long period of time

• Abnormal behavior is DEVIANT: is certainly atypical or

statistically unusual
• Abnormal behavior is MALADAPTIVE: behavior that
interferes with a person’s ability to function effectively in the
world
• Abnormal behavior involves PERSONAL DISTRESS over a
long period of time, the person engaging in the behavior finds
it troubling
ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR (DEFINITION)

• PLEASE NOTE!!!

• Note that the CONTEXT of a behavior may help to determine

whether the behavior is normal

• For example, a woman who washes her hands at least 10 times per
day
• What if the woman is a doctor on duty?
• What is the woman works from home on her computer?

• Etiology: means the causes or significant preceding

conditions
THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO P.D.

Biological Approach Psychological Approach

• Attributes psychological • Emphasizes the
disorders to organic, internal contributions of
causes experiences, thoughts,
• This approach mainly emotions and personality
focuses on the brain, genetic characteristics in explaining
factors, neurotransmitter psychological disorders
functioning as the sources of
abnormality
THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO P.D.

Sociocultural Approach Biopsychosocial Model

• Emphasizes the social • Believes it can be
context in which a person influenced by biological
lives, including the factors (such as genes),
individual’s gender, psychological factors (such
ethnicity, socioeconomic as childhood experiences),
status, family relationships and sociocultural factors
and culture (such as gender)
• It stresses the ways that
cultural influence the
understanding and treatment
CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL
BEHAVIOR
D S M - V C L A S S I F I C AT I O N S Y S T E M
CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

• To understand, prevent, and treat abnormal behavior,

psychiatrists and psychologists have devised systems
classifying those behaviors into specific behaviors into
specific psychological disorders
• Classification provides a common basis for communicating
• It can also help clinicians make predictions about how likely it
is that a disorder will occur, which individuals are most
susceptible to it, how the particular disorder progresses,
prognosis and treatment
• However, officially labelling can cause the risk of Stigma for
that individual
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
DSM-V
• In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association (APA)
published the first major classification of psychological
disorders in the United States, the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V)
• The DSM-V classifies individuals on the basis of five
dimensions or axes, that take into account the individual’s
history and highest level of functioning in the previous year
• The system’s creates meant to ensure that the individual is not
merely assigned to a psychological disorder category but
instead is characterized in terms of a number of factors
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
DSM-V: AXES
• The five AXES of the DSM-V are;

• Axis I: All diagnostic categories except personality disorders

and mental retardation

• Axis II: Personality disorders and Mental Retardation

• Axis III: General medical conditions

• Axis IV: Psychosocial and environmental problems

• Axis V: current level of functioning

 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
MAIN CATEGORIES
• Anxiety disorders (psychological disorders involving fears that
are uncontrollable, disproportionate to the actual danger the
person might be in, and disruptive of ordinary life
• Mood disorders (primary disturbance of mood, prolonged
emotion that colors the individual’s entire emotional state)
• Dissociative disorders (involve a sudden loss of memory or
change in identity due to the dissociation of the individual’s
conscious awareness from previous memories and thoughts
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
MAIN CATEGORIES

• Schizophrenia (severe psychological disorder characterized

by highly disordered thought processes, referred to as
psychotic because they are so far removed from reality

• Personality disorders (chronic, maladaptive cognitive-

behavioral patterns that are thoroughly integrated into an
individual’s personality)
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
ANXIETY DISORDERS

Generalized Anxiety Disorder Panic Disorder

• Psychological disorder • Anxiety disorder in which
marked by persistent the individual experiences
anxiety for at least 6 months recurrent, sudden onsets of
• and in which the individual intense apprehension or
is unable to specify the terror, often without
reasons for the anxiety warning and no specific
cause
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
ANXIETY DISORDERS
Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder
Phobic Disorder (OCD)
• Anxiety disorder • Anxiety disorder in which
characterized by an the individual has anxiety-
irrational, overwhelming, provoking thoughts that will
persistent fear of a not go away and or urges to
particular object or situation perform repetitive,
• For example, social phobia: ritualistic behaviors to
intense fear of being prevent or produce some
humiliated or embarrassed future situation
in social situations
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
ANXIETY DISORDERS
Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms of PTSD may vary
(PTSD) but include;
• Anxiety disorder that • Flashbacks in which the
develops through individual relives the event
exposure to a traumatic • Avoidance of emotional
event that has experiences and of talking about
overwhelmed the emotions with others
person’s ability to cope • Reduced ability to feel emotions
• Excessive arousal, resulting in
an exaggerated startle response
or an inability to sleep
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
MOOD DISORDERS

Major Depressive Disorder Symptoms include;

