Abnormal Psychology

Study abnormal psychology online to learn more about mental health conditions and remedies.

About 20% of persons suffer from mental illnesses and disorders. Many of us have seen or directly know someone who is struggling with mental health. Although mental health issues were formerly stigmatised, most modern societies now recognise that anyone can develop a mental disorder. Over the past 150 years, there has been a significant development in our understanding of mental diseases, and there are now more resources available to assist people manage their symptoms or fully recover from them.

Students who take this course will get important understanding and information about mental health issues.

• Discover the various types of psychiatric disorders that are most prevalent, their causes, and how they might impact a person’s behaviour.
• Investigate the root reasons of anomalous behaviour, including substance misuse, developmental problems, hereditary conditions, and medical diseases.
• Self-paced course lasting 100 hours
• To advance your career and professional development, better grasp how people with mental health concerns behave.

The student will gain knowledge about a variety of common psychiatric diseases in this course, including their causes, signs, prognosis, and potential treatments. While the course mostly reflects the classifications systems used in the DSM and ICD, students are also urged to think about questions like how we define normality and abnormality and when is an individual’s behaviour within the bounds of what is considered to be “normal” in society – and when is it “abnormal.”

Counselors, educators, social workers, youth workers, support staff, and carers will all benefit from having a better grasp of mental health concerns. Students will be more equipped to recognise and accommodate the behaviours of the persons they deal with if they are aware of mental health difficulties. With the knowledge of the available therapy alternatives, they will be able to alter their interactional style and communicate with people in a way that is more beneficial and understanding.

Lesson Structure

There are 11 lessons in this course:

1. Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy
   • Criteria for Determining Abnormality.
   • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
   • Childhood Disorders.
   • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
   • Conduct Disorder.
   • Mental Retardation.
   • Asperger’s Disorder.
   • Stereotypic Movement Disorder.
   • Normal Functioning.
   • Depression in Childhood.
   • Anxiety Disorders.
   • Types of Therapy: Adlerian, Behaviour, Existential, Gestalt, Person Centred Therapy, Psychoanalysis, Rational Emotive, Reality Therapy, Transactional.
2. Delirium, Dementia, Amnesic and Other Cognitive Disorders
   • Types of Cognitive Disorders.
   • Delirium.
   • Dementia.
   • Types of Dementia.
   • Alzheimer’s Disease.
   • Comparing Dementia and Delirium.
   • Amnesia.
   • Cognitive Disorder NOS.
   • Pseudo Dementia.
   • Research Methods in Biopsychology.
3. Substance-Related Disorders
   • Scope and Nature of Substance Abuse.
   • Reasons for Using Drugs.
   • Substance Dependence.
   • Intoxication and Withdrawal.
   • Alcohol Dependence and DT’s.
   • Substance Dependence.
   • Substance Abuse.
   • Drug Misuse.
   • Classes of Drugs.
   • Amphetamines.
   • Cocaine.
   • Crack.
   • Opium and Heroin.
   • LSD.
   • Other Drugs, Steroids, Ritalin, Inhalants, etc.
   • Risks with Specific Drugs.
   • Older Adults Susceptible to Prescription Misuse.
4. Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders
   • Scope and Nature.
   • Psychosis.
   • Treating Psychosis.
   • Schizo-affective Disorders.
   • Delusional (Paranoid) Disorders.
   • Onset of Schizophrenia.
   • Symptoms of Schizophrenia
   • Treating Schizophrenia.
   • Schizophrenia and Violence.
   • Biology of Schizophrenia.
   • Antipsychotic Medications.
   • Psychosocial Treatments.
   • Role of the Patients Support System.
5. Mood Disorders
   • Depressive Disorders.
   • Determining Type of Depression.
   • Unipolar Disorders and Bipolar Disorders.
   • Risk Factors for Depression.
   • Men and Depression.
   • Diagnostic Evaluation and Treatment.
   • Types of Treatment.
6. Anxiety Disorders
   • Scope and Nature.
   • Anxiety Symptoms.
   • Generalised Anxiety Disorders.
   • Phobic Anxiety Disorders.
   • Panic Disorder.
   • Treatments – Intervention, Drugs, etc.
   • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
7. Somatoform, Factitious, and Dissociative Disorders
   • Somatisation Disorder.
   • Conversion Disorder.
   • Pain Disorder.
   • Hypochondriasis.
   • Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
   • Factitious Disorders: Types, Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis.
   • Munchausen’s Syndrome.
   • Dissociative Disorders.
   • Psychogenic Amnesia.
   • Psychogenic Fugue.
   • Dissociative Identity Disorder.
   • Depersonalisation Disorder.
8. Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders
   • Scope and Nature.
   • Hypoactive Sexual Disorder.
   • Sexual Aversion.
   • Female Sexual Arousal Disorder.
   • Male Erectile Disorder.
   • Female and Male Orgasmic Disorders.
   • Premature Ejaculation.
   • Dyspareunia.
   • Vaginismus.
   • Secondary Sexual Dysfunction.
   • Paraphilia.
   • Paedophilia.
   • Gender Identity Disorder (Transsexualism).
9. Eating and Sleep Disorders
   • Scope and Nature of Eating Disorders.
   • Anorexia Nervosa.
   • Bulimia.
   • Binge Eating Disorder.
   • Treatment Strategies.
   • Research Findings and Directions.
   • Treatments for Sleep Apnoea.
   • Prognosis for Sleep Apnoea.
10. Impulse-Control Disorders, Adjustment Disorder
    • Symptoms of Adjustment Disorders.
    • Risk Factors for Adjustment Disorders.
    • Impulse Control Disorders.
    • Intermittent Explosive Disorder.
    • Kleptomania.
    • Pyromania.
    • Pathological Gambling.
    • Trichotillomania.
    • Compulsive Skin Picking.
11. Personality Disorders
    • Scope and Nature of Personality Disorders.
    • Antisocial Personality Disorder .
    • Avoidant Personality Disorder.
    • Dependent Personality Disorder.
    • Histrionic Personality Disorder.
    • Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
    • Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder.
    • Paranoid Personality Disorder.
    • Schizoid Personality Disorder.
    • Borderline Personality Disorder: Symptoms, Treatment, Research, etc.

