Final Project

Psychology

Abnormality
and
Psychological Disorders

Submitted to: Madam Sarosh

Submitted by: Muzammil Shahid 10

Ifzal Ahmed 09
Hajrah Fazal 29
Adeel Abid 08

November 3, 2006
 ABNORMALITY

There are different approacches for devising a precise, scientific definitation of “abnormal
behaviour”. Some of widely used definations are as follow:

 Deviation from the average. To dertmine the abnormality, we simply observe what
behaviors are rare of infrequent in a given society or culture and label these deviations
from the norm as abnormal.
Drawback. Some behaviors are statistically rare but are not abnormal.

 Deviation from the ideal. Behaviour is considerd abnormal if it deviates enough from
some kind of ideal or cultural standards.
Drawback. (1) Society has so few standards about which people agree. (2) Standards
tend to change overtime.

 Abnormality as a sense of subjective discomfort. In this approch, behaviour is

considerd abnormal if it produces a sense of disstress, anxiety, or guilt in an individual,
or if it is harmful to others in some way.
Drawback. In some severe form of mental disturbance, people report feeling
euphoric and on top of world, however their behavior is strange.

 Inability to function. People who are unable to function effectively and adapt to
demands of society are considered abnormal. Eg. An unemployed, homeless woman
living on street might be considerd abnormal.

Abnormality can be defiend a state when person can not understand diffrence between right
and wrong.

Behaviour must be evaluated in term of gradations, ranging from completely normal

functioning to exteme abnormal behaviour. Obviously, behaviour fall somewhere between
these to extremes. There is no particular point beyond which we can say abnormality exists.

Models of Abnormality

 The Medical Model. It suggests when an individual displays symptoms of abnormal

behaviour, the cause is physiological. It can be hormonal imbalance, chemical
deficiency, or a brain injury.

 The Psychoanalytic Model. It suggests that abnormal behaviour stems from childhood
conflicts over opposing wishes regarding sex and aggression. If the childhood conflicts
 are not dealt successfully, they remain unresolved in the unconscious and bring
abnormality during adulthood.

 The Behavioral Model. Instead of focusing on pshycological and medical cause of the
problem this model focuses on the behavoiour as a problem itself. This focus on how the
abnormal behaviour is learned and in what circunmstances it is displayed.

 The Cognitive Model. This approach assumes that cognitions (people thought and
beliefs) are responsible for a person’s abnormal behaviour. It focuses to teach new, more
adaptive ways of thinking.

 The Humanistic Model. This suggests that people are actually sensible, and should set
their own limits on acceptable behaviour.It says that as long as people are not hurting
others and donot feel personal distress, they should be free to choose the behaviours
they engage in. This model is vauge and unscientific.

 The Sociocultural Model. It suggests that people behaviour both normal and abnormal,
is shaped by family society and culture in which people lives. Psychological disorders
are more in poor and homeless people as compared to higher class peoples.

MAJOR PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety: It is state of tension or unease in reaction to stressful situation. Every one feels it to
some degree and it is usually a reaction to stress that helps, rather than hinders, our daily
functioning

When anxiety occur without any obvious external cause and begin to hinder people’s daily
functioning it is know as anxiety disorder.
There are four main types of anxiety disorder:

Generalized anxiety disorder: In this individual experience long-term, consistent anxiety

without knowing why.
Symptoms: fell afraid of something but unable to know what it is, unable to concentrate,
unable to function normally, unable to relax.
Results: such anxiety may result in development of physiological problems like headaches,
dizziness, heart palpitations, or insomnia.
Panic Disorders: In this type of anxiety, periodic and unexpected attacks occur that last from
a few seconds to as long as several hours. During an attack, level of anxiety rises to a peak,
and individual feels a sense of impending, unavoidable doom.
Symptoms include heart palpitations, shortness of breath, unusual amount of sweating,
faintness, an urge to urinate, gastric sensations and some time sense of imminent death.

Phobic Disorder: Phobias are intense, irrational fear of specific objects or situations.
Examples: Heights, water, dogs, snakes, flights, Strangers and many more.
Water -------- Aquaphobia
Dogs---------- Cynophobia
Strangers-------- Xenophobis
Phobia can be very serious. This disorder is different from last two types because in this case
there is a specific, identifiable stimulus that sets off anxiety.