• Psychological disorder • Depressed mood most of the day
involving a significant • Reduced interest/ pleasure in all or
depressive episode and most activities
depressed characteristics, • Significant weight loss/ gain
for at least 2 weeks • Increase/decrease in appetite
• It impairs daily functioning • Trouble sleeping/ sleeping too much
• Must have at least 5 of the • Physical agitation/ lethargy
symptoms • Fatigue/ loss of energy
• Feel worthless/ guilty
• Problems thinking/ concentrating
• Recurrent thoughts of death & suicide
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
MOOD DISORDERS

Dysthymic Disorder
• Mood disorder that is
generally more chronic and
has fewer symptoms than
MDD
• The individual is in a
depressed mood for most
days for at least 2 years as
an adult or at least one year
as a child or adolescent
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
MOOD DISORDERS

Bipolar Disorder Types

• Mood disorder characterized • Bipolar I Disorder: refers to
by extreme mood swings the individuals who have
that include one or more extreme manic episodes
episodes of Mania, an during which they may
overexcited state, experience hallucinations
unrealistically optimistic • Bipolar II disorder: refers to
state the milder version, the
individual may not experience
full- blown mania but rather a
less extreme level of euphoria
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
MOOD DISORDERS FACTORS
Biological Factors
• Genetic influences play a role in mood disorders
• Research shows that individuals with mood disorders appear to
have difficulty regulating the neurotransmitter serotonin/ too few
receptors for serotonin and norepinephrine
Psychological Factors
• Behavioral view of depression focuses on learned helplessness
• Cognitive view believes the kinds of thoughts and beliefs can
contribute to the mood
Sociocultural Factors
• Persons with low socioeconomic status are more prone
• Persons with less social support
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS

Dissociative Amnesia Dissociative Fugue

• Amnesia: is the inability to • Fugue means fight
recall important events • Dissociative disorder in
• Dissociative disorder which the individual not
characterized by extreme only develop amnesia but is
memory loss that is caused also unexpectedly travels
by extensive psychological away from home and
stress sometimes a new identity
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS
Dissociative identity disorder
(DID)
• Formerly called multiple
personality disorder
• A dissociative disorder in
which the individual has
two or more distinct
personalities or identities,
each with its own memories,
behaviors, and relationships
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
SCHIZOPHRENIA
• Severe psychological disorder characterized by highly
disordered thought processes, referred to as psychotic because
they are so far removed from reality
• For many people with this disorder, controlling it means using
powerful medications to combat symptoms
• The most common cause of relapse is that the individual stops
taking their medications
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
SCHIZOPHRENIA

Positive Symptoms Negative Symptoms

• They are called “positive” because they • These symptoms
reflect something added above and beyond reflect social
normal behavior
withdrawal, behavioral
• Hallucinations: sensory experiences in
deficits, and the loss or
the absence of real stimuli
decrease of normal
• Delusions: false, unusual, and sometimes
magical beliefs that are not part of an
functions
individual’s culture • Flat affect: the display
• Referential thinking: ascribing personal of little or no emotion
meaning to completely random events
• Catatonia: state of immobility and
unresponsiveness lasting for long periods
of time
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
CAUSES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA
Biological Factors
• Heredity: research supports the notion that it is at least
partially caused by genetic factors
• Structural Brain Abnormalities
• Problems in Neurotransmitter Regulation: links excess
dopamine production to schizophrenic

Sociocultural Factors
• Socioeconomic background is NOT considered a cause but it
does affect the course of the disorder
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
CAUSES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA
Psychological Factors
• Stress may contribute to the development of this disorder
• Diathesis-Stress Model: argues that a combination of
biogenetic disposition and stress cause schizophrenia
• Diathesis means ‘physical vulnerability or predisposition to a
particular disorder’
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
PERSONALITY DISORDERS
Antisocial Personality Disorder Borderline Personality Disorder
(ASPD) (BPD)
• Is a psychological disorder • A psychological disorder
characterized by guiltlessness, law- characterized by a pervasive
breaking, exploitation of others,
pattern of instability in
irresponsibility, and deceit
interpersonal relationships,
• Although they may be superficially
charming, individuals with ASPD do
self- image, and emotions, and
not play by the rules, and they often of marked impulsivity
lead a life of crime and violence beginning by early adulthood
• Far more common in men than and present in a variety of
women contexts
• ASPD is not diagnosed unless a • BPD is far more common in
person has shown persistent women that men
antisocial behavior before the age of
15
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
TREATMENT OPTIONS
Biological therapies
• Drug therapy (medication/pills) such as antianxiety,
antidepressants, antipsychotics
• Electroconvulsive therapy (shock therapy)
• Psychosurgery (removal/ destruction of brain tissue)

Psychodynamic Therapies
• Psychoanalysis (free association, dream analysis)

Humanistic Therapies
• Client –centered therapy
 CLASSIFYING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
TREATMENT OPTIONS
Behavior Therapies
• Classical conditioning techniques
• Operant conditioning techniques

Cognitive Therapies
• Ellis’ Rational- Emotive behavior therapy
• Beck’s Cognitive therapy
• Cognitive – behavioral therapy