Each session ends with an assignment that is sent in to the school, graded by the tutors there, and returned to you with any pertinent comments and suggestions—and, if necessary, additional reading if they are applicable.

Aims

• Find diseases that are most common in people under the age of 18.
• Explain how you would reach a diagnosis of possible autism in a 4-year-old.
• Distinguish between delirium and dementia.
• Search the internet for MRI and PET scan images of delirious or dementia-affected brains and include the photographs in your essay.
• Separate substance use problems from those caused by reliance on substances.
• Distinguish between various psychotic illnesses.
• Briefly describe the various schizophrenia subtypes.
• Differentiate between bipolar and unipolar disorders.
• sketch a mental model of depression.
• Provide examples of the various sorts of anxiety disorders.
• Create a therapy plan to help a client overcome their phobia of spiders.
• Separate Somatoform Disorder from Dissociative Disorder.
• What are the main objections to dissociative identity disorder?
• Give a case study a diagnosis, and then explain your diagnosis.
• Talk about sexual dysfunction, paraphilias, and gender identity disorder.
• Describe what makes a predilection for a sexual act or object different from paraphilia.
• Detect sleeping and eating disorders.
• Describe the progression of eating problems.
• Differentiate between adjustment problems and impulse control issues.
• Create a diagnosis chart for disorders of impulse control.
• Differentiate between the various varieties of personality disorders.
• Establish a distinction between histrionic and narcissistic personality disorders.

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ACS LEARNING IS MUCH MORE THAN THE “ROTE” STYLE OF LEARNING FOUND IN CERTAIN COLLEGES.

• BE SURE NOT TO LEARN BY ROTE! Education is more than simply memorising information for a short period of time before regurgitating it before a test, only to forget it months later. It involves altering your way of thinking. ACS is NOT based on assessment. Our courses are designed to help you develop better cognitive processes that you will use for the rest of your life, not just for one semester. We urge you to reflect on and comprehend the material you are learning so that, once the course is through, you are prepared to put what you have learned to use.
• You are instructed by members of industry with ACS. Learn psychology from a person who has really sat in the therapist’s chair. If you want to learn how to write, take advice from a well-known author. At ACS, we provide you with this. Many professors and instructors there have worked there for their whole careers. Our instructors have college degrees but also have day jobs in the business, so once you’ve earned your degree, we can help you decide what to do next.
• Our courses are adaptable enough to take into account each student’s unique background; as a result, learning is personalised and stays with the learner even after receiving the award. Students studying psychology work through long-misunderstood emotional circumstances in their lives as agriculture students present their findings at a farm. Self-direction and practical application are mixed with theory. The student is participating actively in the class and EXPERIENCING the material rather than ONLY LEARNING BY ROTE.
• There may be hundreds of pupils to one lecturer or teacher in a class setting. You may reach a tutor at ACS easily via phone and email. Our tutors take an interest in each student’s education and get to know them.

