PT 1013/PZ 1013

INTRODUCTION TO
PSYCHOLOGY
ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY

I.B.Maakip, 2005

Pissarro- Le verger (The Orchard) 1872

Prologue to Abnormal
Psychology Lecture

This chapter is about abnormal behavior

1. Anxiety and depression problems are very
common in our society
2. It is estimated that between 30-40% of all
adults in our society have problems with
anxiety and/or depression
3. 25% of the population will, at one time or
another, require medical intervention as a
result of psychological problems
I.B.Maakip, 2005

Abnormal behavior
1. Abnormal behavior consists of those
actions, thoughts, or feelings that are
harmful to the person or others
2. Historical views of abnormal behavior
i) supernatural causes
ii) biological causes
iii) psychological causes
I.B.Maakip, 2005

Abnormal behavior

Contemporary views of abnormal behavior

it has become increasingly clear that both

biological and psychological causes are
involved in the origin of many psychological
disorders
supernatural causes are not in the realm of
study of the science of psychology, only
psychological and biological causes
I.B.Maakip, 2005

Abnormal behavior
1.The concept of insanity
a. Insanity: a legal term with different meanings
in different United States
b. not guilty by reason of insanity
c. not competent by reason of insanity
d. committed to a mental institution by reason
of insanity
e. the term is relatively meaningless is
psychology because it is too vague
I.B.Maakip, 2005

Modern Theoretical Perspectives

1. Psychodynamic Approach
a. result of internal conflict that affects what we feel,
think, say and do

2. Humanistic Approach
a. if we experience conditional rather than unconditional
positive regard from others

3. Behavioral Approach
a. Result of either classical or instrumental conditioning
gone awry

4. Cognitive Approach
a. Result of distorted thinking in the process of thinking,
its contents or both
I.B.Maakip, 2005

5. Biological Approach
a. caused by underlying abnormalities in the
nervous system, particularly in the brain

6. Biopsychosocial Approach
a. emphasized the interaction of biological,
psychological, and social factors that
influence abnormal behavior

I.B.Maakip, 2005

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders
1. Anxiety disorders involve excessive worry,
nervousness, tension, or fear
2. Types of anxiety disorders include phobias,
generalized and panic anxiety disorders,
post-traumatic stress disorder, and
obsessive-compulsive disorders
3. Well briefly discuss each of these anxiety
disorders
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Phobias and Anxiety Disorders

1. Phobias: intense, unrealistic fears of stimuli
that generally do not elicit intense fear in
the general population
2. Generalized and Panic Anxiety Disorders
a. GAD: experienced as relentless, free-floating
anxiety, a general sense of foreboding, doom
b. PAD: experienced as periods of calm
punctuated by periods of sharp, intense
anxiety that are extremely frightening
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Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

1. PTSD is a response to the stress of such
events as war, rape, natural disasters, and
urban crimes
2. PTSD may suddenly appear years after the
stressor, e.g., the Vietnam War, has
happened
3. PTSD seen in Viet vets and in U.S. Post
Office workers that kill their supervisors
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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders
1. Obsession: anxiety-provoking thought that
refuses to go away despite efforts to make
it go away
2. Compulsion: an irresistible urge to engage
in specific behaviors and actions despite
efforts to not do them
3. Shakespeares Mac Beth had an
obsessive-compulsive disorder
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Somatoform Disorders

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Somatoform disorders
1. Experiencing physical health problems with a
psychological etiology
2. Somatization disorders and hypochondriasis
a. somatization disorders involve numerous symptoms of
somatic illnesses with physical cause
b. hypochondriasis: excessive concern about health;
looking out for any little problem as a major health
disorder/disease

I.B.Maakip, 2005

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Somatoform disorders

Conversion Disorder and Somatoform Pain

Disorder

Conversion Disorder: experience of extreme

physiological disorders, e.g., blindness or
paralysis, without physical cause
Somatoform Pain Disorder: primary problem
is pain with no physical cause, e.g., back pain
or neck pain with no physical injury or
apparent physical cause
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Dissociative Disorders

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Dissociative Disorders
1. Amnesia and Fugue
a. psychogenic amnesia: involves loss of
memory of all or part of a stressful
experience for no physical reason
b. fugue state: involves a much more complete
loss of memory; person may establish an
entire new identity in a new location after a
fugue
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Dissociative Disorders
2.Depersonalization and Multiple Personality
Disorder
a. depersonalization: situation in which person
perceives distortions or sense of unreality in
their bodies or environment
b. multiple personality disorder: personality
shifts abruptly and repeatedly from one
personality to another; e.g., Sybil or Eve
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Mood Disorders

