Abnormal Psychology - Assignment Example

Abnormal Psychology Question 2 Rape may be considered as a sign of sexual dysfunction or paraphilia. Paraphilia is when there is an attraction beyond the normal. A sadistic biostophilia derives pleasure in causing pain and raping. These may often predispose to violent rape episodes by the affected person. Rape can also be attributed to pedophilia (Sifers 117). The person engages in sex with little children until caught. Rape criminals may have sadism. This subset is aroused sexually by causing pain on others; therefore, leading to violent raping. Rape can also be considered as a sign of personality disorder. Personality disorders are considered as traits deviating from the culturally expected and accepted range of normal. Rape may happen in the event of multiple personality disorders. In this situation, a person may rape under a different personality. This has been documented in several court cases that involve rape. Persons with borderline personality may carry out impulsive sex. This may lead to an increased propensity to raping. People with antisocial personality may force sex on others especially at a young age. Therefore, rape can be attributed to personality disorders. The treatment modalities for rape due to the two conditions are different. Management of rape due to sexual disorders entails specific behavioral treatment. These are tailor made for each dysfunction. Sensate focus method of therapy is usually utilized. The aim is to minimize anxiety, provoking situations and cues. This will serve to maximize achievement of normal sexual behavior. Management of rape due to personality disorder will require a different modality. Drug therapy and psychotherapy should be considered. The management is usually governed by the symptoms, and presenting complains. This means that the management should be tailor made for each patient. Question 3 Sexuality is a function in the society that is undergoing various changes with time. There are various norms attribute to sexual behavior. Traditionally, some behaviors such as homosexuality were regarded to as abnormal sexual behaviors and attributed to various medical conditions. Currently, this has changed, and various legal bans have been lifted concerning this issue. Sexual behavior is deemed abnormal if it results in persistent distress in the individual or causes harm to a person. In psychology, sexual disorders refer to a heterogeneous group of disorders in which some aspects of sexual function or behavior are abnormal. Normal sexual relationship is characterized by giving and gaining personal gratification at the same time. It is formed between equivalent individuals. Both partners should be willing and able to give consent to the sexual relationship. On the other hand, abnormal sexual behaviors are characterized by lack of consent. These kinds of relationships are developed to fulfill one partner’s desires while hurting the other partners. According to the DSM-IV, sexual disorders are classified as axis II disorders (Sifers 13). This means that they present clinically with personality dysfunctions for a period of time. Abnormal sexual behaviors are characterized by socially unacceptable behaviors. In psychology, abnormal sexual behaviors are also referred to as sexual perversion. It is marked by preoccupation of socially unacceptable sexual thoughts. The individuals often experience distress as well as feeling of depression. This means that the patient acknowledges that the symptoms have a negative impact on their life. However, they believe that they are unable to control these thoughts. Examples of abnormal sexual behaviors include paraphilia, fetishism, exhibitionism, pedophilia and sadomasochism (Sifers 103). Question 4 Suicide should not be an option in depressed patients. A person is granted with life so that they can live. Suicide does not provide a person with a chance to rebuild their lives. It is a stop sign and action that one cannot reverse. Suicide has been referred to a permanent answer to temporary problems. There is no second chance after suicide. However, there is always a second chance in life. Despite the cruelty of the world, one should maintain calm and control of life. It should be noted that depression is a condition that is amenable to therapy. This will then lead one into having a normal life. One can determine whether a suicidal patient is depressed by several factors. The suicidal patient will have emptiness and despair which is persistent. This despair often causes changes in the daily functioning of these patients. The patients will not be interested in their friends, hobbies and routine activity. They often exhibit changes in their sleep patterns. Most develop insomnia, but few can have increased sleep. They tend to wake up early in the morning. It is at these moments that the suicidal ideations creep. They also have increased thoughts. The suicidal and depressed patient will have changes in appetite patterns. Often, the appetite is decreased, and this leads to weight loss. Another subset of patients will present with somatic symptoms complain. The symptoms cannot be attributed to a physical cause in their bodily functioning. This is predominant in the elderly (Sifers 34). These patients are trapped in hopelessness, shame and overwhelming pain. They have given up finding a solution to their situation. The situation they are in obscures any chance of a good outcome or happiness. Question 5 Typical personality disorders pose various challenges when compared to anxiety disorder with regards to treatment and management. To begin with, personality disorders comprise a wide array of illnesses. It is often challenging to manage these patients in the medical setting. Personality disorder patients may cause strong emotional responses with respect to medical caregivers. Unlike anxiety disorders, they often have demands which they want the psychologist to gratify. Despite this, the psychologist should not overreact to this subset of patients. Personality disorder patients can be overly demanding and dependent when it comes to their management (Sifers 84). Often, this forces the psychologist to limit the treatment setting. Typical anxiety disorders are not overly demanding and dependent. Personality disorder patients force the caregiver to carry out the therapy in a firm manner while maintaining calm. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder patients will want to direct and control all aspects of their therapy. This is often cumbersome to the caregiver. One has to come with treatment strategies that are close to what the patient wants. The professionals are left with less option; therefore, compromise with the patient by providing them with a sense of control over their management (Sifers 85). This means that the patients must be very well informed and involved in planning of each management step. Despite the need to involve anxiety disorders patients in the management plan, this is usually not a problem. Another subset of personality disorders can be manipulative. This includes manipulative psychopathic patients. These patients present the psychologist with treatment difficulty. In contrast, anxiety disorder patients are not manipulative. Hence, anxiety disorders offer ideal treatment possibility in comparison to personality disorders. Question 6 In psychology, self esteem refers to a subjective view which dictates how much value on places on themselves. It reflects how one thinks about themselves in comparison to others. Persons with high self esteem view themselves as deserving and capable of undertaking various tasks. In contrast, those with self esteem view themselves as unworthy and incapable of undertaking simple tasks. Although high self esteem is important in life, obsessions of such thoughts have been attributed to personality disorders. On the other hand, low self esteem is attributed to inability to interact, perform a task as well as form sound relations. According to DSM-IV, personality disorders are patterns of inflexible and maladaptive personality traits that cause subjective distress, as well as significant impairment in social and occupational functioning (Sifers 116). Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a personality disorder that is characterized by excessive preoccupation on the individual’s power, adequacy, vanity and prestige. The individual has high esteem and regard to themselves. They view themselves as superior and deserving in contrast to others. However, this behavior is a defense mechanism to protect their internal self esteem issues. NPD is marked by a split in the individual’s self esteem. Although the patient presents with high levels of self esteem, they have a fragile inner conscious. They are thus unable to handle criticism as well as challenges to their self esteem. These patients criticize others in order to compensate for their esteem inadequacy. They are preoccupied with grandiose perceptions concerning their self worth. On the other hand, Borderline personality disorder is characterized by fluctuating patterns of unstable mood, sense of self and self esteem as well as interpersonal relationship. Low self esteem is the hallmark of borderline personality disorder. These individuals have fluctuating mood from irritability to depression that may occur within a short period. The disorder is also characterized with anger, violence and aggression. Patients with BPD experience a poorly defined sense of self and rapid shift in their self assessment. The low self esteem in BPD contributes to the exacerbation of symptoms of the disease (Sifers 118). Work Cited Sarah, Sifers. Abnormal Psychology. NY: McGraw Hill, 2011. Print. Read More