In this second video of the psychopathology series we will attempt to clearly define the
three psychopathologies this unit focuses on so phobias, depression and OCD.
We will do this by describing their characteristics; these are divided into behavioural characteristics,
so what do people with phobias, depression and OCD physically do, emotional characteristics,
what do these people feel, and cognitive characteristics, how do these people actually think?
Once we have done that, in the following videos we can go on to explain the disorders in detail
and look at the various treatments.
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Behavioural, Emotional and Cognitive characteristics of Phobias.
✅ You are probably aware that a phobia is an
extreme and irrational fear of some object, or when it comes to social phobias, to some
situation.
Two of the more commonly known phobias are arachnophobia, a fear of spiders and claustrophobia,
a fear of enclosed spaces.
but when we define phobias we need to go beyond saying phobias are just about the emotion
of fear.
If we think about the behavioural actions of someone with a phobia, what do they do,
or not do?
One common behaviour is avoidance, so for example we can imagine someone's phobia of
birds which is called ornithophobia.
Now let's say they see a pigeon land in the street in front of them, they may cross the
street in order to avoid that pigeon, so this is what we would say is avoidance behaviour.
They are physically adapting their normal behaviour to avoid the phobic object.
The physical display of panic is also associated with phobias, this is an uncontrollable physical
response, and it's most likely to happen at the sudden appearance of the phobic object,
so they'll scream, they'll hyperventilate, wave their hands around, and may try to run
away from the situation.
There are other aspects to panic, but keep in mind when describing the behavioural characteristics
of these three psychopathologies we need to focusing entirely on the physically observable
behaviours.
One other behavioural characteristic might be a generalised failure to function, we expect
people to carry out normal behaviours as part of day-to-day life but if you have got a serious
phobia you might not be able to engage the world in the way that most people do, you
might, for example, avoid socialising outside if you are afraid of bees or you might find
it difficult to hold down employment because you avoid going to work, especially if your
phobic object is something that could be encountered at work.
How about emotional characteristics, phobia is an anxiety disorder, so anxiety is an emotional
characteristic, this is an uncomfortably high state of arousal, as people with phobias often
are constantly thinking about a possible future encounter with their phobic object, they are
not able to switch off to relax and feel pleasure.
You may have had a similar experience when worried about something coming up in our future,
maybe an operation, a big exam or important interview, in the run-up we can't relax and
we are unable to feel much pleasure in our day-to-day activities, for someone with a
phobia, this could be a constant experience.
Someone with a social phobia can feel like this before what many of us would consider
to be relatively minor social interactions, leading to a permanently high and uncomfortable
state of arousal.
We have discussed the behavioural characteristic of panic, the emotional aspect of this is
fear, this is an intense emotional state linked to the fight-or-flight response, it's a sensation
of extreme unpleasant alertness that will only go away when the phobic object has been
removed Cognitive characteristics are thought processes,
when it comes to phobias this means irrational fears, phobias sufferers have an exaggerated
belief in the harm the phobic object could cause them.
The vast majority of spiders are completely harmless to humans, but a someone with a severe
spider phobia is convinced even the smallest spider is a deadly threat, someone with a
social phobia is convinced something wrong they say or in a conversation might have long-lasting
or even permanent implications to their social life.
Because a person with phobia focuses their attention so much on these phobic objects,
and the danger they feel they are in, this leads to reduced cognitive capacity, they
are not able to think about and engage in day-to-day life in the same way that other
people will, so this is going to interrupt their ability to focus at work and conduct
other tasks that they need to do or find pleasurable.
Behavioural, Emotional and Cognitive characteristics of Depression.
✅
Depression is a mood disorder, so we generally understand this is a consistent and long lasting
sense of sadness but beyond this emotional characteristic we can identify behavioural
characteristics,
There is likely to be a change in activity level, so people with depression can be lethargic,
this means they lack the energy needed to perform normal activities.
They also may not have the energy to take part in previously enjoyable activities, this
is called anhedonia, for the same reason, they may have poor personal hygiene, this
is likely to be particularly noticeable, and cause observer discomfort to people around
them.
There is often a change in eating behaviour, resulting in significant weight gain or weight
loss.
There can also be an increase in aggressive acts, this can be towards other people, but
often these acts of aggression will be acts of self harm.
Moving on to emotional characteristics, and it won't surprise you that sadness is the
defining feature of depression, this is a persistent very low mood.
Other emotions can include is guilt, alongside helpless and a feeling that that they have
no value in comparison to other people Cognitive features might include poor concentration,
people with depression are not able to give their full attention to tasks, and when they
need to make a decision they are indecisive, unable to choose between competing options.
People with depression also have negative schemas.
I will go into these in much more detail in the depression video, but simply these are
automatic negative biases when thinking about themselves, the world and the future.
Behavioural, Emotional and Cognitive characteristics of OCD.
✅ OCD, or obsessive compulsive disorder is another
anxiety disorder, and if you can remember that you already have an example of a behavioural,
emotional and a cognitive characteristic, Because OCD is defined by obsessions which
are intrusive constant thoughts, a cognitive characteristic, the C stands for compulsions,
compulsions are the behavioural response to the obsessions, these are an attempt to deal
with the constant intrusive thought processes, and of course anxiety is the emotion felt
as a result of the obsessive thoughts.
But of course, we do need to break down these characteristics into a little more detail
and give some more behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics.
Compulsions are a behavioural characteristic, often compulsions are checking behaviours,
this could be testing that the lights, or the gas is definitely are off, or checking
again that the door is properly locked.
Other common compulsions are ritual cleaning behaviours, so this might be cleaning the
kitchen down again and again, or possibly cleaning hands to an extreme amount up to
the point where the hands become sore.
These behaviours are performed repeatedly in an attempt to reduce anxiety, however any
anxiety reduction is only temporary.
Another behavioural characteristic is avoidance, if there are objects or situations that the
suffer knows will trigger obsessive thinking, they may try to avoid them, so will try to
not to use the bin if they know touching the bin will cause obsessional thoughts about
contagion, or will avoid leaving the house if they know while out they will be constantly
worried if the door is locked.
This avoidance can also result in social impairment, meeting friends and taking part in social
activities are difficult if you are not leaving the house, and avoiding potential sources
of contamination.
This means someone with OCD becomes socially withdrawn.
As OCD is an anxiety disorder we can classify high levels of anxiety as an emotional characteristic,
this extreme anxiety is of course a result of the obsession, the constant worst-case-scenario
thinking that defines OCD.
Depression is also an emotional characteristic of OCD, this is a result of not being able
to control the anxiety causing thoughts, and the OCD symptoms taking over the sufferer's
life, leading to issues like social withdrawal.
Cognitive characteristics include obsessions, obsessions are intrusive, irrational and recurrent
thoughts, and these tend to be unpleasant catastrophic thoughts about potential dangers.
Hypervigilance, this a permanent state of alertness were the sufferer is looking for
the source of their obsessive thoughts, for example someone with a contamination obsession
could be looking at each surface they need to touch, like door handles, light switches,
pens and keyboards, and thinking about the potential threat of exposure to germs.
This hypervigilance results in another cognitive characteristic, selective attention, or attentional
bias.
This means the individual with OCD is so focused on the objects connected to the obsession
they are unable to focus on other objects in their environment, or concentrate
on conversations.