- Study of description, cause and treatment of abnormal behaviour

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1 Abnormal Psychology LECTURE 1 - Introduction What is abnormal psychology? - Study of description, cause and treatment of abnormal behaviour What is abnormal? - Hard to define (does not have one necessary or sufficient characteristic) - Continuum - Reflects cultural values and social norms Models of abnormality - Supernatural - Sociocultural (i.e. poverty) - Biological/medical model 19 th /20 th century thought mental illness caused by germs Today=dominant model in psychiatry assumes psychological disorders can be diagnosed similarly to physical illness e.g. structural brain abnormalities=schizophrenia and neurochemical imbalances=depression Believes best treated with medication/surgery etc. Criticisms: - Need to avoid extreme reductionism (some complex psychological phenomena may be impossible to explain at the neural/molecular level) - Need to avoid over extrapolation from animal research - Need to avoid assuming causation from treatment (i.e. depression caused by serotonin imbalance antidepressants) - Need to avoid separating/categorising mental illness like one does with physical illness sometimes illnesses can co-occur - Psychological (i.e. beliefs) (SSBP) LECTURE 2 Models of Abnormal Psychology Psychological models - Psychoanalytic Maladjustment results from unresolved conflicts: Treatment=insight - Humanistic Maladjustment results from Environment imposes with conditions of worth Own needs/emotions are blocked Self-actualisation blocked Treatment=empathy, unconditional positive regard - Behavioural i.e. classical and operant conditioning Maladjustment results from learning history (i.e. past experiences) Treatment=new learning

2 Critique=doesn t consider cognitive learning learning without experience (visualisation) - Cognitive-behavioural Currently the dominant model in psychology What we think influences what we feel and do Maladjustment results from: Interpretation of experiences (making them consistent with your core negative beliefs) Cognitive biases (selective attention, catastrophizing i.e. interpreting events negatively) Negative automatic thoughts Treatment=cognitive restructuring Classification and diagnosis - The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) DSM 1 and 2 rely on the psychoanalytic model 3,4,5 rely on medical model (no assumptions about cause esp. unconscious cause (unlike psychoanalytic model) DSM 5: Encourages assessment of severity (not only presence or symptoms of disorders) LECTURE 3 Anxiety Disorders What is anxiety? An activated response to a perceived threat Three interrelated anxiety systems physical, cognitive and behavioural Normal and abnormal anxiety are not different DSM s differ in what causes anxiety but the experience of anxiety is the same - Physical system Sympathetic nervous system flight/fight response e.g. sweating, increased heart rate etc - Cognitive system Perception of threat attention focuses on perceived threat - Behavioural system Escape/avoid, aggression, freezing DSM New chapter added to DSM 5 related to trauma experience New chapter added OCD DSM 5 panic disorder and agoraphobia got separated (fear of public open spaces) Separation anxiety disorder got moved from childhood disorders to adult disorders Selective mutism added (inability to speak in front of strangers) Cognitive theory of Panic Disorder (PD)

3 1. Feel bodily sensations 2. Misinterpret body sensations 3. Anxiety 4. Increased body sensations (cyclic procedure which keeps increasing) LECTURE 4 Anxiety and other related disorders DSM 5 - Separation anxiety disorder - Selective Mutism - Specific Phobia Causes=classical conditioning (however not only cause as sometimes conditioning not sufficient to cause phobia) - Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia) People with phobias realise their fears are disproportionate to the reality of the situation but they feel helpless to deal with these fears - Panic Disorder - Agoraphobia - Generalized Anxiety Disorder Diagnosis=General worry about at least 2 things, 3-6 symptoms e.g. restlessness, irritability etc. and 6 months duration - Trauma and stress related disorders e.g. Post-traumatic stress disorder Very specific Traumas caused by human action are more likely to cause PTSD than natural disasters Direct experience of traumatic event, hearing that traumatic event happened to close family member, repeated/extreme exposure to descriptions of events e.g. police exposed to details of child sexual abuse Diagnosis: 1. Intrusion symptoms e.g. memories (at least 1) 2. Avoidance of reminders of traumatic event (at least 1) 3. Negative changes in mood i.e., fear, anger (at least 2) 4. Changes in arousal (at least 2) e.g. poor concentration, sleep disturbance Treatment: a. Aim to reduce biased thoughts (i.e. how likely bad event will happen) b. Cognitive techniques thought diaries and thought challenging c. Behavioural techniques exposure to feared objects and stimuli LECTURE 5 Eating Disorders Changes to DSM 5 - EDNOS (eating disorders not otherwise specified) became recognised as individual categorisation - Binge eating is now a recognised disorder Anorexia Nervosa

