Copy of Modules 48-55 (AP Psychology) PDF

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Psychology notes (modules 48-55) AP Psychology...

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Module 48 - Mental health workers view psychological disorders as patterns of thoughts, feelings, or behaviors that are deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional. -

The standards for deviant behavior vary by context and by culture.

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The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 26 percent of adult Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. -

National population surveys indicate that the rates of disorder vary across the world. Most who suffer from a disorder show the first symptoms by early adulthood.

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Poverty is clearly a predictor of mental illness.

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Homosexuality was once viewed as a disorder, but this was stopped in 1973.

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ADHD - is it normal high energy or a genuine disorder? -

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): a psychological disorder marked by age 7 of one of more of three key symptoms: extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. -

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ADHD is rather controversial to diagnose as the textbook projects.

Medical Model: The concept that diseases, in this case psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital.

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DSM-IV-TR: The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, with an updated “text revision”; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders.

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There is a newer model out there!

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The number of disorder categories in the DSM has “swelled” from 60 in the 1950s to 400 in today’s. -

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Utilized to make sense of conditions and diagnoses.

Critics point out that labels can create preconceptions that bias our perceptions of people’s past and present behavior. They can inevitably serve as self-fulfilling prophecies.

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“INSANITY” is quite messy...how should they be treated? What does this mean? Is it okay to refer to people as this?

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The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 26 percent of adult Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. -

What did we do to deserve this?! Totally unfair -- gah! -

Some disorders, such as schizophrenia, can also lead to poverty. -

Truly unfair for sufferers, what can be done…?

Module 49 Anxiety Disorder: Marked by distressing, persistent anxiety or dysfunctional anxietyreducing behaviors. -

Perhaps genetic… -

Affects brain levels of serotonin or glutamate.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Unfocused, out-of-control, negative feelings; the symptoms of this disorder is commonplace, but their persistence is NOT. -

More often women (⅔).

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Free-floating refers to not knowing the source of your problem.

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Many sufferers were maltreated and inhibited as children.

Panic Disorder: Strikes suddenly, wreaks havoc, and disappears. -

Occurs in 1 in 75 people.

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Anxiety suddenly escalates into a terrifying panic attack. -

Heart palpitations, shortness of breath, choking sensations, trembling, and dizziness can occur.

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Drains sufferer of energy

Phobia: Irrational fear causes the person to avoid some object, activity, or situation. -

Many accept them, but many cannot deal with them. -

Specific phobias may focus on animals insects, heights, blood, or close spaces.

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Not all phobias has specific triggers… -

Social Phobia: Shyness which is an intense fear of being scrutinized by others, avoid potentially embarrassing social situations, such as speaking up or eating out.

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Agoraphobia: Fear of not being able to escape; given such fear, people may avoid going outside the home, being in a crowd, riding a bus, or going on an elevator.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): May be troubled by repetitive thoughts and actions. -

Obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors cross the fine line between normality and disorder when they persistently interfere with everyday living and cause the person distress. -

Often regarded as being very clean and persistent, but this is not always the case.

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Anterior cingulate cortex is hyperactive with OCD.

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Howie Mandel -

Suffers a germ phobia that prompted him to shave his head to “feel cleaner”.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Symptoms may also follow the experience of some traumatic event. -

Body is flooded with stress hormones over and over again.

Soldiers -

Survivor resiliency: Do NOT develop PTSD - resilient.

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8.5% of Manhattan residents suffered this following 9/11.

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Doctors think that this is over-diagnosed due to a broad definition of trauma.

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Post-Traumatic Growth: leading people to appreciate life more, like facing cancer and having more meaningful relationships, increased personal strength, and changed priorities.

Module 50 In dissociative disorders, a person appears to experience a sudden loss of memory or change in identity, often in response to an overwhelmingly stressful situation. -

A person may have no memory of his identity or family. -

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Freaky! Omg.

Conscious awareness is said to dissociate or become separated from painful memories, thoughts, and feelings. -

Dissociation itself is not uncommon.

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On occasion, many people may have a sense of being unreal, of being separated from their body, or of watching themselves as if in a movie. -

Facing trauma, detachment may protect a person from being overwhelmed by anxiety.

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Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is an extremely uncommon disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities, with the original (like Nick for myself) personality typically denying awareness of the other ‘people’ being present. -

Was previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder...right?

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Some tend not to believe in it -- they assert that it is “fantasy-prone”. -

Much less common outside of North America…

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Kim Noble was born in 1960 and, from a young age, was physically abused. As a teenager, she suffered many mental problems and overdosed several times.

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It wasn't until her 20s that other personalities began to appear. "Julie" was a very destructive personality that ran Noble's van into a bunch of parked cars. "Hayley," another personality, was involved in a pedophile ring.

