Psychology Lecture Notes – April 24, 2007

Application Assignment due Friday, April 27th

- For 5 of the 8 major psychological disorders discussed in Module 49, create a

character with a disorder from that category (e.g., one character with one of the
mood disorders, one character with one of the anxiety disorders)
o Name the disorder (.25 pts) and its major category (.25 pts)
o Describe each character in terms of their specific disorder and related
experiences (1pt)
o Suggest a possible cause of each person’s disorder (.5 pts)

Anxiety Disorders
- Phobic disorder
o Intense, irrational fears of specific objects or situations
- Generalized anxiety disorder
o Experience long term persistent anxiety
- Panic Disorder
o Anxiety that is not triggered by any identifiable stimulus and last from a
few seconds to several hours
- Obsessive – Compulsive Disorder
o Obsession
 A persistent, unwanted thought or idea that keeps recurring
o Compulsion
 Urge to repeatedly carry out some act that seems strange and
unreasonable, even to the individual who experiences them

Somatoform Disorders – What does soma mean? Body

- Psychological difficulties that take a physical (somatic) form, but for which there
is no medical cause
- Hypochondriasis
o Constant fear of illness and a preoccupation with their health
- Conversion disorder
o Involves an actual physical disturbance, such as the inability to see or
hear, or to move an arm or leg whose cause is purely psychological
Dissociative Disorders
- break ties between sever association with; separate”
- Parts of personality that are normally integrated and work together separate or
dissociate
o To reduce anxiety
o Keep disturbing memories or perceptions from reaching conscious
awareness
o Dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality): individual
displays characteristics of two or more distinct personalities.
o Amnesia: a disorder in which a significant selective memory loss occurs
o Fugue: an amnesiac condition where people take sudden, impulsive trips,
 sometimes assuming a new identity
Mood Disorders
- Disturbances in emotional feelings strong enough to intrude on everyday life

Mood Disorders: Depression

- A mood disorder involving disturbances in:
o Emotion (excessive sadness)
o Behavior (loss of interest in one’s usual activities)
o Cognition (thoughts of hopelessness)
o Body Function (fatigue and loss of appetite)

Symptoms of Depression (DSM IV requires 5 of those within the past 2 weeks)

- Depressed Mood
- Reduced interest in almost all activities
- Significant weight gain or loss, without dieting
- Sleep disturbance (insomnia or too much sleep)
- Change in motor activity (too much or too little)
- Fatigue or loss of energy
- Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
- Reduced ability to think or concentrate
- Recurrent thoughts of death

Mood Disorders: Bipolar Disorder

- Condition in which a person sequentially experiences periods of mania and
depression
- Mania
o Extended state of intense, wild elation
The Bipolar Brain
- Bipolar disorder can have rapid mood swings
- PET scans show that brain energy consumption rises and falls with emotional
swings

Cause of Mood Disorders: you tell me…

- Biological -> genetics/heredity and brain chemistry
- Social -> stressful circumstances of people’s lives
- Attachment -> problems with close relationships
- Cognitive -> particular habits of thinking and ways of interpreting events
o Depressogenic attribution style
o