Here is an excerpt from some of our course notes:

Unipolar Disorder (also known as recurrent major depression)

Clinical depression is a health condition of depression with mental and physical components reaching criteria generally accepted by clinicians. Although nearly any mood with some element of sadness may colloquially be termed a depression, clinical depression is more than just a temporary state of sadness. Symptoms lasting two weeks or longer in duration, and of a severity that they begin to interfere with daily living, can generally be said to constitute clinical depression. Using DSM-IV-TR terminology, someone with a major depressive disorder can, by definition, be said to be suffering from clinical depression.

Bipolar Disorder (also known as manic depression)

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. Different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through, the symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. They can result in damaged relationships, poor job or school performance, and even suicide. But there is good news: bipolar disorder can be treated, and people with this illness can lead full and productive lives.

Bipolar Disorder has also been given the medical name Manic Depression; at various times, it has also been known as Bipolar Affective Disorder and Manic-Depressive Illness. It is a mood disorder that affects approximately 1% of the adult population of most countries. It is in the same family of illnesses (called “affective disorders”) as clinical depression. However, unlike clinical depression, which seems to affect far more women than men, Bipolar Disorder seems to affect men and women in approximately equal numbers.

It is characterized by mood swings. Though there is no known cure, most forms of bipolar disorder are eminently treatable with medication and supportive psychotherapy. This lesson is concerned with depressive disorders, known as unipolar depression, and the main features are:

• depressed mood
• negative thoughts
• loss of energy
• lack of motivation and drive

They may also suffer from:

• Poor appetite/weight loss or increased appetite/weight gain.
• Difficulties sleeping (insomnia/sleeping a lot/waking early)
• Shift in activity level (lethargic or agitated)
• Loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities
• Negative self-concept, self-blame
• Difficulty concentrating
• Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide

They may also have problems with personal hygiene and appearance and numerous hypochondriacal complaints of pains and aches.

A person with depression will generally not have all of these symptoms. Depressed mood is usually the most dominant symptom. Depression affects about one in every five persons in the population at some point in their life.

Explore the effect of drugs – legal or illegal

In 1999, nearly 15 million people in America admitted using illicit drugs in the prior month. Drug use is widespread, from the person who uses coffee and tea to get up in morning, to cigarettes and soft drinks to stay alert during the day, to using alcohol as a way to relax. The opportunity for drug abuse is there. People who abuse drugs risk their close personal relationships and their work performance. The pathological use of substances falls into two categories – substance dependence and substance abuse.

Substance use disorders are conditions that arise from misuse of alcohol, psychoactive drugs and other chemicals. This if also people who report symptoms attributed to the effects of drug abuse, the side effects of medications, or exposure to toxic materials

Substance use disorders are usually classified further as follows:

• Abuse (harmful use)
• Dependence
• Intoxication
• Withdrawal states
• Psychotic disorders
• Amnestic syndromes

 

How This Course Can Help You

Mental disorders are the subject of abnormal psychology. The course’s graduates will have a good understanding of the many broad categories of mental health problems and be able to recognise the signs and symptoms of the majority of the diseases that fit into those broad categories. They will also have some knowledge of potential causes and available therapies. Anyone who works in mental health facilities or other occupations where there is a high probability of running into people with these mental health disorders will find this kind of knowledge to be of great value. The course can be taken independently or as a component of a higher level psychology or counselling certificate.

This course is suitable for people working in, or aspiring to work in:

• Psychology
• Counselling
• Psychiatric nursing
• Caring roles
• Health professions
• Health administration
• Youth Work
• Social Work
• Teaching
• Coaching