CH15: PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERSPsychological disorders: different/deviant, distressful and dysfunctional patterns of thoughts, feelings of behaviors.Standards for deviant behavior varies with context and cultureEx: wartime: mass killing = heroicCultures practicing ancestor worship, hearing voices and talking to the dead is normal.Varies with TIMEEx: homosexuality was considered an illness in the past.Deviance alone doesn’t define someone as having a disorderThe deviant behavior usually causes distress * and harmful dysfunctionDYSFUNCTION IS KEY TO DEFINING A DISORDER-intense fear of spiders may be deviant but if it doesn’t IMPAIR you its not a disordermedical model- concept that diseases (psychological disorders) have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated and in most causes, cured. Often through treatment in a hospital.Philip Pinel (reformer): madness is not demon possession but a sickness of the mind caused by severe stresses and inhumane conditions. Moral treatment = boosting patients’ morale by unchaining them and TALKING with them. Gentleness.Biopsychosocial approach: all behavior, normal or disordered, arises from the interaction of nature and nuture.-links between specific disorders and cultures: cultures differ in their sources of stress, diff. ways of copingdepression and schizophrenia occur world wide, not culture-bound.Biological influences: evolution, genes, brain structure and chemistryPsychological: stress, trauma, learned helplessness, mood related perception and memoriesSocial-cultural: roles, expectations, definitions of normality and disorderDSM-IV-TR: the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edition, text revision) Widely used sys for classifying psychological disorders.-diagnostic labels changed: mental retardation -> intellectual development disorderAnxiety disorders: psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety of maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety- Generalized anxiety disorder: person is unexplainably and continually tense and uneasy. Pathological worryo 2/3 of people that have this are womeno person may not be able to identify and deal with or avoid its cause.o Freud: “anxiety” = free-floating- panic disorder- experiences sudden episodes of intense dreado panic attacks, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, choking sensations, trembling, dizzinesso smokers: doubled risk- phobias: irrational fearso specific phobiaso social phobia- shyness taken to an extreme, fear of being scrutinized by others, avoid potentially embarrassing social situations: speaking up, eating out, parties, etc.- OCD- anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions (compulsions)- Post traumatic stress disorder: lingering memories, nightmares for weeks after a threatening, uncontrollable evento The greater ones emotional distress during the trauma, the higher the risk for post traumatic symptomso Persistent right temporal lobe activation o Survivor resiliency – those who don’t develop PTSDo Post traumatic growth: positive psychological changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstances and life crisisTHE LEARNING PERSPECTIVE- Fear conditioning: Stimulus generalization: ex: attacked by dog -> fear of ALL dogsReinforcement: maintains the phobias after they arise Avoiding/escaping the feared situation reduces anxiety: reinforcing the phobic behaviorObservational learning: observing others fears Ex: wild monkeys fear snakes but lab monkeys don’tCognitionTHE BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE-Natural selection: biologically prepared to fear threats faced by ancestorsGenes: sensitive, high strung temperament & traumatic event -> phobia, -genes regulate neurotransmitters: anxiety gene that affects serotonin lvls: influences sleep and mood-glutamate: with too much, the brain’s alarm centers become overreactive The brain: anterior cingulate cortex: monitors actions and checks for errors, seems esp. likely to be hyperactive in those with OCDMOOD DISORDERS- psychological disorders characterized by emotional extremes.- Major depressive disorder:mood disorder in which a persons experiences, in the absence of drugs or another medical condition, two or more weeks of sig. depressed moods or diminished interest or pleasure in most activites along with at least four other symptoms:o Depressed mood most the dayo Diminished interest/pleasure in activitieso Sig. weight loss/gain when not dieting, sig. decrease/increase in appetiteo Insomniao Worthlessness, inappropriate guilto Daily problems in thinking, concentration or making decisionso Recurring thoughts of death and suicide- Bipolar disorder(manic-depressive disorder): mood disorder in which person alternates between hopelessness and lethargy od depression and the overexcited state of maniao Mania: hyperactive, wildly optimistic state -> bad decisions Need protection from their own poor judgement Genetic influences (Biological perspective)Mood disorders run in familiesRisk of major depression and biopolar increases if you have a parent or sibling with it.Left frontal lobe: active during (+)emotions, less during depressed statesHippocampus: memory processing center linked with brain’s emotional circuitis vulnerablt to stress-related damage.Norepepinephrine: increases arousal and boosts mood: scarce during depression, overabundant during mania.Drugs that relieve depression increase norepinephrine or serotonin supplies by blocking either their reuptake or their chemical breakdownSocial-cognitive perspective: depression is a whole-body disorder-roles of thinking and acting: depressed people view life with low self-esteem.Negative thoughts and negative moods interact: depression prone people respond tobad events in a self-focused and self-blaming wayDepression is common among young westerners: individualism and decline of commitment to religion and family -> personal responsibility for failure or rejectionNon-western cultures: close-knit relationships -> major depression is less common and less tied to self blame over personal failureSuccessful coping: temporary (“I will get through this”) -> specific (“I miss him but I have my friends”) -> external (it wasn’t meant to be)Depression: stable (“ill never get over this”) -> global (“without him I cant do anything”) -> internal (“all my fault”)THE CYCLE: stressful experiences -> (-) explanatory style ->