This week in abnormal psychology at Keene State I saw more presentations on subjects related to this field. I saw quite a few presentations on bipolar type disorders. One person did a presentation on multiple personality disorder, which I think is an interesting topic. Multiple personality disorder is also known as dissociative identity disorder or (DID). With this disorder a person could develop as many as 100 new identities that all simultaneously exist. In certain cases each identity has it's own behavior, tone of voice and physical gestures. But in most cases only certain characteristics of the disorder are noticeable because the identities are not completely separate from regular characteristics the person uses and this is why the disorder was changed in the DSM from multiple personality disorder to dissociative identity disorder. The in class presentations were interesting too listen to because I got the chance to hear about many different situations that are relevant to the field of abnormal psychology. And I also got to hear about different topics that are new and interesting to me.

This week in abnormal psychology at Keene State College students did presentations. I saw presentations on ADHD, schizophrenia, social phobia, alcoholism, autism and other subject matter and so far the presentations were are all interesting. I myself decided to do my presentation on alcoholism because I found a lot of important information about this subject and other substance abuse disorders in the Durand and Barlow Abnormal textbook. Impulse control disorders would include intermittent explosive disorder, kleptomania, pathological gambling, and trichotillomania that are covered in chapter 10. Intermittent explosive disorder is a disorder that consists of aggressive impulses that result in assaults or the destruction of property and usually this condition is treated though cognitive behavioral treatments. Kleptomania is a condition where someone feels the need to take things that are not theirs and this disorder is usually treated through behavioral interventions or antidepresant medications. Pathological gambling is of course gambling increasing amounts of money because of the excitement that results from it and today treatment for this is done through gamblers anonymous. Trichotillomania is the urge to pull on ones own hair and is usually treated through cognitive behavioral interventions or tricyclic medication. Chapter 10 had lot of good information about substance related disorders and certain impulse control disorders that was in depth and interesting. I am also looking forward to hearing the rest of the abnormal psychology presentations next week.

This week in abnormal psychology we talked and watched a video about schizophrenia. The video showed three people talking to a therapist and I think that in these particular interviews it was clear that these clients thought processes were not clear because it was hard to interpret different aspects of the conversation. Chapter 12 covers a lot of information about this subject and talks about the subtypes of schizophrenia as well. There are three different kinds of divisions of schizophrenia paranoid which would be symptoms of delusions of grandeur or persecution, disorganized or hebephrenic which would be symptoms of silly or immature emotionality and catatonic schizophrenia which according to Durand and Barlow consists of symptoms of alternate immobility and excited agitation. I think that in the video that we watched that I saw mostly symptoms of paranoid and disorganized schizophrenia among the three clients that were interviewed. Mental health workers usually use a classification system to make the process of identifying symptoms less complicated. The prevalence of schizophrenia is equal among men and women and it is estimated that about 0.2 to 1.5 percent of the population are schizophrenic. Schizophrenia is a biological condition that can have many different types of symptoms, which I think are important to learn more about in the field of psychology.

This week in abnormal psychology I had my second exam, which covered a lot of different information about health psychology, anxiety, dissociation, somatoform disorders, mood disorders and personality disorders. I think the Essentials of Abnormal psychology textbook covered this information well. I started to look at chapter 9 for the next exam, which talks about various sexual and gender identity disorders and some aspects of these disorders I was not that familiar with. Chapter 9 talked about gender identity disorders which are also known as the psychological discontent of ones own biological sex. Gender identity disorders are the disturbance in ones own sense of sexual identity. A sexual dysfunction disorder would be a physical problem that somehow affects one's sex life. Paraphilia is a new term for sexual deviation and it stands for sexual arousal that is associated with inappropriate persons or objects. Philia stands for strong attraction and para means abnormal. For researchers to understand more about sexual practices they have to conduct surveys among the population. This topic can effect emotional and physical well being and is complex so I am sure understanding more about this topic could be relevant to the field of psychology.

This week in abnormal psychology the professor talked about different people who appear to have the characteristics of being a psychopath. In the class people paired off and talked about different people they knew in their life that seem to demonstrate behaviors that would fit the criteria for being a psychopath and I heard some interesting responses. Psychopathology is also known as the scientific study of psychological disorders. The field of psychopathology consists of clinical and counseling psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, psychiatric social workers, marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors. Researchers have found that suppressing many different kinds of emotional responses, such as anger or fear can increase sympathetic nervous system activity which can influence psychopathology. So basic emotions of fear, anger, sadness, distress and excitement can influence as well as create different psychological disorders and psychopathology. I think that psychopathology is an interesting topic to cover because I think sometimes people don't realize just how common this disorder is in today's society.