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Mood disorders
1. Characterized by disturbances in a persons
mood
2. Mood disorders include major depression
and bipolar affective disorder
3. Major depression: characterized by deep
unhappiness, loss of interest in life, a
negative opinion of self and others, sleep
disturbances, eating disturbances, etc.
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Mood disorders
1. Cognitive factors in depression
a. self-image, self-esteem, and thought processes
associated with these
b. thinking yourself out of a depression is it
possible?
c. medications in depression

2. Post-partum depression and its association

with hormone imbalances
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Mood disorders
- Bipolar Affective Disorder
a. manic-depression as alternate times of elation
and severe depression
b. treatment with lithium bicarbonate
c. person must have a manic episode to be
considered bipolar
d. unusual behavior often occurs in bipolar
affective disorder when not under lithium
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Schizophrenias

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Schizophrenias and delusional

disorders

1. Schizophrenia: a psychotic state typified by

extreme cognitive and emotional
disturbance as well as social withdrawal
2. Types of schizophrenia include:
a. Paranoid schizophrenia
b. Disorganized schizophrenia
c. Catatonic schizophrenia
d. Delusional disorders
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Schizophrenia
- Paranoid schizophrenia
a. type of schizophrenia
b. person may experience delusions of
persecution and/or delusions of grandeur
c. often accompanied by halucinations
d. person is often not hospitalized as they often
may hide their illness in their paranoia
e. person is suspicious of everything and
everybody and feels life is a covert action
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Schizophrenia
- Disorganized schizophrenia
a. characterized by shallow silliness; formerly
called hebephrenic schizophrenia
b. characterized by extreme social withdrawal
c. fragmented hallucinations and delusions
d. sometimes seen in homeless people who
jibber to themselves and others and seem to
be carrying on a conversation with somebody
when no one is there
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Schizophrenia
- Catatonic schizophrenia
a. characterized by long periods of catatonic
stupor; waxy flexibility
b. individual may remain in a fixed position for
hours or longer only suddenly to become
violent
c. recovered catatonics report that they felt that if
they moved the world would end or some
other doom would occur
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Delusional disorder
- Delusional disorders are rare disorders typified by
paranoid delusions of grandeur and persecution
- Delusions are less logical in these individuals than
those delusions suffered by paranoid
schizophrenics
- Delusions are faulty ideas, e.g., a person wears tin
foil on head to protect from Martian thought
waves
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Personality
Disorders

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Personality disorders

Personality disorders are believed to result

from personalities that improperly
developed during childhood
Several types: schizoid, antisocial,
paranoid, narcissistic, dependent, and
passive-aggressive to list a few
Well look at schizoid and antisocial
personality disorders now
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Schizoid personality disorder

- This personality disorder is typified by:
a. blunted emotions in the person
b. a general lack of interest in establishing or
maintaining social relationships
c. the person is a strict loner and will resist or
reject friendship efforts made toward them by
others
d. person appears to be devoid of attachment
motivation
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Antisocial personality disorder

- This personality disorder is typified by a
person with:
a. very smooth social skills
b. a charming person who can convince you by
flattery or other charms of just about anything
c. this person has absolutely no sense of guilt
about anything they do
d. these individuals are predators and see others
as objects to be used and abused
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A word about other personality

disorders

- Paranoid personality disorder

- Narcissistic personality disorder
- Dependent personality disorder
- Passive-aggressive personality disorder
- It is near-to-impossible to provide
therapy/treatment to individuals with
personality disorders; what you see is what
youre going to get...
I.B.Maakip, 2005

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Application of
Psychology
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Application of psychology

Abnormal psychology and civil liberties

What limits are there on civil liberties to

those that are abnormal? What is
abnormal anyway?
The homelessness problem is, to a large
extent, the result of abolishing state mental
institutions in which were housed many
simple and disorganized schizophrenics and
other abnormal people
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Application of psychology

Jack Kavorkians physician-assisted

suicide is a step toward what happened in
Nazi Germany where the abnormals
(mentally incompetent) were euthanized by
the state

the costs of caring for abnormals

the morality/ethics of a society and its
abnormal population
what do you think?
I.B.Maakip, 2005

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