Matthew O’Shea AP Psychology # 13

5 / 23 / 2010 Period 2
Abnormal Psychology
1.) Abnormal behavior is behavior that is personally disturbing or disabling, or
culturally so deviant that others judge it as maladaptive, inappropriate or
unjustifiable.
2.) The causes of abnormal behavior, according to the psychological perspective, is
internal conflict in the unconscious stemming from early childhood traumas. The
behavioral approach says it consists of maladaptive responses learned through
reinforcement of the wrong kinds of behavior.
3.) Psychopathology is the study of the origin, development and manifestations of
mental or behavioral disorders.
4.) Etiology is the apparent cause and development of an illness.
5.) Prognosis forecasts the probable course of an illness.
6.) The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) is a medical model used by the
American Psychiatric Association that classifies psychological disorders by their
symptoms. It lists diagnostic criteria for 17 major categories of mental disorders,
subdivided into about 400 disorders. It enables mental health professionals to
communicate information about individuals who suffer from abnormalities and
helps them decide how to treat and individual.
7.) Diagnosis in the DSM-IV is given in 5 axes (dimensions). Axis I: Clinical
Syndromes contains all of the major disorders including anxiety, depression,
schizophrenia, substance abuse and organic mental disorders. Axis II: Personality
Disorders and Mental Retardation contains disorders such as obsessive
compulsive and mild retardation that could be overlooked when focus is on Axis
I. The other axes deal with general medical conditions, psychosocial and
environmental problems, and global assessment of functioning.
8.) One of the different anxiety disorders is a panic disorder, which is the diagnosis
when an individual experiences repeated attacks on intense anxiety along with
severe chest pain, tightness of muscles, choking, sweating, or other acute
symptoms. Generalized anxiety disorder is similar to a panic disorder, where
frequent trouble sleeping, hypervigilant and tense, difficulty of concentration and
irritability can occur. Phobias are intense, irrational fear responses to specific
stimuli. Common phobias include agoraphobia (fear of being out in public),
acrophobia (fear of heights), claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces) and
zoophobia (fear of animals). Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) us a
compound disorder of thought and behavior and includes obsessions, which are
persistent, intrusive, and unwanted thoughts that an individual cannot get out of
their head. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a result of some trauma
experienced (natural disaster, war, etc) by the victim. They relive the experiences
through nightmares or flashbacks.
9.) A somatoform disorder is characterized by physical symptoms such as pain,
paralysis, blindness, or deafness without any demonstrated physical cause
10.) A somatization disorder is characterized by recurrent complaints about
usually vague and unverifiable medical conditions such as dizziness, heart
palpitations and nausea, which do not apparently result from any physical cause.
 A conversion disorder (hysteria) is characterized by loss of some bodily function,
such as becoming blind, deaf, or paralyzed, without physical damage to the
affected organs or their neural connections. The victim becomes accepted of what
is happening to them. Hypochondriasis is when a person unrealistically interprets
physical signs, such as pains, lumps and irritations, as evidence of serious
diseases. They become anxious and upset about their symptoms.
11.) A dissociative disorder is a psychological disorder that involves a sudden
loss of memory (amnesia) or change in identity.
12.) Dissociative amnesia is a loss of memory for a traumatic event or period
of time that is too painful for an individual to remember. Dissociative fugue is a
memory loss for anything having to do with personal memory. Dissociative
identity disorder (DID) is diagnosed when two or more distinct personalities are
present within the same individual.
13.) Social learning theorists feel that DID has become so much more
prevalent since publication of books and production of films dealing with the
disorder have been produced. They feel that people displaying the disorder are
role playing and question why different personalities pop out now in contrast to
years ago when alternate personalities emerged very slowly.
14.) Mood disorders are psychological disorders characterized by a primary
disturbance in affect or mood that colors the individual’s entire emotional state.
15.) Major depressive disorder (unipolar disorder) involves intense depressed
mood, reduced interest or pleasure in activities, loss of energy and problems in
making decision for a minimum of two weeks. Depression with seasonal pattern
(seasonal affective disorder) is a type of depression that recurs, usually during the
winter months in the northern latitudes (reason is because of shorter periods of
sunlight affecting sleep and disturbs moods). Bipolar disorder is characterized by
mood swings alternating between periods of major depression and mania, the two
poles of emotions. Symptoms include inflated ego, little need for sleep, excessive
talking and impulsivity.
16.) Schizophrenia is a broad umbrella of symptoms and disorders
characterized by psychosis or lack of touch with reality evidenced by highly
disordered thought processes.
17.) Disorganized schizophrenia symptoms include incoherent speech,
inappropriate mood, hallucinations, and the delusional thought patterns. Paranoid
schizophrenia is characterized by delusions of grandeur, persecution and
reference. Catatonic schizophrenia is characterized by disordered movement
patterns, sometimes-immobile stupor or frenzied and excited behaviors.
Undifferentiated or simple schizophrenia is marked by disturbance of thought or
behavior and emotion that do not fit any of the above categories. One area of
dysfunction is noted and yet the person may be perfectly normal in ever other
aspect of life.
18.) Schizophrenia is NOT split personality. People with schizophrenia
experience a split with reality. People with dissociative identity disorder show two
or more personalities.
19.) A personality disorder is when people have longstanding, maladaptive
thought an behavior patterns that are troublesome to others, harmful or illegal.
20.) Odd/eccentric personality disorder includes being paranoid or schizoid
(poor capacity for forming a social relationship) and schizotypal (odd thinking).
Dramatic/emotionally problematic disorder includes being histrionic (dramatic),
narcissistic (unrealistically self important), and borderline (emotionally unstable,
as well as antisocial (psychopath). Chronic fearfulness/avoidant disorder includes
being avoidant, dependent, and obsessive compulsive.
21.) One type of developmental disorder is attention – deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD), which is when children are unable to focus their attention and
are easily distracted and often act impulsively, quickly changing activities, which
results in failure of completing tasks. Autism includes lack of responsiveness to
other people, impairment in verbal and nonverbal communications and very
limited activities and interest. Children with autism engage in repetitive behavior.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by a weight of less that 85%
of normal body weight, abnormally restrictive food consumption, and an
unrealistic body image. Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by a
pattern of eating binges involving intake of thousands of calories, followed by
purging by either vomiting or using laxatives.