DISSOCIATIVE, SOMATIC, & AUTISM DISORDERS AP PSYCHOLOGY- MS. FORSBERG developmental deficits that produce impairments NEURODEVELOPMENTAL of personal, social, academic, or occupational functioning. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD • Impairing levels of inattention, disorganization and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity. Tourette’s • Multiple motor and one or more vocal tics. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) • Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts. SYMPTOMS OF AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASD) Social Impairment Must be present in early • Trouble engaging in social interaction childhood & limit everyday • Little eye contact functioning for diagnosis. • Difficulty with communication • Respond unusually when people show emotion 3 boys for every 1 girl • Difficulty understanding another’s point of view Repetitive/Ritualistic Behaviors • Body repetition (rocking, arm flapping, etc.) • Object repetition (feeling certain textures, flicking a rubber band, etc.)-usually because of sensory sensitivity or under-sensitive • Strong need for routines and consistency: may develop object/activity obsessions. POSSIBLE CAUSES (ETIOLOGY) OF ASD Genetic Factors • In identical twins, if one has ASD, the other twin also has ASD in nearly 9 out of 10 cases. • Gene Mutations Environmental Factors • Currently being researched • Possible factors: family medical conditions, parental age and other demographic factors, exposure to toxins, and complications during birth or pregnancy. TREATMENTS FOR ASD ABA – Applied Pharmacological Dietary alteration Behavioral Analysis Intervention + supplements • Token Economy SOMATOFORM/SOMATIC SYMPTOM DISORDERS Conversion disorder • Person experiences very specific Symptoms take somatic genuine physical symptoms for (bodily) form without which no physiological basis can apparent physical cause be found Illness Anxiety disorder WHY? • A disorder in which a person • Psychodynamic- unresolved interprets normal physical unconscious conflicts sensations as symptoms of a • Behaviorists- reinforced for disease (former hypochondriasis) behavior DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS Characterized by separation of critical parts of the personality (like memory, consciousness or identity) that are normally integrated and work together • People who dissociate are able to prevent disturbing memories or perceptions from reaching their conscious awareness, thereby reducing their anxiety OTHER DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS.. • Inability to recall autobiographical Dissociative information such as an event or period of time, specific aspect of an Amnesia event or identity and life history Dissociative • may involve purposeful travel or Fugue bewildered wandering (fugue). CASE STUDY John, a meek person who was dependent on his wife for companionship and emotional support, It came as a jolt when she announced that she was leaving him to live with his younger brother. John did not go to work the next day. In fact, nothing was heard from for 2 weeks until he was arrested for public drunkenness and assault in a city more than 300 miles from home. During those 2 weeks, John lived under another name at a cheap hotel and worked selling tickets at a pornographic movie theater. When he was interviewed, John did not know his real name or him home address, could not explain how he had reached his present location, and could not remember much about the previous 2 weeks. DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER (DID) Person appears to have 2 or more distinct personalities, each of which can speak, act, and write in different ways • identities have own memories, wishes, and impulses • (often the impulses of one identity conflict with those of the other identities) • 1 body available, forcing the personalities to take turns • Strong variations in personalities, a person’s behavior can appear very inconsistent CASE STUDY Mary, a pleasant and introverted, thirty five year old social worker, was referred to a psychiatrist for hypnotic treatment of chronic pain. At an early interview she mentioned the odd fact that though she had no memory of using her car after coming home from work, she often found that it had been driven 50-100 miles overnight. It turned out that she also had no memory of large parts of her childhood. Mary learned self- hypnosis and during one session she suddenly began speaking in a hostile manner. She told the doctor her name was Marian and that it was “she” who had been taking long evening drives. She also called Mary “pathetic” for “wasting time” trying to please other people. Eventually 6 other identities emerged, some of whom told of parental abuse as a child. DEVELOPMENT OF DID Psychoanalytic Behaviorists • REPRESSION of unwanted • Everyone capable of acting in impulses or memories create “new different ways in different person” who acts out otherwise situations.. extreme variation of unacceptable impulses or recalls acting so different that you “feel” otherwise unbearable memories like a different person • Symptoms strengthened by reward that memory loss or shifting personalities allows an individual to escape stressful situations IS THIS REAL? Most clinicians Evaluation is difficult believed caused by Rare outside of USA due to rarity childhood abuse/trauma Some due not believe Child separates from in DID. Believe the abuse as a way to individual is role- “deal” with situation playing or led by Dr..