Simple phobias: - A simple phobia is a fear of a specific thing or situation. A person may
have one phobia but be normal in all other aspects. He may have more
than one phobia’s that may interfere in his everyday life. E.g. phobia of
snake, lizard or water etc.

Social phobias: - This relates to people who have extreme fear of going to group of
people or public places and feel embarrassing in front of others. The
most common types of this phobia are public speaking and eating in
public.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A disorder characterized by obsessions or compulsions.

Obsession is a thought that keep recurring in one’s mind.
Example: a student may not be able to stop feeling that he has neglected to put his name on
test and think constantly for 2 weeks. These thought persists for days or months and may
consist of bizarre, troubling image.
Compulsion is an urge to repeatedly carry out an act that seems strange and unreasonable,
even to them. If people cannot carry out that act they feel anxiety.
Example: repeatedly checking the stove to make sure all the burners are turned of, or a
continuous need to wash oneself.

Major Cause of Anxiety

• Genetic factor play role in anxiety disorder (medial model)
• Chemical deficiencies in brain
• Anxiety is a learned response to stress(Psychoanalytic model)
• People faulty thinking about the world causes anxiety. (cognitive model)
Somatoform Disorders

Psychological disorders or difficulties that take on a physical form are known as somatoform
disorders. In this disorder there is no apparent physical cause.

Hypochondriasis is one type in which individual reports physical symptoms. However there
is no underlying physical problem, or if a physical problem does exist, the person’s reaction
greatly exaggerates what would be expected from the medical problem alone. People
experiencing this are not simply faking. They actually feel the pain and discomfort.

Muchausen’s syndrome
A syndrome in which individual pretend to have various medical problems in order to get
attention from health practitioners.

Conversion disorder
This type involves an actual physical disturbance such as the in ability to use a sense organ or
the complete or partial inability to move an arm or leg. Cause is purely psychological.
Example: people wake up blind in the morning
• One characteristic found in people experiencing conversion disorder is a lack of
concern over symptoms that most of us would expect to be highly anxiety-producing.

Dissociative Disorders

Such problem involves dissociation of critical parts of personality that are normally integrated
and work together. This lack of integration allows critical part of body to avoid stress as
another part is made to face it. There are three major types of dissociative disorders.

Dissociative identity disorder

A person displays characteristics of two or more distinct personalities. Each personality has a
unique set of likes and dislikes and its own reaction to situations. Each individual personality
is well adjusted when consider on its own.
The problem is that there is only one body available to various personalities, forcing the
personality to take turns. Because there can be strong variation in personalities the person
behavior can appear very inconsistent.

Dissociative amnesia
It is a failure or inability to remember past experiences. Unlike simple amnesia, in dissociate
amnesia forgotten material is still present in the memory but it cannot be recalled.
Example: Cannot recall names
Cannot recognize their parents and other relatives.
Cannot tell their address.
Individuals may remember skills and abilities that they developed earlier.
Dissociative fugue
In this state people take an impulsive, sudden trip often assuming a new identity. After a
period of time they suddenly realize that they were in strange place. Their last memories are
those from the time just before they entered the fugue state.

Mood Disorders
Changes in mood are a normal part of everyday life. In some people however, mood are so
pronounced and so long-lasting that they interfere there ability to function effectively.
Mood disorders are defined as disturbances in emotional feelings strong enough to intrude on
everyday living.
Or
Disorder in which individual experiences swings in their emotional states that are much more
extreme and prolonged than normal is know as mood disorder

Major depression
A sever form of depression that interferes with concentration, decision making, and
sociability.
Women are twice as likely to experience major depression as men.
From major depression psychologist do not mean the normal sadness that comes from daily
life problems. People who suffer from this experience similar feelings but the severity tends to
be considerably greater. They may feel useless, worthless, and lonely and despair over future.

Mania and Bipolar disorder

Mania refers to extended state of intense euphoria and elation (happiness). People
experiencing mania feel intense happiness, power, invulnerability, and energy. They may
think they will succeed at anything they attempt to do.