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Other psychologists disagree and find support for DID as a genuine disorder in the distinct brain and body states associated with differing personalities. -

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Even handedness sometimes switches with personality.

The most troubling of the personality disorders is the antisocial personality disorder, in which a person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members. -

Not “you’re so antisocial, talk to me!!!”

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This person may be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist. -

Brain scans of murderers with this disorder have revealed reduced activity in the frontal lobes, an area of the cortex that helps control impulses. -

A genetic predisposition may interact with environmental influences to produce this disorder. -

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Nature AND nurture!

Personality disorders are psychological disorders characterized by inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning. -

Anxiety; eccentric; dramatic/impulsive behaviors. -

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Differ in groups.

Somatoform disorders are psychological disorders in which the symptoms take a bodily (somatic) form without apparent physical cause. -

One person may have complaints ranging from dizziness to blurred vision. Another may experience severe and prolonged pain.

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Conversion disorder is a rare somatoform disorder in which anxiety is presumably converted into a physical symptom. -

A person experiences very specific genuine symptoms for which no physiological basis is found. These may include unexplained paralysis, blindness, or an inability to swallow.

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In hypochondriasis, a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease. -

My Aunt Nancy!

Module 51 Mood disorders include major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. - Current research on depression is exploring genetic and biochemical influences as well as cyclic self-defeating beliefs, learned helplessness, negative attributions, and aversive experiences. - Seasonal Affective Disorder…! Mood disorders are psychological disorders characterized by emotional extremes. - Major depressive disorder occurs when at least five signs of depression… - Including lethargy, feelings of worthlessness, or loss of interest in family, friends, and activities which last two or more weeks and are not caused by drugs or a medical conditions. - Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder in which a person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania (a hyperactive, wildly optimistic states). - Major depressive disorder is much more common than is bipolar disorder. - Bipolar disorder = genetic? Looking for proof in Pennsylvania Amish. Peter Lewinsohn and his colleagues have suggested that any theory of depression must explain… - the many behavioral and cognitive changes that accompany the disorder - its widespread occurrence - women’s greater vulnerability to depression - the tendency for most major depressive episodes to self-terminate - the link between stressful events and the onset of depression - and the disorder’s increasing rate and earlier age of onset. - The biological perspective emphasizes the importance of genetic, neural, and biochemical influences. - Mood disorders run in families, and linkage analysis is being used to search for genes that put people at risk. The left frontal lobe, which is active during positive emotions, is likely to be inactive during depressed states. - Studies show that the hippocampus is vulnerable to stress-related damage. - Neurotransmitters, including norepinephrine and serotonin, seem to be scarce in depression. The social-cognitive perspective suggests that self-defeating beliefs, which arise in part from learned helplessness, and a negative explanatory style feed depression. - Depressed people explain bad events in terms that are global, stable, and internal.

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This perspective sees the disorder as a vicious cycle in which negative, stressful events are interpreted through a ruminating, pessimistic explanatory style, creating a hopeless, depressed state that hampers the way a person thinks and acts. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema - women can ruminate about anything and everything -- our appearance, our families, our career, our health. Brooke Shields - postpartum depression.

Module 52 - Schizophrenia is a group of severe disorders characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions. - Literally, schizophrenia means “split mind,” which refers to a split

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from reality rather than multiple personality. - The thinking of people with schizophrenia may be marked by delusions, that is, false beliefs—often of persecution or grandeur. - Sometimes, they also experience hallucinations, sensory experiences without sensory stimulation. - Hallucinations are usually auditory and often take the form of voices making insulting statements or giving orders. Schizophrenia patients who are disorganized and deluded in their talk or prone to inappropriate laughter, tears, or rage. - The subtypes of schizophrenia include… - paranoid (preoccupation with delusions or hallucinations, often of persecution or grandiosity), - disorganized (disorganized speech or behavior, or flat affect or inappropriate emotions), - catatonic (immobility, extreme negativism, and/or parrot-like repetition of another’s speech or movements), - undifferentiated (many and varied symptoms), and residual (withdrawal after hallucinations and delusions have disappeared). - Chronic, or process, schizophrenia develops gradually, emerging from a long history of social inadequacy. Acute, or reactive, schizophrenia develops rapidly in response to life stresses. Researchers have linked certain forms of schizophrenia with brain abnormalities such as increased receptors for the neurotransmitter dopamine. - Impaired glutamate activity appears to be another source of schizophrenia symptoms. Modern brain-scanning techniques indicate that people with chronic schizophrenia have abnormal activity in multiple brain areas. - Out-of-sync neurons may disrupt the integrated functioning of neural networks. - Some patients appear to have abnormally low brain activity in the frontal lobes or enlarged, fluid-filled areas and a corresponding shrinkage of cerebral tissue. - Another smaller-than-normal area in persons with schizophrenia is the thalamus. A possible cause of these abnormalities is a mid-pregnancy viral infection that impairs fetal brain development. - The nearly 1-in-100 odds of any person developing schizophrenia become about 1 in 10 if a family member has it, and close to 1 in 2 if an identical twin has the disorder. - Adoption studies confirm the genetic contribution to schizophrenia. An adopted child’s probability of developing the disorder is greater