4 - Weight less than 85% expected - Mortality rate 5-10% over 10 year period Biological Causes of AN and BN - Family and twin studies show genetic link but hard to separate environment and genetics - Neurotransmitter disturbances don t know if serotonin imbalance is causing eating disorder or eating disorder is causing neural imbalance Cognitive Behavioural Theory - People more likely to get eating disorder if have core low self-esteem, perfectionism, stress intolerance, interpersonal difficulties (i.e. low social support) Proposed Psycho-Social Causes - Family factors Higher parental criticism, control and conflict Low parental empathy/support Model parental eating/eating concerns LECTURE 6 Depression Unipolar vs Bipolar - Unipolar = fluctuation between normal and depressed moods - Bipolar = fluctuations between manic and depressed moods Major depressive disorder - One or more major depressive episodes - To be clinically depressed depressive episode needs to last 2 weeks - Each episode of depression increases chance for another episode - Need to have at least 5 symptoms and must have depressed mood most of day nearly every day and markedly diminished pleasure in activities Dysthymic Disorder - Persistently depressed mood that continues for at least 2 years - Double depression both MDD and Dysthymia - Renamed persistent depressive disorder in DSM V Biological Theories - Low levels of noradrenalin and or serotonin and excess cortisol in response to stress Psychological Theories - Schema theory=pre-existing negative schemas = activated by stress - Learned helplessness - Ruminative response styles (focus on one s stress) - Interpersonal factors (i.e. relationships)

5 Biological Treatments - Drug treatments SSRI s/ssnri s (Selective Serotonergic/Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors respectively) specifically block reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine respectively - Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) apply brief electric current to brain Psychological Treatments Other: - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy aims to develop more realistic view of world - Psychological treatments have lower relapse rates than biological treatments Somatoform Disorders disorders which have no known biological cause Dissociative Disorders breakdown of normal personality resulting in alterations in memory or identity 1 in 10 Australians will have a depressive episode at least once in their lifetime Cognitive Process LECTURE 1 Introduction What is cognitive psychology? - Study of mental processes attempts to explain how people do things (not what is the best way etc.) Historical forerunners - Behaviourism rejected all mental structures describing all behaviours as complex stimulus response associations Computer metaphor and the information processing approach 1. Encoding: Forming memory code i.e. entering data through a computer 2. Storage: Maintaining encoded information in memory over time i.e. saving data in hard disk 3. Retrieval: recovering information through memory stores e.g. displaying data on monitor Mental Chronometry - Methods for measuring the speed and organisation of mental processes - E.g. put rats in maze and found that even before food introduced, rats create cognitive map of maze (learning occurs before food is introduced disproved no learning, no reward theory) - Compare behaviour in two tasks that differ in only one mental process e.g. simple vs choice reaction time (simple=press button to any light, choice=press button only to red light) - Choice reaction time simple reaction time = estimate of stimulus evaluation time In experiment where participants were asked to memorise a series of words, and then asked if a particular word was in that series, found that either: a. People may search for items in parallel (all together) or serially (one by one)

Unit 12 REVIEW. Name: Date:

Unit 12 REVIEW. Name: Date: Name: Date: 1. Which of the following disorders is classified as a mood disorder? A) antisocial personality disorder B) agoraphobia C) catatonia D) generalized anxiety disorder E) bipolar disorder 2. Mania