A disorder in which person experiences both euphoric feeling of mania and bout of depression
is called bipolar disorder. The alteration may occur as frequently as few days apart, or they
may alternate over a period of years. Sometime creative individual may also suffer from
forms of bipolar disorder

Schizophrenia

A class of disorders in which serious distortion of reality occurs resulting in antisocial, silly,
or obscene behavior, hallucination, and disturbances in movement. Thinking, perception, and
emotion may deteriorate; there may be withdrawal from social interaction; and there may be
displays of bizarre behavior.
Symptoms displayed by person with schizophrenia may vary considerably over time.
Some important symptoms are
 • Decline from previous level of functioning. An individual can no longer carry out
activities he or she was once able to do.

• Disturbance of thoughts and language. They use logic and language in a strange way.
There thinking does not make sense, and they don’t follow conventional linguistic
rules

• Delusions. They firmly held unshakeable beliefs with no basis in reality. Example:
they may beliefs that they are being controlled by someone else.

• Perceptual disorders. They do not perceive the world as most other people do. They
may hear, smell, and see thing differently from others. They may also have
hallucinations.

• Emotional disturbance. They show a lack of emotion in which even the most dramatic
event produce little or no emotional response. They also display emotions
inappropriate to the situations.

• Withdrawal. They tend to have least interest in others they do not socialize or hold real
conversation with other. In some cases they do not accept the presence of others.
People with schizophrenia makeup the largest percentage of those hospitalized for
mental disorders.

• Avolition. They show total lack of motivation or will

• Alogia. (Lack of speech) they have little or nothing to say.

Personality disorders

People with personality disorders frequently lead seemingly normal live. However, just below
the surface lies a set of inflexible, maladaptive personality traits that do not permit such
individuals to function appropriately as members of society.
This problem differs from other disorders discussed.

Personality disorders are divided into three major clusters:

Odd and Eccentric Personality Disorder

Paranoid Personality Disorder: pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of others

Schizoid Personality Disorder: lack social relationship and have little or no sign of
emotions
Schizotypal Personality Disorder: pattern of social isolation, cognitive or perceptual
distortion and act in strange way

Dramatic, Emotional, Erratic Personality Disorder

Antisocial Personality Disorder: display no regard for moral and ethical rules of society,
lack of remorse

Borderline Personality Disorder: pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-

image, moods

Histrionic Personality Disorder: Pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attention

seeking, want to be center of attention

Narcissistic Personality Disorder: exaggerated sense of self-importance, expect special

treatment from others, lack of empathy for others.

Anxious and Fearful Personality Disorder:

Avoidant Personality Disorder: pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of in

adequacy, hypersensitivity to negative evaluation

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism,

Disorder: and need for mental and interpersonal control

Dependent Personality Disorder: depend on others for all minor and major decisions,
need to be taken care of

Eating Disorder
Disturbances in eating behavior that involve maladaptive and unhealthy efforts to control
body weight are known as eating disorder
Eating disorders often begin in childhood and adolescence.

Two eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are important.

Anorexia Nervosa:

This involves an intense and excessive fear of gaining weight coupled with refusal to maintain
a normal body weight.
Anorexia nervosa is more common in female than males. This is because female are more
conscious of their physical look.
People with this disorder relentlessly pursue the goal of being thin, no matter what this does to
their health. They often wrongly perceive that they are much heavier. As a result of this
distorted perception they starve themselves to the point where the where their body weight
drop to dangerously low level.

Bulimia Nervosa (THE Binge-Purge Cycle):

In this disorder individuals engage in recurrent episode of binge eating (eating huge amount
of food within short period of time) followed by some kind of compensatory behavior
designed to prevent weight gain. This may involve self induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives,
fasting, or excessive exercise.

This disorder is again common in young females and they report to purge about twelve or
more time per week.

Causes: cause of both type of disorder is same, that women want to make them more
physically attractive and wrongly perceive their body weight.
 Final Project
Psychology

Abnormality
and
Psychological Disorders

Submitted to: Madam Sarosh

Submitted by: Muzammil Shahid 10

Ifzal Ahmed 09
Hajrah Fazal 29
Adeel Abid 08

November 3, 2006