Cognitive Psychology

According to cognitive
psychology, some forms of
learning must be explained
as changes in mental
processes, rather than as
changes in behavior alone

Major Depression
• Bipolar Disorder
• Seasonal Affective Disorder
• Dysthimia

• Psychotherapy
– There are about 400 different types of psychotherapy
• Four major approaches
– Psychodynamic
– Humanistic
– Behavioral
– Cognitive
• Biological Approaches
– Drug therapy, ECT, surgery

Psychological Disorders
What are the ways that abnormal can be defined?
abnormal

Deviation from average

Deviation from ideal
Personal discomfort
Inability to function effectively
Legal concept

2) How do the different perspectives view psychopathology?

Psychoanalytic, medical, behavioral/ learning, cognitive, humanistic, sociocultural

3) Know also the diathesis-stress model

Diathesis-stress hypothesis –
Genetic factors place the individual at risk,
but environmental stress factors transform
this potential into an actual disorder

4) What is the DSM-IV-TR? What are its shortcomings?

DSM-IV –
Fourth edition of the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; the
most widely accepted classification system
in the United States
• Primarily uses medical model

Mood disorders
major depression
– A severe form of depression that interferes with
concentration, decision making, and sociability
• Also called clinical depression
• At any one time, 6 to 10% of US population
is depressed
• More common in women than men
• Rates are going up throughout the world

bipolar disorder
• Mental abnormality involving swings of
mood from mania to depression
• Affects 2.6% of population
• Usually starts in adolescence, but can be
anytime
• Effects men and women equally
• Is chronic

dysthymia
Depressed mood most of the day for more
days than not for at least 2 years
• 1.5% of population in a given year
• 10% with dysthymic disorder develop major
depression (yearly); up to 75% in 5 years
• Chronic
• Psychotherapy is treatment of choice
seasonal affective disorder
Seasonal affective disorder
– sadness and depression in fall and winter
• Risk factors
– family history
– Northern locations
• Causes
– Circadian rhythms
– serotonin
– melatonin
• Treatment
– light therapy
– medication
– psychotherapy
causes of mood disorders
Genetic component
– MZ twins 43% in bipolar, 22.5% in major, 7.4% in dysthimia
– DZ twins 6% in bipolar, 14% in major, 8.7% in dysthimia
• Psychoanalytic
– Anger directed inward or feelings of loss
• Behavioral
– Stresses of life produce a reduction in positive reinforcers
• Cognitive Factors
– Learned helplessness
– Hopelessness: learned helplessness + negative expectations
– “Faulty cognitions”
• Evolutionary Psychology
– Adaptive response to unattainable goals
– Lack of fit between environment and adapted environment

how are mood disorders treated

bipolar
• Some form of psychotherapy
• Lithium: made of mineral salts; acts a mood
stabilizer; helps a lot with manic phases
• Depakote and Tegretol: other mood
stabilizers
• Antidepressants often prescribed during
depressive episodes
major depression
Biological
anti-depressant drugs
– Tricyclic drugs: increase availability of norepinephrine
– MAO inhibitors: keeps the enzyme monoamine oxidase
from breaking down neurotransmitters
– SSRIs: target serotonin reuptake to let it linger in the
synapse
• Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT): 70-150 volts of
an electric current is briefly administered to a
patient’s head, causing a loss of consciousness and
often causing seizures

• Cognitive Therapy is most effective type of

psychotherapy
• Rational-Emotive Therapy: attempts to
restructure a person’s belief system into a
more realistic, rational, and logical set of
views
• Can be combined with other types of
psychotherapy

Anxiety disorders
1) For each disorder, you should know what the main symptoms are.
phobias,
panic disorder,
Marked by panic attacks that have no connection
to events in a person’s present experience
• Panic attack: not a disorder, but can lead to panic
disorder
– Very common
• Feature of panic disorder is excessive worry about
a panic attack that alters behavior
• Lifetime prevalence 1.5%-3.5%
• Twice as common in women
agoraphobia,
Fear of public places/open spaces
• Severe and pervasive anxiety about being in
situations from which escape is difficult
• Common course: panic attack panic
disorder agoraphobia (33%)
• One year prevalence rate: 5%
• Twice as common in women
generalized anxiety
• Persistent and pervasive feelings of anxiety,
without any external cause
• Lifetime prevalence rate of 5%; yearly 3.1%
• Many report feeling nervous all their lives;
half onset occurs after age 20
• Chronic, but fluctuating
• Worse in times of stress
obsessive-compulsive
disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder
2) what is an obsession/ what is a compulsion? how are they related?
Obsession: Recurrent or persistent thought,
impulse or image
– Not simply excessive worry
– Attempts to ignore
– Recognizes thoughts are own mind
3) how are panic attacks and panic disorders related to agoraphobia?
4) what are the causes of anxiety disorders?
5) how are anxiety disorders treated?
Somatoform disorders
1) we didn’t discuss these in lecture, but you should be able to identify them
and know their
main symptoms.
hypochrondiasis, conversion disorder
Dissociative disorders
1) For each disorder, you should know what the main symptoms are.
dissociative identity disorder, dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue
2) How are dissociative disorders treated?
Schizophrenia

1) you should know the main symptoms of schizophrenia and know the
difference between
positive and negative schizophrenia.
2) what is a hallucination? what is a delusion?
3) what are the causes of schizophrenia
4) how does schizophrenia differ from OCD and dissociative identity
disorder?
Personality disorders
1) You should be able to identify these disorders.
antisocial, borderline, narcissistic
Childhood disorders
1) You should be able to identify these disorders.
attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, dyslexia
Psychotherapy
Most of our discussion of treatment was in the context of discussing the
particular disorders.
However, you should definitely read and study the chapter on treatment.
1) Who does therapy?
2) What is Freudian psychoanalysis? What is transference?
3) How does neo-Freudian therapy differ from classic Freudian therapy?
4) What are the goals of therapy for humanistic psychotherapists?
5) What does client centered therapy mean?
6) How does cognitive therapy work?
7) What is behavior therapy? What is behavior modification?
8) How does systematic desensitization work? How does aversion therapy
work?
11) What is dialectical behavior therapy?
12) Make sure you are familiar with cognitive-behavioral therapy, particularly
rational-emotive
therapy.
13) One of the most important concepts of the whole semester, I think, is the
section on
consensus and controversy on effective therapies that starts on page 570.
This is good
fodder for a short-answer question.
14) You do not need to know the wide variety of drugs available, but you do
need to know
these categories and what they are used to treat: anti-psychotic drugs,
antidepressant drugs,
mood stabilizers, stimulants, and anti-anxiety drugs. You should also know
the kinds of
disorders these drugs are used to treat.
15) What is psychosurgery? What is it used for?
16) What is ECT? What is it used for?
17) What is community psychology?
Cumulative Section
This section will primarily cover ideas that have been brought up multiple
times throughout
the semester, or informed our discussions throughout the semester. These
ideas include:
research methods and the major perspectives. At this point, you should be
familiar with the
major perspectives and their main contributions.
The practice questions give a good guide as to the kinds of things I’ve asked
in the past. You
may also want to look at the short answer questions from previous tests.