if the biological parents have schizophrenia. A complex disorder such as schizophrenia is surely influenced by multiple genes with small effects, but identifying these genes has proven difficult. - No environmental factors have been discovered that invariably produce schizophrenia in persons who are not related to a person with schizophrenia.

Module 53 -

Mental health therapies include psychological therapies and biomedical therapies. In fact, half of all psychotherapists describe themselves as taking an eclectic approach. -

Psychoanalysts use free association and the interpretation of dreams, resistances, and transference to help their patients gain

insight into the unconscious origins of their disorders and to work through the accompanying feelings. -

Humanistic therapy focuses on clients’ conscious feelings and on their taking responsibility for their own growth. Client-centered therapists use active listening to express genuineness, acceptance, and empathy.

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Behavior therapists emphasize the direct modification of problem behaviors. They use exposure therapies, such as systematic desensitization and aversive conditioning, and they may also apply operant conditioning principles with techniques such as token economies.

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Cognitive therapies aim to change self-defeating thinking by training people to view themselves in new, more positive ways. Cognitive-behavior therapists aim to change the way people act as well as alter the way they think. -

Except for traditional psychoanalysis, these various types of therapies may also occur in therapist-led small groups.

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In psychotherapy, a trained therapist uses psychological techniques to assist someone seeking to overcome difficulties or achieve personal growth. The biomedical therapies are prescribed medications or medical procedures that act directly on the patient’s nervous system. Half of all psychotherapists describe themselves as taking an eclectic approach in which they use techniques from various forms of therapy, depending on the client’s problem. -

Psychoanalysis is Sigmund Freud’s therapeutic approach of using the patient’s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transference, and the therapist’s interpretations of them, to help the person release repressed feelings and gain self-insight. -

The goal of psychoanalysis is to help people gain insight into the unconscious origins of their disorders, to work through the accompanying feelings, and to take responsibility for their own growth.

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Psychodynamic therapists try to understand patients’ current symptoms by exploring their childhood experiences and the therapist-patient relationship. However, they talk with the patient face-to-face, once a week, and for only a few weeks or months.

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Some psychoanalysts attempt to help people gain insight into their unresolved and unconscious conflicts. -

Humanistic therapists help clients to get in touch with their feelings. In contrast, behavior therapists question the therapeutic power of increased self-awareness. They assume problem behaviors are the problems and thus do not look for inner causes. Instead, they apply learning principles to eliminate a troubling behavior.

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Cognitive-behavior therapists combine the reversal of self-defeating thinking with efforts to modify behavior. They aim to make people aware of their irrational negative thinking, to replace it with new ways of thinking and talking, and to practice the more positive approach in everyday settings.

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Family therapy assumes that we live and grow in relation to others, especially our families. -

It views an individual’s unwanted behaviors as influenced by or directed at other family members. In an effort to heal relationships, therapists attempt to guide family members toward positive relationships and improved communication.

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Clients tend to overestimate the effectiveness of psychotherapy because they enter therapy in crisis. -

Clients may also need to believe that the investment of time and money has been worth it. Finally, clients generally speak positively of therapists who have been very understanding and who have helped them gain a new perspective.

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Clinicians are mostly aware of other therapists’ failures as clients seek new therapists for their recurring problems. Clients’ and therapists’ views of therapy’s effectiveness are vulnerable to inflation from the placebo effect—the power of belief in a treatment. -

If one anticipates that therapy will be effective, it just may be so because of the healing power of positive expectations. In addition, regression toward the mean— the tendency for unusual events (including emotions) to return to their average state—may lead people to overestimate the effectiveness of therapy.

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Randomized clinical trials assign people on a waiting list to therapy or no therapy. -

The results of many such studies are then digested by meta-analysis, a statistical procedure that combines the conclusions of a large number of different studies. -

The results reveal that people who remain untreated often improve, those who receive psychotherapy are more likely to improve, and when people seek psychological treatment, their search for other medical treatment declines, compared with their counterparts on waiting lists.

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Some therapies are, however, well suited to particular disorders, such as behavioral conditioning therapies for treating specific problems such as phobias, compulsions, and sexual disorders and cognitive therapy for treating depression and reducing suicide risk. -